Project: Holistic evaluation and restoration measures of human impacts on freshwater ecosystems across biogeographical gradients

Acronym	FreshRestore (Reference Number: BiodivRestore-543)
Duration	01/04/2022 - 01/04/2025
Project Topic	Freshwater ecosystems are under tremendous anthropogenic stress both at a global scale (e.g. from climate change) and also at catchment scales (e.g. from land use). A direct result is that freshwater ecosystems hold far more threatened species compared to all other ecosystems. This is not only problematic for biodiversity, but also for human prosperity as a functional freshwater ecosystem provides a range of ecosystem services. A key challenge of the 21st century is therefore to understand and predict how freshwater ecosystems respond to the suite of stressors, and concurrently how we can sustain and restore these systems at a large scale. To achieve this task we need a coherent framework to understand and predict how the suite of stressors influences functional diversity, as the target for mitigation measures, in freshwater systems. Our project, FreshRestore, will use lake ecosystems across Fennoscandia as a model system. The project is based upon existing datasets of abiotic parameters, fish community and population structure and trophic diversity from stable isotopes across large environmental gradients in Fennoscandia. These datasets, collated by consortium members will be expanded and merged with information on climate, land- and waterscape utilization as well as restoration and mitigation efforts (e.g. habitat restorations, wetlands, regrowth of forest and buffer zones). We will develop and employ an integrative modeling framework estimating and merging demographic traits with information on trophic diversity and niche utilization from stable isotope analyses, and how the outcome varies with anthropogenic stressors. The resulting scenarios will be tested for generality at European scale by including case-studies areas with less available data (Spain). We will also combine the ecological knowledge with socio-economic models to evaluate the cost-efficiency of different nature based solutions (e.g. altered land use) and assess how to improve biodiversity in lakes through simulations of different implementations.
Network	BiodivRestore
Call	BiodivRestore Transnational Cofund Call 2020-2021

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
1	Norwegian institute for nature research	Coordinator	Norway
2	University of Jyväskylä	Partner	Finland
3	Umeå University	Partner	Sweden
4	King Juan Carlos University	Partner	Spain
5	Aarhus University	Partner	Denmark