Ecological Responses to Climate Change

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The Thematic Services Working Groups

The LifeWatch ERIC Thematic Services, co-developed by the LifeWatch ERIC Common Facilities and National Distributed Centres, are a key component of the 2022-2026 Infrastructure Strategic Working Plan (SWP). They represent the main priority areas of e-Service construction in LifeWatch ERIC proposed by the National Distributed Centres.

Activities, developments and physical outcomes of the LifeWatch ERIC Thematic Services, as e-Services, Virtual Labs (vLabs) and more complex and complete Virtual Research Environments (VREs), are planned to be implemented by Thematic Service Working Groups participated by scientists from both the National Distributed Centres and the Common Facilities, with an overall coordination of the LifeWatch ERIC Service Centre.

Ecological responses to climate change: implications on human well-being

Resources

Antonello Provenzale & Alberto Basset

Welcome and Introduction to LifeWatch Thematic Core Service (TCS)

Doug S. Glazier

Individual Metabolic Responses to Climate Warming Depend on Biological and Ecological Context

Paolo Lionello

Using Artificial Intelligence for estimating the Responses of coastal lagoons to Climate Change

Milad Shokri

Energetic and Behavioral Responses of Aquatic Ectotherms to Projected Climate Change

Gianpaolo Coro & Pasquale Bove

Climate Change Effects on Animal Presence in the Massaciuccoli Lake Basin

Francesco De Leo

Empowering Environmental Science and Climate Change Study with DataLabs: LifeWatch’s Collaborative Coding Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research

Mara Baudena

Ecological Resilience of Mediterranean Forests to Climate Change and Wildfires

Paolo Fiorucci

Cellular Automata Models for Wildfire-Vegetation Interaction

Alessio Collalti

A Vegetation Simulation Platform in a Global Change Context

Marta Magnani

Identifying the environmental drivers of carbon fluxes – a step to assess climate change impacts on ecosystems

Carmela Marangi

Modelling of Soil Organic Carbon dynamics in wetlands

Jessica Titocci

Monitoring aquatic primary producers response to Climate Change: The Phytoplankton VRE

Ecosystems and biodiversity are currently under threat owing to many different manageable and unmanageable anthropic pressures. Among these, climate changes are unmanageable pressures, which can have direct impact on ecosystems and biodiversity, pushing populations to abandon traditional distribution areas and move to new territories, favouring the spread of allochthonous species, reducing the survival of endemic and/or specialised organisms, leading to impoverished ecosystems more prone to collapse. Ecological responses to climate change include also increasing individual level respiration rates, altering species interaction networks and ecosystem process rates, leading to lower net primary productivity and standing biomass. Climate change can have indirect amplifying effects on other anthropogenic threats, such as pollution, land degradation and fragmentation, and the diffusion of invasive species; ecological responses to climate change can also have indirect effects on human well-being.

In this workshop, organised with LifeWatch Italy, we intend to explore the role of LifeWatch ERIC in developing a suite tool and services on data curation, data analysis and modelling,  to better understand ecological responses to climate change, describe scenarios of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning change under climate change, considering in particular how such changes affect ecosystem integrity and to what extent they could harm and decrease the benefits that healthy ecosystems provide to human beings.

Since ecosystems include biotic and abiotic components that form a complex network of interactions, particular attention will be given to biological and mathematical models that consider:

  1. The interplay of biological and physical-chemical-geological aspects, including the interaction of biodiversity and geodiversity, the role of organisms as ecosystem engineers, and the effects of climate change on biogeochemical cycles, with special attention to the water and carbon cycles; and,
  2. The mechanisms underlying the upscaling of individual level responses to climate change and global warming to the ecosystem and global level responses of ecosystem functioning and services, including net primary productivity and  standing biomass.

Fund raising

  • End of January 2025 – Establishing a WG Committee on scouting project application opportunities and fundraising

Organising WG workshops and conferences

  • End of January 2025 – Setting priority research lines and contributions to the BEeS 2025 LifeWatch Conference for the session on the “Ecological responses to climate change”
  • March/April 2025 (TBD) – Workshop ‘Ecological modelling and eco-informatics to address functional responses of biodiversity and ecosystems to climate change’ co-organized with the University of Salento
  • 30 June – 3 July 2025 – Participation to LifeWatch 2025 BEeS Conference on “Addressing the Triple Planetary Crisis”

Implementing services

  • End of January 2025 – Internal distribution of a questionnaire on the most used/relevant model resources in the WG member research activity
  • February 2025 (TBD) – Online working table on setting priorities, timeline and milestones for the mapping service and model requirements by scientists and science stakeholders

Mapping user requirements

  • End of January 2025 – Catalogue of services already available in LifeWatch ERIC or research lines addressing ecological responses to climate change
  • February 2025 (TBD) – Online working table on setting priorities, timeline and milestones for the mapping service and model requirements by scientists and science stakeholders
Bulgaria

The Bulgarian National Distributed Centre is represented by the  Agricultural University-Plovdiv.

To know more about how Bulgaria contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Spain

The Spanish National Distributed Centre is supported by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the Regional Government of Andalusia and the Guadalquivir River Basin Authority (Ministry for Ecological Transition-MITECO). Moreover, Spain is the hosting Member State of LifeWatch ERIC, the location of its Statutory Seat & ICT e-Infrastructure Technical Office (LifeWatch ERIC Common Facilities). 

To know more about how Spain contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Slovenia

The Slovenian National Distributed Centre is led by the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU). It focuses on the development of technological solutions in the field of biodiversity and socio-ecosystem research.

To know more about how Slovenia contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Portugal

The Portuguese National Distributed Centre is managed by PORBIOTA, the Portuguese e-Infrastructure for Information and Research on Biodiversity. Led by BIOPOLIS/CIBIO-InBIO – Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, PORBIOTA connects the principal Portuguese research institutions working in biodiversity.

To know more about how Portugal contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Netherlands

The Dutch National Distributed Centre is hosted by the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam. Moreover, The Netherlands hosts one of the LifeWatch ERIC Common Facilities, the Virtual Laboratory and Innovation Centre.

To know more about how The Netherlands contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Italy

The Italian National Distributed Centre is led and managed by the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and is coordinated by a Joint Research Unit, currently comprising 35 members. Moreover, Italy hosts one of the LifeWatch ERIC Common Facilities, the Service Centre.

To know more about how Italy contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Greece

The Greek National Distributed Centre is funded by the Greek General Secretariat of Research and Technology and is coordinated by the Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, in conjunction with 47 associated partner institutions.

To know more about how Greece contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Belgium

The Belgian National Distributed Centre makes varied and complementary in-kind contributions to LifeWatch ERIC. These are implemented in the form of long-lasting projects by various research centres and universities distributed throughout the country and supported by each respective political authority.

To know more about how Belgium contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.