BC3. Basque centre for climate change – Klima aldaketa ikergai

This trend has perpetuated the loss of both plant and animal biodiversity and the proliferation of forest diseases and fires, along with important losses of soil functioning, soil biodiversity, and soil organic matter (soil erosion), which have increased in the incidence of floods and landslides. The ATLANTIS coordinated project aims to develop the knowledge to reverse these current trends that cast doubt on the long-term soil conservation of the Iberian Atlantic Forests, the stability of these forest ecosystems, and their sustainable provision of key ecosystem services. The overall aim of ATLANTIS is to secure a future sustainable provision of ecosystem services from Iberian Atlantic Forests by stimulating soil-smart forestry (SSF) practices and develop early vulnerability diagnosis tools to optimize the long-term conservation of forest soils and forest stability. Looking ahead of the future challenges that the Atlantic forest of the Iberian Peninsula will be facing, the overall aims of the two sub-projects that conform ATLANTIS will be: to stimulate the implementation of soil-smart forestry (SSF) practices aiming to improve the long-term stability and long-term mitigation capacity of currently threatened Atlantic Iberian Forests (SMARTSOIL) and to develop early-integrated tool arrays for detecting health transitions in the context of current versus sustainable forestry practices in the face of climate-change effects (SMARTHEALTH). By studying indicators of soil health (e.g. soil organic matter, soil physical and hydraulic properties, soil functioning, and soil biodiversity), of tree physiological health (e.g. secondary growth, defoliation, leaf ecometabolites, fine root biomass and traits, leaf traits and physiological responses), and of ecosystem health (e.g. regeneration, productivity, soil attributes, functional ecosystem attributes), on a broad spectrum of forests and forestry practices and under drought simulation, ATLANTIS will provide academy and forestry with holistic solutions to achieve sustainable forests and sustainable ecosystem services provision. The coordination between the research groups of the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3; Subproyect-1, SMARTSOIL) and the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU-Subproyect-2, SMARTHEALTH) brings all the expertise needed and it will be essential to successfully fulfill the general aim of the project proposal. These two highly multidisciplinary sub-projects will be enriched with the complementary experience of international experts in different disciplines of knowledge such as dendrochronology, forests science, remote sensing, cheminformatics, plant volatiles, microbial ecology or social conservation. A further aim of ATLANTIS is to have a direct societal impact and engage end-users. Hence, ATLANTIS will stablish a dialogue with local forest owners and the forestry sector to co-create soil-smart forest (SSF) management practices and disturbance risk management tools which will be hopefully translated into future management plans as well as national management policies.

JORGE CURIEL YUSTE
MARIA JOSE SANZ SANCHEZ
CÉLINE PASCALE CLAIRE MOREAUX
FRANCISCO SAN MIGUEL OTI