Alarm Assessing large-scale environmental risks with tested methods

The ALARM consortium combines the expertise of over 68 partners from over 30 countries. ALARM encompasses 7 SMEs as full partners with central responsibilities. ALARM provides coherent scenarios of socio-economic, climate, land-use and other biodievrsity-relevant trends, exploring the framework conditions for biodiversity pressures. An innovative element of the ALARM prject is the combination of long term trend and short term shock scenarios, allowing a sensitivity analysis of currently predominating trend projections.

The main objectives of the ALARM project are:

• To develop an integrated large scale risk assessment to biodiversity as well as terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems.
• To focus on risks consequent on climate change, environmental chemicals, rates and extent of loss of pollinators and biological invasions in the context of current and future European land use patterns.
• To develop a research network different environmental drivers and pressures and across different spatial and temporal scales of ecosystem and biodiversity changes.
• To establish socio-economic risk indicators related to the drivers of biodiversity pressures as a tool to support long-term oriented mitigating policies and to monitor their implementation.

To achieve the objectives, ALARM consists of 3 major, methodologically defined work blocks:

• Application of scientific methods for basic research (RTD activity)
• Method tests and protocol development for applications (combined RTD/innovation activity)
• Dissemination of Results and Toolkits (innovation activity)

Important outputs of ALARM:

• Establishment of a European site network for ecological research
• Atlas of climate change impacts on biodiversity
• Assessment of parallel declines in pollinators and insect-pollinated plants in North-Western Europe
• Database on pollinators of Europe
• Quantification of importance of pollinators in changing landscapes for world crops
• Review on the effects of pollution on biodiversity
• Foundation of a biodiversity risk assessment publication series
• Identification key to European bee genera (2008)
• Development of EU policy scenarios (2008)
• Risk Assessment Toolkit for biodiversity (2009)
• ALARM atlas of biodiversity risks (2009)

Further information:

ALARM project.

ALARM project flyer.