Welcome to GMBA
The Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA) is a cross-cutting network of DIVERSITAS with the task to explore and explain the great biological richness of the mountains of the world.
2012-04-23MRI and GMBA hold the second joint Key Contact Workshop for mountain researchers
prior to the Ecological Society of American 2012 Annual Meeting Saturday, 4 August 2012, Portland, Oregon (USA)
A Key Contact Workshop is a 1-day event facilitating and fostering the dialogue between researchers from around the world working on global change in mountain regions.
Participants
(1) prepare a 1-2 pages contribution to a "Catalogue of Research Summaries" prior to the workshop
(2) outline current and, especially, future research programs in a 5'-presentation during the workshop
(3) chair a working group during the event to discuss those research programs in depth (30-40')
(4) actively participate in 4-5 other working groups.
No fees apply to workshop participation. However, participants are expected to organize their travel and accommodation themselves and to cover their own expenses.
Contact
If you have more questions or plan to attend the workshop, please contact Dr. Gregory B. Greenwood, green[at]giub.unibe.ch
For more information on the ESA Annual Meeting, see the conference webpage http://www.esa.org/portland/
2012-04-23International Conference on Managing Protected Areas under Climate Change
24-26 September 2012 in Dresden, Germany
IMPACT, within the framework of the HABIT-CHANGE project sets out to meet the growing need for sharing knowledge and experiences in the field of biodiversity conservation and climate change by bringing together researchers, conservation managers and decision-makers in the field of nature conservation. IMPACT provides a platform for dialogue to develop a better understanding of the complex impacts of climate change on biodiversity on local level and the means to adapt management in protected areas accordingly.
Further information: http://www.habit-change.eu/impact
2012-04-23Scientific Conference "Ecosystems and their Functions"
16 to 18 Oktober, 2012 at the Grassland Mountain and Agriculture Research Institute in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia
The conference is organized in the frame of the project "Grassland Management Handbook - Ungulate Game and Favourable Welfare Conditions for Black Grouse in Alpine Areas", which is supported by the EU Operational Programme "Research and Development" and co-financed by the European Regional Development Found.
More information about the conference
http://www.cvrv.sk/en/introduction/detail-news/vedecka-konferencia-ecosystems-and-their-functions-ekosystemy-a-ich-funkcie-104/
Please send your registration till May 15, 2012 to ecosystems[at]vutphp.sk
2012-04-23PhD position on plant-soil interactions in mountain grasslands at Irstea, Grenoble, France
The team "Agro-ecology and ecological restoration of subalpine and alpine ecosystems" of the Research Unit Mountain Ecosystems at Irstea in Grenoble is offering a position for a PhD student. The research of the team focuses on the functioning of mountain ecosystem and associated ecosystem services. We are particularly interested in the dynamics of these ecosystems and the interactions between certain of its components and pastoral practices, recreational use and climate change.
The work place will be Grenoble. The position is funded for 3 years, and the target start date is November 2012 (negotiable). Please mail your application before 20th may 2012 to Dr. Thomas Spiegelberger - thomas.spiegelberger[at]irstea.fr - Tel. 00 33 4 76 76 28 19
2012-04-23New GMBA Steering Committee
Recently, the following international experts on Mountain Biodiversity agreed to work on the GMBA Steering Committee for the next 3 years:
- Markus Fischer, Univ of Bern, Switzerland
- Walter Jetz, Yale Univ, USA
- Nigel Barker, Rhodes University, South Africa
- Lohengrin Cavieres, Universidad de Concepción, Chile
- Nigel Yoccoz, University of Tromsö, Norway
- Michael Gottfried, University of Vienna, Austria (Climate change in Mountains network, GLORIA)
- Christoph Kueffer, ETH Zürich, Switzerland (Invasives in Mountains network, MIREN)
Other members on the current GMBA SC:
- Christian Körner, U Basel, Switzerland (chair)
- Falk Huettmann, U Fairbanks, USA
- Basanta Shresta, ICIMOD, Nepal
- Ken Green, Australia
- Greg Greenwood, Mountain Research Initiative
Many thanks to the former GMBA SC members for their hard work on the GMBA SC over the last 6 years!
- Mary T. Kalin Arroyo, University of Chile, Chile
- Richard D Bardgett, Department of Biological Sciences, Lancaster University, UK
- Michael J. Donoghue, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, USA
- Hang Sun, Kunming Institute of Botany, CAS, China
- Harald Pauli (GLORIA), University of Vienna, Austria
- Ragan M Callaway, Division of Biological Sciences, University of Montana, USA
- Carsten Rahbek, Institute of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- José Sarukhán, Inst. de Ecologia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico
- Katharine Dickinson, Dep. of Botany, University of Otago, New Zealand
- Curtis Daehler, Department of Botany, University of Hawaii, USA (MIREN, 2009)
2012-04-23Latest GLORIA-paper published in SCIENCE: Recent Plant Diversity Changes on Europe's Mountain Summits
Harald Pauli, Michael Gottfried, Stefan Dullinger, Otari Abdaladze, Maia Akhalkatsi, José Luis Benito Alonso, Gheorghe Coldea, Jan Dick, Brigitta Erschbamer, Rosa Fernández Calzado, Dany Ghosn, Jarle I. Holten, Robert Kanka, George Kazakis, Jozef Kollár, Per Larsson, Pavel Moiseev, Dmitry Moiseev, Ulf Molau, Joaquín Molero Mesa, Laszlo Nagy, Giovanni Pelino, Mihai Puscas, Graziano Rossi, Angela Stanisci, Anne O. Syverhuset, Jean-Paul Theurillat, Marcello Tomaselli, Peter Unterluggauer, Luis Villar, Pascal Vittoz, and Georg Grabherr (2012) Recent Plant Diversity Changes on Europe's Mountain Summits
Science 20 April 2012: 353-355.
Please send your requests for a pdf to: Michael Gottfried michael.gottfried[at]univie.ac.at or the GMBA secretariat (gmba[at]unibas.ch)
2012-04-23IPBES launched in Panama
After several years of international negotiations, the final operational design of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) was agreed in Panama last Friday. "Today, biodiversity won", said the chair of the meeting, Sir Robert Watson. "Over 90 governments successfully established the science-policy interface for all countries. Biodiversity and ecosystem services are essential for human wellbeing. This platform will generate the knowledge and build the capacity to protect them for this and future generations."
The new IPBES secretariat will be hosted in Bonn, Germany, who won the bid against South Korea, Kenya, France, and India. DIVERSITAS was one of the key players over the last years to establish IPBES. Anne Larigauderie, Executive Director of DIVERSITAS, praised the decision to establish a Multidisciplinary Expert Panel (MEP) to perform the scientific and technical functions of IPBES. "This will ensure scientific independence, as well as the representation of the mix of disciplines necessary to address future requests from the IPBES Plenary". She also welcomed "the decision to start implementing IPBES now, through an ambitious intersessional work programme".
The core functions of IPBES will be:
- To identify and prioritise key scientific information needed for policymakers and to catalyse efforts to generate new knowledge
- To perform regular and timely assessments of knowledge on biodiversity and ecosystem services and their interlinkages
- To support policy formulation and implementation by identifying policy-relevant tools and methodologies, and
- To prioritise key capacity-building needs to improve the science-policy interface, and to provide and call for financial and other support for the highest-priority needs related directly to its activities.
More info: www.ipbes.net