RESET · Dynamic-Regime Shifts in Forests: Trajectories from Science to Management
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-03-01 → 2023-02-28
- EU contribution
- €184,708
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Dynamic-Regime Shifts in Forests: Trajectories from Science to Management
The increasing incidence of extreme events (e.g. fires, insect outbreaks) in combination with ongoing pressures such as climate and land-use changes are seriously threatening the persistence of forest services on which human wellbeing depend. In this context, forest resilience to disturbances has become a paradigm for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. Whereas many indicators have been proposed in different empirical studies, most of them are based on a static view of ecosystem states and overlook that ecosystem states, in fact, represent dynamic regimes. In contrast, many advanced theoretical approaches remain largely unexplored in forest systems. In this sense, incorporating theoretical resilience concepts into empirical studies poses a key challenge to developing realistic management of ecosystems in general, and forests in particular. The MSCA-IF project RESET aimed to contribute to the conservation of forests and prevent their degradation and loss by improving our capability to identify resilient communities, assessing the mechanisms underlying post-disturbance forest dynamics, and supporting forest management and policy through useful information and ground-breaking analytical tools. In particular, RESET consisted of three general objectives: (1) To develop a methodological framework to identify, characterize, and compare ecological dynamic regimes from empirical data. (2) To assess the ecological resilience of forests to pulse, ramp, and press disturbances accounting for forest dynamic regimes. (3) To support forest management and policy by providing novel analytical tools and pragmatic information to help decision-makers anticipate global change impacts.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The increasing incidence of extreme events (e.g. fires, insect outbreaks) in combination with ramp and press disturbances such as climate and land-use changes are seriously threatening the persistence of forest services on which human well-being depends. In this context, forest resilience to disturbances has become a paradigm for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. Whereas many indicators have been proposed in different empirical studies, most of them are based on a static view of ecosystem states and overlook that ecosystem states, in fact, represent dynamic regimes. In contrast, many advanced theoretical approaches remain unexplored in specific forest systems. In this sense, incorporating theoretical resilience concepts into empirical studies poses a key challenge to developing realistic management practices and policies that promote forest resilience to upcoming disturbances. This proposal aims to fill an important scientific gap by applying resilience concepts from theoretical ecology into empirical case studies. The main objective is to contribute to the conservation of forests and prevent their degradation and loss by improving our capability to identify resilient and tipping-point communities, assessing the mechanisms underlying post-disturbance forest dynamics, and supporting forest management and policy through useful information and tools. This project proposes an innovative framework to assess forest resilience to pulse (e.g. insect outbreaks, fire), ramp (climate change) and press (land-use change) disturbances accounting for forest dynamic regimes as reference to compare post-disturbance dynamics. The collaboration with theoretical and quantitative ecologists and researchers in the science-policy-practice interface from some of the most prestigious institutions in the EU will guarantee a strong contribution to the understanding of post-disturbance forest dynamics and the preservation of forest services under changing conditions.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS · ParisCoordinatorFrance
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union