Area 1: Climate change, pollution and risks ( incl. water issues)

TEG 1.1: Understanding ecosystem dynamics and developing approaches to enable functional carrying capacity

CALL LINE 1
Advanced understanding of adaptive capacity of catchments under increasing environmental and climate change pressures

Justification:

Ecosystems undergo numerous impacts which are directly (land use change, vegetation cover, pollution) or indirectly (climate change, invasions of exotics) related to human activities. For many decades ecological research has been focused on collecting information about ecosystems structure and functions, and on identification of drivers and pressures to their dynamics. Studies related to direct human impact were conducted at variety of scales – from landscape scale, down to river reach and microhabitats and concentrated on interplay between factors, while climate change was studied in broad, global context. Currently it is well understood that mitigation of anthropogenic pressure and climate change influence ecosystem performance, requires combining of existing knowledge at variety of scales. Such an approach is even more needed as the effects of both are usually inseparable. Particularly important is down scaling of climate change studies with focus on catchment level, as ecosystem performance can be examined most effectively through analysis of biogeochemical cycles. The next step in development of effective and adaptive management and mitigation strategies under climate change has to be understanding of interplay between ecosystem components under changing conditions, with aim on recovery mechanism and identification of thresholds to their functions. Under increasing climate variability, deep knowledge on existing resistance of systems differently exposed to human-induced disturbances as well as understanding of mechanisms responsible for adaptive capacity of catchment ecosystems is inevitable. There is also urgent need for development of proper assessment tools, indices, quantification methods toward adjustment of policy and maintaining good ecological status of freshwater systems.

General objectives:

• Identification of key climatic pressures to catchment ecosystems considering different European regions
• Development of tools for assessment of ecosystems response and their adaptive capacity
• Understanding of interplay between abiotic and biotic components in catchment ecosystems along the gradient of anthropogenic pressure
• Improvement of knowledge on feedbacks between natural and man-made ecosystems and climate system
• Understanding of ecosystem recovery processes with respect to increased frequency of hydro-meteorological extremes

Specific objectives from the perspective of the New Member States:

• Identification of impact of climate change on vulnerable ecosystems, e.g. wetlands, drylands, semi-natural meadows and floodplains
• Assessment of ecosystems resilience under different land use patterns
• Modification of reference criteria for ecosystem assessment with respect to climate change and considering regional characteristics

Background / state of art

Continuous growth of human population causes increasing stress to ecosystems and trigger conflict between man needs and requirements of environment protection. It is foreseen that the conflict is going to exaggerate due to climate change, which may affect ecosystems directly, and indirectly - through modification of timing, duration and rate of biogeochemical processes. The consequences are changes in energy flow causing shift between ecosystem equilibrium states, e.g. lake systems under different trophic conditions. In order to develop proactive management strategies, it is inevitable to understand the mechanisms of transitions between alternative states, to identify the components in ecosystem structure being the most susceptible to stress, to recognize transitional thresholds and to specify their indicators (considering possible climate change scenarios). So far the suitable data have been collected for few systems, mostly lakes and reservoirs, coral reefs and African grasslands. There is almost no information available for protected or pristine ecosystems as relatively unthreatened, alpine ones - which are mostly analyzed with regard to climate change only, and urban or industrial areas as very strongly modified.
Understanding of ecosystem transition mechanisms enables setting the admissible level of impact within the proactive management plans, e.g. minimum river flows, and decide about methods balancing resilience thresholds in interlinked systems, e.g. water for rivers and irrigation. It is also crucial in adjustment of technical and technological solutions as well as policy toward ensuring the sustainability of ecosystem goods and services.

Ongoing and completed projects on issues raised

There are several national and international projects addressing some of mentioned issues:

