Coordinators: Salvador Arenas Castro, Dept. of Botany, Ecology and Plant Physiology; University of Cordoba (UCO); Jose M. Álvarez-Martínez, Biodiversity Research Institute (IMIB), Univ. of Oviedo-CSIC-Principality of Asturias & Adrián Regos, Misión Bioloxica de Galicia (MBG-CSIC), on behalf of the BioBigData AEET Group

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Organizers: Paul Savary, UMR 6049 ThéMA - CNRS-Université Marie et Louis Pasteur; Céline Clauzel, UMR 7533 LADYSS - CNRS-Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne & Jean-Christophe Foltête, UMR 6049 ThéMA - CNRS-Université Marie et Louis Pasteur.

Spatial networks have been widely used in ecology in recent decades. Networks (or graphs) offer a flexible way to spatially represent and assess the connectivity of habitat patches or river branches, or the spatial dynamics of (meta)-populations and (meta)-communities, among others. Consequently, they are commonly used, either in conservation-oriented studies (e.g., corridor analyses, habitat prioritization or restoration) or in more theoretical research (e.g., to explicitly consider the spatial structure of populations and communities). Because these two subfields of spatial ecology share a common method, interdisciplinary exchanges are essential to overcome the possible conceptual or methodological shortcomings that might hinder their respective progress. The objective of this thematic session is to bring together the community of researchers using spatial networks in theoretical or applied ecology. Communications from researchers at all career stages are welcome. Particular attention will be given to the diversity of the communications (scope, study area, biological models), provided the research uses spatial networks. Approaches combining several types of networks into “meta-networks” are also expected. We aim to generate fruitful exchanges, to foster the inclusion of recent theory into the most applied use of spatial networks, and of recent methodological advances into the most theoretical research.

Organizers: Colin Fontaine, CESCO / Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle /CNRS; Francois  Duchenne, SETE / CNRS & Julia G. de Aledo, EBD - CSIC.

Plants and insects are key components of terrestrial ecosystems, yet both groups face rapid declines under global change. Assessing the impact of anthropogenic pressures on these populations requires integrating heterogeneous data sources, from opportunistic occurrence records to abundance data collected through standardized monitoring schemes, each carrying distinct statistical properties and biases that must be accounted for in trend estimation..

This session aims to bring together researchers working at multiple spatial and temporal scales and across the full analytical pipeline: data acquisition and harmonization, occupancy and abundance modelling frameworks for trend estimation, and the development of policy-relevant synthetic biodiversity indicators. We welcome contributions addressing challenges posed by the varying structure of available data, including imperfect detection, spatial sampling heterogeneity, and temporal gaps, as well as critical appraisals of existing indicators, their relevance, limitations, and representativeness, and the methodological and conceptual questions raised when designing new ones.

Beyond covering the entire workflow from raw data to actionable indicators, this session will highlight the importance of a multiscale understanding of how environmental change affects plants, insects, and their interactions, fostering dialogue among ecologists, statisticians, data scientists, and stakeholders in conservation policy and biodiversity monitoring frameworks.

Organizers: Michael O'Brien, Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (EEZA), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) & Lars Markesteijn, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC), Area of Biodiversity and Conservation and Global Change Research Institute (IICG).

Tropical forests are central to biodiversity conservation and climate regulation (main goals of proposed nature-based solution pathways). However, they are increasingly imbedded within fragmented and human-modified landscapes. Sustaining primary forests, restoring logged forests and promoting reforestation and recovery of secondary forests are all essential for maintaining ecological processes and ecosystem services under ongoing land-use and climate pressures. This session will bring together basic and applied research on tropical forest resilience and recovery across the diverse tropical landscape mosaic from primary to logged and secondary forests as well as restoration sites and agroforestry systems.

The session aims to advance understanding of ecological processes and species and environmental interactions that maintain forest resilience or promote recovery after disturbance. We welcome contributions addressing forest structure, biodiversity, functional traits, regeneration, carbon dynamics, ecosystem services, and restoration outcomes in tropical forests.

Recent evidence, from Buma et al. (2024) in Nature Climate Change, highlighted primary forest protection and secondary forest recovery as the most certain and impactful nature-based solutions pathways globally. The proposed session is therefore highly relevant to current debates on conservation, restoration, and climate mitigation, and should attract researchers across Spain, France, Europe and beyond working on tropical forest landscapes.

Organizers:Alfredo García Fernández, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC), Area of Biodiversity and Conservation and Global Change Research Institute (IICG); Carmen Bessa Gomes, AgroParisTech | Université Paris-Saclay | M2BEE - Ecologie de la Conservation and Ingénerie & Fernando Ascensao, Ce3C, Lisbon.

In the context of increasing habitat fragmentation and degradation, connectivity is essential to maintain ecological processes and the long-term viability of populations. Enhancing connections among populations can help counteract isolation, sustain genetic diversity, and support species’ ability to respond to environmental change.

Ecological connectivity must be addressed through an interdisciplinary framework, integrating diverse approaches across ecosystems, plants, and animals. A combination of observational, theoretical, and experimental methodologies is essential to better understand this complex process and its multiple dimensions. Long-term monitoring studies, genetic analyses, and research on ecological corridors will all play a key role in generating the knowledge needed to inform effective strategies for enhancing connectivity.

At the same time, a range of human interventions aim to increase ecological connectivity. Corridors, human designed infrastructures, and conservation translocations can be valuable tools, but they require careful evaluation. A critical perspective is needed to ensure that such actions are appropriately designed, context-specific, and aligned with the actual ecological challenges they seek to address.

Organizers: María Begoña García, Pyrenean Institute of Ecology - CSIC; Emmanuelle Porcher, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (MNHN) & Jesús Martínez Padilla, Pyrenean Institute of Ecology - CSIC.

Although biodiversity is undergoing rapid change, substantial uncertainties remain regarding where changes are stronger and the biotic and abiotic drivers and mechanisms that explain population trends across taxa. Key challenges include identifying the relative influence of factors such as climatic change, habitat transformation, pollutions, diseases or invasive species. This session welcomes studies across all taxonomic groups, with particular emphasis on understudied lineages, to assess the most influential global change drivers and also the extent to which protected areas function as effective management tools for conserving biodiversity. Our aim is to compile robust evidence on biodiversity trends and go beyond the description of changes to unravel the complexity of population dynamics across spatial and temporal scales throughout the tree of life, with the unifying goal of strengthening biodiversity conservation.

Organizers: Javier de la Casa, ETH Zürich; Leys Berangere, AMAP CNRS & Encarni Montoya, Geosciences Barcelona, CSIC.

Understanding ecological systems requires perspectives that extend beyond direct observation and short-term (decades) monitoring. Paleoecology provides this long-term ( > 50 years) context by reconstructing past ecosystems and environmental changes using natural archives, revealing how ecosystems respond to climatic variability, disturbances, biodiversity shifts, and human activities across decades to millennia.

This thematic session aims to showcase how paleoecological perspectives contribute to contemporary ecological research and environmental challenges. The scope includes methodological advances, ecological and paleoecological reconstructions, long-term ecosystem dynamics, conservation baselines, human-environment interactions, and applications that: (i) bridge past processes with present and future ecological questions, or (ii) go beyond academia showing study cases implementing paleo-knowledge into current day ecological questions.The objective of the session is to promote dialogue across ecological disciplines and foster integration between long-term records and modern ecological theory and practice. By bringing historical depth into ecological understanding, paleoecology offers valuable insights into ecosystem resilience, thresholds, and trajectories. The session will be of interest to researchers, students, and practitioners seeking broader temporal perspectives on ecological change and environmental management.

