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.
Models, tools, datasets
Integrated model for BiodIversity distribution projectionS (ibis.iSDM)
Plant Functional Acclimation and Trait Evolution (PlantFATE)
Projects
Designing a resilient and coherent Trans-European Network for Nature and People (NaturaConnect)
European Union Biodiversity and Climate strategies Assessment (BIOCLIMA)
fairSTREAM
Resilience of Ecosystem Services provided by Intact and Sustainably managed Terrestrial ecosystems (RESIST)
Staff
Elisa Stefaniak
Research Scholar (BEC)
Shipra Singh
IIASA Postdoctoral Fellow (EM, BEC, CDAT)
Florian Hofhansl
Research Scholar (NODES, BEC)
Carla Freund
Project Officer (BEC)
News
05 November 2024
How ecosystem restoration benefits national policies
IIASA scientists show that preserving ecosystems and fostering socioeconomic development is not a trade-off. On the contrary, an integrated approach is beneficial to national policies. We share examples from India, Brazil, and Indonesia.
30 October 2024
Three pathways to achieve global climate and sustainable development goals
Sustainable lifestyles, green-tech innovation, and government-led transformation each offer promising routes to make significant progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), to which IIASA scientists contributed. Contrary to the belief that the path to sustainable development is increasingly out of reach, the results show that humankind has a variety of pathways to depart from its current unsustainable trajectory.
22 August 2024
Meeting ambitious restoration targets in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest
IIASA researchers contributed to a new study showing that efforts to meet restoration targets for the globally important, biodiversity rich forests found along Brazil’s Atlantic coast will only be effective with a sustainable intensification of cattle farming.
Events
Focus
29 October 2024
Biodiversity COP16 in Colombia: Time to deliver
Who lives up to the promises made two years ago? Not many. Only about 35 countries have a strategy on how to meet biodiversity targets, says Piero Visconti, Biodiversity, Ecology, and Conservation (BEC) Research Group Leader at IIASA. But in 2022, at COP15 in Montreal, the countries pledged to preserve 30 percent of the planet’s land and seas. At the same time, rich countries also don’t live up to their promise to help the poor with financing. This COP needs to show results.
17 July 2024
Biodiversity lessons from nature
IIASA researchers Silvia Artuso and Juliette Martin reflect on a recent workshop presented at the Institute as part of the IIASA School Engagement Initiative, during which they introduced students to systems analysis and took them on an adventure to explore the amazing biodiversity of Laxenburg park.
Publications
Schaap, K.J., Fuchslueger, L., Hofhansl, F. , Valverde‐Barrantes, O., Quesada, C.A., & Hoosbeek, M.R. (2024). Intra‐annual dynamics of soil and microbial C, N, and P pools in a Central Amazon Terra Firme forest. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science 187 (6) 725-736. 10.1002/jpln.202300107. Maxwell, T.L., Spalding, M.D., Friess, D.A., Murray, N.J., Rogers, K., Rovai, A.S., Smart, L.S., Weilguny, L., Adame, M.F., Adams, J.B., Austin, W.E.N., Copertino, M.S., Cott, G.M., Duarte de Paula Costa, M., Holmquist, J.R., Ladd, C.J.T., Lovelock, C.E., Ludwig, M., Moritsch, M.M., Navarro, A., Raw, J.L., Ruiz-Fernández, A.-C., Serrano, O., Smeaton, C., Van de Broek, M., Windham-Myers, L., Landis, E., & Worthington, T.A. (2024). Soil carbon in the world’s tidal marshes. Nature Communications 15 (1) e10265. 10.1038/s41467-024-54572-9. Hesselbarth, M. & Allgeier, J.E. (2024). High Fish Biomass and Low Nutrient Enrichment Synergistically Enhance Stability in a Seagrass Meta‐Ecosystem. Conservation Letters e13071. 10.1111/conl.13071. Munsterman, K.S., Hesselbarth, M., & Allgeier, J.E. (2024). Smaller and bolder fish enhance ecosystem‐scale primary production around artificial reefs in seagrass beds. Ecological Applications e3055. 10.1002/eap.3055. Escobar Lanzuela, N. , Seber, G., Skalský, R. , Wögerer, M., Jung, M., & Malina, R. (2024). Spatially-explicit land use change emissions and carbon payback times of biofuels under the carbon offsetting and reduction scheme for international aviation. Science of the Total Environment 948 e174635. 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.174635. Werden, L.K., Cole, R.J., Schönhofer, K., Holl, K.D., Zahawi, R.A., Averill, C., Schweizer, D., Calvo-Alvarado, J.C., Hamilton, D., Joyce, F.H., San-José, M., Hofhansl, F. , Briggs, L., Rodríguez, D., Tingle, J.W., Chiriboga, F., Broadbent, E.N., Quirós-Cedeño, G.J., & Crowther, T.W. (2024). Assessing innovations for upscaling forest landscape restoration. One Earth 7 (9) 1515-1528. 10.1016/j.oneear.2024.07.011. Hao, X., Jung, M., Zhang, Y., & Yan, C. (2024). Emergent Properties and Robustness of Species–Habitat Networks for Global Terrestrial Vertebrates. Global Ecology and Biogeography 10.1111/geb.13912. (In Press) Ivison, K., Little, K., Orpin, A., Lewis, C.H.M., Dyer, N., Keyzor, L., Everett, L., Stoll, E., Andersen, R., Graham, L., & Kettridge, N. (2024). A national-scale sampled temperate fuel moisture database. Scientific Data 11 (1) e973. 10.1038/s41597-024-03832-w. Chaplin-Kramer, R., Polasky, S., Alkemade, R., Burgess, N., Cheung, W., Fetzer, I., Harfoot, M., Hertel, T., Hill, S., Andrew Johnson, J., Janse, J., José v. Jeetze, P., Kim, H., Kuiper, J., Lonsdorf, E., Leclere, D., Mulligan, M., Peterson, G., Popp, A., Roe, S., Schipper, A., Snäll, T., van Soesbergen, A., Soterroni, A., Stehfest, E., van Vuuren, D., Visconti, P., Wang-Erlandsson, L., Wells, G., & Pereira, H. (2024). Integrated modeling of nature’s role in human well-being: A research agenda. Global Environmental Change 88 e102891. 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2024.102891. Martin, J. , Kanade, R., Bhadbhade, N., Joy, K.J., Thomas, B.K., Willaarts, B. , & Hanger-Kopp, S. (2024). Review of the food, water and biodiversity nexus in India. Environmental Science & Policy 159 e103826. 10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103826.