Project participants include
- Five institutions representing the Spanish regions of Castilla y León and Castilla-La Mancha, the French region of APLC, and Central Portugal.
- Twenty associated partners including: local, regional governments and ministries of agriculture; unions, associations and agricultural cooperatives; beekeeper associations; rural development agencies; engineering associations; NGOs. These actors will provide data and information for the project, and receive the results and products generated.
The University of Burgos Composting Research Group (UBUCOMP) was established in 2003 as a multidisciplinary group of researchers working in the areas of soil science, crops, and organic wastes and amendments. The group is currently composed of 5 professors, 3 technicians, 2 post-doctoral researchers, and 3 doctoral students. The group has two laboratories at the University of Burgos: one is located at the Polytechnic School and is oriented towards soil physics and chemistry, crops, and agronomic applications, and the other is at the Faculty of Sciences oriented towards biological, biochemical, and molecular techniques.
The principal lines of research that the group has been engaged in include (i) the use of organic wastes for agronomic application and ecological restoration, (ii) the production of improved organic fertilizers from agroindustry and agricultural wastes, and (iii) biological control of crop pests and diseases. From its beginning, UBUCOMP has carried out many research projects with both private and public entities, national and European competitive research grants.
POLL-OLE-GI SUODE is the second European Project coordinated by the group in the past few years. Apart from coordination responsibilities, we are responsible for the application of organic amendments for the protection of green infrastructure and the creation of pollinator habitat, coordinating the regional pilot studies and green infrastructure installation and monitoring, and the development of cartographic tools, all with the objective of supporting the integration of such practices into agri-environmental policy.
The laboratory of the Centre for Biological Studies of Chizé (CEBC) is located in Deux-Sevres, south of Niort in the forest of Chize. A team of twenty researchers, sixty engineers, technicians and students develop study programs in ecology, wildlife and their natural environment. CEBC depends on CNRS (INEE) and the University of La Rochelle.
Agripop is one of three teams of CEBC, a unit in contract with INRA and CNRS. Its research combines ecology of populations and communities, intervention research and social sciences. The aim is to assess the impact of environmental changes caused by humans, on biodiversity and its usage. Global change (climate change, changes in agricultural practices and land use, overexploitation of resources) has consequences for biodiversity in agro-ecosystems. The team Agripop is looking closely on intensive cereal plains. It seeks to understand the ecological processes and agricultural practices that influence the abundance and distribution of animal and plant populations. Scientists are working on different models at the base of food chains like weeds and arable weed, locusts, Carabici insects, pollinators, voles, birds etc.
The unit has 8 permanent staff, including 4 of INRA. The project Agripop team is structured around four research questions ranging from very basic objectives to finalized aims :
- Are the agro-ecosystem ecosystems?
- How are structured populations and communities in space and time?
- How can we maintain, optimize and enhance ecosystem services in agro-ecosystems?
- How to conserve and manage biodiversity in agro-ecosystems?
The team also manages the “Zone Atelier” Plain & Val de Sevre (LTER ZA PVS), c.46 000 ha in cereal plain for long-term monitoring. A “Zone Atelier” is a research infrastructure. The CNRS has set up the “Zone Atelier” more than 20 years ago to conduct research on the environment, particularly on the relationship between humans and ecosystems, taking into account the evolution of these relationships over time and at large spatial scale.
France has 13 “Zone Atelier”. The ZA-PVS studies 18,000 plots since 1994.
Contact (s)
Vincent Bretagnolle, Director, CNRS Chizé – Villiers-en-Bois – 79360 Beauvoir sur Niort (05 49 09 78 17).
The Social-ecological Systems Laboratory (SES-Lab) (www.laboratoriosocioecosistemas.es) of the Autonomous University of Madrid is a research group formed in 2004 that focuses on exploring the structure, functioning and dynamics of social-ecological systems (humans in nature) from a systemic and transdisciplinary perspective, to tackle complex issues related to sustainability.
The scope of SES-Lab research covers a wide range of topics in the frontiers among nature, culture and society. From integrative disciplines such as Systems Ecology, Ecological Economics and Conservation Ecology, the team aims to develop new strategies and conceptual frameworks that contribute to the transition toward sustainability. Our research is intended to bring down barriers and tend bridges between social and biophysical sciences, as well as between researchers, local stakeholders, and decision-makers, to build adaptive capacities in the face of current global change.
