RESEARCH LINE 1: Ecosystem services and nature-based solutions to address environmental challenges and enhance the conservation and sustainable use of ecosystems and their services
Key Research Activities (RA):
RA1.1. Developing new strategies, tools and techniques for ecosystem restoration using nature-based solutions, in articulation with stakeholders, thereby improving the resilience of ecosystems, enabling them to deliver vital services and also to meet other societal challenges, including reductions in the risk of sanitary emergencies caused by the outbreak of both unknown and known zoonotic agents.
RA1.2. Developing new strategies, tools and techniques for climate change adaptation and mitigation using nature-based solutions that can provide more resilient responses and enhance carbon sequestration and reduce carbon emissions associated with wildfires.
RA1.3. Developing nature-based solutions for improving risk management and resilience, and increasing the insurance value of ecosystems, exploring their potential to deliver greater benefits than conventional methods and offering synergies in reducing multiple risks such as floods, landslides, coastal erosion, wildfires, and desertification.
RA1.4. Developing nature-based solutions for multi-functional watershed management and the sustainable use of water resources, including water provisioning and purification, regulation of water flows, enhance biodiversity, improve the ecological status of freshwater systems.
RA1.5. Developing nature-based solutions for the sustainable use of the soil, including restoration, management, and monitoring of the soil biodiversity dynamics, to improve fertility and prevent desertification and erosion.
RA1.6. Developing cost-effective genomic tests for population diversity monitoring of the regularly harvested natural populations of wildlife species, microbiological characterization/monitoring of the soils, and simultaneously help protecting and regulating the market of nature harvested products.
RA1.7. Developing techniques to foster green infrastructure in cities, through nature-based solutions that can stimulate economic growth as well as improving the environment, human well-being, and urban biodiversity.
RA1.8. Developing database and visualization approaches for species interactions, from mutualistic (e.g., pollination, symbiosis) to antagonistic (e.g., predation parasitism), establishing a streamlined pipeline of information from conventional field studies and DNA metabarcoding analysis to the research community and the general public.
