CREAF-based CSIC researcher Josep Peñuelas has contributed to an article published in Nature which proposes three key indicators for gauging how well a terrestrial ecosystem is functioning and assessing its state of health or wellbeing.
The recent study 'A systematic global stocktake of evidence on human adaptation to climate change' published in Nature Communications shows that the measures taken are fragmented, local and not transformative. CREAF calls for more integrated and coordinated measures capable of reducing the risk that climate change poses to people.
CREAF’s ideas about Catalonia’s adaptation to climate change have reached ESCACC30, the territory’s Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change 2021-2030, which the Catalan Office for Climate Change has been developing for some months now. As is reflected here, CREAF has been highly active in the corresponding participatory process.
CREAF takes part in an international study aboy Arctic tundra leads by iDiV where they discover that tundra plants are more diverse in how they cope with cold climates than previously thought. In a warming world, these tundra plants will benefit from having a wide range of ways to adapt to the changing climate.
Climate change is toppling our Earth's ecosystems out of balance in multiple ways, with often dramatic consequences. Many plants and animals are already impacted. But surprisingly, it is only poorly understood which are the specific threats, and how the actual consequences will look like.
A study just published in the scientific journal Nature Communications presents worrying results on animals’ adaptation to climate change. It concludes that while species are changing some aspects of their lives in response to global warming, they are not doing so quickly enough and do not always make the right changes.
The final conclusions of the LIFE MEDACC project, conducted by the Catalan Office for Climate Change (OCCC) of the Ministry of Territory and Sustainability, CREAF, IPE-CSIC and IRTA, draw attention to the need to adapt forest, agriculture and water management strategies to the new arid conditions expected as a result of climate change. Since 1973, the water flow at the headwaters of the Muga and Ter rivers has dropped by almost half, and the volume of the middle and lower sections of the Segre has decreased by as much as 60%.
An extensive review of studies and databases reveals that drought and an increase in temperature are already causing species substitutions, greater aridity, higher forest fire risk, lower soil fertility, and lower water availability, among other negative impacts.
A large brain increases the capacity to adjust behavior to new circumstances through learning, improving resource-gathering in a changing environment. Greater understanding of this capacity can improve predictions of what species of birds and other animals will be most vulnerable to global change.
Ending perceptions of women and other disadvantaged groups simply as victims and instead empowering them as decision-makers in natural resource management are basic steps to deal with ecological crises more effectively. A new collection of studies addresses global environmental change from a feminist and interdisciplinary perspective.
