Objective
The objective of the project is to predict changes in plant biodiversity that could be induced by climatic changes in boreal and mountaineous European areas.
Biodiversity, defined as the number of species present in the landscape, can be diminished by rapid climatic change if species either do not have a sufficient area of potentially suitable new habitat to which to retreat, or if poor dispersal prevents them from reaching their new habitat in time. Enhanced greenhouse warming will, in the next century, diminish the extent of boreo-alpine habitat. A similar reduction occurred during the Holocene thermal maximum. This project will examine the extent of these readjustments in four mountane 20-km squares, situated in Norway, Scotland, western Alps and Appenino Abbruzese, and will assess their consequences for local biodiversity. The vegetation of each square will be mapped from multidate satellite images. Methods developed for global biome modelling will be applied to the study sites; the link between continent-wide bioclimatic drivers and local climatology will be strengthened. Flora and vegetation will be interpreted in terms of a typology of plant functional types developed for global studies. Biodiversity will be related to species-abundance curves within plant functional types for broadly defined biotopes, coupled to an estimate of the abundance of biotopes.
Altitudinal limits of species in the mountains will be related to their geographic limits at the continental scale. Predictions of biodiversity based on reconstructions of past climate at the continental scale will be verified by macrofossil analysis of sediment cores. In particular, we shall seek to quantify the magnitude of the bottleneck at the thermal maximum. Predictions for the future will be based on GCM scenarios of climate change coupled to spatially explicit models of the 20-km study squares using a combined GIS-modelling approach.
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.
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering vehicle engineering aerospace engineering satellite technology
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences climatology climatic changes
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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.
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
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
PE17 2LS Huntingdon
United Kingdom
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.