Assessing direct and indirect drivers of biodiversity decline of invertebrates

Expected Outcome:

Proposals are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes:

• stakeholders involved in biodiversity conservation and restoration activities have an improved understanding of how direct and indirect drivers[1] of biodiversity decline work, considering spatial and temporal scales and dynamics, and their interactions;
• the implementation at different spatial and temporal scales of the EU biodiversity policies and legislation, notably the Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR) is improved, enabling the prioritisation of actions and the identification of systemic solutions;
• stakeholders, including primary producers, whose business models rely on ecosystem services are better equipped to take strategic decisions that support biodiversity, thereby increasing opportunities while reducing their exposure to risks linked to the decline of these services.

Scope:

Biodiversity decline has rippling effects on climate, economy, and human well-being. Focusing on representative groups of invertebrates (including insects, molluscs and crustaceans and, in particular, understudied taxonomic groups) across representative European terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems, is crucial for developing effective biodiversity conservation strategies since they are the foundation for healthy ecosystems and their decline has cascading impacts on ecosystem health and services. Understanding the relative impact of the aforementioned drivers at different spatial (from local to global) and temporal (from immediate to long-term) scales and dynamics, is needed to develop effective and coherent biodiversity protection and restoration strategies to implement the EU Nature Restoration Regulation[2] while building a resilient competitive economy.

Proposals should:

Trimmed here, the full scope, expected outcomes and award criteria are on the official topic page ↗.