PrioritIce

Glacial habitats host an astonishing diversity of species and life forms; however, most of the world’s mountain glaciers are melting due to climate change, threatening glacier biodiversity and the functioning of mountain ecosystems. In Europe, glacier retreat is particularly severe for the southernmost, peripheral mountain chains, where the smallest glaciers occur. The European Habitat Directive includes ‘Permanent Glaciers’ in the list of habitats deserving conservation, and glacial habitats host several endemic species. Nevertheless, none of these species is listed in the Habitat Directive, and information on biodiversity of these environments is scarce, hindering our ability to manage mountain socio-ecological systems.

PrioritIce aims at identifying trends, threats and processes acting on the biodiversity associated to glacial habitats (i.e. species living above the glacier or in glacier forelands) in Europe, with a focus on the areas hosting critically endangered habitats. Studying the distribution, abundance and functions of biodiversity across mountain environments, PrioritIce will enhance evidence-based protection approaches and shed light on the conservation of a poorly known, unprotected biota. The integration of innovative statistical and molecular methodologies will allow us to improve our knowledge of glacial biodiversity and its ecological role in the functioning of glacial habitats in order to identify priority conservation areas. This will provide practitioners, managers and policy makers with the much-needed knowledge for defining adequate strategies for preserving mountain biodiversity and ecosystems.

Partners

Publications

1. Cantera, I., Giachello, S., Munkemuller, T., Caccianiga, M., Gobbi, M., Losapio, G., Marta, S., Valle, B., Zawierucha, K., Thuiller, W., Ficetola, G.F., 2025. Describing functional diversity of communities from environmental DNA. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2024.1010.1007.
2. Giachello, S., Cantera, I., Carteron, A., Bonin, A., Guerrieri, A., Ambrosini, R., Caccianiga, M., Gobbi, M., Marta, S., Ficetola, G.F., 2024. Functional changes of protist communities in soil after glacier retreat. Science of the Total Environment, 956, 177265.
3. Ficetola, G.F., Marta, S., Guerrieri, A., Cantera, I., Bonin, A., Cauvy-Fraunié, S., Ambrosini, R., Caccianiga, M., Anthelme, F., Azzoni, R.S., Almond, P., Alviz Gazitúa, P., Ceballos Lievano, J.L., Chand, P., Chand Sharma, M., Clague, J., Cochachín Rapre, J.A., Compostella, C., Encarnación, R.C., Dangles, O., Eger, A., Erokhin, S., Franzetti, A., Gielly, L., Gili, F., Gobbi, M., Hagvar, S., Kaufmann, R., Khedim, N., Meneses, R.I., Morales-Martínez, M.A., Peyre, G., Pittino, F., Proietto, A., Rabatel, A., Sieron, K., Tielidze, L., Urseitova, N., Yang, Y., Zaginaev, V., Zerboni, A., Zimmer, A., Diolaiuti, G.A., Taberlet, P., Poulenard, J., Fontaneto, D., Thuiller, W., Carteron, A., 2024. The development of terrestrial ecosystems emerging after glacier retreat. Nature, 332, 336-342.
4. Marta, S., Zimmer, A., Caccianiga, M., Gobbi, M., Ambrosini, R., Azzoni, R.S., Gili, F., Pittino, F., Thuiller, W., Provenzale, A., Ficetola, G.F., 2023. Heterogeneous changes of soil microclimate in high mountains and glacier forelands. Nature Communications 14, 5306
5. Giachello, S., Cantera, I., Carteron, A., Marta, S., Cipriano, C., Guerrieri, A., Bonin, A., Thuiller, W., Ficetola, G.F., 2023. Toward a common set of functional traits for soil protists. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 187, 109207.