COMMUNICATIONS
Vegetation stability and functional diversity in a changing climate
Understanding how different factors mediate the resistance of communities to climatic variability is a relevant question in ecology, to improve predictions about the impact of climate change on vegetation. Researchers from the IRNAS-CSIC (Ignacio Pérez-Ramos...
European meeting about prevention and remediation of degraded soils
Researchers of the Group SOIL-PLANT, from the IRNAS, CSIC, participated in the RECARE project Plenary Meeting, devoted to prevention and remediation of degraded soils, which has been held at Hella (Iceland), from May 29th to June 2nd 2017. The Guadiamar Green Corridor...
Potential of eucalypt trees for remediation of contaminated soils
The use of trees to immobilize contaminants (phytostabilization) is a low-cost and effective method of soil remediation. Researchers of IRNAS, CSIC and New Zealand have evaluated the potential of red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) to phytostabilize soils contaminated...
Scientific Workshop “Antequera Dolmens: current scientific research”, with the participation of IRNAS
Next October 7th, 2017, the Scientific Workshop “Antequera Dolmens: current scientific research” will be held at Antequera Museum, with the goal of showing the preliminary results of the R+D MINECO funded project "Nature, Society and Monumentality: High Resolution...
Jose Julio Ortega, elected member of Stakeholder Bureau from European Food Safety Authority
Jose Julio Ortega-Calvo, researcher at IRNAS-CSIC, has been recently elected as SETAC Europe representative in the academia stakeholder category for the Stakeholder Bureau of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA- see video) for the next three years. Seven...
Root functional traits in Mediterranean forests and shrublands
Roots have a fundamental role in plant function (uptake and storage of water and nutrients), as well as in ecosystem properties (primary productivity). Root activities are related with structural traits, such as diameter, density and specific area. However,...
RECARE workshop on ecosystem services
Ecosystem services are the direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to the human wellbeing. The remediation of contaminated soils after the Aznalcóllar mine spill, and the restoration of the Guadiamar Green Corridor (Sevilla, Spain) provide with multiple...
Changes on the distribution limits of tree species in response to global warming
Recent changes in climate registered at planetary scale during the last decades are altering the ecological conditions for many species. Consequences of these alterations are usually more evident at species’ range edges, since conditions there are usually closer to...
Twenty years of environmental studies in the Guadiamar
The Aznalcóllar mine accident (April 1998) was a large-scale ecological and socio-economic catastrophe in the South of Spain. Since then, the Research Group SOIL-PLANT in the IRNAS, CSIC has been working on the area affected by the mine spill, currently known...
Variability in the leaf functional ecology
The leaf is the main plant organ to make photosynthesis, the process to use the energy from sunlight, capturing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen to the atmosphere. Life on Earth, as we currently know it, is based on this conversion of sunlight energy and...
Measures to remediate contaminated soils: the Guadiamar case study
Soil pollution is one of the main environmental problems at a global scale. Within the European RECARE project, several threats of soil degradation are investigated, and measures and solutions to remediate degraded soils are proposed. A research team from the...
Soil contamination and colonization by ectomycorrhizal fungi associated with holm oak
The environmental disaster caused by the breakdown of the decanting basin of the Aznalcóllar mine, Seville (in 1998), left behind hectares of contaminated land. The tasks of decontamination and restoration of the ecosystem led to the establishment of a green...