Project description
Building resilience in coastal ecosystems
Coastal ecosystems are essential for biodiversity and human well-being, but they are increasingly vulnerable to climate change, especially marine heatwaves (MHWs). These extreme events are disrupting marine life and causing long-term damage. Understanding how these ecosystems can bounce back from such disturbances is vital for their survival. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the RES2HEAT project is tackling this challenge by examining two Mediterranean habitats to uncover how species and communities cope with MHWs. By studying species’ resilience, genetic connectivity, and habitat complexity, RES2HEAT aims to develop strategies for managing, conserving, and restoring coastal ecosystems, helping them thrive despite the growing threats of climate change.
Objective
Coastal ecosystems, vital for global biodiversity and human well-being, face growing threats from climate change (CC), particularly marine heatwaves (MHWs), which are causing irreversible ecological changes. As a result, the enhancement of ecosystem resilience to disturbances has become a critical research and socio-political priority. Although there is substantial documentation of MHW-induced mass mortalities and thermal tolerance thresholds of key species, multifactorial mechanisms that help marine species and coastal ecosystems to resist and recover from MHWs are not well understood.
RES2HEAT aims to fill this gap through a comparative, multidisciplinary approach, studying two contrasting Mediterranean habitats. We will investigate how various factors acting at different ecological levels affect the resilience, including both resistance and recovery capacity, of coastal ecosystems to MHWs. Specific objectives are: (1) evaluate differential resilience of communities and species to MHWs by analysing long-term changes in community and habitat complexity and developing a new index to quantify habitat complexity; (2) explore plasticity and heritable components of phenotypic variation of key species in response to thermal stress through common-garden and reciprocal transplant experiments with populations from varying thermal histories; and (3) characterize the genetic structure and connectivity among and within populations of key species to understand their ecology, including local dispersal, reproductive biology, and gene pool stability, using next-generation sequencing and demo-genetic methods. RES2HEAT integrates innovative and traditional methods, including long-term and regional data series, experiments, demographic sampling, novel underwater photogrammetry techniques, ecological indices, and genomics. The findings will be synthesized to provide key actionable recommendations for managing, conserving, and restoring coastal ecosystems in the context of CC.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics
- social sciences sociology demography mortality
- humanities history and archaeology history
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
28006 MADRID
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.