Biodiversity-Ecosystem Functioning Relationships in a Changing Environment:  Impacts of Changes in Density, Population Structure and Evenness of key Species

Research Measure:          Policy

Funding Type:                   IRCSET EMBARK

Funding Year:                   2009

Project Type:                     PhD Scholarship

Total Grant-Aid:                 €72,000

Lead Partner:                    University College Dublin

Project Summary:            

This research seeks to investigate the community and ecosystem level consequence of biodiversity loss due to human impacts on natural ecosystems.  Particularly relevant in this context are rocky shores, as they are among the marine systems most threatened by man’s activities and are therefore quite likely to suffer increased rates of local extinction in the coming years.  Recent work shows that consumers can modify, dampen or even reverse the directionality of biodiversity-productivity stability linkages inferred from the producer level alone in many ecosystems.  In this context, the research will use intertidal rock pools as a model system to test a number of pertinent hypothesis.

Further information and updates on this research are available from the UCD MarBEE website.