Organizers: Pilar Martínez de Espronceda, Depto. de Ciencias de la Tierra / Área de Paleontología, Universidad de Zaragoza (UniZar).; Julia Galán García, Research Station of Quaternary Palaeontology Weimar / Palaeobiology of Quaternary small mammals Section & Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt/M. / Senckenberg - Leibniz Institution for Biodiversity and Earth System Research.; Iván Rey-Rodríguez, Departamento de Ecoloxía e Bioloxía Anima / MAPAS Lab Centro de Investigación Mariña / Universidade de Vigo,; Ángel Carmelo Domínguez García, Dpto. de Geografía, Prehistoria y Arqueología, Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU).; Carmen Núñez-Lahuerta, Institut Catalá de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), Universidad Rovira i Virgili. & GloriaCuenca Bescós, Depto. de Ciencias de la Tierra / Área de Paleontología, Universidad de Zaragoza (UniZar).

Understanding contemporary biodiversity requires placing ecological and evolutionary processes within their long-term temporal context. To this end, the fossil record provides an unparalleled archive of how life has diversified, adapted, and responded to environmental change across millions of years, offering essential perspectives on the origin of modern biodiversity and its responses to ongoing global change.

This session welcomes contributions spanning the full temporal spectrum of palaeontology, encouraging dialogue between deep-time studies of macroevolution, biogeographic change, and extinction dynamics and more recent records that illuminate ecological baselines, human impacts, and conservation challenges. We particularly invite interdisciplinary approaches integrating palaeontological, phylogenetic, ecological, and palaeoenvironmental data, together with novel analytical frameworks. Contributions from terrestrial, freshwater, and marine systems across all taxonomic groups are welcome. By linking past and present biodiversity dynamics, this session aims to promote dialogue across disciplines and advance a more integrative understanding of biodiversity change through time and its relevance for future conservation.

Coordinators: Silvia Matesanz, Area of Biodiversity and Conservation, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) / Global Change Research Institute (IICG-URJC); Mario Blanco-Sánchez, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) & Marina Ramos-Muñóz, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) .

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Organizers:Ferran Pauné, BC3 Basque Centre for Climate Change & Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona; Rubén Serrano-Zulueta, BC3 Basque Centre for Climate Change & Pablo Manzano, BC3 Basque Centre for Climate Change.

Long considered pristine and stable, closed forests are increasingly being re-evaluated within a broader ecological context that recognizes the historical and functional importance of open ecosystems across many biomes. Growing interdisciplinary evidence highlights how vegetation structure, disturbance regimes, climate, and biodiversity are deeply shaped by biotic interactions, particularly herbivory. Integrating paleoecology, functional ecology, conservation biology, and Earth-system science offers new perspectives on how past and present defaunation processes ”from the Last Interglacial (LIG) to the Anthropocene ”have altered ecosystem functioning and resilience.
This thematic session aims to explore the role of fauna in maintaining alternative ecosystem states, heterogeneity, and ecological processes across temporal and spatial scales. We welcome contributions addressing paleoecological reconstructions, trophic interactions, rewilding, refarming, restoration baselines, ecosystem modeling, and climate-change adaptation. The session will foster dialogue among ecologists, paleontologists, climatologists, modelers, conservation practitioners, and environmental managers to advance transdisciplinary frameworks for biodiversity conservation and restoration in a rapidly changing world.

Organizers: Alex Baumel, Institut méditerranéen de biodiversité et d'écologie, Marseille, Aix Marseille University; Juan Viruel, Escuela Politécnica Superior de Huesca, Huesca, University of Zaragoza & Didier Aurelle, Institu de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité, MNHN, Paris, Aix Marseille University.

The exchange of genetic material between distinct populations, lineages or even species is now widely acknowledged as a crucial evolutionary force influencing the emergence of species, adaptation and the diversity of life. Advances in genomic tools have revealed that adaptive introgression is far more widespread than previously assumed, occurring across a broad range of taxa and ecological contexts. These processes can generate adaptive variation and evolutionary novelty, therefore contributing to ecosystem resilience. They may also threaten locally adapted or rare species through genetic swamping, outbreeding depression, or taxonomic uncertainty, creating major challenges for conservation and management. This thematic session aims to bring together researchers studying the ecological, evolutionary, and conservation consequences of genetic exchanges in natural and human-modified systems. We welcome contributions spanning empirical, theoretical, and methodological approaches to genetic exchange between distinct populations, including its consequences on ecological niche, species interaction, species delimitation, conservation genomics, responses to anthropogenic pressures, invasion biology, and management implications. The session aims to bring together evolutionary biologists, ecologists, and conservationists to discuss the ecological and evolutionary importance of genetic exchange for biodiversity conservation in a rapidly changing world.

Organizers: Emanuel Fronhofer, ISEM - CNRS & Sonia Kefi, ISEM - CNRS.

Ecological and evolutionary processes unfold on overlapping timescales, yet theory in ecology and theory in evolution have largely developed in parallel. Meanwhile, evidence is accumulating that eco-evolutionary feedbacks, rapid adaptation, and trait-mediated interactions shape community dynamics on timescales that matter for prediction and management — and that ignoring this coupling leads to systematically wrong predictions.

This session focuses on the theoretical foundations of eco-evolutionary dynamics and what they can tell us about the behaviour of ecological systems. We invite contributions exploring feedbacks between population dynamics and trait evolution, the conditions under which evolution alters ecological stability or community structure, rapid adaptation in multi-species contexts, and the consequences of eco-evolutionary dynamics for ecosystem functioning. We also welcome work that connects these theoretical frameworks to empirical data, whether through parameter inference, model-data confrontation, or experimental tests of eco-evolutionary predictions.

The session will be of direct interest to theoreticians working at the ecology-evolution interface, and to empiricists seeking formal frameworks to interpret rapid evolutionary change in natural or experimental populations. It is proposed by the Sfe2 thematic group Theoretical Ecology" and the GdR network "TheoMoDive".

Organizers: Giacomo Zilio, University of Montpellier / CNRS / ISEM & Karen McCoy, University of Montpellier / CNRS / IRD / MIVEGEC.

Infectious diseases, involving both within- and between-host processes, represent an inherently multi-scale problem for evolutionary ecologists and epidemiologists. Thus, in order to mitigate and prevent disease outbreaks, it is fundamental to better understand how hosts and parasites interact at different levels, and the long-term evolutionary implications of these interactions. For instance, fitness trade-offs can vary across scales, as well as at community and ecosystem levels, blurring our understanding of trait selection and its impacts on parasite transmission and virulence. Furthermore, host-parasite interactions are affected by spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the landscapes in which they complete their life cycles, highlighting the need to link infectious disease to environmental factors and their spatio-temporal dynamics. Addressing such a complex and increasingly relevant topic requires a multidisciplinary approach. This thematic session aims to highlight this type of work, promoting interdisciplinary exchanges used to investigate host-parasite cross-scale dynamics. Historical barriers to communication - e.g., between theorists and empiricists, or among community ecologists, evolutionary biologists, epidemiologists, and microbiologists- need to be surmounted. Our session will therefore nurture conversations across these divides with the ultimate aim of working towards a common theoretical and experimental framework for studying the dynamic nature of host-parasite evolutionary ecology.

