GILES

Timetable: 01.01.2017- 31.12.2019

Project status: Finished

Funders: Suomen Akatemia

Project budget: 450 000€ - 500 000€

Project external partners: INRA (France), Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural (IRNAD, Argentina), Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru

Summary: Forest ecosystems deliver several key services involving provisioning (e.g. timber of wood products), regulating (e.g. C sequestration) and supporting (e.g. habitat for biodiversity) functions. Biomass production by woody plants is critical to these services. Yet it is increasingly threatened by climate change and insect herbivores. Empirical, experimental and modelling studies suggest that tree diversity favours the resistance of forest ecosystems against herbivores extreme climatic events. However, whether greater resistance actually results in increased biomass production and stability is still controversial. We will focus on above- and below-ground insect-plant interactions. We will quantify the impact of these interactions by monitoring losses of woody plant biomass to leaf- and root-feeding insects. We will use the inverse of temporal variability in these losses as a measure of the stability of the resource-consumer interactions. By addressing this issue in different climates and biomes across the globe, we will test whether mechanisms underlying the diversity-herbivory-stability relationship are consistent across large climatic gradients. Measures of stability under herbivory pressure will be obtained for pristine, fragmented, managed and urban forests, widely distributed all over the world, by accessing both published information and unpublished data accumulated by project partners. Existing data will be complemented with the results of coordinated direct monitoring activities implemented in the course of the project in each of the participating countries (Argentina, Peru, France and Finland) which considerably differ in climatic conditions, biodiversity and land use. This approach will allow quantifying the specific and functional diversity of both woody plants and plant-feeding insects in our study sites. Data will be analyzed jointly using meta-analytical approaches in order to identify factors that affect ecosystem stability and regions where natural and managed ecosystems are most vulnerable to ongoing environmental changes. Obtaining and analyzing this information is critical to better predict the consequences of the rapid global changes and enable evidence-based management strategies for the conservation of biodiversity and to help mitigate the impacts of biodiversity loss on the provision of ecosystem services. In addition, by establishing a new multi-lateral co-operation and by stimulating the mobility of project participants we will enhance the research and innovation capacity and integration of knowledge across Latin America and Europe.