Yesterday, the results of the Polish National Science Center's OPUS22 research funding competition were announced. The project proposed by Piotr, "Micro-allies in the times of mega-crisis? The role of the microbiome in the response of insect communities to climate change", was recommended for funding :)

The project aims to understand the responses of natural insect communities, as well as their symbiotic microorganisms, to environmental changes related to the climate and ecological crisis. We will work on insects from Greenland - the region of the world where the effects of the changing climate are particularly pronounced and where the relatively limited species diversity makes it plausible to target most insect species present locally.

We will use innovative molecular and bioinformatics techniques on insect collections dating back to 2009 and on the material we will collect during the next seasons in various areas of Greenland. The data and newly developed statistical models will allow us to explore how the composition of insect communities has changed over two decades, how species' geographic ranges are shaped, how microorganisms are distributed and transmitted within and across species, and how symbioses may influence insect response and adaptation to change.

We expect that we will obtain detailed information about the changes, patterns, and processes affecting multi-species communities in the area of the world that changes very rapidly. In the longer term, we plan to use the information obtained and the research tools developed to describe changes in much more biologically diverse temperate ecosystems, including those of southern Poland, as they face a range of anthropogenic pressures.

The photos come from our last year's trip to the Zackenberg research station in North-East Greenland. Two people from the group are returning there this summer - and we are already planning larger-scale expeditions :)

 

May 24th, 2022