Tuesday (11:00-12:30) • Wednesday (11:00-12:30) • Thursday (11:00-12:30)

Coordinators: Cristina Aponte, Dpto.  de Dinámica y Gestión Forestal, Instituto de Ciencias Forestales (ICIFOR-INIA, CSIC); Leticia Pérez Izquierdo, Dpto.  de Medio Ambiente y Agronomía, Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA-CSIC) & C. Guillermo Bueno González, Dpto. de Biodiversidad y Restauración, Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE-CSIC).

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Organizers: Juan Pedro Ferrio Díaz, Dept. Plant Biology / Estación Experimental de Aula Dei, CSIC (EEAD-CSIC); Ana Ballesteros López, Dept. Agricultural and Forest Systems and the Environment / Agrifood Research and Technology Centre of Aragon (CITA) & David Moret Fernández, Dept. Soil and Water / Estación Experimental de Aula Dei, CSIC (EEAD-CSIC).

This session aims to explore overlooked connections between water and carbon fluxes along the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum (SPAC), spanning scales from the rhizosphere to whole ecosystems. Understanding these interactions faces several methodological challenges related to monitoring plant and soil water status, quantifying water and CO2 fluxes, and disentangling the response to increasing atmospheric water demand across spatial and temporal scales.
We invite contributions assessing water and carbon fluxes and their interactions, with particular emphasis on poorly explored mechanisms and novel methodological approaches. Topics include, but are not limited to, root-soil hydraulic interactions, plant carbon allocation under water limitation, new sensors and tracers for soil and plant hydraulics, and innovative methods to explore the links between water availability, carbon assimilation, and respiratory losses. Contributions may range from experimental and observational studies to modelling and data integration efforts. Studies that combine multiple techniques are particularly welcome.
By highlighting methodological innovation and cross-scale integration, this session seeks to advance our ability to link soil- and plant-level processes with ecosystem fluxes, improving our understanding of how coupled water-carbon dynamics regulate ecosystem functioning under changing environmental conditions.

Global warming is a major driver of population range shifts, biodiversity loss and community restructuring. Thermal ecologists have increasingly relied on empirical estimates of species thermal limits to anticipate these impacts. However, translating empirical thermal limits to ecological predictions in nature remains constrained by unresolved conceptual and methodological challenges. First, many approaches assume that environmental temperature directly reflects the thermal conditions experienced by organisms. On the contrary, acclimation, thermoregulation, habitat selection and dispersal modulate their realised exposure. Second, thermal stress cannot be reduced to temperature magnitude. Its effects depend on both exposure intensity and duration, which is needed for connecting chronic stress from gradual warming with acute stress during episodic heatwaves. Third, we lack a good understanding on how thermal limits measured at the individual level (physiology) can be linked to the dynamics of populations and communities facing climate change.

This session will bring together ecophysiologists, community ecologists and global-change ecologists working across biological scales to discuss how empirical thermal limits can inform predictions of climatic vulnerability in nature. We invite contributions that bridge controlled experiments, field surveys and modelling, with the aim of advance towards a unified framework for ecological responses to global warming.

Organizers: Eva Castells, Ecological and Forestry Applications Research Centre (CREAF) / Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona; Abiel Teixido, Ecological and Forestry Applications Research Centre (CREAF) & Albert Rivas, National Institute of Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA-CSIC).

Plants are constantly exposed to changing environmental conditions and have evolved highly dynamic strategies to survive, adapt, and acclimate. At the heart of these responses lies the chemical phenotype of organisms: the integrated expression of an organism’s chemical traits, encompassing primary and specialized metabolites, including volatiles (BVOCs), and other molecular constituents. The metabolome allows plants to adjust their physiology and biochemistry in response to abiotic and biotic pressures. Despite its central importance, we are only beginning to understand how the chemical phenotype responds to environmental changes and how these molecular adjustments scale up to functional traits, performance, and ecological dynamics. This session will explore the evolutionary, ecological, and acclimation patterns of metabolomics under changing environments at interspecific and intraspecific levels from a functional perspective. We welcome contributions at all organizational levels, from experimental to computational approaches and data analysis, that advance our knowledge on the role of chemical diversity in plant functioning and adaptation.

Organizers: Laura Fernández de Uña, Department of Plant Biology and Soil Science, Universidade de Vigo; Gonzalo Pérez de Lis, iTERRA, BIOAPLIC, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela & Cyrille B.K. Rathgeber, SILVA, INRAE Grand Est-Nancy.

Woody plants adjust their activity in response to seasonal variability in environmental conditions, including photoperiod, temperature and water availability. As a result, primary and secondary growth occur during specific time periods following a sequence of developmental processes at variable rates. Understanding plant phenological patterns and their drivers is essential to assess species and ecosystem response to climatic changes. Phenology also regulates plant functioning and, in turn, ecosystem processes through its effect on carbon uptake and resource allocation to growth and reproduction. Plant phenology observations are therefore key to inform plant and ecosystem process-based models and dynamic global vegetation models. In recent years, the study of phenology has gone beyond field observations of leaf and flower developmental stages thanks to new methods allowing the monitoring of e.g. canopy development via remote sensing, wood formation using high-resolution anatomical data and root growth using rhizotrons. The aim of this session is to bring together recent research on plant phenology across different organs (e.g., leaves, flowers, branches, stems and roots) and how they are coordinated. Contributions on the interaction between plant phenology and functions (e.g., growth, carbon allocation, water transport) are particularly welcome to further enrich discussions on the drivers and consequences of phenological events.

Organizers: Sara Palacio, Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE-CSIC); Pablo Tejero, Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE-CSIC) & Andreu Cera, Universidad de Castilla la Mancha.

Despite most living biomass occurring in relatively benign environments, a large proportion of our planet is subjected to extreme conditions that challenge the survival of most organisms. Polar regions, alpine ecosystems, cliffs, deserts, and unusual substrates are examples of harsh environments where life persists under severe environmental stress. Global change is further intensifying these conditions through climate shifts, habitat degradation, and the increasing frequency of extreme climatic events, creating a world of new extremes.
In this context, identifying the diversity that inhabits these environments and understanding the evolutionary and ecological mechanisms that enable survival under such conditions has become an urgent scientific challenge. Extreme environments host highly specialized organisms that often constitute unique and narrowly distributed biodiversity, making them particularly vulnerable to environmental change. This diversity encompasses not only singular taxa, but also remarkable metabolic, physiological, anatomical, and ecological adaptations.
Understanding these mechanisms is essential not only for conserving this invaluable biodiversity, but also for inspiring technological innovation and providing solutions to pressing environmental challenges. This session invites researchers to move beyond the traditional boundaries of ecology and explore life at the limits, advancing our understanding of how organisms persist, interact, and evolve under extreme conditions. 

Organizers: Enric Batllori Presas, Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Enviroinmental Sciences. University of Barcelona; María Ángeles Pérez Navarro, Ecological and Forestry Applications Research Centre (CREAF) & Raquel Díaz Borrego, Ecological and Forestry Applications Research Centre (CREAF).

