Université de Fribourg

Climatic suitability ranking of biological control candidates: a biogeographic approach for ragweed management in Europe

Sun, Yan ; Brönnimann, Olivier ; Roderick, George K. ; Poltavsky, Alexander ; Lommen, Suzanne T. E. ; Müller-Schärer, Heinz

In: Ecosphere, 2017, vol. 8, no. 4, p. -

Biological control using natural antagonists has been a most successful management tool against alien invasive plants that threaten biodiversity. The selection of candidate agents remains a critical step in a biocontrol program before more elaborate and time- consuming experiments are conducted. Here, we propose a biogeographic approach to identify candidates and combinations of candidates to...

Université de Fribourg

Forecasted coral reef decline in marine biodiversity hotspots under climate change

Descombes, Patrice ; Wisz, Mary S. ; Leprieur, Fabien ; Parravicini, Valerianio ; Heine, Christian ; Olsen, Steffen M. ; Swingedouw, Didier ; Kulbicki, Michel ; Mouillot, David ; Pellissier, Loïc

In: Global Change Biology, 2015, vol. 21, no. 7, p. 2479–2487

Coral bleaching events threaten coral reef habitats globally and cause severe declines of local biodiversity and productivity. Related to high sea surface temperatures (SST), bleaching events are expected to increase as a consequence of future global warming. However, response to climate change is still uncertain as future low-latitude climatic conditions have no present-day analogue. Sea surface...