Projects

Funding: (€) 2,799,853.

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Coordination: UNION INTERNATIONALE DES CHEMINS DE FER - UIC

SYMBIOSIS is a pioneering interdisciplinary initiative in biodiversity, aligning with the UN's vision for responsible land use and the European Green Deal. It will build a community of practice between transport infrastructure, energy distribution and production, and biodiversity, while addressing the role of strategic planning in climate change and building resilient infrastructure. The collaborative approach will accelerate action, seamlessly integrating diverse stakeholders within the CSA framework and the EU-Rail Master Plan. SYMBIOSIS offers a holistic approach integrating biodiversity consideration through the entire lifecycle of infrastructure projects. Introducing an impact assessment tool for linear infrastructure, it promotes digitalisation, contributing to a unified European biodiversity baseline through standardised data collection, monitoring and mapping in transport and energy projects. Committed to nature-based solutions for climate-resilient infrastructure, SYMBIOSIS establishes a methodology contributing to the "theory of change", guiding decisions and facilitating information exchange for "no net loss" and "net gain" biodiversity objectives. Building on the momentum created in projects such as the EU-funded BISON project, SYMBIOSIS envisions the coexistence of sustainable infrastructure with thriving biodiversity, advocating for social, economic and environmental well-being. It provides guidance for regulatory changes in biodiversity standardisation globally, acts as a cornerstone for science-based decision-making, similar to the SOURCE platform, and will contribute to a unified European biodiversity baseline, including processes such as CSRD and supply chain management. SYMBIOSIS provides recommendations for biodiversity-related research and innovation, guiding decision-makers and investors on pathways leading to a sustainable, biodiverse future. It showcases transformative change through cross-disciplinary efforts for harmonious coexistence.

Funding: BIODIVERSA (€ 30,000).

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Coordination: Fernando Ascensão (FCiências).

Large solar parks play a pivotal role in the energy transition and to face climate change. But its acceptance by citizens, especially in rural areas, is often negative. Our goal is to understand why.

Funding: BIODIVERSA (€ 1,304,071).

URL: https://www.biodiversa.eu/2022/10/25/transloc/

Coordination: Ecology and Conservation Sciences (CESCO), CNRS/MNHN/Sorbonne University, Paris, France. PI: François Sarrazin.

The main objective of Transloc is to investigate and quantify how local conservation translocations affect ecological, evolutionary and sociological trajectories of restoration at multiple scales in the Western Palearctic. It will mix different approaches from database implementation and analyses to modelling, field monitoring and experiments.

I am the PI of Work Package 5 - Relevance: congruence of translocation efforts with global changes.

The MINERVE project aims to create a digital twins for the whole French Railways to Reduce the negative environmental impacts of railway infrastructure, Adapt rail infrastructure to the effects of climate change, and Respond even more reliably and competitively to the needs of low-carbon mobility. A multidisciplinary team of researchers from several laboratories at the University of Paris-Saclay together with Lisbon Science Faculty to the development of high-performance numerical models for the simulation of railway infrastructure structures (bridges, tunnels, earth structures), creation of an IT platform to promote digital continuity in railway infrastructure projects (digital twin, large-scale databases, high-performance computing, knowledge formalisation). 

My lab is integrated in the Ecological component where we will i) review the bibliography and studies carried out in the railway network; ii) evaluate priority areas for management; and iii) assess the complementarity of railway verges as dispersal corridors, namely in view of global changes and the consequent change in the distribution of species.

More info:  https://youtu.be/uAfYIU_wmVY

Team: Cristina Branquinho (General coordination), Helena Serrano (Soil coordination), Fernando Ascensão (Fauna coordination) and Sérgio Chozas (Flora coordination).

Funding: Aquila Capital 

To date, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the role of the impacts (positive and negative) that PV farms may have on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. This project aims to contribute to filling this gap of knowledge by providing a collection of studies in which it is intended to understand how PV farms impact (positively or negatively) the occurrence of different species and more broadly the functioning of the ecosystem, particularly at the level of the trophic chain, with the goal to quantify such impacts, and where necessary suggest evidence-based measures to mitigate negative effects on biodiversity associated with PV projects.

Funding: Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades (MICIU). (€ 95,000). Ref. PID2022-139942OB-I00

URL:  https://pedroaragonblog.wordpress.com/projects/

Coordination: Pedro Aragón

The results of SPOTIMPACT will be a world reference regarding the integration of different estimates of biodiversity in a conservation context. An important contribution of SPOTIMPACT will be the integration of different approaches that normally remain segregated and biased. The expected benefits of the project are not limited to basic scientific knowledge but have the core on well-defined application in the objectives 2, 3, 4, and 5 (evaluation of protected areas, estimate of the real degree of threat to species, communities and ecosystems, elucidate which components of global change are impacting different species, communities and ecosystems).

Funding: Several donors, including private and public entities (e.g., Fondation Segré; Zoo Conservation Outreach Group; The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland; Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas. Total: € 1,500,000.

URL: https://www.giantanteater.org/

Coordination: Arnaud Desbiez (PI).

Team: Fernando Ascensão, Carmen Barragán, Mariana Catapani, Lilja Fromme, Camila Luba, Vinícius Robert (Researchers). Danilo Kluyber, Débora Yogui, Gabriel Massocato, Bruna Oliveira, Mário Alves (Veterinarians)

The main goal of the Anteaters & Highways Project is to understand and quantify the impacts of roads – road-kills and movement barriers – and their consequences for Giant anteater densities, population structure and health; and to define landscape and road management strategies to prevent potential Giant anteater local population extinctions.