Ecuador 2.0

Project: Freelancer for ‘Environmental changes in biodiversity hotspot ecosystems of South Ecuador: RESPonse and feedback effECTs (RESPECT)’

Monitoring biodiversity is challenging and its drivers might differ between different taxonomic groups and functions. Together with the Ecuador-Team, we therefore analyzed how environmental conditions and resources (climate, habitat, soil), mostly derived from satellite data, are suited to predict the diversity of four taxa and associated ecosystem functions in a tropical mountain hotspot of biodiversity. We used combinations of environmental variables to predict species diversity and ecosystem functions and identified climate variables as more important predictors than habitat and soil variables. We conclude that the selection and the combination of environmental variables are essential to guide conservation efforts to safeguard biodiversity and ecosystem functions.

You can read more about biodiversity and ecosystem functions and there dependence on environmental conditions and resources here.