1. FLOODRISK - National RD Project in Hungary aimed at establishing of the engineering and scientific bases of flood risk assessment, development of new methods of flood frequency and risk estimation,
2. AQUATERRA – EU 6th Framework Integrated Project focused on understanding of the behaviour of environmental pollutants. Based on field- and laboratory data, various scale numerical models of the groundwater-soil-sediment-river system operating on biogeochemical, climatological, and material flux data. It investigates the influence of pollutants on sediments, soil and water in selected areas of four European river basins (Danube, Elbe, Ebro, Meuse).
3. National Climate Programmes (Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria)
4. CLAVIER, EU FP-6 Project related to Climate Change and Variability: Impact on Central and Eastern Europe Establishing the Engineering and Scientific Bases of Flood Risk Assessment, Development of New Methods of Flood Frequency and Risk Estimation
5. FLOODSITE, EU FP6 Integrated Project on integrated flood risk management, covering the physical, environmental, ecological and socio-economic aspects of floods from rivers, estuaries and the sea.
6. EUROLIMPACS, EU FP6 Integrated project to evaluate the impacts of global change on European freshwater ecosystems
7. UNESCO IHP Ecohydrology Programme - assessment of freshwater ecosystem state under human pressure of different intensity and development of low cost, effective methods for threat mitigation using ecosystem properties as a management tool
8. UNESCO Demonstration Projects on Ecohydrology – increasing of ecosystems adaptive capacity at catchment level, world wide project aimed at development of know-how for dealing with freshwater quality problems under different climatic conditions and land use intensities
9. ALTER Net, FP6th Network of Excellence focus on identification of drivers and pressures of biodiversity change and its impact on ecosystem functions and services
10. Research conducted within Long-Term Ecological Research Network – assessment of state of terrestrial and freshwater systems, monitoring of long term processes and trends, including ecosystem performance under climate change and various anthropogenic pressures
11. Development of Methods for Assessment of Minimum Water Flow Protecting the Biodiversity and Ecological Quality of the Running Waters in the Republic of Bulgaria [Project 787-2239/1999/MOEW]
12. EU-INTERREG ASTRA - Developing Policies and Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change in the Baltic Sea Region
13. Wetlands Restoration & Pollution Reduction in Bulgaria [Project TF 024837,World Bank/GEF]
14. ACCELERATES - Assessing Climate Change Effects on Land Use and Ecosystems: from Regional Analysis to the European Scale - 2001-2003 (Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary)

Priorities of FP7 and WSSTP SRA addressed by objectives:

The objectives specified in the call line are closely related to Theme 6 of 7th Framework Programme – Environment. Considering climate change research, the call line regards to Activity I – Climate Change, Pollution and Risks, priority 1- Pressures on environment and climate, sub-priority 5 - Climate Change Impacts. With regard to understanding and management of environmental extremes, understanding of adaptive capacity of ecosystems and recovery processes the call line refers to priority 3 – Natural Hazards. Promoting development of tools and methodologies with focus on the most susceptible catchment components of both natural and man origin the call line addresses sub-priority 3 – Vulnerability assessment and societal impact and sub-priority 4 – Risk management and mitigation. Finally, the proposed target for research activities is identification of thresholds to ecosystem resilience and their changes under climatic and environmental change which makes the call line closely linked to Activity II area – Sustainable Management of Resources, priority 1 – Conservation and sustainable management of natural and man – made resources.

Suggestion for most appropriate type of project:

• Collaborative Projects of small and medium size – also New Member and Associated Country focused, to address regional problems at relevant level
• Network of Excellence – to improve data and expertise sharing, capacity building and integration

Specific research highlights

• Recognition of current state of major or rare ecosystems and their future under climatic and land use changes (including land abandonment)
• Understanding of Soil-Plant-Atmosphere processes and interactions, and development of interdisciplinary approaches to quantifying processes at different scales
• Identification of critical thresholds in natural, semi-natural and man driven systems aimed at balancing the ecosystem and human needs at landscape scale
• Understanding of the impact of global change on hydrological cycle at extremes, with focus on surface– ground water interface, soil and vegetation dynamics
• Adjustment of technical solutions to ecosystem properties toward increased ecosystem resilience

Existing expertise

• Ecology and ecohydrology
• Modelling of ground and surface water dynamics and soil processes
• Landscape ecology
• Soil hydrology
• Agrometeorology
• Limnology, hydrobiology
• Geology, pedology
• Climate dynamics, synoptic climatology
• Water management
• Bio-indication

Required expertise

• Socio-economics
• Engineering
• Spatial planning

Gaps in knowledge:

• Transdisciplinary approach is rare and not applied to relevant disciplines
• Not all systems are included into research focus: pristine areas, rural areas of extensive land use,
• Lack of case studies, which enable to address region-specific issues
• Socio-economic approach weakly incorporated into ecological research (to improve understanding carrying capacity issues)
• Lack of trans-sectoral approach and co-operation in problem addressing and solving (data sharing)

Societal, economic and European relevance

The call line is to address general problems found all over Europe, but enables including and underlining NMS/ ACC specific issues, like changes in condition of rare ecosystems – peatlands, marshlands, natural forests and meadows under climate variability, change of land use intensity following socio-economic transformation, and system of land ownership.
The scope of the call line includes also study of ecosystems recovery processes from catastrophic events of climatic, environmental or man origin. Understanding of such mechanisms is important considering increase of frequency and intensity of climatic phenomena and therefore need to counteract their consequences including ecosystem degradation, water deterioration, impact on people well being and economics.