[Pollinator] Project ALARM has 12 new partners

[Ladadams at aol.com]

Not sure if this made the LISTSERV previously -- apologies if it did.  Laurie
EU funded ALARM project reaches global dimensions in biodiversity risk 
assessment
[Date: 2007-02-20]  
The largest European research project in the area of terrestrial biodiversity 
continues to expand with 12 new partners joining the team to look into the 
causes of species decline 

Researchers from Bolivia, Guatemala, Mexico, China, the Philippines, Russia, 
Belarus, the Ukraine, Serbia and South Africa now form part of the €24 million 
EU-funded ALARM project. Coordinated by the German Helmholtz Centre for 
Environmental Research (UFZ), the research operation will now involve over 200 
scientists from 67 institutions in 35 countries around the globe. 

The ALARM (Assessing LArge-scale environmental Risks for biodiversity with 
tested Methods) project is investigating four areas believed to contribute to 
the decline in biodiversity. These are global climate change; loss of 
pollinators such as bees, bumblebees and butterflies; harmful substances in the 
environment; the invasion of foreign animal and plant species; and the combined 
impacts of these factors. 

By integrating cutting-edge science with socio-economic and politically 
relevant scenarios, the project is developing risk assessment tools so as to derive 
outcome-oriented policy measures to mitigate these threats to biodiversity. 

The preliminary results of the five-year project have been published online 
in the form of an 'Atlas of Climate Change Impacts on European Biodiversity', 
which provides important data for the planning of protected areas. It contains 
forecasts for the distribution of amphibian and reptile species in Europe in 
the year 2050, according to different climate change scenarios. 

According to Josef Settele, the project coordinator, 'this Atlas of climate 
change impacts on biodiversity is one of the key outputs of ALARM, a project 
that aims to provide an easy to use toolkit to assess large scale environmental 
risks for biodiversity in Europe and elsewhere.' 

During 2007, ALARM will also release projections of current and future 
distributions of European plants, and by the end of the project in 2009, similar 
data will be available for birds and mammals. 

'This is the first comprehensive set of projections concerning the potential 
impacts of climate change on species distributions that is made publicly 
available for any part of the world,' said Miguel Araújo, the lead researcher 
responsible for the Atlas. 

A 'European Pollinator Database' containing more than 180,000 specific plant 
pollination records will also follow soon. That data will be used for 
assessing the threats posed by potential declines in pollinator species. According to 
Dr Araújo, these are critical for food production in more than 80% of all 
agricultural crops and as such represent a major threat to global food security. 

A 'Field Site Network' across Europe will also come into existence to 
facilitate strategic, integrated European-wide research into environmental threats to 
biodiversity. 
For more information, please visit: 
_http://www.biochange-lab.eu/projects-alarm-/data_ 
(http://www.biochange-lab.eu/projects-alarm-/data)  _http://www.alarmproject.net/alarm/_ 
(http://www.alarmproject.net/alarm/)  
Category: Projects
Data Source Provider: Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ)
Document Reference: Based on information from the Helmholtz Centre for 
Environmental Research (UFZ)
Programme or Service Acronym: _MS-D C_ 
(http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=PROGLINK_FP6&QM_EN_PGA_A=MS-D C&ACTION=R) , _FP6-INTEGRATING_ 
(http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=PROGLINK_FP6&QM_EN_PGA_A=FP6-INTEGRATING&ACTION=R) , 
_FP6-SUSTDEV_ 
(http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=PROGLINK_FP6&QM_EN_PGA_A=FP6-SUSTDEV&ACTION=R) , _FRAMEWORK 6C_ 
(http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=PROGLINK_FP6&QM_EN_PGA_A=FRAMEWORK 6C&ACTION=R) 
Subject Index: Earth Sciences; Environmental Protection  
RCN: 27171 




Laurie Davies Adams
Executive Director
Coevolution Institute
423 Washington St. 5th
San Francisco, CA 94111
415 362 1137
LDA at coevolution.org
_http://www.coevolution.org/_ (http://www.coevolution.org/) 
_http://www.pollinator.org/_ (http://www.pollinator.org/) 
_http://www.nappc.org/_ (http://www.nappc.org/) 

Bee Ready for National Pollinator Week:  June 24-30, 2007.  Contact us 
for more information at www.pollinator.org 

Our future flies on the wings of pollinators.
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