Shrubland ecosystems are still understudied compared to other terrestrial ecosystems such as forests, although they are ecologically and socially key at the global scale. Additionally, their importance may become more prominent in many regions under warmer and drier predicted climates (and the associated disturbances) and because of shrub encroachment due to rural depopulation and land use changes. A better understanding of how the environment drives the structure and function of such ecosystems is essential to anticipate their resilience and the response of biodiversity and its consequences under global change. This thematic session calls for communications on multidisciplinary studies (e.g., trait-based ecology, ecophysiology, community dynamics, monitoring, interaction networks, dendroecology) covering cross-scale processes from individuals up to the community level, including how do they relate to below-ground ecosystem functioning (roots and soil). The aim is to contrast a suit of studies towards increased understanding of the ecology and resilience capacity of shrubland ecosystems, especially but not restricted to Mediterranean environments.

Organizers: Marta Goberna, National Institute of Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA-CSIC); Jordi Moya-Laraño, Experimental Station of Arid Zones (EEZA-CSIC) & Paula Arribas, Institute of Natural Products and Agrobiology (IPNA-CSIC)

This thematic session is organized by the SoilNet research network, which brings together specialists on soil biodiversity, including microorganisms (bacteria, archaea, fungi) and invertebrate fauna (arthropods, nematodes, annelids, etc). We welcome contributions focused on the study of the diversity, structure and functioning of soil communities, with particular emphasis on the ecological interactions that occur within or between groups of soil microbiota and/or invertebrates. Contributions may include basic research on taxonomic, functional or phylogenetic diversity, community assembly, species co-occurrence, trophic and non-trophic interactions, their shifts across temporal and spatial scales, their responses to environmental perturbations, as well as their role in the performance of terrestrial ecosystems, including any process related to decomposition, biogeochemical cycling, soil fertility, among others. We particularly encourage integrative, multi-functional and multi-temporal approaches that explore how soil trophic and non-trophic interactions can be described, quantified or modelled. Novel methodological or conceptual approaches addressing the enormous complexity of soil life, biota-biota-detritus interactions and their implication in biogeochemical cycles, e.g. multilayer network analysis considering intakes (food webs) and outtakes (e.g., detritus), are welcome. 

Organizers: Miguel de Celis, Departamento de Suelo, Planta y Calidad Ambiental / Instituto de Ciencias Agrarias;  Beatriz Jiménez-Prietos, Departamento de Suelo, Planta y Calidad Ambiental / Instituto de Ciencias Agrarias & María José Fernández-Alonso, Departamento de Geología y Geoquímica, Facultad de Ciencias / Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

Soil microorganisms are central regulators of the ecosystem functioning, driving many of the biogeochemical processes in terrestrial systems that control carbon cycling and nutrient availability. Climate change is currently altering the environment through warming, shifting precipitation regimes, and increasing the frequency of extreme events, with large impacts for soil microbial communities. Understanding how climate-driven changes in the composition, diversity and interaction patterns of soil microbes will ultimately affect ecosystem scale processes remains unresolved. In this sense, this symposium seeks to provide a link between soil microbial community dynamics and ecosystem function, how these aspects are impacted by climate change, and how they may in turn feedback to the climate system. We welcome submissions from a broad range of investigations concerning how climate change drivers shift microbial communities and subsequently affect biogeochemical processes (e.g., nutrient cycling) at an ecosystem level. As a result, our goal is to bridge community ecology and ecosystem ecology to understand the underlying mechanisms driving shifts in the link between the soil microbial community dynamics and ecosystem function, including species interaction, functional traits, microbial efficiency, and plant-soil-climate feedbacks.

Coordinators: Manuel Cartereau, Department of Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution, Complutense University of Madrid (UCM); Nuria Pistón, Department of Ecology, University of Granada (UGR); Miguel Berdugo, Department of Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution, Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) & Inmaculada (Ada) Álvarez-Manzaneda, Department of Ecology, University of Granada (UGR).

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Organizers: Cristina Ganuza, Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, University of Würzburg; Costanza Geppert, DAFNAE, University of Padova & Felipe Librán-Embid, Department of Animal Ecology & Systematics, University of Giessen.

Animal pollinators are essential for agricultural production and the functioning of natural ecosystems, while also holding cultural values. Pollinator communities encompass a broad range of taxa with diverse ecological roles, life-history strategies, and functional traits across temperate and tropical regions.
However, global change drivers such as climate change and land-use intensification, among others, increasingly threaten pollinator diversity and the ecosystem services they provide. These stressors can act directly on pollinator physiology, phenology, behaviour, and survival, or indirectly by reducing the availability and quality of floral and nesting resources, thereby disrupting plant-pollinator interactions and trophic relationships. Understanding the relative importance of these pathways is essential for predicting pollinator responses under future environmental scenarios.
At the same time, research on pollinator responses to global change not only helps reveal the mechanisms behind current declines, but also identifies pathways for adaptation and recovery. Positive outcomes from ecological restoration, diversified agricultural landscapes, sustainable farming practices, and climate-adapted management demonstrate that effective solutions exist.
In this session, we invite contributions addressing the impacts of global change on animal pollinators and their ecosystem services, as well as studies highlighting approaches to conserve pollinator diversity and promote resilient ecosystems under ongoing global change.

Organizers:  Eñaut  Martinez de Birgara Martin, Ecosystems and global change Research Line, Basque Center for Climate Change (BC3); Sofía Miguel Romero, Dpto. Geología, Geografía y Medio Ambiente, Universidad de Alcalá (UAH) & Pedro Rebollo Orozco, Dpto. Biodiversidad, Ecología y Evolución, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM).

Forests play a central role in climate regulation through carbon sequestration, support important biodiversity, and provide many essential contributions to human well-being. However, they are increasingly affected by climate change, which is increasing the frequency and intensity of natural disturbances (so-called novel disturbance regimes) such as droughts, wildfires, windthrows or pest outbreaks, as well as by the intensification of human activities. Such changes are reshaping dynamics and functioning in forests worldwide. In this context, it is crucial to implement solutions that enhance the capacity of ecosystems to cope with increasing disturbances and environmental fluctuations, such as those relating to the characteristics of forest stands (e.g. species diversity, structural complexity and composition) and management practices. However, important questions remain regarding how, where, and at what spatial and temporal scales management should be applied to effectively support adaptation. This session aims to advance this discussion by bringing together research on forest disturbance regimes, forest responses, and adaptive management strategies under global change.

Organizers: Josu G. Alday, Unviersitat de Lleida (UdL); Elise Buisson, Avignon University / IMBE & Verónica Cruz-Alonso, Universidad de Alcalá (UAH).

Ecological restoration is evolving from the recovery of historical conditions towards new goals that emphasize functionality, resilience and adaptability in a rapidly changing world. Nowadays, restoration efforts must increasingly account for climate change, novel disturbance regimes, species redistribution, land-use pressures, and social-ecological interactions and, in Europe, the Nature Restoration Law. The session aim is to stimulate interdisciplinary discussion on the present and future of restoration ecology and its role in supporting practices that promote biodiversity, ecosystem services, and climate adaptation under the accelerating global change. In this session, we will rethink restoration targets beyond historical baselines, enhance ecosystem restoration indicators and ecosystem multifunctionality, and advancing innovative approaches to manage ecosystem responses under future scenarios.
Our session invites contributions exploring emerging restoration concepts, methodologies, and applications in restoration ecology across all ecosystems and spatial scales. For example, topics may include adaptive restoration, ecosystem multifunctionality, rewilding, nature-based solutions, restoration monitoring, and restoration planning. We encourage contributions combining empirical research, experimental approaches, or management-oriented perspectives.

