Since 2005, I have participated in the following research projects (you can find a complete list of the projects in which I participated in my curriculum)
Title: Agro-ecosystem diversification: digging deeper.
Funding Agency: Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Horizon 2020 ERA-NET COFUND scheme (BIODIVERSA 3 call).
Duration: 01/12/2016 – 31/11/2018
Principal investigator: Dr. Fernando T. Maestre
Objectives:
- Quantify the impact of agricultural practices on soil communities and ecosystem services.
- Determine the role of soil diversity and biological interactions for multifunctionality of European agroecosystems.
- Assess the impacts of climate change on the provision of ecosystem services by agroecosystems from different climatic zones, management practices and soil biodiversity levels.
- Identify innovative land management practices that maximize the delivery of multiple ecosystem services delivered by soil biota.
Title: Biological feedbacks and ecosystem resilience under global change: a new perspective on dryland desertification (BIODESERT).
Funding Agency: European Research Council-Consolidator Grants
Duration: 01/01/2016 – 31/12/2020
Principal investigator: Dr. Fernando T. Maestre
Objectives:
- To test how changes in climate and grazing pressure determine spatiotemporal patterns in multifunctionality in global drylands.
- To assess how biotic attributes modulate ecosystem resilience to climate change and grazing pressure at multiple spatial scales (from local to global).
- To test and develop early warning indicators for the onset of desertification.
- To forecast the onset of desertification and its ecological consequences under different climate and grazing scenarios.
Funding Agency: European Research Council-Starting Grants
Duration: 15/01/2010 – 31/12/2014
Principal investigator: Dr. Fernando T. Maestre
Objectives:
- Evaluate the relative importance of community attributes as drivers of ecosystem functioning using multiple communities and a combination of manipulative field, natural and common garden experiments.
- Assess how multiple global change drivers will affect key ecosystem processes.
- Test whether global change drivers modify observed community attributes-ecosystem functioning relationships.
- Develop models to forecast global change effects on ecosystem functioning in drylands.
- Set up protocols for the establishment of effective mitigation actions.
Title: Effects of multiple global change drivers on biological soil crust structure and functioning.
Funding Agency: British Ecological Society
Duration: April 2008 – April 2011
Principal investigator: Dr. Fernando T. Maestre
Objectives:
- Assess how multiple global change drivers (temperature, nutrient availability and precipitation) will affect above- and belowground biotic communities and key ecosystem processes depending on them.
- Evaluate the importance of community attributes as modulators of ecosystem responses to global change.
- Test whether global change drivers modify observed community attributes-ecosystem functioning relationships.
Title: Plant-plant interactions and ecosystem functioning under globla change (INTERCAMBIO).
Funding Agency: BBVA Foundation
Duration: September 2007- September 2010
Principal Investigator: Fernando T. Maestre.
Objectives:
- Advance in our knowledge of the relationships between ecosystem structure and functioning in semi-arid and high mountain Mediterranean ecosystems.
- Test the role of facilitation among vascular plants as a driver of ecosystem structure and functioning.
- Using facilitation among vascular plants to improve ecosystem restoration and biodiversity conservation in semi-arid and high mountain Mediterranean ecosystems.
Title: Assessment of ecosystem processes in semiarid environments as a tool to mitigate global change impacts (EPES).
Funding Agency: CYTED
Duration: January 2007- January 2010
Principal investigator: Dr. Adrián Escudero.
Objective: Test the relationships between ecosystem structure and functioning in key semiarid ecosystems of Spain and Latin America.
Title: Effects of abiotic stress in Mediterranean environments at different organization levels: a tool to predict climate change impacts (EXTREM).
Funding Agency: Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia
Duration: January 2007- January 2010
Principal Investigator: Dr. Adrián Escudero.
Other researchers (URJC): Ana Sánchez, Txema Iriondo, Cristina Fernández, Luis Jiménez, Arantzazu López de Luzuriaga.
Objectives:
- Test the role of local adaptation as an adaptative response to climate change.
- Evaluate the role of abiotic stress on the demography of plants in semi-arid and high mountain Mediterranean ecosystems.
- Test the effect of abiotic stress on plant-plant and plant-animal interactions.
Title: Experimental basis for the ecological sustainability of highway road slopes (EXPERTAL).
Funding Agency: Ferrovial, Fundación Biodiversidad, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos y CSIC
Duration: January 2007- January 2010
Principal Investigator: Dr. Fernando Valladares y Dr. Adrián Escudero.
Other researchers: Santiago Soliveres y Pablo García
Objectives:
- Advance in our knowledge of the relationships between ecosystem structure and functioning in highway road slopes.
- Establish ecologically sound measures to restore highway road slopes.
Title: Testing the effects of biodiversity and spatial pattern on ecosystem functioning: An experimental approach using biological soil crusts (SPABIOCRUST).
Funding Agency: British Ecological Society
Duration: May 2006- August 2008
Principal Investigator: Dr. Fernando T. Maestre
Objectives:
- Test, using a combination of manipulative common garden experiments and field observations, if the diversity and spatial pattern of biological soil crust communities determine ecosystem functioning in semi-arid gypsum environments.
- Evaluate the relative importance of different biodiversity components (species richness, species composition and species evenness) and spatial pattern as drivers of ecosystem responses.
Title: Ecosystem processes in Mediterranean steppes: relationships between composition, structure and function (CEFEMED).
Funding Agency: Comunidad de Madrid (Spain).
Duration: January 2006- January 2007
Principal Investigator: Dr. Fernando T. Maestre
Objectives: Test the relative importance of vegetation, biological soil crusts and soil microorganisms as drivers of ecosystem functioning in semiarid Mediterranean steppes.
Title: Research Network on Ecological Restoration in Madrid (REMEDINAL).
Funding Agency: Comunidad de Madrid (Spain).
Duration: January 2006- January 2010
Principal Investigator: Dr. Adrián Escudero.
Objectives: Network of research groups on ecological restoration in the Community of Madrid.
Title: Indicators of success in the restoration of Mediterranean ecosystems (INDEX).
Funding Agency: Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología (Spain).
Duration: December 2005- December 2008
Principal Investigator: Dr. Susana Bautista.
Objectives: Test the factors driving the success of restoration projects in semiarid areas of Spain.
