Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Climate Change

NEWS: Applications for the International Summerschool on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services are invited (deadline April 15, 2010)

Motivation

Ecosystems provide crucial services for people on Earth and their function is impacted by climate change. A primary and fundamental aspect of human vulnerability to climate change is whether ecosystem services (food, timber, energy, water supply, spiritual functions, recreation, etc.) can sustainably be provided in the future. Very likely, biodiversity – defined as the functional complexity of ecosystems, including genetic, species and landscape diversity – plays a crucial role for ecosystem provision capacity. A particular aspect of ecosystem function is their resilience (or capacity for autonomous adaptation) to climate change – which could be impacted by biodiversity loss due to stresses such as deforestation and other forces of degradation.

Approach

• Assessments of the vulnerability of ecosystems and their services to climate change, at different scales and in different regions with emphasis on the role of functional biodiversity (pathway analysis)
• adaptation of simulation tools (models) to quantify the impact of biodiversity on ecosystem services
• scenario-based quantitative assessments

Goal: clarify the role of biodiversity for ecosystem services and assist in its sustainable use

(for more information click topics in the picture)

Natural ecosystems and agricultural land are characterised by numerous interactions. These include resource fluxes between both systems (such as water or nutrients), as well as services provided to each other. For example, natural vegetation can function as habitat for pollinators of crops, and therefore increase productivity of agricultural land. People benefit from the ecosystem services provided by natural ecosystems and agriculturally used land. These services include food production as well as climate regulating functions, pest control and various other services. Biodiversity is a crucial stabilising factor for a number of services. Climate change affects both: natural vegetation and crops, as well as the interactions between them. Therefore, also the services provided by ecosystems will change in the course of climate change. The aim of our research is to clarify the role of structural and/or functional biodiversity for the capacity of ecosystems to provide multiple services for human society under conditions of climate change. A second, policy-oriented aim is to help identify land use and nature conservation strategies that sustain ecosystem services. Both aims will be pursued for selected ecosystems, services and regions (see more detailed motivation, goals and rationale here).

Research topics

Training and outreach activities

• ALTER-Net Summer schools "Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services" (Peyresq, France)
• We are a member of the international "Ecosystem Service Partnership"

Recent publications

• see separate page