The BEC Group develops and applies state-of-the art ecological knowledge, methods, and tools to understand ecosystem functioning, biodiversity change, and feedbacks in coupled social-economic-ecological systems. We use this knowledge to develop management options to achieve biodiversity and sustainability goals
The BEC group is the institute’s hub of applied ecology and conservation research. The group provides the needed ecological and conservation insights to help IIASA promote institutional, demographic, behavioral, technological, social, and economic changes that achieve development goals sustainably.
The group’s key research areas include:
- Ecological responses to natural and anthropogenic drivers of change, for example, land and water management and climate change.
- How to prioritize conservation efforts to maximize positive impacts at scales from local to global (e.g., habitat restoration and conservation, and species management plans).
- How species and ecosystems contribute to selected ecosystem services and human wellbeing.
Projects
Designing a resilient and coherent Trans-European Network for Nature and People (NaturaConnect)
European Union Biodiversity and Climate strategies Assessment (EU BIOCLIMA)
fairSTREAM
Resilience of Ecosystem Services provided by Intact and Sustainably managed Terrestrial ecosystems (RESIST)
Staff
Juliette Martin
Research Scholar (BEC, EQU)
Matthew Lewis
Researcher (BEC)
Jutta Beher
Research Scholar (BEC)
Piero Visconti
Research Group Leader and Senior Research Scholar (BEC)
News
29 November 2022
New global targets for protecting and restoring nature can help tackle climate change
IIASA researchers contributed to a recent report published by the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) calling for coordinated action on climate change and nature loss.
15 November 2022
IIASA researchers once again among the world’s most highly cited
IIASA is proud to announce that 11 researchers from across various IIASA programs have been named on the 2022 Highly Cited Researchers™ list from Clarivate.
10 November 2022
Protecting and connecting nature across Europe
Europe needs healthy ecosystems that benefit biodiversity and people and are resilient to climate change. The Horizon Europe NaturaConnect Project will support European Union governments and other public and private institutions in designing a coherent, resilient and well-connected Trans-European Nature Network.
Focus
16 December 2022
100 times around the world: why you should bike to work
Florian Hofhansl reports on the IIASA Social and Cultural Association (SOCU)’s participation in the 2022 edition of the Lower Austria cycling initiative – Niederösterreich radelt.
20 September 2022
Achieving socio-ecological resilience in the Anthropocene: opportunities and challenges
Florian Hofhansl writes about an upcoming IIASA research initiative and its successful inauguration at a recent conference of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation.
28 January 2022
Effective management matters to protect Europe’s water birds in the face of climate change
New research suggests that the effective management of protected areas in Europe can help to advance the range shifts of wintering water birds toward the north as the climate warms.
Publications
Schaap, K.J., Fuchslueger, L., Quesada, C.A., Hofhansl, F. , Valverde-Barrantes, O., Camargo, P.B., & Hoosbeek, M.R. (2023). Seasonal fluctuations of extracellular enzyme activities are related to the biogeochemical cycling of C, N and P in a tropical terra-firme forest. Biogeochemistry 10.1007/s10533-022-01009-4.
Howlett, K., Lee, H.‐Y., Jaffé, A., Lewis, M. , & Turner, E.C. (2023). Wildlife documentaries present a diverse, but biased, portrayal of the natural world. People and Nature 10.1002/pan3.10431. (In Press)
Jellesmark, S., Ausden, M., Blackburn, T.M., Hoffmann, M., McRae, L., Visconti, P., & Gregory, R.D. (2023). The effect of conservation interventions on the abundance of breeding waders within nature reserves in the United Kingdom. Ibis 165 (1) 69-81. 10.1111/ibi.13106.
McCrea, R., King, R., Graham, L., & Börger, L. (2023). Realising the promise of large data and complex models. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 14 (1) 4-11. 10.1111/2041-210X.14050.
Sperling, F., Havlik, P. , Denis, M., Valin, H. , Palazzo, A. , Gaupp, F., & Visconti, P. (2022). Toward resilient food systems after COVID-19. Current Research in Environmental Sustainability 4 e100110. 10.1016/j.crsust.2021.100110.
Leadley, P., Obura, D., Archer, E., Costello, M.J., Dávalos, L.M., Essl, F., Hansen, A., Hashimoto, S., Leclere, D., Mori, A.S., Nicholson, E., Purvis, A., Rondinini, C., Shannon, L., Shen, X., Turak, E., Verburg, P.H., & Visconti, P. (2022). Actions needed to achieve ambitious objectives of net gains in natural ecosystem area by 2030 and beyond. PLOS Sustainability and Transformation 1 (12) e0000040. 10.1371/journal.pstr.0000040.
Noll, L., Zhang, S., Zheng, Q., Hu, Y., Hofhansl, F. , & Wanek, W. (2022). Climate and geology overwrite land use effects on soil organic nitrogen cycling on a continental scale. Biogeosciences 19 (23) 5419-5433. 10.5194/bg-2022-41.
Joshi, J., Stocker, B.D., Hofhansl, F. , Zhou, S., Dieckmann, U , & Prentice, I.C. (2022). Towards a unified theory of plant photosynthesis and hydraulics. Nature Plants 10.1038/s41477-022-01244-5.
Nogué, S., de Nascimento, L., Graham, L., Brown, L.A., González, L.A.G., Castilla‐Beltrán, A., Peñuelas, J., Fernández‐Palacios, J.M., & Willis, K.J. (2022). The spatiotemporal distribution of pollen traits related to dispersal and desiccation tolerance in Canarian laurel forest. Journal of Vegetation Science 33 (5) e13147. 10.1111/jvs.13147.
Jung, M. (2022). Predictability and transferability of local biodiversity environment relationships. PeerJ 10 e13872. 10.7717/peerj.13872.