Projects-EN - University of Tartu Landscape Biodiversity Group

22.04.2024

The Center of Excellence for Agroecology and new crops in future climates (AgroCropFuture)

The Center Excellence for Agroecology and New Crops in Future Climates addresses the challenges of field agriculture in future climates and the non-sustainable ecological footprints of food production systems focusing on:

breeding climate-adapted varieties and testing new crops under current and predicted future conditions;
identifying the links between microbial communities, crop yields and ecosystem services;
harnessing the diversity of plant growth-promoting microbia to simultaneously maximize agricultural yields and ecosystem services;
creating AI-based eDNA methodology and global molecular database of microorganisms for developing sustainable agricultural practices in different croplands under current and future conditions.

The Center further serves as a catalyst of modern agriculture by transfer of knowledge and creating intellectual property for immediate application, including novel crop varieties, growth-promoting microbial lines, biofertilizers and AI approaches for maximization of crop yields and ecosystem services.

Principal Investigator: Professor Ülo Niinemets, Estonian University of Life Sciences

Partners:

University of Tartu
The Centre of Estonian Rural Research and Knowledge

Funding: Ministry of Education and Research / Estonian Research Council

Project volume: 7 000 000 euros

Duration: 01.01.2024–31.12.2030

See also the the project description in ETIS.

08.04.2024

The Center of Excellence for Sustainable Land Use (FutureScapes)

The Center of Excellence for Sustainable Land Use (FutureScapes) is a 7-year-project (2024-2030) that aims to identify the relationships between biodiversity and carbon fluxes and integrate this new knowledge with satellite data into machine learning models. This in addition can be used to implement informed land-use planning and decision-making for policy makers as well as landowners and land users.

FutureScapes focuses on developing innovative solutions to address biodiversity loss and climate change. The main goal is to identify complex interconnections and co-benefits of biodiversity and carbon stocks and fluxes and to integrate this new knowledge into large-scale spatial models to create decision-support tools for land use planning.

We will identify, analyze and link quantitatively the complex relationships between biodiversity patterns/functions, ecosystem carbon storage, sequestration and greenhouse gas emission from local to national level.

By using geospatial data (incl. satellite data) and machine learning based spatial modelling, we will upscale the knowledge and relationships to regional level and implement in spatially explicit land use planning and management, considering the socioeconomic fabric of landowners and land users.

Principal investigator: Evelyn Uuemaa, University of Tartu, Professor in Geoinformatics and Team lead for the Landscape Geoinformatics Lab

Team:

Aveliina Helm, University of Tartu, Professor of Restoration Ecology and team lead for the Landscape Biodiversity Group;
Kuno Kasak, University of Tartu, Associate Professor in Ecotechnology and team lead for the Environmental technology working group;
Ivika Ostonen-Märtin, University of Tartu, Professor in Root Ecology and team lead for the Root Ecology Group;
Kadri Runnel, University of Tartu, Research Fellow in Conservation Biology and team lead for the Sustainable Forest Management Group;
Jan Pisek, Tartu Observatory, Associate Professor in Remote Sensing of Landscapes and team lead for the Landscape Remote Sensing Group;
Eve Veromann, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Professor and team lead for the Agroecology Research Group;
Ants-Hannes Viira, The Centre of Estonian Rural Research and Knowledge, Head of Agricultural Research Department and team lead for Agricultural Research and Policy Research Group.

Funding: Ministry of Education and Research / Estonian Research Council

Project volume: 7 000 000 euros

Duration: 01.01.2024–31.12.2030

See also the the project description in ETIS.

14.03.2023

Improving the Functional Connectivity of Grassland Networks for Plant-Pollinator Interactions (FuncNet)

Loss in the area and connectivity of natural and semi-natural habitats in Europe over the last hundred years has placed not only numerous species under threat, but is also jeopardizing interactions between species crucial for maintaining important ecosystem functions, such as pollination. Despite protected areas covering now about a quarter of the land area of European Union, biodiversity has continued to decrease with only a few exceptions, suggesting that bold biodiversity-oriented governance is required also in landscapes beyond protected areas. Landscapes surrounding "islands" of the still well-preserved habitats and protected biodiversity hotspots have to support exchange of individuals and genes between isolated plant and animal populations. Maintenance of such functional networks is vital for preserving genetic variation of populations, which, in turn, is necessary for adapting to climate change.

