Posts in the Education category:

Education, Students

Beca de introducción a la investigación: JAE INTRO 2019

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Si te apetece tomar contacto con la carrera científica y trabajar identificando estrategias de utilización del agua y nutrientes en especies semiáridas y su respuesta al cambio climático, solicita un JAE intro con nosotros en el área de Recursos Naturales: REF: JAEINT19_EX_0749

El trabajo se centra en estudiar la relación entre la diversidad de estrategias de uso del agua de las diferentes especies que componen una comunidad y los factores ambientales que más se verán afectados por el cambio climático (precipitación y temperatura), así como sobre los procesos de descomposición de la materia orgánica, para entender la capacidad de adaptación de las especies y comunidades forestales y arbustivas a un aumento de aridez y las implicaciones en el ciclo del carbono.

Contacto: querejeta@cebas.csic.es; iprieto@cebas.csic.es

Education, Outreach, Students

New MOOC on Business Model Innovation for Sustainable Landscape Restoration

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You can now subscribe and start our second Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Business Model Innovation for Sustainable Landscape Restoration. We developed this MOOC with our partners from the European Network for the Advancement of Business and Landscape Education (ENABLE).

The course is launched today, 14 February, and is open for all and free of charge. This is the second MOOC co-created by the ENABLE consortium members. It builds upon ENABLE’s first MOOC, which offered comprehensive knowledge of landscape degradation and restoration from the perspectives of natural sciences, economics and business administration.

This new MOOC is transdisciplinary, designed for environmental and business students, professionals, as well as anyone with an interest in landscape restoration based on sustainable business models. The course takes a partnership approach to take on the challenge of large-scale landscape restoration, reflecting the interconnectedness of ecology, society and economy in landscape management – supporting wellbeing of people and the planet.

This eight-week online course aims to equip learners with practical business tools to restore landscapes. In the course, participants are encouraged to go through the business model innovation process in small groups of their choice, based on a common interest. The course is designed in three phases that move the participants from ideas towards the successful implementation of a new business model for sustainable landscape restoration based on four different returns: return of natural and social capital, return of inspiration and return of financial capital. Each step of the process is illustrated with three real-life cases of landscape restoration to show how the theory looks in practice. These cases are: a case about crop diversification and low input farming in Spain; a large-scale woodland restoration case in Iceland; and a case about the challenges of recovering from forest fires in Portugal.

Worsening land degradation caused by human activities is undermining the well-being of two-fifths of humanity, driving species extinctions and intensifying climate change (IPBES). But there’s a huge potential for restoring landscapes: around two billion hectares of land, about two times the size of China, can be restored. This free online course aims to equip learners from environmental, business or other backgrounds with practical business tools to restore landscapes.

You can now start the course and work on solutions for landscape restoration – one of the biggest challenge of our time. For more information, watch the trailer and see the ENABLE website, and its Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages. You can register for the course here.

ENABLE is a strategic partnership of organizations in the private, public and non-profit sector, and is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. The partnership is led by Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) and consists of the Spanish National Research Council (CEBAS-CSIC), Commonland, United Nations University Land Restoration Training Programme (UNU-LRT), and Nova School of Business and Economics.

Education

World Soil Day: Register now for our new MOOC on business-driven sustainable landscape restoration!

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Worsening land degradation caused by human activities is undermining the well-being of two-fifths of humanity, driving species extinctions and intensifying climate change (source: IPBES). However, there is a huge potential for restoring landscapes: around two billion hectares of land, about two times the size of China, can be restored.

In celebration of World Soil Day, we are proud to announce the launch of our second free online course today: Business Model Innovation for Sustainable Landscape Restoration.

This MOOC is created by the European Network for the Advancement of Business and Landscape Education (ENABLE). In the MOOC, participants are encouraged to go through the business model innovation process in groups of their choice, based on a common interest. The ENABLE project is a partnership of organizations in the private, public and non-profit sector, led by Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM). The Soil and Water Conservation Research Group at CEBAS-CSIC is part of this partnership and contributed to the development of this MOOC. Subscribing to this free online course starts on Wednesday 5 December, World Soil Day. The MOOC will launch on 14 February 2019.

This free online course aims to equip learners from environmental, business or other backgrounds with practical business tools to restore landscapes. In 8 weeks, you will learn about the phases of Business Model Innovation and how to apply them to landscape restoration. In the MOOC we illustrate every step of the process by zooming in on 3 landscape situations: restoring the volcanic Hekluskogar area in Iceland, crop diversification in southern Spain, and the challenges of recovering from forest fires in Portugal.

This new MOOC builds upon ENABLE’s first MOOC, setting focus on the potential for a positive role of business model innovation for landscape restoration, highlighting the following elements: vision formulation, systems analysis, stakeholder analysis, opportunity analysis, business model design, solution validation, assessment and monitoring, and reflection and iteration.

