Ecological Communities’ Integral Assesment of Stability - EComInAS
Maravillas larvarias: patrones y mecanismos que subyacen a las innovaciones clave en la evolución de los renacuajos de los anfibios
Financial institution
JA Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación
Fecha de inicio
Fecha de fin
Code
EMEC_2023_00146
Brief description
We are witnessing a clear evidence of declines in wild species’ populations as a consequence of human induced rapid environmental changes (e.g. landscape fragmentation and climate change),1 with approximately 30% of species having been globally threatened or driven to extinction since the year 1500. If current trends persist, experts estimate that 37% of species may face the same fate by 2100.2 Understanding and predicting the response of ecosystems to these changes has become, therefore, one of the priorities of current ecological research and conservation.3 Still, the concept of ecological stability (which aims to quantify the ecosystem responses to such perturbations) remains a
major source of confusion and disagreement among ecologists,4 mostly as a consequence of the difficulty to reconcile theoretical studies with observed empirical data.5,6 ECOMINAS (Ecological Communities’ Integral Assessment of Stability) aims to bridge the gap between empirical and theoretical studies of ecological stability, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of how ecological communities will respond to ongoing environmental change.We will do so by combining the theoretical expertise on ecological stability of the Emergent PI, which will incorporate the most recent theoretical advances in quantification of ecological stability, with the expert knowledge and high-quality
data provided by the collaborators. The database consists of two long-term field studies on contrasting types of annual Mediterranean communities that have been followed for 9 years: 12 plant-pollinator mutualistic communities along a landscape fragmentation gradient in the Doñana Biodiversity Reserve area, and 9 plant-plant competitive communities along a salinity gradient in Caracoles Ranch, located within the Doñana Biodiversity Reserve. By completing this project, we aim to: G1) Assess the status of empirical plant-pollinator and plant-plant communities in Doñana Biodiversity Reserve, connecting the changes in their populations to environmental drivers of global change, as temperature and precipitation, G2) provide tools to thoroughly assess the stability of ecological communities, and test them in two contrasting types of empirical annual Mediterranean communities monitored during 9 years, G3) elucidate what types of interaction structure foster different types of stability in mutualistic plantpollinator communities and in competitive plant-plant communities, and, G4) study how these interaction patterns can emerge from the community dynamics in mutualistic and competitive communities. By achieving these objectives, ECOMINAS will make a significant contribution to the ambitious EU Green Deal and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030.
major source of confusion and disagreement among ecologists,4 mostly as a consequence of the difficulty to reconcile theoretical studies with observed empirical data.5,6 ECOMINAS (Ecological Communities’ Integral Assessment of Stability) aims to bridge the gap between empirical and theoretical studies of ecological stability, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of how ecological communities will respond to ongoing environmental change.We will do so by combining the theoretical expertise on ecological stability of the Emergent PI, which will incorporate the most recent theoretical advances in quantification of ecological stability, with the expert knowledge and high-quality
data provided by the collaborators. The database consists of two long-term field studies on contrasting types of annual Mediterranean communities that have been followed for 9 years: 12 plant-pollinator mutualistic communities along a landscape fragmentation gradient in the Doñana Biodiversity Reserve area, and 9 plant-plant competitive communities along a salinity gradient in Caracoles Ranch, located within the Doñana Biodiversity Reserve. By completing this project, we aim to: G1) Assess the status of empirical plant-pollinator and plant-plant communities in Doñana Biodiversity Reserve, connecting the changes in their populations to environmental drivers of global change, as temperature and precipitation, G2) provide tools to thoroughly assess the stability of ecological communities, and test them in two contrasting types of empirical annual Mediterranean communities monitored during 9 years, G3) elucidate what types of interaction structure foster different types of stability in mutualistic plantpollinator communities and in competitive plant-plant communities, and, G4) study how these interaction patterns can emerge from the community dynamics in mutualistic and competitive communities. By achieving these objectives, ECOMINAS will make a significant contribution to the ambitious EU Green Deal and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030.