The main contribution of SES-Lab to POLL-OLE-GI will be the assessment of the effects of Green Infrastructure on pollinator assemblages, pollination services and seed set in sunflower crops. Further, the group will also work on the evaluation of the social and economic viability of Green Infrastructure in sunflower fields.
The Centre for Functional Ecology (CFE) is a R&D unit within the University of Coimbra bringing together a group of over 90 PhD researchers with multidisciplinary interests in ecology related subjects, seeking to produce knowledge on ecosystem functioning, from the biodiversity of microorganisms, plants, and fauna to the ecological complexity of their interactions at the community, ecosystem and evolutionary levels. CFE participation in this project involves researchers from 3 research lines within the unit.
FLOWer group within Biodiversity and Evolution line is working on plant ecology and evolution, with interest in plant-pollinator interactions and its role in plant diversity. Within the framework of the project, the group will participate on the pollinator ecosystem services quantification and assess the effects of Green Infrastructures (GIs) on pollinator assemblages, pollination services and sunflower crop production.
The elements from the Soil Ecology and Ecotoxicology Laboratory within the Environmental Risk Assessment line have been working on the risk assessment of Plant Protection Products (PPPs) for soil and non-target arthropods. Within the project they will be responsible for collecting field data for the testing of the Apis mellifera agent based model (ABM), aiming at assessing potential risks for this species at sunflower crops.
Elements from the Natural Recourses and Sustainable Development line participating in this project have been seeking ways to improve natural solutions how farmers can cope with climate change and improve the efficiency of water and nutrients in soil. Their role in this project is mainly to collaborate with FLOWer and SEEL members on the development of statistical models to understand the role of GIs on pollinator diversity and function.
The Entomology Experimental Unit is involved in two research axis:
- The study of unintentional effects of pesticides on honeybee
- The impact of landscape on bee colony development
The first axis consists in managing experiments in fundamental research programs or in finalized actions which lead to elaborate new tests to assess pesticides effects on bees in certification procedures of new molecules. With respect to these works, we developed a new test to assess pesticides effects on bee larvae in laboratory conditions which lead to a guide line and a guidance to OECD. We were also involved in a work that consisted to prove the effect of thiamethoxam on homing flight with RFID technology.
For the second research axis, we have launched in 2008 an original monitoring device, ECOBEE, which consists to observe every year 50 colonies dispatched in groups of 5 colonies on the LTER “Zone Atelier Plaine & Val de Sèvre”, located in the Poitou-Charentes Region. ECOBEE is a long-term ecological project with three specific aims: 1. to monitor seasonal and inter-annual population dynamic parameters of honeybee colonies in a heterogeneous farming system; 2. to provide relevant and robust datasets to test specific hypotheses about bees such as the influence of landscape planning, agricultural inputs or human pressure; and 3. to offer opportunities for assessing the effectiveness of agro-environmental schemes or the effects of changes in agricultural policies on honey bee wellbeing.
Associations
- Asociación de Dinamización Comunitaria “Además de ti, La Parrilla”
- Federação Nacional dos Apicultores de Portugal
- Colegio Oficial de Ingenieros Agrónomos de Castilla León y Cantabria
- Union Nationale de l’Apiculture Française
- Asociación Española de Apicultores
- Union de Campesinos Castilla y León
- Syndicat départemental d’Apiculture Deux-Sèvres
- Syndicat National d’Apiculture
Administrations and public entities
- Servicio de Agricultura y Ganadería. Dirección provincial de Cuenca
- Ayuntamiento de Belmontejo (Cuenca)
- Région Aquitaine Limousin Poitou-Charentes
- Consejería de Agricultura y Ganadería de Castilla y León
- Ayuntamiendo de San Lorenzo de La Parrilla (Cuenca)
- Chambre départementale d’Agriculture des Deux-Sèvres
- Ayuntamiento de Villares del Saz (Cuenca)
Cooperatives
- Coopérative agricole Val de Gascogne
- Unión Regional de Cooperativas Agrarias de Castilla y León
Cooperativas Agro-Alimentarias Castilla-La Mancha, Unión de Cooperativas
Local action groups
- ADECO Camino de Santiago
NGO
- Fundación Oxígeno