Contributions from CEBAS-CSIC staff come from Joris de Vente and Carolina Boix Fayos. External parties who contributed to the MOOC are WWF’s Landscape Finance Lab, the Natural Capital Coalition (NCC), Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP), and many more.

Project leader Eva Rood says: “What all of the partners of the ENABLE consortium realise is that we need to join forces in order to figure out the approach for this wicked problem of land degradation. It’s a typical problem where ecology and economy need each other and this is where the four returns models comes in. So we are trying to jointly come up with models that deliver the financial, social, natural return and return of inspiration instead of only financial capital or only natural capital.”

For more information, see the ENABLE website, and its Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

TEASER VIDEO:

Education, Students

High school students obtain research experience within the Diverfarming project at CEBAS-CSIC

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The EU funded DIVERFARMING project (Crop Diversification for products and ecosystem services, H2020 program of the EC) is collaborating with the educational project of the Region of Murcia IDIES (I+D in Secondary Education)

CEBAS-CSIC is a partner of DIVERFARMING and hosts three students of the high school “Salvador Sandoval” from Torres de Cotillas (Murcia). During the entire academic year these students take a special research introduction course during which they will be researching soil properties and soil erosion in irrigated citrus and rainfed almond plantations at DIVERFARMING field site in the Region of Murcia.

Dr. María Martínez-Mena and Dr. Elvira Díaz Pereira coordinate this work while the students also collaborate with Bram Koning, a Master student of the University of Wageningen (the Netherlands) who is developing his Master thesis in the same field site. A stimulating experience for all in the framework of an ongoing research project!

The pictures give an impression of the students and researchers starting field work in heavily eroded traditional terraced terrains of rainfed almond plantations (photo 1), recently levelled new almond plantations (photo 2 and 3) and irrigated citrus trees (photo 4 and 5).

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Education, Students

Se busca candidato/a para solicitar una beca FPI de la Fundación Séneca

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Se busca una persona interesada en realizar una Tesis Doctoral sobre los impactos a medio plazo (6-7 años) del cambio climático sobre la vegetación, la microbiota edáfica y la materia orgánica del suelo de ecosistemas de matorrales mediterráneos semiáridos, mediante experimentos manipulativos en campo con alto nivel de replicación. Esta propuesta de tesis se enmarca dentro del proyecto de investigación del Plan Nacional Retos de la Sociedad titulado “Alteraciones en la estequiometria y productividad primaria de matorrales semiáridos en respuesta al cambio climático”. El solicitante llevaría a cabo la tesis en tres sitios experimentales de campo donde se manipulan las condiciones climáticas de precipitación y temperatura para simular escenarios futuros de cambio climático en comunidades de matorrales semiáridos en la región Mediterránea desde 2011. El proyecto de investigación incluye múltiples aspectos (centrados en evaluar las respuestas de plantas, microbiota edáfica, suelo y sus interacciones) y se anima a los candidatos a proponer, en base a sus intereses, nuevos experimentos y enfoques.

La tesis se llevaría a cabo en el Departamento de Conservación de Suelos y Agua y manejo de residuos orgánicos del CEBAS (CSIC) en Murcia con trabajo de campo en comunidades de matorral de Sorbas (Almería), Aranjuez (Madrid) y Sax (Alicante).

Según establece la convocatoria los solicitantes deberán tener el grado o licenciatura en el área de Ciencias con fecha de titulación posterior al 1 de Enero de 2012, estén preinscritas, hayan sido admitidas o se encuentren matriculadas en un programa de doctorado en el curso 2017/2018 en algunas de las universidades de la Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia y una nota media del expediente académico superior a 7,50. Los solicitantes deberán tener vecindad administrativa en un municipio de la Región de Murcia al menos desde el 1 de enero de 2016, haber nacido en la Región de Murcia o quienes acrediten a esa fecha haber cursado 300 créditos entre estudios universitarios y máster en una universidad de la Región de Murcia.

Los interesados pueden contactar por email enviando sus expresiones de interés, Curriculum Vitae y la nota de expediente académico.

Plazo de presentación: 18 de Octubre al 14 de Noviembre (14h).

Más información sobre la convocatoria: aqui.

Contacto:

Nacho Querejeta

Iván Prieto Aguilar (+34 968 39 62 00 Ext: 6394)

Education

MOOC Landscape Restoration for Sustainable Development: a Business Approach

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On 1th May a new Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) was launched on the Coursera platform entitled ‘Landscape Restoration for Sustainable Development: a Business Approach’.
Our group participates in the development of this free online course as one of the partners of the ENABLE project within the European ‘ERASMUS+ Strategic partnerships’ program.
The European Network for Advancement of Business and Landscape Education (ENABLE) develops education on integrated landscape management based on sustainable business models. In the MOOC you will learn WHAT land degradation is, HOW it can be reversed, and WHO can grasp the opportunity. It is aimed at business students, professionals as well as anyone with an interest in business-driven landscape restoration.
The course offers learners comprehensive knowledge of landscape degradation and landscape restoration from an integrated perspective, including natural and social sciences, economics and business administration.

