Objective
In many parts of Africa, human populations depend directly or indirectly on rivers and wetlands. Despite this importance, basic ecological aspects of most aquatic communities are still poorly understood and destructive activities such as deforestation and dam construction are in rapid ascent, threatening waterways and their wetlands. It is therefore crucial to improve our understanding on the ecology of these areas, so that the responses of aquatic communities to the different alterations to the natural environment can be predicted and impacts mitigated. This study will investigate the main sources of nutrition and the patterns of food web structure in (sub)tropical East African systems. The specific objectives are: 1) to understand the importance of imported (terrestrial) material for animal communities in freshwater and estuarine systems of (sub)tropical East Africa, 2) describe the food web organisation in these areas, 3) identify trophic processes characteristic of these food webs that can be used as indicators of ecosystem health and 4) determine the main environmental factors regulating the flow of material in these areas. The study will be based on stable isotope analysis and will focus mostly on macroinvertebrates and fish. Three large East African rivers, the Tana (Kenya), Zambezi (Mozambique) and the Betsiboka (Madagascar) will be sampled, along with six artificial reservoirs and two large lakes in Ethiopia. In each system, sites with different environmental conditions and subjected to different impacts will be considered, to multiply the potential to detect general patterns and successfully attribute causalities. Novel techniques to the treatment of stable isotope data will be applied and further developed to maximize the information extracted from the data. Environmental settings such as topography, river-flow and adjacent land use will also be considered, so that results can be linked to differences in environmental conditions, and types of impact.
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 physical sciences astronomy planetary sciences planetary geology
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology
- medical and health sciences health sciences nutrition
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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.
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.
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.
FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IIF
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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.
Coordinator
3000 LEUVEN
Belgium
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.