Organizers: Clément Car, Université Perpignan Via Domitia / LGDP & Elizabeth Dufourcq Sekatcheff; Marie-Agnès Coutellec, INRAE / DECOD (Ecosystem Dynamics and Sustainability).

Pollution is ubiquitous, resulting both from current human practices, and from the legacy of centuries of industrial activity. Non-human organisms are thus evolving in a polluted world, and inserting them in this historical dynamic is needed to help us adjust our activites.
Despite the potential of evolutionary ecology to help characterize and predict long-term ecotoxicological effects, these aspects remain limitedly applied to the study of pollutants and far from being considered in regulatory ecological risk assessment. Evolutionary ecology brings to ecotoxicology the ability to characterize and predict evolutionary processes facing pollution (microevolution), and phylogenetic information (macroevolution) can be used to extrapolate adverse effects across different taxa, without dramatically increasing the number of animal tests and facilitating the One Health approach.
Beyond environmental protection needs, pollution serves as an important case study of rapid evolution of organisms under - typically well-monitored environmental change. Differently-localized contamination events can thus be studied as instances of parallel evolution under comparable environmental change.
In this session, we welcome all research abstracts at the intersection of ecotoxicology, evolution and ecology, investigating how pollutants impact evolution, or how organisms response to pollutants is impacted by evolution.

Organizers: Jaume Tormo Blanes, Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias Ambientales (IUCA), Universidad de Zaragoza; Begoña Álvarez Farizo, Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE-CSIC) & Esperanza Iranzo Sanz, Centro de Investigación Ecológica y Aplicaciones Forestales (CREAF).

The transition to photovoltaic (PV) energy is essential for mitigating climate change, yet its rapid expansion poses trade-offs between decarbonization, biodiversity conservation and societal impacts. PV installations change land use and landscapes but can also create novel ecosystems that provide opportunities for ecosystem services and resilience. Understanding these dynamics is key to aligning renewable energy deployment with socio-ecological goals.
This session invites researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to co-assess the impacts of PV installations on ecosystems, including biodiversity, ecological processes, ecosystem services, ecohydrology, and microclimate and on society. Our goal is to synthesize scientific evidence into actionable recommendations for where and how PV plants should be deployed, ensuring they contribute to resilient futures for both nature and society.
Given the accelerated deployment of PV energy across Europe, this session is urgently needed to address knowledge gaps on mitigation measures and their effectiveness. It will foster interdisciplinary collaboration, connecting research groups, practitioners, and decision-makers to co-design solutions that balance renewable energy needs with socio-ecological integrity. Together, we can shape policies and practices for a sustainable energy transition for all.

Organizers: Estefanía Muñoz Hoyos, Centre de Recerca en Ecologia i Aplicacions Forestal (CREAF); Albert Vilá-Cabrera, University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC) & Amara Santiesteban-Serrano, Instituto de Ciencias Forestales (ICIFOR-INIA), CSIC.

Novel ecosystems can emerge due to climate change, land-use change, biological invasions, and defaunation. In many parts of the world, widespread forest expansion following land-use cessation and disturbance-driven forest-to-shrubland transitions are reshaping landscapes at an unprecedented rate and these processes are expected to continue in the coming decades.
This session explores the ecological processes shaping the structure and functioning of expanding novel ecosystems. We focus on how these ecosystems differ from baseline ecosystems in biodiversity, species interactions, and ecosystem functioning, including carbon and nutrient cycling, and their role in climate change mitigation.
We welcome contributions using observational, experimental, and modelling approaches to investigate ecosystem development and functioning addressing outstanding ecological questions at various scales ”from local to global” across a wide range of topics, including succession and functional dynamics, community assembly, species interactions, plant-soil feedback, and biogeochemical processes. By bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives, this session aims to improve understanding of novel terrestrial ecosystems and identify key knowledge gaps relevant to their management under ongoing environmental change.

Organizers: Laura B. Martínez García, Soil and Water Department, Aula Dei Experimental Station (EEAD), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC); Ezequiel Antorán, Instituto de Investigación en Cambio Global (IICG-URJC), Universidad Rey Juan Carlos; Juan J. Jiménez, Pyrenean Institute of Ecology (IPE-CSIC); Mariona Pajares-Murgó, Departamento de Biologia Animal, Biologia Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de Jaén (UJA); Ana López Llandres, Agroecology and sustainable intensification for annual crops Research Unit (UPR AIDA)/Performance of Tropical Production and Processing Systems Department (Persyst)/ The French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) & Gabriela Quiroga, Centro de Investigaciones Agrarias de Mabegondo (AGACAL).

In an era of global change and biodiversity loss, future predictions require looking beyond isolated components, as no organism lives in isolation. Plant–soil interactions are a fundamental pillar of ecosystem functioning, operating together with broader biotic interactions, including multitrophic relationships among other plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria. Understanding how these above- and belowground interactions shape ecosystem processes is key to uncovering the mechanisms that sustain ecosystem stability, biodiversity, and resilience, providing the ecological foundation for sustainable socio-ecological systems.
This thematic session will bring together researchers studying above- and belowground biodiversity, ecological interactions, and ecosystem functioning across scales. We welcome contributions on microbial, faunal, and plant communities, soil properties, and nutrient dynamics, as well as studies exploring how these interactions influence community assembly, ecosystem resilience, and sustainable management. Observational, experimental, modeling, and meta-analytical studies are encouraged, spanning individual mechanisms to multispecies interactions across natural and agricultural ecosystems. Together, we aim to advance the scientific basis for biodiversity conservation, sustainable ecosystem management, and resilient ecosystems under global change.

Organizers: Juan Antonio Hernández-Agüero, Misión Biológica de Galicia (MBG-CSIC); Joan Casanelles-Abella, Urban Productive Ecosystems, Technical University of Munich & Jéssica Jiménez-Peñuela, School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow

More humans live in cities now than ever, with cities paradoxically being both reducers and enhancers of biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and the associated services for people's well-being. This apparent paradox reflects the high heterogeneity of cities, shaped by diverse urban forms, regional climates, and planning policies that generate spatially and temporally variable urban ecosystems. At the same time, cities are experiencing major pressures from global change, including the widespread impacts of rising temperatures, biological invasions, emerging diseases, extreme events, densification, pollution, and residential segregation, with major impacts on both biodiversity and people.
To celebrate the second anniversary of the Iberian Group of Urban Ecology (IGUE), this thematic session aims to bring together interdisciplinary contributions that investigate the functioning, challenges, and future of urban ecosystems, to advance multifunctional, resilient, and sustainable cities. We welcome contributions investigating the drivers and mechanisms shaping urban biodiversity patterns, eco-evolutionary processes, and ecosystem services between and within cities\; the relationship between animals, humans, and zoonotic diseases\; the forecasted effects of global ecological, social change and adaptation strategies\; and approaches that integrate society, policy, and academia. The session offers an opportunity to exchange ideas, foster collaborations, and identify emerging directions in urban ecology.

Organizers: Antonio López-Pastor, Department of Ecology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Alicante (UA).

