Project: Interacting impacts of land use and climate changes on ecosystem processes: from cyclic herbivores to predators of conservation concern
Many ecosystems are dominated by regular fluctuations in abundance of grass-eating small rodents, which are prey for many predator species. These ecosystem “heartbeats” have been changing recently, raising concern about their drivers and possible broader effects on ecosystems. The Ecocycles team has studied the causes and consequences of changing rodent abundance cycles, by testing that: 1. There has been strong changes in small rodent cycles during the last decades all over Europe, due to land use and climate change; 2. These changes have disproportionate impacts on the demography of predator species, challenging their viability; 3. These demographic changes in prey and predator species have cascading effects on the whole ecosystem food-web; 4. Conservation measures need to account for these ecosystem “heartbeats”.
| Acronym | Ecocycles |
| Website | visit project website |
| Network | BIODIVERSA |
| Call | Biodiversity: Linking Scientific Advancement to Policy and Practice |