EXTINCT · The interaction of environmental conditions and species traits as drivers of species extinctions and community homogenisation
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2019-01-02 → 2021-01-01
- EU contribution
- €183,455
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
The interaction of environmental conditions and species traits as drivers of species extinctions and community homogenisation
Climate and habitat change are among the main anthropogenic perturbations that species are having to confront accelerating the decline of many species, with some already facing or undergoing extinction. The consequences go beyond the global loss of biological diversity since there is also evidence of community homogenisation, with subsequent alterations in ecosystem functions essential for human well being. However, our predictions of the effect of climate change on species extinctions need to be improved. A crucial aspect is that extinction is the culmination of a sequence of local population declines and extirpations, each with potentially distinct interaction between the species traits and the local environment. EXTINCT has evaluated the role of species traits in their response to climate anomalies and how these responses can be buffered by the landscape heterogeneity. This knowledge was lacking until now. This allows us to (i) predict specific populations and species (traits) at risks; (ii) establish the species traits-landscape combination needed to stop or reverse local biodiversity loss; and (iii) provide guidance to policy makers taking decisions on habitat management actions. The outcomes have a clear impact on the society and economy, since biodiversity loss impacts on ecosystem services. Besides, EXTINCT directly applies to policy makers taking decisions on habitat management actions. These actions are relevant for the conservation of butterfly and insect communities in general. This is in compliance with the Aichi 2020 conservation targets where Europe has a commitment via the Convention of Biological Diversity (UN). In addition, EXTINCT is a great example of how basic science can be applied effectively to solve problems that the European society demands, while making science closer to citizens. Overall the project has improved generalisation on the patterns of species extinctions and community homogenisation in relation to climatic anomalies, and how species responses to these perturbations depend on their degree of local adaptation. Specifically, the project has: RO1. Estimated species-specific local population trends and extirpations while assessing the effects of climate and the degree of local adaptation of ca. 140 species. RO2. Estimated how local adaptation to the climatic conditions relates to species traits and their phylogeny. RO3. Estimated and predicted differences in the species responses (population dynamics) to the climatic anomalies, including how they vary as per the location of the species population. RO4. Estimated and predicted how the effects of climate on local population trends and extirpations vary in relation landscape heterogeneity, for the different responses types of the species as per their degree of local adaptation and their location in their range. Hence, providing more specific and reliable patterns of species responses to inform potential landscape management.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Climate and habitat change are accelerating the loss of biodiversity at unprecedented rates. To prevent this loss it is criticalto understand species extinction patterns globally. Several studies have linked species extinctions with their intrinsic lifehistory and ecological traits. However, the predictive power of the models is weak generating great uncertainty for appliedconservation strategies on the ground. An important factor that is often forgotten is that species extinctions are theculmination of a sequence of local population declines or extirpations, each of which may present distinct trait-environmentdynamics. There is still little knowledge on how factors related to species traits and those related to the environmentalconditions occurring at the population level interact to drive species declines. Neither is well known how these processesscale up to determine community homogenisation. EXTINCT will use citizen-based data of ca. 175 butterfly speciescollected over >18 years along three countries (UK, South Finland and NE Spain) to test how the species traits and theenvironmental conditions interact in driving population declines and extirpations, and the consequent communityhomogenisation. Specifically, EXTINCT will use butterfly intrinsic traits found to be key in the species ecology andrepresentative of wider taxa, and it will test how they interact with the environmental conditions in terms of climate (aridity) and landscape heterogeneity (topography and landcover heterogeneity). EXTINCT covers six out of the tenbioclimatic regions and three main biomes along Europe, ensuring the generalisations of the findings. It will use modernBayesian Hierarchical models to correct the ecological inferences from the error inherent to data collected by volunteers.With an applied perspective, it will also inform on the level of local landscape heterogeneity (and thus, management) required to preserve the species, which comprise the local community.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- THE UNIVERSITY OF READING · ReadingCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union