DEMBIRD · Decipher Multidimensional Biodiversity Resilience in a Drier world
Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2026-06-01 → 2028-05-31
- EU contribution
- €209,915
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF
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Project objective
In drylands, the aridity gradient structures biodiversity patterns and ecosystem functioning, including non-linear responses around aridity thresholds triggering abrupt changes when crossed. Climate aridification, in combination with ecosystem degradation by human activities, leads to the so called “desertification” phenomenon, which can be viewed as a loss of ecological resilience, thus threatening livelihoods of people who depend on dryland ecosystems services. While biodiversity facets (taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic) are all pivotal for ecosystem functioning and provision of services, multidimensional biodiversity resilience to disturbance of plant communities remains largely unexplored, including its relation to aridity thresholds. DEMBIRD - “Decipher Multidimensional Biodiversity Resilience in a Drier world” aims to characterize, understand and predict multidimensional plant biodiversity resilience after land use abandonment, in relation to aridity thresholds in global drylands. Using an extensive field survey of plant communities throughout dryland regions of the world, I will: 1) characterize plant biodiversity trajectories after land use abandonment across facets; 2) investigate resilience response to aridity thresholds through statistical modelling; and 3) predict and map resilience under increasing aridity conditions in the future using a machine learning algorithm. DEMBIRD will furnish global maps of multidimensional plant biodiversity resilience in drylands, for both current and future time periods, ultimately helping to prioritize regions where management effort is needed to mitigate desertification and to better define relevant ecological restoration actions. I will carry out this work under the supervision of Dr. Miguel Berdugo, at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain), with a secondment stay with Dr. Marcos Fernández Martínez at the Centro de Investigación Ecológica y Aplicaciones Forestales (Barcelona, Spain).
Original text from CORDIS.
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Data: CORDIS, © European Union