Human Societies Water Demands are becoming strong shaping forces in Landscape Designs around the planet. Biodiversity loss is the most extended ecological problem in human dominated landscapes. Riparian and all sort of Wetlands Biodiversity are the ones with highest local extinctions rates due mainly to natural habitats disappearance. EU Water Framework Directive as a pan-european management tool and Nature 2000 sites designation are not enough to stop this regression trend. Artificial habitats generated for water management have the control of most of the remaining water ecosystems biodiversity, and in many cases, they are in hands of “Not Biodiversity Friendly Stakeholders”.
The objective of this session is double: first describe landscape cases where extreme biodiversity loss has occurred in the last 50 years and no successful management solution has been implemented. Second, identify what type of small scale initiatives, with artificial ecosystems, can ensure, in the short and mid-term time scales, successful conservation of the genetic variability that many of these biological communities have. The final goal is to identify which ecological knowledge can be easily compiled to promote programs, through citizen science initiatives and Reconciliation Ecology projects to generate enough safe sites to reach zero biodiversity loss in those territories.

Coordinators: María Felipe-Lucia, Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE-CSIC); Héctor Hernández-Alonso, Département Ecologie Fonctionnelle, Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE-CNRS); Luis E. Santamaría Galdón, Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC) & María Viota, University of the Basque Country (UPV).

The need for mitigating and adapting to global change has called upon the scientific community to produce actionable knowledge ready to be used by decision-makers. This session will centre around ecological and, whenever possible, interdisciplinary research potentially suitable to tackle and solve socio-environmental challenges. Discussion will focus on the applied side of research and R+D projects, on the generation and transfer of actionable evidence, and on explicit efforts to bridge the research and policy spheres.

Key Questions:

• How can ecological and socioecological research, including citizen science and interdisciplinary approaches, generate actionable knowledge for decision-making?
• What do we know about biodiversity-health relationships and how urban and land management can contribute to human well-being?
• How can One Health and Planetary Health approaches support socio-ecosystem management and restoration?

Organizers: Daniel Nadal Sala, Universitat de Barcelona (UB) & Santiago Sabaté Jorba, Universitat de Barcelona (UB).

Management and restoration are essential to sustain both ecosystem integrity and human well-being in the Mediterranean, a region shaped by intense human pressure and recurrent climate stressors. The One Health approach provides a holistic framework to integrate environmental and social dimensions into ecosystem management. However, the diversity of Mediterranean ecosystems and socio-ecological contexts demands adaptive and context-specific strategies.
This thematic session will explore how One Health can be operationalized in management and restoration practices across Mediterranean terrestrial ecosystems. We will bring together case studies and perspectives from terrestrial and freshwater systems, highlighting successes, challenges, and knowledge gaps. Particular attention will be given to how adaptive management can respond to climate change, land-use pressures, and socio-economic constraints.
By fostering interdisciplinary dialogue, this session aims to identify common principles and practical pathways to implement One Health in ecosystem management, ultimately supporting more resilient socio-ecological systems in the Mediterranean.

Organizers: Stanislas Rigal, Foundation for Research on Biodiversity, Centre for the Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity, Montpellier; Clélia Sirami, Université de Toulouse, INRAE, UMR DYNAFOR, Castanet-Tolosan, France & Lauriane Mouysset, Centre International de Recherche sur l´Environnement et le Développement (CIRED) / AgroParisTech, Université Paris-Saclay, CIRAD, CNRS, EHESS, ENPC / Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Nogent-sur-Marne.

Economic growth increases the use and trade of resources, and impacts biodiversity through climate change, land-use change, and invasive species. The absence of absolute decoupling calls into question the possibility of halting and reversing the decline in biodiversity whilst remaining within the current macroeconomic system. Post-growth entails an equitable reduction in production and consumption to improve human wellbeing and ecological conditions, and thus requires a radical redesign of the functioning of society, institutions and the economy. A global reduction in direct pressures on biodiversity is therefore expected from the implementation of post-growth, but local dynamics of production relocation, for instance, make the effect uncertain in regions highly dependent on ecologically unequal exchange. So far, large-scale biodiversity scenarios are often linked to traditional growth-based socio-economic pathways, whilst post-growth scenarios remain silent on biodiversity aspects. The aim of this session is therefore to challenge the current socio-economic paradigm within which conservation is conceived and to open up the discussion on how to advance this area of research by identifying knowledge gaps, models and biodiversity variables that are relevant to mobilising. This session is initiated by the Beyonds project.

Organizers: Elisa Pizarro Carbonell, Estación Experimental de Investigación y Educación en Ecología. Coordinadora del living lab - Biodiversidad para el bienestar rural; Daniela Barría-Díaz, Dpto. Didácticas Específicas, Área de Didáctica de las Ciencias Experimentales, Universidad de Zaragoza & Rocío de Torre Ceijas, Dpto. Didácticas Específicas, Área de Didáctica de las Ciencias Experimentales, Universidad de Zaragoza.

Facing the current socio-environmental crisis, ecology have progressively strengthened its engagement with the rest of society, focusing on developing practical solutions to specific problems and sharing with other sectors the aim of the improvement of eco-social conditions on a global scale, with all the challenges that this entails.
In this context, education in ecology in the broadest sense is the foundation and cornerstone necessary for long-term collaboration between the science of ecology and society, facilitating not only the dissemination of scientific knowledge that a responsible society needs to have but also the forging of deeper connections between people and nature. An inclusive, diverse and collaborative ecological education encourage critical thinking, pro-environmental attitudes and a systemic understanding of reality, while sparking an interest in driving positive change. Likewise, education in ecology promote genuine collaborations between science and society, promoting a two-way exchange in which Ecology engages with and integrates other disciplines and social perspectives. In this sense, educating the younger generations is key to moving towards an eco-social transformation and fostering a more conscious citizenship committed to planetary care and prepared to build a resilient present and future for humanity.

Organizers: Pau Fortuño, Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF); Laura Force Seguí, Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) & María Begoña García, Pyrenean Institute of Ecology (CSIC).

To build resilient futures, terrestrial ecology must actively work on bridging nature and society through participatory and engaged research. Initiatives grounded in citizen science and hands-on participatory activities offer new opportunities to connect people with terrestrial ecosystems. These initiatives not only support data collection crucial for monitoring spatial ecology and biodiversity loss under global change but also enhance participants ecological literacy, fostering a deeper appreciation of forests, grasslands, and urban green spaces.
A key value of these activities is capturing citizens perception of environments and restoration actions, providing vital complementary knowledge that traditional monitoring may overlook, including human health concerns aligned with the One Health perspective. To strengthen this, ecology benefits from multistakeholder approaches and the quadruple helix model, which promotes cooperation between academia, public authorities, industry, and citizens. Applying this framework encourages integrated and participatory citizen participation and decision-making where conservation, social, and economic interests intersect, leading to inclusive environmental governance.
However, concepts like environmental literacy, citizen science, and stakeholder engagement often operate in parallel. Bringing these dimensions together could significantly enhance the impact of ecology on both scientific outcomes and community involvement. In this special session, we welcome everyone who brings terrestrial ecology closer to society. 

Organizers: Enora Bruley, CNRS - UGA - Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine & Sandra Lavorel, CNRS - UGA - Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine.

While thousands of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) pilot projects have demonstrated local success, a persistent challenge remains: moving from isolated interventions to systemic and large-scale social-ecological impact. This session, initiated by the SOLU-BIOD Archetypes Knowledge Hub, explores scientific and practical advances in scaling various NbS across its multiple forms, including geographic replication, policy integration, and social shifts.
The session follows a dual format. First, speakers will present research-based “scaling pathways”: the practical mechanisms (defined as complex interactions between multiple social and ecological factors) that enable widespread NbS adoption. Second, a collaborative workshop will invite participants to validate these models against their own real-world experiences. The objective is to move beyond abstract theory to identify the concrete mechanisms associated with the success or failure of scaling efforts.
This session will offer the opportunity to confront empirical practices with theoretical scaling models. By participating in this collective validation, researchers and practitioners will help refining a roadmap for scaling NbS that accounts for diverse social-ecological contexts. This session is particularly relevant for those addressing the practical requirements of NbS large-scale implementation, providing a space for the co-production of actionable knowledge.

