EMF Newsletter June 2025

2025-06-20

EMF Newsletter June 2025

Activity conducted at EMF between 13/12/2024 and 19/06/2025

Basic support activity

  • Programming support: L. Andreu-Hayles, L. Stewart, M. Riba, S. Saura, L. Olivé
  • Data management support:
  • Statistical support: G. Bexultanova (Ph.D. student, M. Mencuccini), J De la Casa (Ph.D. student, J. Peñuelas/S. Nogué), Inma Serra, Pau Fortuño, Josep Barba, Jordi Bosch, Henna Tyyskä, Eduard Caballol
  • Modelling support: E. Spennati (Ph.D. student, M. Mencuccini), Clara Rodríguez, Laia Andreu-Hayles
  • EMF Data and apps support: T. Canals (Servei de Canvi Climàtic i Atmosfera, Govern Illes Balears), E. Busquets (CTFC)

Participation in research projects

  • WILDE (EU - Researchers: J.M. Espelta, L. Brotons): Mentoring post-doc hired for the project (R. Balaguer).
  • FORGENIUS (EU - Researchers: M. Mencuccini): Collaboration with Nicolas Martin-StPaul on comparison and parameterization of models of plant hydraulics.
  • IMPROMED (Spain - IPs: M. De Cáceres / J.M. Espelta): Improving process-based models in their capability to forecast responses to drought. Field work conducted during winter-spring 2025.
  • DRASTIC (Spain - IP: M. Mencuccini): Tree water use and Drought responses: the roles of allometry, water storage and transport under climate change
  • C4N (EU - IP: A. Broekman): Transfer knowledge and best practices, as well as harmonising policies, to tackle the challenges related to biodiversity protection and climate change.
  • TOFU (Catalunya - IP: J. Oliva (UdL)): Healthier forests for a sustainable future. Assisting the development of vulnerability models for the impact of pests and pathogens.
  • CARDIMED (EU - CREAF coordinator: P. Andrés): Climate Adaptation and Resilience Demonstrated In the MEDiterranean region
  • RESFIRE (Spain - IPs: L. Brotons, S. Fraixedas): Assessing the potential of REStoring ecological FIRe regimes as Nature-based Solution to extreme wildfires in Mediterranean ecosystems.
  • STOIKOS (EU - IP: M. Fernández Martínez) Elemental ecology: towards an element-based functional ecology.

Participation in transfer projects

  • Contract with Centre de la Propietat Forestal (A. Tovar, J. Vayreda, M. De Cáceres, R. Molowny): Evaluation of the effects of changes in silvicultural practices on carbon sequestration and forest function using modelling approaches.
  • Contracte programa / Oficina Catalana de Canvi Climàtic (M. De Cáceres, J. Vayreda, M. Banqué, R. Molowny): Assistance to M. Banqué in the generation of project report and executive summary.
  • Grup de treball de Carboni al Sòl (R. Molowny, several CREAF researchers and other 7 Research Centers in Catalonia): Soil carbon modelling for Catalonia (Generalitat).

Network building

  • M. De Cáceres participated in an international workshop Using tree trait diversity to forecast worldwide forest stability and resilience organized by Raúl García-Valdes (Madrid; 3 days Dec. 2024) funded by Instituto de Investigación en Cambio Global (IICG-URJC).

  • M. De Cáceres visited INRAE-URFM Avignon (5 days, March 2025) to collaborate on species parameter estimation from plant trait databases (package traits4models).

  • M. De Cáceres participated in a workshop Numerical Ecology through Space and Time (Technopole Brest-Iroise, France, 13th-15th May 2025).

  • Co-organization of a international workshop (along with N. Martin-StPaul and I. Maréchaux) on Using trait data for process-based model parameter estimation (Avignon, 3 days March 2025) funded by French network Psi-Hub.

Training & mentoring

Courses taught:

  • One-day course on Ecological Trajectory Analysis held on 13th May 2025 in Brest (France).

