Effects of global warming

The Guiana Highlands are home to the biogeographical province called Pantepui. In an earlier project funded by Fundación BBVA, it was estimated that between 75 and 80% of the almost 2,500 species of vascular plants in these highlands will be extinct before the end of the century  if the IPCC predictions turn out to be true. This project, called Conservación de la biodiversidad frente al calentamiento global en las Tierras Altas de Guayana (Biodiversity conservation versus global warming in the Guiana Highlands) will be led by researcher Valentín Rull (Instituto Botánico de Barcelona-CSIC).

The Andean Condor

Argentine Patagonia is currently undergoing new transformations that are part of the general trend of global change, for example, the gradual humanisation of the environment through building roads, towns, etc. The aim of the Conservación de grandes vertebrados: el cóndor andino frente al cambio en los ecosistemas de Argentina (Preservation of large vertebrates: the Andean Condor versus change in the Argentine ecosystems) project, led by José Antonio Donázar (Estación Biológica de Doñana-CSIC) is to assess the impact of these factors of global change on the populations of a symbolic species, the Andean Condor.

Exploitation of marine predators

Since the European colonization of South America, human activity has radically changed the structure of is coastal ecosystems, firstly due to the mass exploitation of marine mammals and secondly due to industrial fishing. Although the direct exploitation of marine mammals stopped in the 1960s, not all of the species have responded in the same way to the end of the hunting. The project will be led by Alejandro Aguilar (Universitat de Barcelona).

Galapagos Islands

The Galapagos Islands are famous for the natural wealth that they possess and the model ecotourism developed there. However, scientific research in the field of native species preservation and protection is quite limited. The Redes mutualistas en las Islas Galápagos. Impactos directos e indirectos de especies invasoras sobre plantas amenazadas (Mutualistic networks in the Galapagos Islands. Direct and indirect impacts of invasive species on endangered plants) led by Anna Traveset (IMEDEA-CSIC) aims to rate the structure of pollination and seed dispersal networks, assess the impact that exotic species have on these networks and evaluate, more specifically, how the introduction of invasive species affects endemic and endangered plants.

In support of Conservation Ecology and Biology research, Fundación BBVA aims to foster international scientific cooperation, especially with Latin America, and, through generating new knowledge, contribute to the preservation and rational use of biological diversity in all of its forms.