Exploring the impacts of biological invasions

What are the main challenges of those studying alien species today? Monserrat Vilà, Doñana Biological Station, CSIC, is conducting research on biological invasions, and she is worried about their impacts not only on biodiversity, but also in ecosystem services and in human well-being. In this video interview she explains to us how LifeWatch ERIC can support her field of research, for example providing tools about mobilisation of datasets which are available, and in terms of merging them to answer questions which are of interest. “I think – she says – that LifeWatch ERIC can support research on biological invasions in different ways: one would be by being the repository of datasets also making them available in different formats for the scientific community and also for society or for environmental management.” Watch the video and find out more!
More information here: https://www.lifewatch.eu/bees-2023/

Putting a value on nature

Fernando Rodríguez, University of Salamanca, USAL, is working on the economic evaluation of the ecosystem services and natural capital. He thinks that the main challenges facing nature conservation and restoration experts today do not come from the biological or ecological side, but from society, because of the fact that people do not consider the loss of biodiversity a huge issue, or they tend to forget very soon about this sort of issue. So, we need society to be better informed, and we need politicians to act, and for that politicians need proper metrics, and very concise and simple and straight messages.
“Putting a value on nature”, he says, “be it a monetary value or not – we don’t need it to be it a monetary value – but putting a value on nature it helps us to take better decisions.”
Watch the video and find out more!

More information here: https://www.lifewatch.eu/bees-2023/

Bat populations trends in Southern Europe

Elena Tena López, post-doc at the Doñana Biological Station, CSIC, is currently involved in the SUMHAL project with the bat lab group, her line of research being in particular focused on an endangered species of bat, called the greater noctule. The greater noctule is the largest bat in Europe, its most important populations are located in Southern Europe and converge in a geographical triangle of 136,000 hectares: María Luisa Park (Seville), Doñana Biological Reserve- CSIC (Huelva) and Zoobotanical Garden of Jerez (Cádiz). “LifeWatch ERIC has improved a lot the research of biodiversity”, she says, “as it has really powerful tools, providing resources, e-science infrastructure and facilities that can help us – as researchers – to know more about different species and find solutions to preserve nature. (More insights and information here – starting from 1:34).”
Watch the video and find out more!
More information here: https://www.lifewatch.eu/bees-2023/

Nature conservation and restoration: challenges and strategies

Carl Beierkuhnlein, University of Bayreuth, explains the greatest challenges for nature conservation and restoration today: to find the right reference. “[…], the most important contribution for an efficient management of natural systems is to manage for biodiversity. But not just like a lottery, but also to consider the biotic interactions, the trophic levels of the species, and also their ecological niches and how they would really create interactions and a complex ecosystem when they coexist. We have to learn from the past, but also realise that the past is no longer the right reference […] We need to know how biodiversity functions and how it contributes to the ecosystem services that humanity is dependent on, and LifeWatch ERIC provides the important platform for that.”
Watch the video and find out more!
More information here: https://www.lifewatch.eu/bees-2023/

The challenging study of karst underground biodiversity

Slovenia represents an important hotspot of cave biodiversity in the world, even if biodiversity and nature conservation research faces several challenges, related more or less with shortages of personnel, funding, and sometimes with the risks of doing research in the caving systems.
“LifeWatch ERIC for Slovenia is very important because it brings us opportunities to get national fundings for our institutes in the consortium” explains Magdalena Aljančič, researcher from the LifeWatch Slovenian node. “We now have 10 institutions forming the consortium in Slovenia, and being part of the LifeWatch ERIC community actually strengthens us as a community, and gives us opportunities to build further the research infrastructures in Slovenia. So, for us LifeWatch ERIC is opening new paths to research and gives us opportunities to conduct further and to expand our research field.”
Watch the video and find out more!
More information here: https://www.lifewatch.eu/bees-2023/

A Marine Biodiversity Observation Network for Europe

Juan J. Vergara, Director of the Institute of Marine Research of the University of Cadiz and Member of the Euromarine Network, illustrates to us the challenges for studying marine biodiversity while presenting MBON Europe, the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network for Europe. More information here: https://www.lifewatch.eu/bees-2023/

Understanding the drivers of biodiversity loss

“Biodiversity lives in cities, biodiversity lives in industrial areas. How to understand all this biodiversity is one challenge. We need to know how biodiversity changes, what are those drivers which influence biodiversity”, says Meelis Pärtel, University of Tartu, during this interview realized during BEeS 2023, the LifeWatch ERIC Biodiversity and Ecosystem eScience Conference.
“LifeWatch ERIC is a very useful network to bring together scientists who have common interests, common fears about the future. We need to bring our knowledge to wider audiences. It’s extremely important to come together and learn from each other. Together we are united and we are stronger”, he states.
More information here: https://www.lifewatch.eu/bees-2023/

Biodiversity and ecosystem conservation from an eScience perspective | Highlights BEeS 2023

The conference “BEeS – Threats and challenges to biodiversity and ecosystem conservation from an eScience perspective”, the LifeWatch ERIC Biodiversity & Ecosystem eScience Conference, guided us through the advanced, transdisciplinary and challenging frontiers of biodiversity and ecosystem research. This is a highlights video from the occasion; for further information, please visit the following page: https://www.lifewatch.eu/bees-2023/

Insights and perspectives from:

• Alberto Basset, Director of the Service Centre, LifeWatch ERIC
• Meelis Pärtel, University of Tartu
• Peter van Tienderen, Director of the Virtual Laboratory and Innovations Centre, LifeWatch ERIC
• Elena Tena López, Doñana Biological Station, CSIC
• Carl Beierkuhnlein, University of Bayreuth
• Fernando Rodríguez, University of Salamanca, USAL
• Monserrat Vilà, Doñana Biological Station, CSIC
• Ron Dekker, Project Leader EOSC Future, Technopolis Group Belgium
• Juan J. Vergara, University of Cadiz
• Magdalena Aljančič, LifeWatch Slovenia
• Christos Arvanitidis, Chief Executive Officer, LifeWatch ERIC

Credits: LifeWatching WebTV