The joint project called FuncNet led by the University of Tartu and consisting of researchers from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany and Sweden will improve understanding of the spatio-temporal effects of the area and structural connectivity of semi-natural grasslands - the hotspots of European biodiversity - on various aspects of plant-pollinator interactions in European rural landscapes.

The area and connectivity of the historic, exceptionally diverse grassland habitats considered in the project have been greatly reduced over the course of a century due to changes in land use, threatening the functioning and resilience of plant-pollinator networks.

Together with partners, the researchers of the University of Tartu's Landscape Biodiversity workgroup will study:

the effect of both current and historic landscape characteristics in the study regions on plant and pollinator diversity in structurally well-connected and fragmented grassland systems;
focusing on both good-quality grassland patches as well as on other landscape elements (small grassland remnants, grassy verges, power-line clear-cuts) to determine the role of these elements in supporting plants, pollinators and their interactions;
the availability of floral resources for pollinators by carrying out pollen metabarcoding studies;
pollinator visitation, fitness, genetic diversity and gene flow of an insect-pollinated self-incompatible grassland plant to further clarify the functioning of plant-pollinator interactions in maintaining the well-being and adaptive potential of insect-pollinated wild plants;
the main stakeholder groups and explore what are their motivations and options to plan and manage remnant and marginal landscape elements in a biodiversity-friendly way.

Building on the results, the project will propose tools to maintain sustainable levels of biodiversity at landscape, community and genetic level through securing resilient plant-pollinator interactions, and will aim to propose win-win solutions for different stakeholder groups in supporting plant-pollinator networks of European rural landscapes through improved multi-actor governance.

Principal investigator: Tsipe Aavik

Partners: Czech Academy of Sciences, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Catholic University of Leuven

Funding: Biodiversa+ / Ministry of Environment

Project volume: 150 000 euros

Duration: 01.03.2023–28.02.2026

See also the the project description in ETIS

16.01.2023

Resilience of Plant-pollinator Interactions in Agroecosystems: Spatio-temporal Effects of Land Use Change

Duration: 2023 – 2027

Decline in biodiversity and ecosystem services is generating negative impacts on human wellbeing. One of the key drivers of these trends is land use change, imposing harmful effects on biodiversity through high land use intensity and homogenization of landscapes. Furthermore, this process is causing the loss of biological interactions vital for important ecosystem functions, such as pollination. Only transdisciplinary approaches enable to create functional solutions for land management in agroecosystems. Thus, this project explores community-, species- and gene-level consequences of land use change on the functioning and resilience of plant-pollinator interactions in Estonian agricultural landscapes, while also tackling socio-ecological drivers of pollinator-friendly landscape management. In an era of global change, this project provides necessary input for sustaining biodiversity in agroecosystems and improves our understanding of the eco-evolutionary effects of land use change.

Project participants: Tsipe Aavik, Virve Sõber, Mari-Liis Viljur, Iris Reinula, Marianne Kaldra, Vete-Mari Kuningas

Funding: Estonian Research Council

09.11.2022

Introducing adaptive community based biodiversity management in urban areas for improved connectivity and ecosystem health (urbanLIFEcircles)

Duration: 2022-2027

The urbanLIFEcircles project demonstrates a systematic approach for how to lead a biodiversity-oriented change in urban nature management. It brings together a consortium of lighthouse cities Tartu (EE), Aarhus (DK) and Riga (LV), with the aim of improving city wide biodiversity management for restored connectivity and improved ecosystem health. We plan to improve the support for biodiversity in these cities through habitat restoration and increased citizen awareness. Additional support for urban biodiversity comes from the governance level, by setting up necessary strategic approach and integrating biodiversity goals to practical procedures. We envision a continuous interconnected wildlife habitat in each city that starts from peri-urban nature reserves and reaches throughout the cities, connected through green corridors and a network of high-nature value connectivity “stepping stones”. In this vision, urban citizens are seen as part of the urban ecosystem, participating in restoration activities and benefitting from ecosystem services offered by these “urban LIFE circles”. We have set ambitious objectives to achieve this by: (I) engaging communities in cities to actively participate in conservation; (II) assisting businesses towards developing necessary products & services supporting biodiversity in cities; (III) establishing synergies for biodiversity-oriented governance and management; (IV) deploying science-based methods for the adaptive management. All this builds a sufficient baseline, so it is possible to (V) demonstrate with concrete actions and practical examples that the system change for biodiversity is possible in cities. We plan to build on existing best practices on both urban biodiversity conservation as well as participatory urban governance. Our cities have varying challenges and different capacity in biodiversity matters, making the solutions we develop, demonstrate and propose applicable in most urban areas in Europe.

