Skip to main content
European Commission logo
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
CORDIS Web 30th anniversary CORDIS Web 30th anniversary
Content archived on 2024-05-27

Predicting and managing plant population responses in human altered ecosystems

Objective

Humans are rapidly changing the environments that plant and animal populations exist in. In order to make predictions about which populations will persist, which we are likely to lose and where to best place our management efforts for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services we need a fundamental understanding of how the environment affects population growth and decline in human altered ecosystems. The proposed research seeks to leverage existing data-sets on plant population dynamics and spatial locations to gain insight into how abiotic conditions affect the growth, survival and reproduction of 162 species of plants worldwide. New data will be collected to extensively sample the population dynamics of a widespread plant species to develop novel models of habitat suitability for population growth at the global scale. Statistical models will be developed from existing data on 86 plant species at >40 sites worldwide to determine whether plant population responses to nutrient addition can be predicted using known demographic attributes, these models will be tested using new data from approx. 30 sites worldwide. Ultimately we need to use our knowledge of ecology together with the efficacy and costs of management to determine cost effective interventions to achieve environmental or societal goals. I will use demographic data on >20 plant species together with new management data to develop comparative models of cost effective management strategies for problematic invasive plants. I will use these interlinked objectives to develop predictive models of plant population dynamics under altered environmental conditions, predictions of population response to nutrient addition and general guidelines on how best to manage damaging pest species. The CIG will enable this research programme to be undertaken at a global scale and put European research at the forefront of mitigating the threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Fields of science

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.

Call for proposal

FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG
See other projects for this call

Coordinator

THE PROVOST, FELLOWS, FOUNDATION SCHOLARS & THE OTHER MEMBERS OF BOARD, OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY & UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH NEAR DUBLIN
EU contribution
€ 100 000,00
Address
COLLEGE GREEN TRINITY COLLEGE
D02 CX56 Dublin
Ireland

See on map

Region
Ireland Eastern and Midland Dublin
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data