Integrated Responses to Climate and Biodiversity Change
As part of a larger international effort, Notre Dame's Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative and the University of Michigan's Institute for Global Change Biology are partnering to create and support interdisciplinary teams focused on interactions between biodiversity and climate change.
Program Background
Driven by the recognition that scientific syntheses and subsequent actions based on the best available knowledge are necessary to solve complex problems, JTS and IGCB are supporting interdisciplinary teams of Notre Dame researchers, University of Michigan researchers, and their external colleagues to synthesize knowledge linking the biodiversity and climate change crises. Synthesis working groups are research infrastructures that enable the development of knowledge from heterogeneous information, data, theories, and perspectives. In this distinctive position on the world research scene, synthesis science has been at the forefront of knowledge in critical areas of environmental sustainability.
Program Goals
The JTS-IGCB synthesis working groups will focus on the nexus of climate, ecological, and social sciences to shed light on how the two crises of biodiversity loss and climate change interact and affect each other, and provide information and models to engage and respond to these enormous challenges of our time. We aspire to facilitate and encourage joint interactions between the teams working on different aspects of the same overarching topic, and will collaborate with other synthesis centers to provide opportunities for sharing learning between working groups.
Funded Working Groups
Status, Impacts, and Potential of Community Conservation in Land and Marine Systems
Principal Investigators: Daniel Miller (Coyle Mission Collegiate Associate Professor, University of Notre Dame), Pamela Jagger (professor of Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan), and Johan Oldekop (professor of Environment and Development, University of Manchester)
Indigenous Peoples and other land-connected communities are critical to conserving land and marine systems worldwide. Yet comprehensive global analysis of the extent of community conservation, how it varies, and its impact on biodiversity, climate, and human development remains lacking. As a result, communities, policymakers, and practitioners alike are hampered in their efforts to achieve these sustainability goals in an era of rapid change.
This project marshals the expertise and experience of a diverse interdisciplinary team, including researchers with natural and social science expertise as well as practitioners representing community and conservation organizations, to address these knowledge gaps. The team will do so through conceptual and evidence synthesis based on systematic review, geospatial analysis, and horizon scanning methodologies. This research will advance sustainability science and policy by collating and making publicly available relevant large-scale datasets, publishing high-profile journal articles, and carrying out related outreach.
Climate Change, Biodiversity, and Environmental Justice: A Synthesis of Ecological and Socioeconomic Risks
PIs: Jason Rohr (Ludmilla F., Stephen J., and Robert T. Galla College Professor, University of Notre Dame) & Thiago Gonçalves-Souza (assistant research scientist, University of Michigan)
Climate change is transforming the natural world in ways that ripple across societies. Rising temperatures are reshaping where species live, how they interact, and how ecosystems function. These shifts can fuel biodiversity loss, spread invasive species, and increase risks from crop pests and disease, all of which disproportionately affect vulnerable communities.This project brings together an international team of scientists from ecology, climate science, public health, and social science to better forecast these risks. Using one of the most comprehensive global datasets on how species respond to temperature, the team will develop models that help predict which species are most vulnerable, which invaders may spread, and where disease threats may intensify. Importantly, the research integrates ecological data with socioeconomic information to identify not just biological risks, but also who is most likely to bear them.
The project team will synthesize existing knowledge, develop new analytical tools, and produce maps and frameworks that inform biodiversity, conservation, and public health planning. By linking climate-driven changes in biodiversity with issues of food security, disease, and equity, this work aims to guide more effective and fair adaptation strategies. In summary, the project will provide insights into how climate change affects both ecosystems and people, while highlighting solutions that protect biodiversity and promote environmental justice.