Project participants: Aveliina Helm, Elisabeth Prangel, Polina Degtjarenko, Oliver Kalda, Liis Kasari-Toussaint

Funding: Environmental Investment Center, European Commission

Project description in ETIS.

21.04.2022

Restoring and promoting a long term sustainable management of Fennoscandian wooded meadows in Estonia and Latvia (WOODMEADOWLIFE)

Duration: 1 November 2021 - 31 December 2026

The Estonian-Latvian joint LIFE project (LIFE20 NAT/EE/000074) "Restoring and promoting a long-term sustainable management of Fennoscandian wooded meadows in Estonia and Latvia" focuses on the restoration of wooded meadows in Estonia and Latvia, creation of sustainable solutions for maintenance and on raising public awareness of the natural and cultural heritage of wooded meadows and their protection and management. WOODMEADOWLIFE will improve the conservation status of wooded meadows in Boreal Biogeographic region by restoring Estonian and Latvian wooded meadows and establishing the system for their long-term management throughout both countries. By doing that, it will significantly contribute to the overall conservation status of 6530* in the EU, as both countries host 60% of all wooded meadows in the Boreal Biogeographic region.
The overall long-term objective of this project is to restore significant areas of priority EU habitat 6530* Fennoscandian wooded meadows (700 ha in two countries), develop agreements, guidelines and smart solutions for their future management and highlight their ecosystem services, ecological functions and unique heritage value in both countries.

Project participants: Aveliina Helm, Triin Reitalu, Elisabeth Prangel, Elvi Liiv

Funding: LIFE program, Environmental Investment Centre (KIK)

See also the project's page on Environmental Board's webpage.

18.04.2022

Interactive effects of local and landscape scale restoration of semi-natural grasslands and agricultural fields on species interactions and ecosystem functions (InterRest)

Duration: 2022-2025

Calcareous grasslands were created by traditional land use in European cultural landscapes and are one of the most species-rich habitat types. They harbour many rare and highly endangered species but are nowadays often threatened, mainly by abandonment and eutrophication. Hence, restoration measures are urgently needed. However, transnational restoration approaches are missing and evaluations within regional restoration schemes focus usually only on indicator species or species richness and ignore their biotic interactions, ecosystem functions and the landscape context. Especially species interactions are important indicators of restoration success as they are often more sensitive to environmental changes and determine vital functions that are necessary to stabilize ecosystems.

In this project we will investigate species interactions across different trophic levels including (1) plant-soil, (2) plant-pollinator and (3) bird-food resource interactions, in restored and degraded calcareous grasslands that are embedded in different socio-ecological and landscape contexts in three countries (Germany, Spain and Estonia). Additionally, we will measure ecosystem functions including soil functions, pollination and predation. We hypothesize that local restoration measures will lead to more complex and stable interactions and improved ecosystem functions compared to degraded sites. Moreover, we will investigate whether landscape-scale restoration with agri-environment schemes can make local restoration more effective through additive or synergistic effects. We will also analyse the social contexts of the restoration programs and identify key actors who are necessary to achieve local and landscape restoration goals. The results of our project will contribute to several Aichi targets by focussing on habitats with extremely high conservation value. They will inform the European Habitats Directive on the effects of restoration measures on species interactions and ecosystem functions and how they are linked to social networks. Knowledge of the contribution of agri-environment schemes at the landscape scale to the restoration of calcareous grasslands can be integrated in the Common Agricultural Policy. The project will contribute to safeguarding the precious biodiversity in calcareous grasslands, their interactions and functions and promote resilient ecosystems in European cultural landscapes. InterRest is a Biodiversa project where we collaborate with scientists from Germany, Spain, Belgium, Sweden and Netherlands.

Project participants: Aveliina Helm, Tsipe Aavik, Triin Reitalu, Elisabeth Prangel, Elvi Liiv

Funding: Estonian Research Council

See also the project's official website and the project description in ETIS

26.10.2021

Country-wide assessment and mapping of the economic value of ecosystem services provided by Estonian terrestrial ecosystems

Duration: 2021 july- 2023 january

The project develops a conceptual basis and methodology for economic valuation of nature's contributions to people (ecosystem services) provided by Estonian terrestrial ecosystems (forests, wetlands, grasslands, agricultural ecosystems). Indicators of economic value will be developed for selected ecosystem services, and spatially detailed assessment will be carried out for chosen protected areas and country-wide. The project will provide indicators and maps needed to value nature's contributions to people and integrate ecosystems and their services into decision-making in Estonia.

