BiKF AdaMus: a novel research project studying the response and adaptive potential of single species and communities to climate change in combination with other stressors

Introduction

How will the combination of climate-induced physical/chemical changes and anthropogenic pollution impact key species and biodiversity, and thus the ecosystem functions in future?

Discussion

The project AdaMus within the newly founded Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre BiK^F aims to understand the prospective ecosystem stress responses and adaptive potential of species and communities to multiple stressors to provide reliable predictions of future developments in terrestric, aquatic and marine environments.

Conclusion

Long-term experiments with terrestrial, aquatic and marine species and communities will be conducted under IPCC predicted climate conditions. In terrestric and limnic experiments, additional co-stressors such as pesticides and alien species are introduced to test for interactions. In the case of marine plankton, potential consequences of multiple climate-related changes in the physical environment (temperature, salinity and oxygen) will be analysed.