A study led by a CREAF-CSIC researcher has outlined a new methodology for describing changes in the life cycle of plants caused by planetary warmingwith higher precision. Daytime, rather than nocturnal temperatures determine phenological changes. The increase in temperatures, leading to an earlier spring, alters the global functioning of ecosystems.

Researchers from the UAB, CREAF and the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC) have analysed how the deterioration of woods caused by droughts associated to global warming are affecting the microbial composition of the soil and modifying carbon cycles.

In conjunction with the meeting of the OGC Technical Committee in Barcelona from 9 to 13 March, an OGC Interoperability Day was held on Friday 13 March 2015, at Institut Cartogràfic i Geologic de Catalunya (ICGC).

The European project WaterInnEU began at the end of March with a kick-off meeting at the Casa Convalescència (Barcelona) with the presence of the eight project members and representatives of the European Commission.

CREAF coordinates the European project WaterInnEU, whose objective is to create a marketplace connecting results of European R&D on water with potential users. Through WaterInnEU, it is hoped that tools, protocols, and data produced by European research can be standardised, provided via open access, and that they are transferred to actors in the water management sector with decision-making power, or that they penetrate into the market in the form of products and services. 

CREAF participated in a study which proposes that in order to understand the full impact of climate change, it is not enough to study just protected natural areas, which are mature and able to handle change; instead, it is important to focus on the study of those ecosystems which have been altered and are still recovering.

The Diccionari terminològic de Teledetecció, written by Xavier Pons, professor of the Department of Geography at the UAB and director of the research group Grumets belonging to CREAF and the UAB, together with researcher Anna Arcalís, was recently updated and can now be consulted online.

Watch the video presenting the project coordinated by CREAF @MENFRI_EU  and its objectives! 

The organisms commonly known as blue-green algae have proliferated much more rapidly than other algae in lakes across North America and Europe over the past two centuries – and in many cases the rate of increase has sharply accelerated since the mid-20th century, according to an international team of researchers led by scientists at McGill University with CREAF and CSIC researchers.

The yellow sugarcane aphid feeds on plants of the family of grasses. Researchers from the UAB and CREAF and from the University of León have discovered this species in Tarragona and Girona, which probably arrived from Northen Africa. Up to now it is unknown to what extent the aphid could represent a threat to European extensive crops of such plants, such as rice or maize, so it is needed a distribution map of this species in Europe in order to evaluate its potential pest behaviour.