Project participants: Aveliina Helm, Elisabeth Prangel, Elvi Liiv

Funding: Estonian Environment Agency

17.06.2021

Experience of European countries in financial evaluation of terrestrial ecosystem services

Duration: 2021 april - 2021 september

The aim of the work is to analyse experiences of financial evaluation of ecosystem services in other European countries, to give an overview of the used methodological approaches, results, conclusions and the possible application of these methodologies in Estonia. The results of the work will be used in the development of the field of financial evaluation of ecosystem services within the framework of the ELME project.

Project participants: Aveliina Helm, Elisabeth Prangel, Elvi Liiv

Funding: Environment Agency

08.04.2021

Implementing citizen science to explore grassland ecology

Duration: 2021

The loss of traditionally managed diverse grasslands throughout Europe threatens the survival of many species. The proposed project will (1) raise awareness in the society about the impacts of grassland loss on biodiversity and (2) will improve scientific knowledge of the effects of grassland loss on important ecological processes. A citizen-science campaign carried out in the spring of 2021 simultaneously all across Europe will form the backbone of the project. The campaign will focus on reporting the frequency of flower types of a common grassland species, cowslip (Primula veris). Different cowslip individuals can have one of two different types of flowers (“heterostyly”). Cowslips with different flower types usually occur at equal frequencies, but grassland loss may cause strong deviations in these patterns with negative consequences for cowslips’ viability. Pilot campaigns carried out in Estonia in 2019 and 2020 (see www.cowslip.science) proved to be a great success with numerous participants and exciting scientific findings. The latter encourages expanding the geographic scope of the study towards other European regions, where the preferred habitat of cowslips (i.e. semi-natural grasslands) has once been common. The results of the project will be communicated to public, conservation practitioners and scientific audience throughout 2021.

Project participants: Tsipe Aavik, Kertu Hool, Marianne Kaldra, Iris Reinula

Funding: This project of the Baltic-German University Liaison Office is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic Germany.

Activities:

Campaign's web page: cowslip.science.

See also the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages of the campaign.

Participants from 30 countries made 3427 observations of 393 422 flowers and took 6 897 photos. More info about the first results can be found here and here.

More videos of the campaign can be found here.

Uudiste arhiiv

The Center of Excellence for Agroecology and new crops in future climates (AgroCropFuture)

The Center of Excellence for Agroecology and new crops in future climates (AgroCropFuture)

The Center of Excellence for Sustainable Land Use (FutureScapes)

The Center of Excellence for Sustainable Land Use (FutureScapes)

Improving the Functional Connectivity of Grassland Networks for Plant-Pollinator Interactions (FuncNet)

Improving the Functional Connectivity of Grassland Networks for Plant-Pollinator Interactions (FuncNet)

Resilience of Plant-pollinator Interactions in Agroecosystems: Spatio-temporal Effects of Land Use Change

Resilience of Plant-pollinator Interactions in Agroecosystems: Spatio-temporal Effects of Land Use Change

Introducing adaptive community based biodiversity management in urban areas for improved connectivity and ecosystem health (urbanLIFEcircles)

Introducing adaptive community based biodiversity management in urban areas for improved connectivity and ecosystem health (urbanLIFEcircles)

Restoring and promoting a long term sustainable management of Fennoscandian wooded meadows in Estonia and Latvia (WOODMEADOWLIFE)

Restoring and promoting a long term sustainable management of Fennoscandian wooded meadows in Estonia and Latvia (WOODMEADOWLIFE)

Interactive effects of local and landscape scale restoration of semi-natural grasslands and agricultural fields on species interactions and ecosystem functions (InterRest)

Interactive effects of local and landscape scale restoration of semi-natural grasslands and agricultural fields on species interactions and ecosystem functions (InterRest)

Country-wide assessment and mapping of the economic value of ecosystem services provided by Estonian terrestrial ecosystems

Country-wide assessment and mapping of the economic value of ecosystem services provided by Estonian terrestrial ecosystems

Experience of European countries in financial evaluation of terrestrial ecosystem services

Experience of European countries in financial evaluation of terrestrial ecosystem services

Implementing citizen science to explore grassland ecology

Implementing citizen science to explore grassland ecology

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