Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BEEP (Biodiversity Erosion in European medicinal Plants)
Período documentado: 2020-11-01 hasta 2022-10-31
To achieve its goals, BEEP set two main objectives: 1) assess the extent of temporal genomic erosion during the last decades in three threatened medicinal herbs of mountain tea and 2) estimate temporal environmental change and predict the associated magnitude of genomic erosion in the mountain tea populations. Each objective was designed to be fulfilled through a work package (described below) and to contribute to my scientific training in the respective field.
For carrying out Work Package 2, high resolution climate and satellite data had to be compiled from various sources. To this end, I evaluated several alternative data sources and I finally obtained high-quality climate data for the last four decades using the ERA5 atmospheric reanalysis product from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). These climate data were downscaled to match the resolution of satellite data using custom analytical pipelines developed for BEEP. Similarly, I evaluated several sources of satellite data and I chose the Landsat archive (30m spatial resolution) due to its high degree of data availability through time. I then combined climate and satellite data together with more than 900 georeferenced records that were collected during the intensive field work to estimate the extent of environmental changes through time, i.e. temperature and vegetation change, in the mountain tea habitats. I further conducted habitat suitability modelling to estimate changes in suitable habitats for the mountain tea. The results of the temporal environmental change are available and show a dramatic reduction in the suitable habitats of mountain tea as a result of global warming and mountain greening. These results are expected to be published within 2023.
The first outcomes of the BEEP projects have already been presented in international conferences and are under consideration for publication in high-profile scientific journals. I further communicated the results through teaching activities to students of all ages and levels, from primary school to international PhD courses for early career scientists.