“Humans are a large part of the ecosystems we study.” With this idea as a starting point, CREAF has celebrated the fifth edition of its Internal Vermouths, an initiative that has already become one of the most beloved and anticipated meetings of the center's scientific community.
Under the title Anthropic Vermouth. The human dimension in ecology , nearly a hundred people (including predoctoral, postdoctoral, senior, technical and management research staff) gathered in the Josep Vendrell i Roca room at the UAB to share their research, discover unexpected connections and reflect together on a central question: how do humans and the biosphere interact?
Because ecology cannot be understood separately from human experience . The biosphere shapes human societies, but at the same time it is also profoundly transformed by our decisions, economies, forms of consumption and ways of inhabiting the territory. In this context, Vermut Antròpic has explored how CREAF's research contributes to understanding this complex relationship from a multidisciplinary, transversal perspective and deeply connected to today's major socio-environmental challenges.
A scientific journey from methane to the Pyrenees
Throughout the morning, fifteen short presentations followed each other in a 5+5 format: five minutes of presentation and five more for questions and debate. An agile format that proposes to condense complex ideas into essential questions: what do you research, why do you do it and what impact does or could your research have?
The presentations demonstrated the extent to which the human dimension crosses very different disciplines. For example, they discussed how a single cork extraction can alter methane emissions from cork oaks for decades; the impact of European forestry practices on bird populations; or ecological restoration projects co-designed between farmers, researchers and other local stakeholders to promote pollinators in apple orchards.
Studies on regenerative agriculture, soil restoration in mining areas, environmental governance, species recovery, biodiversity policies or social perceptions on the future of the Catalan Pyrenees were also presented. All in all, an example of how CREAF addresses environmental challenges by combining ecology, society, economy and decision-making.
An ecology that also speaks about us
Beyond the specific scientific results, the Vermut Antròpic also put on the table an idea that touches all the edges of CREAF: understanding ecosystems also implies understanding people. Many of the presentations showed that the great environmental challenges cannot be addressed only from the natural sciences, but need to incorporate social, cultural and political perspectives.
One of the things that resonated the most during the day was the openness that exists at CREAF to work outside the box and incorporate qualitative research methodologies. It is clear that there is no single way to do science and that social sciences are also essential to understanding the great environmental challenges. At CREAF we are also social and we do social work.
Florencia Florido, Knowledge Management and Open Science Technician
Throughout the morning, reflection was also held on the so-called planetary thresholds and the need to rethink the relationship between society and the biosphere from a less anthropocentric and more ecocentric perspective.
"One of the main causes of the biosphere being in poor health can be related to the disconnection from nature, which ultimately puts an egocentric vision before an ecocentric vision, prioritizing short-term material benefits," reflected Mariona Ferrandiz , a CREAF researcher and ambassador for this Anthropic Vermouth.
We must keep in mind that we are humans within the biosphere, not humans on one side and the biosphere on the other.
Marc Riera, CREAF technician and ambassador of Vermut Antròpic
Much more than an internal symposium
The CREAF Internal Vermuts were born with a very clear objective: to better understand the research carried out within the centre, to generate a network and to find synergies between people and projects. But over the years they have become much more than that. They are spaces where the research community (so diverse within the centre) chooses to stop, listen to each other and discover what is happening. Spaces where pre-docs share ideas with senior staff, where unexpected questions arise and, of course, where many synergies continue during the final snack.
After having explored in past editions topics such as forests , biodiversity , ecosystem services or the temporal dimension of ecology , this fifth edition consolidates Vermuts as a living, transversal and deeply human initiative that strengthens the CREAF scientific community and highlights the richness and diversity of the research that is carried out there every day.
