Doctoral school - recruitment

Healthy and resilient ecosystems are capable of maintaining their structures and functions, ensuring the generation and maintenance of natural capital stocks and ecosystem services flows. The long-term management of natural capital stocks is essential for the stable and resilient flow of ecosystem services for future generations facing climatic uncertainty. Climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme events such as droughts, wind storms, intense rainfalls, and wildfires, posing a serious threat to the provision of ecosystem services vital for human economy and well-being.

In this project, we aim at developing and applying an integrated framework for assessing the loss of ecosystem services due to natural and anthropogenic extreme events. In particular, the project will focus on two main case studies dealing with human-managed ecosystems located in Poland and Italy: 1) the Vesuvius Volcano National Park (Italy) that in 2017 was subjected to a major wildfire burning more than 84% of the forest cover, and 2) the Tuchola Forest Biosphere Reserve (Poland) that in 2017 was subjected to a catastrophic wind storm damaging over 100,000 ha of

forest cover.

The project will apply an integrated systems approach placing natural capital and ecosystem services into a broader decision-making context by exploring the link between natural and anthropogenic extreme events and the loss of benefits for humans. The project will contribute to finding novel approaches evaluating the vulnerability of natural ecosystems to potential climatic impacts and their effects on human economy at different scales.

We expect to produce high quality research results of international interest related to natural ecosystems management and the benefits they provide to humans. Research results will be disseminated through the publication of peer reviewed scientific articles in indexed international scientific journals, the participation in international conferences, and the organization of international scientific workshops. The project will be conducted in cooperation with the Department of Science and Technology of Parthenope University of Naples and the UNESCO Chair in “Environment, Resources and Sustainable Development” of which NCU is an official

partner (www.unescochair.uniparthenope.it).

Scientific background

Healthy and resilient ecosystems are capable of maintaining their structures and functions, ensuring the generation and maintenance of natural capital stocks and ecosystem services flows (Häyhä and Franzese, 2014, 2015). The long-term management of natural capital stocks is essential for the stable and resilient flow of ecosystem services for future generations facing climatic uncertainty (Monge and

McDonald, 2020). Climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme events such as droughts, wind storms, intense rainfalls, and wildfires, posing a serious threat to the provision of ecosystem services vital for human economy and well-being (Tomczyk et al., 2016). Managing ecosystems to provide ecosystem services in the face of global change is a pressing challenge for policy and science.

Aims

In this project, we aim at developing and applying an integrated framework for assessing the loss of ecosystem services due to natural and anthropogenic extreme events. In particular, the project will focus on two main case studies dealing with human-managed ecosystems located in Poland and Italy:

1) the Vesuvius Volcano National Park (Italy) that in 2017 was subjected to a major wildfire burning more than 84% of the forest cover, and 2) the Tuchola Forest Biosphere Reserve (Poland) that in 2017 was subjected to a catastrophic wind storm damaging over 100,000 ha of forest cover.

Methods

Ecosystem services assessment is a growing field of science addressing the evaluation of the benefits that ecosystems provide to humans. Since the late 1960s, the issue of human societies’ dependence on nature has been discussed in the scientific literature, highlighting the ability of natural ecosystems to provide vital services in support of human economy and well-being. In this project, an integrated assessment framework will be developed and applied to evaluate the vulnerability of natural ecosystems to potential climatic impacts and their effects on human economy in terms of loss of

provisioning, regulating, and cultural ecosystem services. The assessment framework will place natural capital and ecosystem services into a broader decision-making context by exploring the link between natural and anthropogenic extreme events and the loss of benefits for humans.

Expected results

We expect to produce high quality research results of international interest related to natural ecosystems management and the benefits they provide to humans. Research results will be disseminated through the publication of peer reviewed scientific articles in indexed international scientific journals, the participation in international conferences, and the organization of international scientific workshops. The project will be conducted in cooperation with the Department of Science and Technology of Parthenope University of Naples and the UNESCO Chair in “Environment,

Resources and Sustainable Development” of which NCU is an official partner

(www.unescochair.uniparthenope.it).

References

• Häyhä T., Franzese P.P., Paletto A., Fath B.D., 2015. Assessing, valuing, and mapping ecosystem services

in alpine forests. Ecosyst Serv 14:12-23.

• Monge J.J., G.W. McDonald G.W., 2020. The Economy-Wide Value-at-Risk from the Exposure of

Natural Capital to Climate Change and Extreme Natural Events: The Case of Wind Damage and Forest

Recreational Services in New Zealand. Ecological Economics 176, 106747.

• Tomczyk A.M., White P.C.L., Ewertowski M.W., 2016. Effects of extreme natural events on the provision

of ecosystem services in a mountain environment: The importance of trail design in delivering system