Assessing the vulnerability of Castilla y Leon forests to pine processionary moth
A warmer climate compromises forests’Pine processionary defoliations impact pine wood production quantity and quality. The profound impacts on forest vitality and productivity concur with public health problems, since larvae have stinging hairs that can cause severe allergic reactions to humans and domestic animals either by direct contact or by inhalation. OUTBREAK project aims …


Understanding the pine processionary moth range of expansion
Global warming is expected to increase the impacts of insect herbivores but… what climatic factors increase the incidence in complex organisms such as those that undergo metamorphosis? Are the dynamics homogeneous throughout the species distribution range? or how do trees progressively modify their hydraulic system and the patterns of water and carbon acquisition and use in response to defoliations? PROWARM project aims to …
Promoting sustainable forest management practices
A warmer climate compromises forests’ ability to sustain biodiversity and provide basic ecosystem services. We must modify current forest management practices to face this challenge. Soria Forest Adapt project aims to redefine forest management plans in Soria province to promote an adaptive silviculture …


Semiautomatic digitization of microscopic slides
The ability to massively digitize microscopic slides opens the door to apply Artificial Intelligence techniques to the analysis of tissue microsections. In the field of wood anatomy, this …
Assessing the vulnerability of laurel forests to global change
Laurel forests were widely distributed in the Mediterranean basin during the Tertiary. Since then, glaciations and Sahara desert’s expansion reduced their extension until they were confined to the Macaronesian archipelagos. …


Discovering missing parts in an island ecosystem
Oceanic islands harbor a disproportionate fraction of terrestrial biodiversity in relation to their reduced contribution to emerged lands. This diversity is very fragile and extremely sensitive to the impact of human pressure and the species that we …
Management of laurel forests against climate change
Macaronesian laurel forests are one of the most surprising ecosystems of Spain: A wet subtropical multispecific forest living just in front of Sahara desert with species and genus that are gone from European and African continents since the Tertiary. …


Understanding forest responses to spring frosts
One of the most counterintuitive effects of climate warming is the potential increase in frost damage. Why should frosts increase in a world with higher temperature? In fact, frosts are not expected to increase, but its damaging effect might do. This …
Remote sensing to track and predict global change impacts on forests services
Remote sensors provide us unprecedent abilities to observe phenomena at large scales. Ecological studies shed light on mechanisms linked to the impacts of global change on ecosystems, but obtaining accurate field data is a hard work and, as a result, …


Response of xylem formation to water limitation in Scots pine
Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) is a conifer broadly distributed from boreal regions to water-limited environments in the Mediterranean basin. This project aims to identify tree responses of Pinus sylvestris to water-limited environments along a …
Facing new challenges in the interface between Ecology and society
Ecology is the Science of understanding how living beings relate to each other and to their environment. Tackling up this multifaceted task requires the combination of different skills and perspectives. Ecomet@s network pursues to increase the …