Organizers: Paula Bruna Pérez, Ecotons group at Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF); Mar Sobral Bernal, University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) & Penélope María Vives-Ingla, Ecotons group at Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF).

Approaches combining art and science are becoming increasingly widespread, particularly in the fields of ecology and environmental sciences. These interactions have the potential to transform both ecological and artistic practices while generating profound changes in society. In this session, we invite contributions exploring the potential and limitations of art-science interactions in the context of ecological science, focusing on those that generate reciprocal influence between both disciplines ”for example, when artistic practices do not operate solely as mediation or communication tools, but actively participate in the formulation of questions, methodologies, or forms of knowledge production, opening new perspectives or testing hypotheses through art”. These interactions may occur across different stages of the process, from project design and conceptual development to research, production, and communication. We welcome conceptual or methodological contributions, as well as descriptions of specific experiences and case studies, provided they include elements that may be generalised to other contexts. We also encourage participation through artistic or hybrid formats (like performative presentations, audiovisual projections, expanded poster formats or others).

Organizers: Santiago Sabaté Jorba, Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, University of Barcelona (UB) / Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF);  Francesc Sabaté Comas, Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, University of Barcelona (UB) / Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) & Teresa Sauras Yera, Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, University of Barcelona (UB) / Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio).

The increasing threats posed by forest destruction and extreme climate change mean that sustainable forest management and restoration are more urgent than ever. This importance is reflected in the ambitious commitments made by governments worldwide, such as restoring 3.6 million square kilometres of forests—around six times the size of the Iberian Peninsula. Despite the high political priority of forest management and restoration, many knowledge gaps remain. For example, we still know relatively little about the impacts of management and restoration practices on key aspects like soil health, water quality, and complex biodiversity outcomes, such as species interactions. In addition, the trade-offs between environmental and social priorities, the contexts in which different management and restoration strategies are most effective, and the social factors that determine success remain unclear. This session will explore these crucial themes, aiming to provide a comprehensive overview of what works—and what doesn’t—when attempting to sustainably manage and restore forest ecosystems.

Organizers: Hallama Moritz, GRECO, Institute of Aquatic Ecology, University of Girona (UdG), Elena Velado-Alonso, Agroecology & Funcitonal Agrobiodiversity, Göttingen University; Anna Doménech-Pascual, GRECO, Institute of Aquatic Ecology, University of Girona (UdG); Elisa Oteros-Rozas, Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC); Miriam Florit Pons, GRECO, Institute of Aquatic Ecology, University of Girona (UdG) & Violeta Hevia, Social-Ecological Systems Laboratory, Department of Ecology, Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM)..

Agroecology is currently largely accepted as the key framework to foster the social-ecological sustainability of agri-food systems, halting the biodiversity loss and mitigating climate change and its impacts. Advancing agroecological transitions, however, requires rethinking ecological processes, social dynamics, and governance structures, while engaging with diverse stakeholder perspectives, needs and motivations. Thus, a stronger integration across disciplines and knowledge systems is required.

This thematic session brings together contributions spanning experimental and social–ecological research, and overall transdisciplinary approaches aiming at promoting agroecological transformations. We invite to present research exploring biodiversity patterns, soil, microbial ecology and ecological functioning of agroecosystems, biodiversity–ecosystem services relationships, farmers perceptions, motivations and decision-making, and policy, governance and other social-ecological processes relevant in agroecological transitions. Contributions may address processes across scales, from belowground communities to landscape dynamics, and examine how management practices influence ecosystem functioning under global change. We particularly encourage work that bridges disciplinary boundaries, integrates multiple knowledge systems, and connects research with practice through co-designed interventions. Researchers working at the interface of ecology, agronomy, livestock systems and sustainability sciences, are welcome to participate to foster a dialogue that advances both ecological science and agroecological innovation.

Organizers: José Valentin (Pipo) Roces  Díaz, Biodiversity Research Institute IMIB (University of Oviedo - CSIC - Principality of Asturias) & Cristina Quintas Soriano, Andalusian Center for Global Change - Hermelindo Castro (ENGLOBA), University of Almería (UAL).

Rural depopulation and associated land-use changes are reshaping landscapes worldwide. These processes are not only demographic or economic phenomena, but also major socio-ecological drivers affecting biodiversity, disturbance regimes, and ecosystem services. At the same time, these processes threaten cultural values, traditional practices, local ecological knowledge, and the biocultural diversity attached to the connections between rural communities and natural landscapes.
This session aims to explore the ecological and socio-cultural dimensions of rural depopulation by integrating perspectives from disciplines such as ecology, geography, biological conservation, forestry, or sustainability science. This topic has recently been explored in a Special Issue of the journal Ecosistemas (Vol. 35, 1). We welcome contributions addressing topics such as land-use change, forest transition, rewilding, ecosystem services dynamics, analysis of traditional management systems, social perceptions and values, and the conservation of biocultural diversity. Particular attention will be given to the interactions between ecological dynamics and human well-being, including how changing rural landscapes affect local identities, cultural values, and socio-ecological resilience.
The session seeks to promote interdisciplinary discussions on how to understand, manage, and adapt to ongoing rural transitions under global environmental change, while recognizing the importance of historical land-use legacies and the strong interdependence between rural and urban systems.

Coordinators: Julia Chacón, Area of Biodiversity and Conservation, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) / Global Change Research Institute (IICG-URJC); Franck Gilbert, LEFE-CNRS; Antonio J. Pérez-Luque, Institute of Forest Sciences (ICIFOR-INIA, Spanish National Research Council CSIC) & Martina Sánchez-Pinillos, Department of Biogeography and Global Change, National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN).

The increasing availability of open-access data and novel technologies offers new opportunities to improve our understanding of ecological processes across scales and levels of organization. However, these advances also pose new methodological challenges for efficiently integrating and synthesizing heterogeneous datasets derived from multiple sources, including citizen-science initiatives. Similarly, the large volumes of data generated by remote sensing technologies, bio-acoustic monitoring, or environmental DNA require efficient analytical methods and workflows. This session explores cutting-edge approaches and tools transforming ecological research, biodiversity monitoring, ecosystem modelling, and conservation strategies, while addressing challenges like scalability, interdisciplinary collaboration, and ethical implications.

Key Questions:

• Are imagery and bio-acoustics based methods ready for lab work and in situ monitoring?
• The generation of a significant higher data volumes IA analysed: good or evil?
• How can citizen science initiatives be effectively integrated with professional research to enhance data collection and public engagement?
• What role does remote sensing (e.g., drones, satellites) play in tracking ecosystem changes, and how can it complement ground-based observations?

Organizers: Juan A. Blanco, Department of Sciences, Public University of Navarre (UPNA) & Yueh-Hsin, Lo, Department of Sciences, Public University of Navarre (UPNA).

