Research
Research
ReDiLEEP research will address how response diversity contributes to ecological stability, resilience, functioning, sustainability, and restoration.
Research Structure
The research is composed of three interlinked work packages (WPs) and 13 doctoral projects (DCs). The WPs are designed to address the overarching research questions of the network, while the DCs provide focused research on specific aspects of response diversity. The WPs and DCs are interconnected, with each DC contributing to one or more WPs.
Research Work Packages
WP1: Measuring response diversity
Lead: CarU
Develop robust scalable methods for accurately measuring response diversity across ecosystems using non-invasive monitoring experiments theory synthesis and policy analysis.
Task 1.1 non-invasive spatial and temporal monitoring; Task 1.2 experimental setups and analysis pipelines; Task 1.3 interdisciplinary theoretical and analytical frameworks.
WP2: The significance of response diversity for stability
Lead: UNamur
Investigate how response diversity enhances ecological stability across ecosystems and contributes to ecosystem function restoration and sustainability policy.
Task 2.1 mechanisms linking RD and stability; Task 2.2 relative importance of RD compared with other drivers; Task 2.3 practical applications for restoration and socio-ecological sustainability.
WP3: The fate of response diversity under environmental change
Lead: UOL
Investigate how intrinsic drivers such as biotic interactions and extrinsic drivers such as environmental and anthropogenic disturbances shape response diversity.
Task 3.1 biotic interactions and network structure; Task 3.2 chronic press disturbances; Task 3.3 intense pulse disturbances.
Doctoral Projects
DC1, LiU: How structural patterns of species interactions affect response diversity
Explores how ecological network structure and response diversity groups affect ecosystem resilience.
Focus: Community detection; ecological network simulations; generated and empirical network data; interactive visualisation.
DC2, LiU: Using soundscapes to reveal how species interaction networks shape response diversity
Uses acoustic monitoring to infer species interactions and test how biotic and abiotic drivers shape response diversity.
Focus: AI pipelines for acoustic recordings; interaction networks; urbanisation gradients; typhoon disturbance data from OIST.
DC3, UOL: The effect and fate of response diversity under environmental change
Tests how phytoplankton response diversity stabilises biomass production and changes under press and pulse warming.
Focus: Thermal reaction norms; metacommunity experiments; heatwaves; legacy effects in plankton communities.
DC4, CarU: How can we measure response diversity at scale across taxa?
Develops field technologies and methods for monitoring response diversity across taxa in managed and unmanaged ecosystems.
Focus: Camera and acoustic sensor arrays; disturbance monitoring; restoration monitoring; comparison with biodiversity credit metrics.
DC5, CarU: Do biotic interactions homogenise responses and reduce response diversity?
Tests how facilitation competition predation and parasitism shape organismal responses and response diversity in freshwater communities.
Focus: Microcosm and mesocosm experiments; multi-species assemblages; temperature treatments; direct and indirect interactions.
DC6, UNamur: A general theory of response diversity effects on stability and coexistence
Develops theory linking response diversity mean response temporal stability and coexistence across environmental drivers.
Focus: Community model structures; parameter databases; Lotka-Volterra and consumer-resource models; simulations across dynamical regimes.
DC7, UNamur: Mean response and response diversity predict impact across environmental contexts
Tests whether response diversity and mean response predict ecological impacts across drivers timescales and ecosystem types.
Focus: Single-species bioassays; algae and protist microcosms; pulse and press disturbances; statistical models.
DC8, CSIC: Disruption of compensatory dynamics under extreme climatic events
Assesses how extreme climatic events disrupt compensatory dynamics and vegetation stability across scales.
Focus: Long-term vegetation and trait data; phenology and abundance; climatic extremes; compensatory dynamics.
DC9, UH: Boreal forest and tundra plant communities under environmental change
Studies response diversity and stability in boreal forest and tundra plant communities along environmental gradients.
Focus: Functional traits; tundra and boreal field systems; remote sensing; environmental change gradients.
DC10, SwanU: Restoration following co-invasion by alien plant species
Investigates how response diversity among co-invading alien plants affects persistence restoration and management outcomes.
Focus: Greenhouse and field experiments; co-invasion dynamics; contaminated post-industrial landscapes; restoration applications.
DC11, UZH: Integrating response diversity into policy
Analyses how response diversity concepts and indicators can be integrated into policy and monitoring frameworks.
Focus: Policy document analysis; biodiversity monitoring; nature restoration policy; policy briefs.
DC12, UZH: Opportunities and barriers for response-diversity-enabled policy
Explores trade-offs barriers and opportunities for using response diversity in sustainability policy and decision-making.
Focus: Agent-based models; socio-economic trade-offs; corporate sustainability reporting; policy implementation barriers.
DC13, Monash: Physiological basis and consequences of response diversity
Tests how physiological responses underpin response diversity and ecological stability in marine phytoplankton.
Focus: Phytoplankton experiments; thermal physiology; community assembly; response and effect traits; mechanistic models.