Biodiversity conservation

Objectives

The maintenance and conservation of carbon dioxide absorption by terrestrial and marine ecosystems are essential to regulate the increase in the average temperature of planet Earth. Global change and increasing human pressures on natural habitats are causing the progressive reduction of global biodiversity and the increase in spices extinction rates.
 

 

The aim is to mitigate these consequences by analysing the ecological and social aspects of sustainability focusing on the use and management of biodiversity elements, populations and human societies ecosystems.  

 

We work on the monitoring and functional study of population, ecosystems and biodiversity. We also analyse the anthropogenic impacts on natural systems and develop applied conservation projects which can be aimed at species, ecosystems, and the design of management strategies and plans.  

Areas of expertise

Conservation Biology; population ecology; communities and ecosystems; ethnobiology; systematics and evolution; conservation genetics; ecology of climate change and global change; management and monitoring of population and protected areas.  

Research Lines

  • Adaptations to environmental hypoxia and the use of simulated hypoxia in the field of health. 
  • Dynamics of bat populations and the dynamics of the viruses with zoonotic potential.  
  • Fire ecology (study of the impacts of forest fires on Mediterranean ecosystems and the study of these systems vulnerabilities), post-fire ecological restoration and modelling of forest fires.  
  • Fluvial ecology. Effects of global change on river functioning and communities.  
  • Ecotoxicology, effect of emerging toxicants on the biodiversity of aquatic organisms.  
  • Study of biodiversity in its various taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic facets, with the aim of understanding every aspect from its generation and maintenance to its functions in ecosystems and its response to the different factors of global change.  
  • Study of the impacts of climate change and different types of management on soil biodiversity and functionality, as well as cascading effects on the delivery of ecosystem services.  
  • Study of in-land fish: phenotypic, plasticity and biological strategies, ecology and behaviour. 
  • Comprehensive studies of Mediterranean cultural landscapes. Contrast between conventional and organic agricultural management.  
  • Ethnobotany (links between human societies and plants, traditional knowledge and management of plant biodiversity).  
  • Geomatics (GIS, remote sensing) and modelling in order to formulate adaptive restoration or forest management proposals under climate change.  
  • Impacts of human activity on animals combining knowledge of physiology, ecology and veterinary medicine.  
  • Protistology and aquatic systems, biological wastewater treatment, bioindication in wastewater treatment ichthyoparasitology.  
  • Environmental awareness of the local population in relation to the need to conserve and restore the most vulnerable ecosystems in relation to the effect of global warming.  
  • Systematics and evolution of plants with cytogenetic approaches.  

Coordination

 
Jofre Carnicer  has been a professor of Ecology and author of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) since 2018. His research focuses on the impact of climate change on Mediterranean ecosystems, especially forest response, plant-animal interactions, and ecosystem services. As one of the authors of the IPCC, he contributed to the 6th Assessment Report (Working Group II, 2022) which globally examines the effect of climate change on ecosystems, society, environmental risks and sustainable adaptation. He is a member of the National Climate Council (CNC) and a lecturer at the University of Barcelona, where he teaches on climate change, protected area management, and sustainable development. Carnicer is a member of the Research Group on Teaching Innovation in Ecology and Global Change (GIDEC) at the UB.  
 

Contact jofre.carnicer@ub.edu​​​​​​​​​​​​​


Joan Vallès is a full professor of Botany at the University of Barcelona, holds a PhD in Pharmacy (Botany) and a degree in Catalan Philology. He is a member of the Academic Committee of the interuniversity doctoral programme in Biodiversity (UB and UAB). His two main lines of research deal with the systematics and evolution of plants with cytogenetic approaches, and ethnobotany, he also coordinates a research group on these topics (www.etnobiofic.cat). As coordinator of the Consolidated Research Group on Plant Biodiversity and Biosystematics (GreB), he focuses his research on the systematics and evolution of plants using cytogenetic approaches, and on ethnobotany. He also directs the Plant Biodiversity Documentation Centre at the UB and is a full member of the Biological Sciences Section of the Catalan Studies Institute.  
 
​​​​​Contact joanvalles@ub.edu