Results from consortia

BEEDET has demonstrated, under controlled conditions, that it is possible to detect bee species (both wild and domestic) that have visited flowers by identifying the DNA they leave behind whilst foraging. The established proof of concept must now be optimised for real-world conditions.

Viewing floral resources as a common good that could be subject to competition, BECO supported the development of a serious game to initiate collective discussions between beekeepers and managers. It highlights that a ‘frugal’ agricultural system is most conducive to this resource.

Focusing on carbon sequestration and biomass production, DIMIVEA has developed, based on existing models, a simulator that takes microbial and plant diversity into account to calculate carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) fluxes in soils. It provides a more accurate representation of coupled C-N cycles by incorporating an explicit and dynamic representation of biodiversity. This led to the MODIMIV project and the MODIMIR thesis, which aim to further improve the simulator.

By focusing on the concepts of “coalescence” (encounters between different communities) and “functional continuum” in the case of microbial communities present across the aquatic–terrestrial environmental continuum, CONTICOMIC has identified the limitations of current studies on these topics, as well as the needs in terms of concepts, methods and skills/disciplines required to advance research in this field.

The literature review carried out by AMPLI GAMMA identified key research issues relating to geographical contexts, ecosystems and taxonomic groups in relation to the link between landscape heterogeneity and biodiversity.

METAECOSERV has published a conceptual article published in the journal Bioscience, titled “Integrating the meta-ecosystem framework into the dynamics of ecosystem services in socio-hydrosystems.”

REFUSE has used case studies to analyse the disconnect between references to ecosystem services in public policy and their limited ability to guide decisions regarding local biodiversity management in situations involving the restoration of wetlands or watercourses. The finding is that restoration or conservation actions depend heavily on the emergence of specific ‘windows of opportunity’, which bear no relation to ecosystem service assessments.