
Understanding and predicting environmental change in northern rivers: biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in a changing climate
Project description
Strategic research project of the University of Oulu
Focus institute: Kvantum
Faculty: Science
The project has three focus areas: (i) What are the likely effects of climate change on stream invertebrate diversity across multiple spatial scales (α, β and γ diversity)? (ii) Do land-use disturbances modify the responses of stream biodiversity and ecosystem functioning to climate change? (iii) Does diversity beget stability to stream communities? Each subproject will include both large-scale correlative surveys and mesocosm experiments.
The research group is focusing on different aspects of community ecology of stream and groundwater-dependent ecosystems.
Key words: biodiversity change, boreal streams, climate change, community variability, land-use impacts