| Summary: |
Biodiversity loss has become a key ecological challenge, since ecosystems around the globe are facing demanding pressures from human development, and subsequence climate change. We know how dynamic are the natural ecosystems, but we do not know how species and populations cope with the speed of specific global changes, namely the increase of temperature or habitat loss. Improving innovative technologies for monitoring the levels of biodiversity, namely species diversity (assessing the number of species existing in a given region), but also the genetic variation among populations of a given species (evaluating the level of intraspecific genetic diversity), are crucial to assess and quantify the anthropogenic impact in nature. On the other hand, landscape planning and the sustainable use of natural resources and agroecology, are crucial for preserving biodiversity and for promoting cosystem resilience. Taking the advantage of ongoing cooperation over 12 years between the University of Porto and Cornell University in the topics of biodiversity conservation, evolutionary biology, applied ecology, landscape planning and enology, involving mainly professors and students from the Faculty of Sciences, CIBIO/BIOPOLIS -Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, we aim to promote and consolidate the mobility and knowledge interchange. In addition, we purpose to extend the cooperation in other areas, namely in Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology, but mainly involve the recent established EBM - Biological Station of Mértola, located in a semi dessert Mediterranean region in southern Portugal, at Guadiana Valley Natural Park. This regions is an hotspot of Biodiversity, a bird sanctuary, and where the village of Mértola has a deep history of Human cultures coexisting over thousands of years. The cooperation so far established has involved staff, but mainly student exchange between the two universities: three Ph  |
Summary
Biodiversity loss has become a key ecological challenge, since ecosystems around the globe are facing demanding pressures from human development, and subsequence climate change. We know how dynamic are the natural ecosystems, but we do not know how species and populations cope with the speed of specific global changes, namely the increase of temperature or habitat loss. Improving innovative technologies for monitoring the levels of biodiversity, namely species diversity (assessing the number of species existing in a given region), but also the genetic variation among populations of a given species (evaluating the level of intraspecific genetic diversity), are crucial to assess and quantify the anthropogenic impact in nature. On the other hand, landscape planning and the sustainable use of natural resources and agroecology, are crucial for preserving biodiversity and for promoting cosystem resilience. Taking the advantage of ongoing cooperation over 12 years between the University of Porto and Cornell University in the topics of biodiversity conservation, evolutionary biology, applied ecology, landscape planning and enology, involving mainly professors and students from the Faculty of Sciences, CIBIO/BIOPOLIS -Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, we aim to promote and consolidate the mobility and knowledge interchange. In addition, we purpose to extend the cooperation in other areas, namely in Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology, but mainly involve the recent established EBM - Biological Station of Mértola, located in a semi dessert Mediterranean region in southern Portugal, at Guadiana Valley Natural Park. This regions is an hotspot of Biodiversity, a bird sanctuary, and where the village of Mértola has a deep history of Human cultures coexisting over thousands of years. The cooperation so far established has involved staff, but mainly student exchange between the two universities: three PhD students from the University of Porto (two concluded and one ongoing) have conducted part of their PhD thesis at Cornell University; 10 undergraduate Cornell student spend a training period of two months at the University of Porto, in the scope of The Global Fellows Program run by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell. Moreover, despite regular visits of researchers, bilateral institutional visits were conducted: the vice-dean of Research and Innovation, and members of the International office of the University of Porto have already visit Cornell University; members of the International office of Cornell University has visit the University of Porto. Thus, the success of the cooperation so far established has been in both directions: several Professors, researchers staff members have been doing mobility between both universities; undergraduate Cornell students have benefitted from the research and cultural experience at University of Porto research teams; and University Porto Students have been conducting pos-graduate studies at Cornell. The FLAD grant would allow us to strengthen, expand and consolidate the collaboration between the University of Porto and Cornell University, but also expand and promote the international development to the recent established EBM Biological Station of Mértola, and thus allowing that "FLAD Ensino Superior 2024 Program" to support the interior of Portugal. |