BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEMS

Biodiversity is the diversity of biological systems at all levels, including genes, species and ecosystems. Biodiversity is part of our common natural heritage which underpins our health and quality of life, livelihood, food security and economies. Understanding Biodiversity is critical to ensure a sustainable Earth for the future. This includes knowledge about terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems, its structural components, how they interact with each other, and with human societal activities (Figure 1). The biodiversity collapse is thought to be one of the biggest challenges humankind faces. Ecosystem services are essential to our current welfare and well-being.

The outcome of this research is also determinant to support policy making. IPBES, which interfaces research and policy, stresses in its 2019 Global Assessment for Biodiversity and Ecosystem ServicesSummary for policymakers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. IPBES (2019)
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3553579

, the importance in supporting primary research by countries. This should cover not only biodiversity, but also related areas like food, energy, health and genetic resources.

The goals set by the European Union Biodiversity Strategy for 2030EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 Bringing nature back into our lives. European Commission (2020)
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52020DC0380

indicate the need to be on the path for biodiversity recovery by 2030, with the involvement of citizens, businesses, social partners and the research and knowledge community. The essential role of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in protection and restoration of wetlands, peatlands and coastal ecosystems, sustainable management of marine areas, forests, grasslands and agricultural soils, mitigation and adaptation to climate change or food security have been recognized. Green infrastructures contribute to lowering urban areas’ extreme temperatures and reduction of natural disaster impacts. Some of the extensive policy EU instruments, like the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) or the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), include criteria of sustainable use of biological resources.

EU sets ambitious but concrete targets for the next decade. These include that at least 30% of land and sea should be protected, including 10% with strict protection. It also determines the restoration of land and sea, the naturalisation and increase of sustainable practices in agriculture, reversion of genetic diversity decline, increase in forestation, including in urban areas, among other actions. It also sets objectives for marine environments. freshwater ecosystems, reduction of pollution and combat to invasive alien species. The strategy is in line with the European Green DealEuropean Commission. 2020. The European Green Deal. European Commission (2020)
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2019:640:FIN

and supports the role of Europe in the global landscape towards stopping biodiversity loss, in the context of the UN SDGs 14 and 15UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
https://sdgs.un.org/goals

, and the Convention of the Biological DiversityUN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
https://www.cbd.int/

, which had the Conference of the Parties in October 2021.

The implementation of the strategy needs a sound scientific basis. Only ¼ of the existing species on Earth were estimated to be known to scienceHow many species are there on Earth and in the ocean? Mora, Camilo, et al. PLoS Biol 9.8 (2011)
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001127

. Many species will become extinct without being discovered, and their potential benefits in terms of food, medicine and ecosystem services will be lost. Some of the main drivers for scientific research are linked to main threats to biodiversity. This is the case of land-use change causing habitat destruction and the alien invasive species. Unhealthy and too close interactions between the humankind and wildlife resulted, among others, in the COVID-19 pandemics leading to major global societal and economic crisis. The loss of biodiversity decreases ecosystem services and affects ecosystem functioning and stability. Sustainable agriculture practices need to combine the promotion of ecosystem services, for example pollination, with promotion of wildlife and the reduction of fertilisers and pesticides. Life in oceans also depends on sustainable management of resources, and protection of coastal areas from effects of pollution. Plastics in marine environments are a real threat to wildlife but their adverse effects throughout the food chain and mechanisms through which populations are affected are largely unknown. This is an example of interdisciplinary research need linking all environmental domains to social sciences, health and food. Mechanisms of adverse effects of microplastics on the whole food chain are still a largely unknown area.

 

Current Status

The European landscape for terrestrial and marine biodiversity and ecosystem RIs covers the complexity of the research agenda (Figure 1). The ESFRI RIs organised as distributed infrastructures are built on or closely connected to EU-funded projects such as Integrating Activities.

• Observatories and Monitoring Facilities: the ESFRI Landmark ICOS ERIC and the ESFRI Landmark EMBRC ERIC (H&F), (related IA ASSEMBLE Plus), the ESFRI Projects DANUBIUS-RI and eLTER RI, the IAs INTERACT and JERICO-S3, SIOS (Integrating all observations, terrestrial, marine and atmosphere at Svalbard).
• Facilities for in situ and in vivo experimentation: the ESFRI Landmark AnaEE (H&F), the IAs AQUACOSM-plus and HYDRALAB+.
• Biological collections, data infrastructures and reference data: the ESFRI Project DiSSCo (linked IA Synthesis PLUS), the ESFRI Landmarks ELIXIR and MIRRI (H&F), and the IA BiCIKL.
• e-Infrastructures for data, analysis and modelling: the ESFRI Landmark LifeWatch ERIC, and the IAs IS-ENES3 and SeaDataCloud.