Mentoring:

  • Ph.D level (co-supervision R. Molowny): F. Andrade (CREAF)
  • Post-doc level: R. Balaguer-Romano (WildE project), M. Didion-Gency (MSCA)

Software & model development

Design and implementation:

  • Revision and improvement of package ecotraj to include new data structures and allow cyclical trajectory analysis.
  • Modification of package medfateland to allow parallel simulation of subwatersheds.
  • Implementation in progress of a package to run the CENTURY 4.7 soil model from R.
  • Implementation of new data sources (IFN4) in package forestables

Model parameter estimation:

  • Harmonization of additional plant trait data sources and refinement of plant species parameter datasets for Spain, France, US and Australia.

New software & update releases

  • New version of package meteoland (v.2.2.3) released on CRAN
  • New version of package medfate (v. 4.8.1) released on CRAN
  • New version of package medfateland (v. 2.6.0) released on CRAN
  • New version of package ecotraj (v. 1.1.0) released on CRAN
  • New version of package vegclust (v. 2.0.3) released on CRAN
  • New version of package indicspecies (v. 1.8.0) released on CRAN
  • New alpha version of package forestables available on GitHub (https://github.com/emf-creaf/forestables)
  • Update of the Laboratori Forestal Català (LFC) apps:
    • Maintenance of all apps to keep up to date library dependencies and web tools
    • Migration to new map library (mapdeck) completed, 3D maps are now available
    • Fixed AllometrApp errors in the database
    • New apps design and look

EMF internal infraestructure maintenance

New datasets in the EMF catalog

External datasets:

EMF datasets:

Publications developing/using EMF tools

  • de la Casa J, Nogué S, De Cáceres M, Pla-Rabés S, Sardans J, Benavente M, Giralt S, Hernandez A, Raposeiro PM, Peñuelas J (2025) Understanding two millenia ecosystem perturbations on the Azores archipelago through elementome trajectories. Ecological Indicators 176: 113630 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113630).

Publications from other collaborations

Communication

  • Oral presentation given at 6th Xylem International Meeting (XIM6) (Sevilla, Spain) 18-20th March 2025: Comparing visions of plant hydraulic responses to drought : a multiple sites evaluation of Sperry-type and Sureau-type models (Miquel De Cáceres)
  • Oral presentation given at III SIBECOL & XVII AEET Meeting (Pontevedra, Spain) 2-7th June 2025: A modular framework for process-based simulations of forest function and dynamics at stand to regional scales (Miquel De Cáceres)
  • Poster presented at 9º Congreso Forestal Español (Gijon, Spain) 16-20th June 2025: forestables: un enfoque estructurado para la armonización de Datos de Inventarios Forestales Nacionales (Adriana Tovar-Rodríguez)

EMF Online impact 13/12/2024 - 19/06/2025

  • Laboratori Forestal Català (LFC):
    • Stats: 914 visits (411 returning) / 6:45 mins average visit duration / 1280 page views
    • Apps most used: IFN App (292 times) / Allometrapp (195 times) / DeBosCat App (130 times)
  • EMF Web:
    • Stats: 1538 visits (373 returning) / 3:25 mins average visit duration / 4410 page views
    • Pages most visited: External data (921 page views) / External models (642 visits) / Training (363 visits)
Ecosystem Modelling Facility
Ecosystem Modelling Facility

WHAT WE DO
  • Provide training and technical support for modelling activities to research groups at CREAF.
  • Develop and promote the use of process-based and empirical models aimed at predicting the response of terrestrial ecosystems to global change at multiple scales from the forest stand to the region.
  • Facilitate discovery of data sets or models relevant for ecosystem modelling activities.
  • Develop tools aimed at facilitating the interoperability between data sources and models, and between different models.
  • Develop and maintain interactive web applications for ecosystem data exploration and visualization.
CONTACT

Campus de Bellaterra (UAB) Edifici C

08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès

EcosystemModellingFacility@creaf.uab.cat

This action is part of the Severo Ochoa "ULandscape" funded in 2019 by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation to support Research Centres of Excellence.

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