CLIMLAN · Novel multivariate, high-resolution mapping of the exposure of ecosystems to climate and land use change
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2018-05-01 → 2020-04-30
- EU contribution
- €177,599
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Novel multivariate, high-resolution mapping of the exposure of ecosystems to climate and land use change
Defining a fast-to-slow gradient of changes in climatic variables is not only useful to understand ecosystem dynamics. Still, it helps to identify mitigation and adaptation strategies aimed at addressing the impact of rapidly accelerating climatic changes. CLIMLAN tackles this challenge to establish what will be the ecological and conservation consequences of climate and land cover change. For this, CLIMLAN focused on evaluating the observed and expected changes in mean, phenological related, and extreme climatic conditions globally. It has also has estimated how fast natural and anthropogenic land cover has and will change. These changes have been evaluated using univariate and multidimensional exposure indices. Then these metrics have been overlapped with the current network of protected areas to assess the climatic safeguard potential of these areas.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
To protect and preserve natural habitats, we urgently need integrated assessment methodologies. Current conservation-oriented assessments of ecological vulnerability rely upon the identification and quantification of the effects from of the most important drivers of change. However, accurate predictions and practical solutions have proved difficult to formulate as most works at global or continental scales have only focused on climatic changes, disregarding important factors such as land use change. CLIMLAN will address this shortcoming using an integrated assessment that combines two of the most important drivers of biodiversity change today: climate and land-use change. Here I will answer two original and important questions: (1) which are the most useful indices for measuring and mapping the ecological vulnerability to future environmental change?; and (2) is there a mismatch between current management and planning strategies and ecological vulnerability to projected environmental changes? For this, I will focus on measuring and mapping both climate and land use changes over time, and assessing how such changes match both ecosystem vulnerability and current conservation practices. A lasting product of CLIMLAN will be a readily applicable open access spatially explicit methodology and an online mapping tool, to measure and spatially display ecosystem vulnerability to environmental changes. These tools will allow a better assessment of the current and expected effects of changing environmental conditions on conservation areas, and will facilitate targeted management guidelines and improved adaptation strategies.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT · UtrechtCoordinatorNetherlands
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union