The tropical Andean climate and biodiversity observatory, community resilience through research
Overview
We will establish Santa Lucia Research Centre (SLRC) as a transdisciplinary regional Andean biodiversity and climate observatory (TRAN-BC Observatory), a globally networked research, capacity-building and educational hub addressing impact of climate change on Andean ecosystems and communities.
Global impacts from COVID-19 have been profound in Ecuador. In April 2020 the country was described as the epicentre of the Latin American pandemic with over 13,562 deaths. Pre-existing economic difficulties, a fall in oil prices, and the shutdown of its tourism sector has resulted in severe hardship. Ecotourism, contributing significantly to conservation efforts and the $6.6billion tourism sector, is particularly hard hit in this ‘megadiverse’ country, with 2509 endemic species threatened with extinction – the highest in the world (IUCN 2020). In parallel, COVID-19 has limited access to rural locations, impeding data collection and knowledge exchange for government and academia, who transform data into actionable policy. There is the urgent need to identify and support development approaches addressing both biodiversity conservation, human well-being and information flow to guide policy in the face of environmental shocks.
One such approach is demonstrated by the Santa Lucia Research Centre (SLRC) in the Andean forests of NW Ecuador. Established in partnership with the University of Sussex (UoS), and based on the ‘paraecologist’ model, it has continued to maintain unique regional biodiversity databases, critical to understanding impacts of land-use and climate change to Andean cloudforest ecosystems, in spite of the pandemic. This points to the resilience of researcher- community ‘Civic Science’ networks in the face of environmental and economic shocks, and to their important role in green recovery pathways benefitting communities, academia and policymakers.
- Sustainable Development Goals
This project examined the following SDGs:
SDG 1 – No Poverty
SDG 4 – Quality Education
SDG 5 – Gender Equality
SDG 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation
SDG 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 10 – Reduced Inequalities
SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 13 – Climate Action
SDG 15 – Life on Land
SDG 16 – Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
SDG 17 – Partnerships for the GoalsFind out more about the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Project description
Research question: Understanding species-specific adaptation to climate change to determine whether Andean protected areas are climate-proof?
Foundations of the paraecologist model, and TRAN-BC Observatory, lie in addressing cutting-edge research questions. The existing avian monitoring dataset is the only long-term Ecuadorian biodiversity dataset representing a vertical kilometre of cloudforest (1500m-2500m). Our preliminary analysis on impact of climate change on altitudinal range changes of species suggest more complex patterns than models based on species-specific climatic envelopes, that suggest simplistic upward movements of species. A more complex picture, with climatic impacts mediated via precipitation change to forest resources (i.e. fruit production) from El Niño–Southern Oscillations (ENSO) appear to play a role, yet cloudforest altitudinal diversity and phenological data is currently lacking. Furthermore, tree species distributions and ecotones across an altitudinal transect could have significant impacts on carbon dynamics and response to changes in climate over short distances. This project establishes altitudinal hectare plots to provide required botanical datasets and expertise to address understand species adaptations to climate change and guide conservation management to understand species-specific adaptation to climate change to determine whether Andean protected areas are ‘climate-proof? The research process builds capacity by engaging with local communities by offering training as paraecologists and builds the scientific capacity of the research station. Networking workshops aim to engage more widely to identify synergies with other disciplines and expand the capacity of the reserve to address broader interactions between climate, biodiversity and society.
Timeline and funding
Timeline |
January 2021-July 2021 |
---|---|
Funding |
SSRP-IDCF funding |
The team
- Principle Investigator (PI) and Co-Investigators
Principal Investigator
- Dr Mika Peck, School of Life Sciences
Co-investigators
- Dr Alexander Antonarakis, School of Global Studies
- Dr Maria Clara Castellanos, School of Life Sciences
- Dr Mika Peck, School of Life Sciences
- Project team
- Denisse Merino, General Manager Santa Lucia Research Centre, Santa Lucia Reserve, Ecuador
- Dr Ana Mariscal, Cambugán Foundation, Ecuador
- Holger Beck, Scientific Manager, Santa Lucia Research Centre, Santa Lucia Reserve, Ecuador
Where we worked
Santa Lucia, Ecuador.