Forest ecosystems are complex entities in which ecological processes develop unique features over large spatial and temporal scales. Traditionally, process-based methods based on mechanistic representation of ecological process has demonstrated their capacity to simulate and project changes in forest ecosystems. However, nowadays the availability and increasingly reduced costs of equipment and technic to gather massive data (precision remote sensing of multitude of forest features) combined with expanded computing power (new techniques, methods and models to process and extract information for massive databases) are demonstrational increasingly capacity to generate traditional and new information to characterize forests. Therefore, in this new age of massive technological change a question is starting to be raised in forest modelling circles: do traditional process-based models still matter? Contributions describing what process-based forest models still can (or cannot) offer compared to new approaches will be welcome.

Organizers: Arthur F. Rossignol, INRAE, UR Écosystèmes Forestiers (EFNO) / AgroParisTech & Frédéric Gosselin, INRAE, UR Écosystèmes Forestiers (EFNO).

Species distribution models (SDMs) are major tools for studying and predicting the geographical distribution of species populations over space and time. Among these tools, joint species distribution models (JSDMs) have emerged as a powerful statistical approach for analyzing community datasets comprising multiple species. Indeed, these multivariate models account for among-species residual covariations that are not explained by the included predictors, via different statistical methods. It is acknowledged that interspecific residuals may arise from different sources "including omitted covariate(s), model misspecification, or biotic interactions" although the interpretation of what JSDMs can actually estimate remains a topic of important debate. Nonetheless, there are many avenues for further research into exploring the various abilities of JSDMs in helping to infer species-environment relationships and predict future distributions. In addition, challenges remain regarding mathematical formulations, statistical implementations, and computational costs of such models. This session will welcome simultaneously methodological contributions (assessments of inferential capacity and/or predictive performance, novel methods and JSDM implementations, new packages) as well as more ecological presentations (in which the use of JSDMs is clearly motivated and interpreted in the broader context of species distribution modeling).

Organizers: Alexandro B.Leverkus, Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, University of Granada; Victoria Grießmeier, Ecological Networks/ Biodiversity Exploratories / TU Darmstadt; Katalin Csilléry, Evolutionary Genetics Group, Biodiversity and Conservation Biology Unit, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL & Franca Marian, Ecological Networks/ Biodiversity Exploratories/ TU Darmstadt.

Coordinated, distributed and long-term experiments and research platforms have transformed our understanding of species interactions, ecosystem functioning and the maintenance of biodiversity by enabling experimental manipulation and standardized data collection across broad spatial, temporal and environmental gradients. They have been instrumental in overcoming the context dependence inherent to most individual studies and minimizing the unexplained heterogeneity common to meta-analyses. Longitudinal coordinated research infrastructures are particularly relevant in the context of climate change, as they allow us to identify temporal trajectories in ecological responses, their underlying drivers and the effects of extreme events. They enable robust inferences about ecological patterns and processes while fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and synthesis.
This session will bring together contributions from distributed and long-term research initiatives, embracing all aspects from research findings to methodological developments to stakeholder involvement. The session welcomes both original research and methodological contributions. We expect contributions from well-known long-term research infrastructures, such as the Biodiversity Exploratories, which have provided standardized long-term insights into the effects of land use on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning since 2006, but also from new initiatives and post hoc cross-site syntheses. The research scope may range from genes to ecosystems. We also encourage contributions addressing the broader opportunities and challenges of collaborative research itself, including data integration, network governance, ethical aspects of ecological research, career development, and the scientific and societal value of coordinated ecological research infrastructures for addressing global environmental change. 

Organizers: Josep M. Serra-Diaz, Botanical Institute of Barcelona (CSIC-CMCNB) & Admir Junior de Oliveira, Botanical Institute of Barcelona (CSIC-CMCNB).

Climate change and human influence on ecosystems are transforming ecosystems at an unparalleled pace and represent a challenge for science and society. Addressing ecological change in such context requires moving from descriptive and retrospective approaches toward predictive frameworks. Likewise, to truly become an actionable science, Ecology needs to move from long-term projections to near-term forecasts.
Ecological forecasting "defined as near-term predictions that include estimates of uncertainty" has consolidated as a discipline aimed at anticipating ecosystem change and informing ecological science and ecosystem management. Near-term forecasting establishes a learning loop in which predictions are iteratively compared with new incoming observations, and models can be updated accordingly, providing a rigorous test of ecological theory while serving adaptive management under uncertainty. Despite methodological advances, barriers including technical complexity, data shortfall, and lack of shared cyberinfrastructure continue to limit the reliability and broader uptake of ecological forecasts.
This session invites contributions that advance ecological and biodiversity forecasting across a diverse set of forecasting methods, multi-ecosystem applications, and researcher-practitioner co-production works. It aims to synthesize current progress, identify challenges across taxa and systems, and discuss pathways to leverage ecological forecasting, making it more robust, transferable, and actionable for conservation and management.

Organizers: Virginia Domínguez García, Doñana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC); Daniel Montoya, Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3); Blanca Arroyo Correa, IGB Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries; & Violeta Calleja Solanas, University of Oxford.

Ecosystems are not "static" they are continuously reshaped by environmental change, shifting species interactions, and evolution. Yet our ability to predict when and why they remain stable or collapse remains limited. A key reason is that the fields best positioned to answer these questions have largely developed in parallel, which is particularly visible in the study of stability itself. Theoretical traditions tend to focus on persistence, resilience, invasibility, and coexistence mechanisms, while the empirical domain emphasizes variability, synchrony, and ecosystem functioning in diverse communities. Despite sharing a common currency "changes in abundance through time" these perspectives rely on different assumptions, terminology, and metrics, and rarely speak to each other across approaches, timescales, or the divide between ecological and evolutionary processes. As a result, theory in this topic risks becoming untestable and data resists generalization.
This session brings together researchers working on ecological stability from different perspectives and timescales. We especially welcome contributions from those seeking to bridge different perspectives linking theory, experiments, long-term data, and statistical inference. Only by combining mechanistic models and real-world data can we uncover the general principles governing (un)stability across ecological and evolutionary timescales, allowing us to grasp how biodiversity will respond to anthropogenic pressures.

Organizers: Prosnier Loïc, Citeres, Université de Tours - Polytech'Tours; Irene Mendoza, Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, University of Sevilla; Emilie Rojas,  Rojas Miljørådgivning, Trondheim, Norway; Kevin Darras, Forest Ecosystems Research Unit (EFNO), INRAE & Théophile Turco, MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa.

Rapid environmental change is driving an unprecedented need for monitoring biodiversity with scalable and cost-effective methods. Bioacoustics — investigating how organisms produce, perceive, and respond to sound — and ecoacoustics — investigating entire ecosystems through their biotic, abiotic, and anthropogenic sound components — allow us to detect ecological alterations and dynamics.
Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) has been rapidly accelerated thanks to the reduction of costs of automated devices and the artificial-intelligence methods to massively analyze audio data. This has facilitated its use across multiple ecosystem types — terrestrial and aquatic — and across taxa (vertebrates, crustaceans, insects, cnidarians, and plants). However, many methodological and ecological challenges still remain and synthesizing ecological evidence is still needed. We welcome contributions from researchers, practitioners, and technology developers presenting fundamental research, applications, or methodological advances. We will cover a wide range of topics, including: automated species detection, soundscape ecology, biodiversity indicators, theoretical ecology, long-term monitoring, citizen-science initiatives, the integration of acoustic data with other datasets, biodiversity assessment, conservation, and the impact of anthropogenic noise.
We hope this session will foster interdisciplinary dialogue within an international community with diverse backgrounds, interested in sharing knowledge on current challenges, emerging opportunities, and future directions for acoustic monitoring in ecology.