Project R-10090

AnaEE-Flanders: Integrated infrastructure for experimental ecosystem research (Research)

The emerging field of ecosystem-based adaptation uses knowledge of ecosystem functioning to counter threats to natural resources and food security. Yet, the infrastructure in Flanders and Europe is not optimized for unravelling the effects of multiple, interacting environmental pressures on ecosystem functioning and the subsequent testing of innovative solutions. This challenge is tackled using a new generation of experimental facilities embedded in a European network. Various state-of-the-art set-ups are used to study effects of multiple global changes on terrestrial ecosystems with continuous tracking of responses. Impacts can be assessed in isolation, in combination (interactive effects) and along gradients of change (to detect nonlinearity and threshold responses). In addition, aquatic facilities will focus on the land-water transition, where environmental problems such as nutrient outflow, sea level rise and flooding occur. Funding is used to manage and exploit the facilities and build missing links to ensure that AnaEE-Flanders reaches its full potential, within a European network of open-access platforms to experimentally manipulate, analyse and model ecological systems.

01 February 2019 - 31 January 2021