The course program covers diverse topics such as:

  • Land degradation and restoration of degraded ecosystems
  • Economics of land degradation and sustainable land management
  • Practical examples of Commonland restoration projects
  • Wicked problems and multi-stakeholder partnerships
  • How to design a sustainable business model?
  • Practical example of landscape restoration for sustainable development: a business approach for southeastern Spain.

More information:

Vídeo presentation:

Education, Students

Se busca candidata/os a beca FPU

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Se busca candidato/as para hacer la tesis doctoral con una beca FPU en los siguientes temas:

Tema 1: El potencial del manejo agrícola sostenible en secano como proveedor de servicios ecosistémicos clave (Contacto María Martínez-Mena / Elvira Díaz Pereira).

Tema 2: Procesos de transporte y estabilización de carbono en sistemas fluviales mediterráneos. Importancia en los servicios ecosistémicos y en la mitigación del Cambio Climático (Contacto Carolina Boix-Fayos).

Tema 3: Efectos del cambio climático en la vegetación, microbiota y Carbono del suelo en matorrales semiáridos (Contacto Nacho Querejeta y Iván Prieto)

Interesado/as contactad con la persona de contacto antes del día 20 de Enero. 20140227_123600

Requisitos:

  • Haber finalizado los estudios de grado o licenciado después del 1 de enero de 2013.
  • Estar matriculado en un programa de doctorado en el curso 2016-2017. O acreditar que posee título de master o estar matriculado en el curso 2016-2017 en un master universitario oficial que de acceso a un programa de doctorado en el curso 2017-18.
  • Expediente académico: nota media mínima: 8 para grado; 8.30 para master.

Otros: ver detalles en convocatoria

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Education, Guests, Research project, Students

MSc thesis KU Leuven students

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Recently  two students of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KULeuven, Belgium) performed their MSc thesis research in the Upper Taibilla catchment in collaboration with researchers from our group.

Both students now successfully presented their MSc thesis with the following titles:

Wim Verhoeven: Hill slope dynamics in a first order Mediterranean river catchment: Comparing long-term vs short-term erosion rates.

Noël Ghammachi: Soil carbon dynamics in a Mediterranean catchment. Assessing the influence of erosion and deposition on carbon sequestration.

MSc supervisors were G. Govers (KULeuven), C. Boix-Fayos & J. de Vente (CEBAS-CSIC). They were further assisted by B. Campforts and M. Van de Broek (mentors KULeuven) and P. Cutillas (CEBAS-CSIC).

The students performed intensive fieldwork during the summer of 2015 that included soil and deep sediment sampling after which they applied a range of state-of-the-art techniques to determine the sediments age, erosion rates, soil organic carbon stability, and assess the long-term human impact on soil erosion and carbon sequestration.

Congratulations Wim and Noële!

Education, Guests, Students

MSc. degree Maria Francesca Cataldo

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The 10th of March Maria Francesca Cataldo received her MSc degree with the maximum qualification for her MSc thesis entitled:

ANALYTICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE HYDROLOGICAL RESPONSE OF SEMI-ARID BASINS IN SOUTH-EAST SPAIN.

Her supervisors were: Dr. Demetrio Antonio Zema, Dra. Carolina Boix Fayos and Dr. Giuseppe Bombino.

Francesca studied at the University of Mediterranean Studies of Reggio Calabria (Italy) and worked at our group on her MSc thesis between September 2015 and February 2016 supported by an Erasmus + fellowship. Her research analyses the hydrological response of a nested catchment in the Upper Segura River at different temporal scales.

The master thesis was developed between de Department of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Reggio Calabria and the Department of Soil and Water Conservation of CEBAS-CSIC.

Congratulations Francesca!

Colloquium/symposium, Education

Charla online sobre agua y suelo

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La exposición “La esfera del Agua” del CSIC ha estado presente en la Semana de la Ciencia en el colegio franciscano de “La Inmaculada” de Cartagena. Como apoyo a la exposición hubo varias charlas dos de ellas ofrecidas por investigadores del CSIC, entre ellos Carolina Boix Fayos del grupo de Erosión y Conservación de Suelos y Aguas del CEBAS.

Aqui puedes ver la noticia completa en el blog del cebas y los enlaces a las conferencias completas online.

Esfera_agua_portada Portada_charla_franciscanos