Project: Biodiversity and ecosystem services of small forest fragments in European landscapes.
In many parts of Europe, the original forest cover has strongly reduced and forests presently occur as small fragments, often embedded in an intensively used agricultural matrix. Despite their small size, these forest patches often act as refugia for biodiversity and may provide a wide range of ecosystem services (ES) to human society. Biodiversity and ES of small forest fragments are mutually dependent as they are determined by a similar set of drivers. However, the nature and strength of the relationships between biodiversity and ES will vary, depending on the taxonomic group and ES under consideration, and on the landscape context including the type and intensity of the surrounding land-use and the land-use history. Moreover, the value attributed to an ES will differ between different regions. All these sources of variation remain largely unknown and their effects on human perception, hence on decisions about management, planning and policy, is poorly understood. Therefore, the main objectives of SmallFOREST are to: - quantify ES and biodiversity in small forest fragments among agricultural landscapes and across different regions in Europe, - analyse how their mutual relationships vary between landscapes and regions, and - assess the extent to which ES are valued differently.
| Acronym | SmallFOREST |
| Duration | 01/01/2012 - 31/12/2014 |
| Website | visit project website |
| Network | BiodivERsA2 |
| Call | BiodivERsA Call for proposals on biodiversity and ecosystem services and their valuation |
Project partner
| Number | Name | Role | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Albert-Ludwigs University Freiburg | Germany | ||
| Bremen University | Germany | ||
| Forest Sciences Center of Catalonia | Spain | ||
| French National Institute for Agricultural Research | France | ||
| Ghent University | Belgium | ||
| IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute | Sweden | ||
| Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research | Germany | ||
| Stockholm University | Sweden | ||
| Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences | Sweden | ||
| University of Leuven | Belgium | ||
| University of Picardie Jules Verne | Coordinator | France | |
| University of Tartu | Estonia |