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Publication

Special Issue “Modelling and Monitoring the Effectiveness of Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Change Adaptation”

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We invite you to submit a paper to the Special Issue “Modelling and Monitoring the Effectiveness of Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Change Adaptation” in the journal Water. Climate change is expected to have a significant impact on many ecosystem services affecting livelihoods and human well-being worldwide. Adaptation measures are required to secure food production and freshwater availability for the growing global population and increase our resilience to more extreme hydro-meteorological climate events (floods, droughts, landslides, forest fires). There is a growing recognition that NBS can provide cost-effective and sustainable alternatives to hard engineering or grey infrastructures to adapt to future climate conditions considering a range of ecosystem services. NBS include but are not limited to approaches based on Sustainable Land Management, Conservation Agriculture, Green Infrastructures, Community Based Adaptation, and Integrated River Basin Management.

We welcome modelling and monitoring studies assessing the impacts of NBS on hydrology, soil erosion, diffuse pollution, vegetation development, forest fires, ecosystem services, and studies performing cost-benefit analysis of NBS. We especially encourage contributions combining on-site (e.g. soil moisture, plant water stress, soil erosion) and off-site impacts (e.g. flood frequency, water availability, sediment yield) of NBS, and studies evaluating the effectiveness of NBS under past, present, and future climate conditions. We also welcome large-scale monitoring studies and assessments of the effectiveness of NBS using remote sensing technologies. We are interested in experiences with participatory monitoring and modelling to support the upscaling and co-creation of NBS best fit to local conditions.

Click here for more info and to submit a contribution to this special issue.

Publication, Research project

UNCCD COP13: decisions, new report and policy brief on SLM

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Over the last 2 weeks (6-17 September), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) organized its Conference of the Parties (COP13) in Ordos (China). During this bi-annual meeting a series of decisions were taken emphasizing the importance of implementing Sustainable Land Management (SLM) practices to deal with problems related to desertification, land degradation and drought as well climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The decisions include recommendations towards the country representatives to:

  • Consider the use of locally adapted SLM practices to contribute to prevent, reduce and reverse land degradation, while also contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation objectives.
  • Overcome potential barriers for large scale implementation of SLM practices through:
    1. integration of SLM practices in land use planning,
    2. development of economic incentives form SLM implementation
    3. improving land tenure security,
    4. organizing capacity-building at all relevant levels of decision-making.
  • Institutionalize meaningful stakeholder engagement throughout the planning, implementation and monitoring phases of SLM strategies.

The COP decisions are based upon a new study and recommendations made by the Science-Policy Interface (SPI) of the UNCCD that can be downloaded here and here.

Dr. Joris de Vente, researcher at our group and member of the SPI, was one of the coordinating authors of the report that was developed in collaboration with ‘BC3 Basque Centre for Climate Change’, and of the related Science-Policy Brief (SLM for climate and people) that can be downloaded here.

Publication

Free access to a new paper in Soil Biology and Biochemistry

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A new paper was published by our group on soil organic carbon dynamics following afforestation of semiarid shrublands.

Paper highlights:

  • Afforestation with Pinus halepensis promoted soil C sequestration.
  • Afforestation led to long-term changes in fungal but not in bacterial populations.
  • Changes in soil C pools and fungal taxa increased soil aggregation and C stocks.
  • Soil organic carbon was stabilized in microaggregates whithin macroaggregates.
  • Physical-chemical stabilization of OC is a key aspect to maintaining soil C stocks.

The paper will freely available for 50 days from here.

Publication

Free access to a new paper in Catena

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A new paper published by members of our group discusses the influence of catchment morphology, lithology and land use on soil organic carbon export in a Mediterranean mountain region.

Paper highlights:

  • Lithology and morphometric factors control total Carbon export through soil erosion.
  • Large forest cover leads to higher Carbon concentration in sediments but not to higher Carbon export.
  • Morphometric factors are associated with higher variability of Carbon concentration in sediments.

The paper will freely available for 50 days from here.