global change

The Biodiversity & Global Change (BGC) research lab

The Biodiversity & Global Change (BGC) research lab

The Biodiversity & Global Change Lab (BGC), led by Moreno Di Marco at the Department of Biology and Biotechnology “Charles Darwin” of Sapienza University of Rome, focuses on understanding how global environmental changes affect biodiversity and human well-being. The lab’s research explores the impacts of global drivers such as climate change, land-use alteration, and human pressure on ecosystems, aiming to develop effective strategies to mitigate biodiversity loss and promote sustainability.

EcoConServ – Ecology & Conservation of Species Under Human Pressure

EcoConServ – Ecology & Conservation of Species Under Human Pressure

L'EcoConServ Lab studia l’ecologia e la conservazione delle specie minacciate dagli impatti umani, combinando modellizzazione ecologica e analisi dei dati su scala diverse scale con lavori di campo. L’obiettivo del laboratorio è comprendere i driver antropici dell’estinzione e sviluppare strategie di conservazione basate su evidenze scientifiche, contribuendo alla tutela della biodiversità in un mondo sempre più modificato dall’uomo.

Natural and human impact in Mediterranean landscapes. An intriguing puzzle or only a question of time?

Time is a key factor to understand the effects of disturbance on natural communities or ecosystems. In Mediterranean landscapes, where nature and humans have been strongly intermingling since mid-Holocene, the relationships between plant ecology and palaeoecology and their role for the interpretation of natural and anthropogenic changes still needs to be clearly understood. Ecology and palaeoecology are both investigating such problems, but each of them cannot disentangle the specific role played by nature and by humans in shaping the present plant communities and landscapes.

Past extinctions of Homo species coincided with increased vulnerability to climatic change

At least six different Homo species populated the World during the latest Pliocene to the Pleistocene. The extinction of all but one of them is currently shrouded in mystery, and no consistent explanation has yet been advanced, despite the enormous importance of the matter. Here, we use a recently implemented past climate emulator and an extensive fossil database spanning 2,754 archaeological records to model climatic niche evolution in Homo. We find statistically robust evidence that the three Homo species representing terminating, independent lineages, H. erectus, H.

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