The INERTIA global survey – Integrating ecosystem resilience around thresholds in aridity: unveiling nature-based mechanisms to endure abrupt desertification
 |
| Figure 1. Drylands cover more than 50% of emerged lands and host one out of three people on Earth. Green: dry-subhumid lands; yellow semiarid areas; orange arid areas; red: hyperarid areas |
Background
Broad areas that were previously croplands and arable lands are increasingly being abandoned due to demographical changes. In a context of ongoing climate change, the assumed capacity of ecosystems to take over these areas for re-building functional ecosystems (rewilding) may be menaced. This is especially important in drylands, where climate change is transforming an already dry environment into another that is even more arid.
Goals
We aim to study the major drivers and patterns of rewilding across global drylands. This knowledge provides essential information about the capacity (or the lack of) of ecosystems to recover following a disturbance (like agriculture); a crucial component of what we call resilience. Understanding resilience in global drylands is the major objective of the project INERTIA; funded by the European Research Council.
Among the different activities proposed by INERTIA, the most important one is the in-situ examination of recovery patterns of ecosystems worldwide. The objective of this activity is to understand the major patterns and drivers of rewilding processes across global drylands.
 |
| A) Map showing plots to be sampled in Spain. B) In each area a pair of plots is being sampled: abandoned (red) and pristine (yellow). |
To do that, we are coordinating an international network of collaborators to examine ecosystem recovery following land abandonment (cessation of agricultural practices). Project collaborators are sampling land abandoned plots and adjacent pristine areas along a global aridity gradient encompassing both current drylands and places that may become drylands in the near future.
Please, if you are interested to participate contact at: