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H2020Doctoral network2015–2019

PRIDE · Drivers of Pontocaspian biodiversity RIse and DEmise

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2015-03-01 → 2019-02-28
EU contribution
€3,784,089
Participants
17
Scheme
MSCA-ITN-ETN

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

Drivers of Pontocaspian biodiversity RIse and DEmise

Discovering drivers of past and modern biodiversity crises in the Black Sea – Caspian Sea region: integrating climate, geosciences and biological sciences across borders. Crisis, what crisis? How can we talk about a biodiversity crisis if we do not know how bad the deterioration actually is? Because we do not know the species well. Or the areas involved are remotely accessible. Or expertise fragmented. And even if we know the species and the areas, and we do have enough experts and good facilities to investigate, how do we know we are not merely looking into natural variability, as biodiversity has been fluctuating through time? In the Black Sea – Caspian Sea region a unique biota evolved in partial isolation during the past few million years adapted to the fluctuating salinity regimes in these basins. These aquatic taxa include crustacean, mollusk, and fish species like the sturgeon, but also the Caspian seal. As a result of a variety of anthropogenic pressures these so-called Pontocaspian biota currently undergo severe change. Understanding the natural variability of biota through time, including their capacity to withstand periods of adverse conditions (their resilience) is required to appreciate the significance of the changes of today. The evolution of the Pontocaspian biota is intimately linked with the evolution of the lake basins and adjacent rivers in the Black Sea – Caspian Sea region. The overall aims are to identify how lakes and seas in the Pontocaspian region evolved and how the unique species responded to environmental change in the past in order to understand and mitigate the current biodiversity crisis. We use climate models and geology to understand drivers of lake basin evolution. At the same time, we look at the pressures that nowadays drive deterioration of the Pontocaspian faunas and floras. We predict future impacts on biodiversity under a range of climate change, invasive and environmental scenarios. Together with stakeholders from the Pontocaspian region we aim to increase understanding of the value of these unique species, to raise regional awareness and to seek follow-up actions for conservation. Fifteen early stage researchers together with about 40 scientists from 25 institutes both in western Europe and the Black Sea - Caspian Sea region engaged in 2015 on a search to understand (and mitigate) the rise and demise of Pontocaspian biota. We established a network that will continue to collaborate to deal with the drivers and consequences of the Pontocaspian biodiversity crisis and seek solutions.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Since the 1930s, the unique endemic aquatic biota of the Caspian-Black Sea region is facing a biodiversity crisis as it is severely affected by anthropogenic activities such as habitat destruction, invasive species and pollution. Understanding long-term natural biotic and abiotic drivers of lake system change and biotic response to perturbations in the past 2 Ma – i.e. gradual, rapid and/or threshold responses – is absolutely necessary to assess the current response of Pontocaspian biota to rising natural- and human-induced perturbations. The Pontocaspian example mirrors the complex global ecological and biodiversity challenge due to Global Change. This challenge can only be addressed through an integrated cross-disciplinary research involving climate, earth- and bio-sciences. PRIDE (Pontocaspian biodiversity RIse and DEmise) is a fully integrated academia-industry training network of scientists with complementary cutting-edge competences. PRIDE focuses on the evolution of Pontocaspian biota over the past 2 million years. The extraordinary endemic biodiversity, coupled with a high-amplitude record of palaeoenvironmental change, makes it an ideal system to study drivers of past and current biodiversity crises. By linking Pontocaspian palaeoenvironmental and biodiversity changes we will reconstruct biological resilience to environmental change and apply this knowledge to the current Pontocaspian biodiversity crisis to model future diversity shifts under different Global Change scenarios. PRIDE will provide outstanding interdisciplinary technical training, new skills acquisition and career development for 15 early stage researchers. An innovative outreach plan will deliver our results to stakeholders and the public. PRIDE results from existing, successful collaborative relationships and will expand to include 17 first-class private and academic geological and biological institutions allowing Europe to remain world-leading in integrated studies of biodiversity change.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • STICHTING NATURALIS BIODIVERSITY CENTER · LeidenCoordinatorNetherlands
  • BRUNEL UNIVERSITY LONDON · UXBRIDGEUnited Kingdom
  • CASPUnited Kingdom
  • GIMARIS · LEIDERDORPNetherlands
  • Geology Institute of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences · BakuAzerbaijan
  • I.I. SCHMALHAUSEN INSTITUTE OF ZOOLOGY OF NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF UKRAINE - IZNASU · KyivUkraine
  • JUSTUS-LIEBIG-UNIVERSITAET GIESSEN · GIESSENGermany
  • M.V. LOMONOSOV MOSCOW STATE UNIVERSITY · MOSCOWRussia
  • MUZEUL NATIONAL DE ISTORIE NATURALA GRIGORE ANTIPA · BUCURESTIRomania
  • Pamukkale Universitesi · DENIZLITürkiye
  • RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES · MOSCOWRussia
  • SENCKENBERG GESELLSCHAFT FUR NATURFORSCHUNG · FRANKFURTGermany
  • THE UNIVERSITY OF READING · ReadingUnited Kingdom
  • UNIVERSITAET BREMEN · BremenGermany
  • UNIVERSITATEA DIN BUCURESTI · BucurestiRomania
  • UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT · UtrechtNetherlands
  • UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL · BRISTOLUnited Kingdom

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union