Efficient conservation of Mediterranean forests : an integrative assessment of the drivers and vulnerability of multi-taxa, multi-facet and multi-scale biodiversity patterns
Twitter / X : @integradiv
Website : integradiv-biodiversa.org

Context
Assessing current and future biodiversity patterns, and their underlying drivers is of crucial importance to develop relevant conservation programs, and to promote sustainable development and human well-being. While biodiversity conservation research and actions have yet mostly focus on taxonomic diversity solely, considering the diversity of organismal traits (functional) and evolutionary lineages (phylogenetic) offers promise for effective conservation and the maintenance of resilient ecosystems to global change. Indeed, taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic facets of biodiversity respond neither at the same pace or scale, nor in the same way to drivers, especially to anthropogenic perturbations. The still fragmented knowledge about multifaceted biodiversity greatly limits our ability to anticipate current and future conservation needs. This is particularly true in the Euro-Mediterranean biome which offers a unique diversity of habitats, particularly threatened, and should experience drastic biodiversity changes by 2100 owing to its sensitivity to land use (due to ongoing increased population) and climate changes.

Main objectives
INTEGRADIV aims to achieve a better knowledge of forest ecosystems within the Mediterranean biome in Europe and to propose effective protection actions, which presents an extremely important societal challenge in the face of global change in this area. The main objective of INTEGRADIV is to develop an integrative approach to provide guidelines on how taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic facets of biodiversity should be encapsulated in realistic conservation plans.

Main activities
INTEGRADIV will rely on the assessment of ecosystem integrity (its degree of preservation) and vulnerability to global changes, notably based on an innovative quantification of trait-based and phylogenetic attributes distributions. The project will benefit from both existing and newly collected occurrences, life-traits and phylogenetic data to develop an innovative framework of biodiversity assessment considering multiple spatial scales (regional and euro-Mediterranean) and taxonomic groups. Considering the diversity of trees, butterflies and birds in the Euro-Mediterranean biodiversity hotspot, the key questions INTEGRADIV will address are : 1) Where are the high-value biodiversity areas ? 2) What is the level of ecological integrity of the Euro-Mediterranean forests ? 3) How were shaped spatial patterns of biodiversity, and how high are they vulnerable to climate and land-use changes ?

Using these questions as a guideline, INTEGRADIV will provide a prioritization scheme for guiding effective future conservation strategies that will integrate all facets of biodiversity with responsible use of public money. The prioritization tool aims to be implementable, to be used in the future for example. To ensure that the project aligns with stakeholder needs, it will engage in a joint learning process at the science practice-policy interface from the beginning of the project. INTEGRADIV results will be delivered to the stakeholder community through policy briefs, outreach publication and workshops all along the project.

Partners of the project
Partner 1 (coordinator) : Aix Marseille University, Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie, France
Association Internationale des Forêts Méditerranéennes, France
Ligue de Protection des Oiseaux PACA, France
Partner 2 : Universidad de Alicante, Department of Ecology, Spain
Partner 3 : Aarhus Universitet, Centre of Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World, Denmark
Partner 4 : Università degli Studi di Genova, Department for the Earth, Environment and Life Sciences, Italy
Partner 5 : Panepistimio Ioanninon, Biodiversity Conservation Lab, Greece
Partner 6 : Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Department Environmental Geography, Institute for Environmental Studies, Netherlands
Partner 7 : Natural History Museum Aarhus, Research and Collections, Denmark

Duration of the project
27/03/2023-26/03/2026
Total grant : 1,582,164€