Assessing the capacity of quarry biodiversity and ecosystems to cope with climate challenges

Final project report

Spain

Arrigorriaga, Bizkaia

Biodiversity management, Endangered and protected species, Invasive species, Landscape management, Nature based solutions, Rehabilitation/restoration, Scientific research, Soil management

Quarry Life Award 2021

The project will develop a tool to understand future scenarios of climate change in the current vegetation around the Rezola quarry in Arrigorriaga based on the most recent cartographic and remote sensing information found in public, free and open-access information repositories.

All this will be materialized by 2D and 3D visualizations. The study will analyze the distribution of species as well as their life cycle status in order to plan future substitution of forest stands. The results will be enriched with maps of habitats of community interest (HCI), distribution of protected species and the most relevant ecosystem services in the study area, which, validated with field information, will make it possible to identify areas of maximum environmental interest.

Finally, some basic guidelines will be established to replicate this analysis model anywhere in the world, providing a list of resources to do so.

Essential climatic variables: Photosynthetic activity (NDVI)

One of the ways of knowing whether climate change is already affecting the biodiversity of an area is by studying time series of climatic variables. This post analyses the time series of photosynthetic activity from 2001 to 2021. One way to observe photosynthetic activity is by calculating a spectral index of satellite measurements. The NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) has been used as it is the most common index in these cases.

26Jun

Scenarios for climate change

The two 2 models of climate change scenarios analizad are RCP8.5, and RCP4.5. The data of these scenarios for the Basque Country are available in GeoEuskadi. The behavior of these models has been studied for temperature, precipitation and number of days of extreme heat up to the year 2100

20Jun

Ecosystem Services: Overview

This entry continues the analysis of ecosystem services. It refers to 3 points, which are reflected in the attached images: 1. Culturas services 2. Summary of ecosystem services groups 3. Aggregatred value of ecosystem services

06Jun

Ecosystem Services: Regulating Services

Ecosystem services are the benefits that people obtain from ecosystems, including those benefits that people perceive and those that they do not perceive. These services are classified into three groups: 1. Provisioning or production (such as food, water, energy), 2. Regulating (such as climate control, water purification, pollination), 3. Cultural (education, aesthetics).

31Mayo

Land cover evolution

This entry shows the evolution of the Rezola quarry study area through the analysis of a historical series of orthophotos.

22Mayo

Some notes on the hidrology of the area

This entry shows some hydrographic variables obtained from the digital elevation model. In particular, the drainage network and the topographic index of humidity are shown.

17Mayo

Some notes on the orography of the area

This entry shows the micro-watersheds of the study area as well as its elevation model and the corresponding slope and orientation maps.

09Mayo

First look at the Rezola quarry in Arrigorriaga

The first step to be able to propose measures to conserve and promote biodiversity in the surroundings of the Rezola quarry in Arrigorriaga is to know the area. Here we indicate by 2D and 3D maps what will be the area in which the work we propose will take place.

03Mayo

Con el apoyo de

Biodiversity stories

Project AMPHIQUARRY: Are abandoned quarries essential refugees to ensure amphibians connectivity??

Con el apoyo de