Description du projet
Une nouvelle méthode de surveillance des écosystèmes
Ces dernières années, le changement climatique a été l’une des plus grandes menaces pour la vie sur Terre. Il menace la vie des hommes et des animaux, tout comme celle des plantes. Il met également en danger de nombreux et importants écosystèmes dans le monde entier. En dépit de tous ces enjeux, nous ne disposons pas encore des outils nécessaires pour surveiller les mécanismes et les schémas à l’origine des déséquilibres des écosystèmes. Le projet EcoScan, financé par l’UE, va mettre en place une nouvelle méthode de surveillance afin d’observer de plus près les mécanismes qui modifient ces écosystèmes. Cette méthode comprendra la collecte et l’étude de guano de chauve-souris afin de recueillir des échantillons instantanés de l’environnement dans lequel elles vivent. Elle sera suivie de nouvelles analyses écologiques destinées à l’étude des changements dans l’écosystème.
Objectif
Climate change is arguably the most pressing challenge facing all life on earth, threatening human health, ecosystem integrity and the survival of vulnerable species and habitats. Monitoring ecosystem health is critical for the early detection of imbalances but current approaches to do so measure the end-state, not the mechanisms driving patterns of change. Plants form the base of ecosystem functioning and accumulate increased viral- and fungal load in response to climate-related stress. These viruses are ingested along with plant matter by insect herbivores who similarly have microorganisms and may be eaten by a secondary consumer such as a bat. In the current proposal, we take advantage of this natural aggregation through trophic levels by collecting bat guano which contains a snap-shot sample of the environment. Directly sampling the individual taxa in multi-trophic assemblages would be unfeasible both financially and logistically. We will then use the latest in high-throughput sequencing protocols in metabarcoding and viral metagenomics to retrieve plant viruses and fungi, in addition to insect, fungi and bat DNA, viruses and fungi. Temporal sampling across climatic zones and habitats will ensure that complex and seasonal ecosystem processes are captured. We will use novel, sophisticated methods in ecological analyses to explore taxon diversity, abundance and associations, and how these change over time. By constructing weighted and multi-layer networks we will illuminate the processes affecting seasonal ecosystem health in relation to habitat and climate. As such we will be able to distinguish between localised phenomena and effects which cascade across layers. Our proposal will substantially increase knowledge of biodiverse but understudied groups (non-pathogenic fungi and viruses), shed light on ecosystem processes and how they respond to climate change, and ultimately provide proof of concept results for ‘aggregation’ as a means to survey ecosystem health.
Champ scientifique
CORDIS classe les projets avec EuroSciVoc, une taxonomie multilingue des domaines scientifiques, grâce à un processus semi-automatique basé sur des techniques TLN.
CORDIS classe les projets avec EuroSciVoc, une taxonomie multilingue des domaines scientifiques, grâce à un processus semi-automatique basé sur des techniques TLN.
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic zones
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologyvirology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologymycology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EFCoordinateur
75007 Paris
France