It is important that capacities of ESFRI RIs are able to support the newly built European Partnerships in Horizon Europe. These aim to connect R&I programs from national to European programs, in which the RIs on biosphere and ecosystems can play a relevant role in several of the European Partnerships in food, bioeconomy, natural resources, agriculture and environment as well on health.

Within the framing of Grand Challenges that ranges from ecosystem conservation to preservation of ecosystem services, some RIs target ecosystems within the environmental domain. The ESFRI Project eLTER RI is tackling a broad spectrum of ecological challenges, based on observations that enable understanding ecosystems using an approach of ecological integrity, including the socio-ecological dimension. The ESFRI Landmark AnaEE (H&F) alternatively, provides experiments instead of observations, with stronger focus on agriculture and food security from a defined set of ecological and societal challenges and has a more anthropocentric approach.

The ESFRI Landmark LifeWatch ERIC has a cross-domain approach and a focus on the Grand Challenges of preserving biological diversity and of protecting ecosystem health. LifeWatch ERIC is an e-Infrastructure that enables knowledge-based solutions to environmental managers by providing access to a multitude of sets of data, services and tools about the role of biodiversity in ecosystem functioning and conservation. The focus is made in the construction and operation of Virtual Research Environments (VRE), backed by strong computational capacity and metadata catalogues. On another side, the ESFRI Landmark ICOS ERIC also has a cross-domain approach to enable understanding the carbon cycle and to provide necessary information on the land-ecosystem exchange of CO2, CH4 and N2O with the atmosphere.

The digitization of biological collections and the connection to genomics is a game changer in the biodiversity research aiming to close the taxonomic gap, which still is a major limitation to biodiversity knowledge. The ESFRI Project DiSSCo is developing tools and resources to speed up digitization and virtual access to Natural History Collections (NHC). Only 10% of European NHC are digitally catalogued, and even a lower percentage are digitally imaged. The virtual access to collections is essential to help taxonomic efforts and speed up the description of the undiscovered biodiversity existing both in these collections and in nature.

 

Gaps, challenges and future needs

Some of the Grand Challenges related to biodiversity and ecosystems research still miss a counterpart support by the existing RIs. The above mentioned global and European strategic agendas indicate, for example, the need to increase protected areas, restore degraded ecosystems, reverse the decline of pollinators, increase biodiversity-rich landscapes on agricultural lands. Consequently, a call is made for intense research on conservation planning, ecological restoration, and ecosystem services, which are only partially covered by the existing RIs and in limited scales.

These needs extend to monitoring biodiversity and ecosystem changes, supporting the development and implementation of Essential Biodiversity Variables44Essential Biodiversity Variables. Pereira, H.M. et al. Science 339, 277–278, (2013)
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1229931

as ecological data products underpinned on data and metadata standards, data quality, data preservation and open data policies. Another aspect that needs further attention is the environmental contamination and its interplay with a climate change, hazards and risks associated with toxic mixtures, especially endocrine disruptors. Testing platforms for elucidation of adverse outcome pathways are also required.

Urged by the biodiversity loss, the taxonomic gap needs to be overcome, in order to discover and describe the ¾ of the biodiversity still to be known. Rapid advances in genetic sequencing and ICT, including big data analysis of genetic sequences, and mass digitization can be integrated to provide more automated systems concerning genomics, species and ecosystem analysis.

Other challenges are the invasive species, for which the RIs need to adjust their data lifecycles in order to enable rapid alert systems and better monitoring and modelling. Observations and experiments need further scientific integration. Modelling can be a powerful tool for the conjunction of organismic and process-oriented approaches as well as multiple challenges perspectives in ecosystem analysis. However, most existing ecosystem models represent only facets and require further development.

The manifold connections to other fields, particularly Health & Food, but also Social Sciences and Energy are apparent. Human activities, energy production, construction, traffic or agriculture directly affect ecosystem integrity which itself is an important factor for human health or food security. Environmental literacy and behaviour are important interfaces to Social Sciences.