Lakes provide an important water resource for agricultural and industrial purposes, and form a critical habitat for plants and animals. Understanding the hydrological functioning of lakes is fundamental to understand hydrological feedbacks related to changing environmental conditions in the context of current climate change and also of increasing importance for environmental policy. Stable isotope ratios of water (2H/1H, 18O/16O) are widely used in lake hydrology studies, providing information on the hydrological balance of lake systems. However, in cases where the system is under-defined, a full quantitative assessment of the lake’s hydrological balance is challenging. Recent investigations have demonstrated that the additional analysis of the rare oxygen-17 isotope can provide additional quantitative information about the hydrological and environmental conditions during lake evaporation. The HydrO-17 Project will explore the potential of the triple oxygen isotope analysis (18O, 17O, 16O), expressed as 17O-excess, for quantitative hydrological balancing of lakes by examining the seasonal isotope evolution of hydrologically different lake systems in the Andalusian lowlands, Southern Spain, where agricultural overexploitation of groundwater aquifers over the last decades led to a severe water deficit. Current climate change will further intensify these problems. The results of the project will contribute to the understanding of the hydrological functioning of lake systems in Andalusia, with implications for local water management strategies. The approach has potential application to lakes in other regions in the world. The outcomes will also help to improve the interpretation of paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental information obtained from paleo-lake sediment archives.

In the last decade, the production and consumption of organic food has increased dramatically worldwide. The EU organic food market generates a turnover of more than 22 billion € with a total of approximately 11 million ha and 250,000 farms (2013). However, based on the literature reviewed, neither internal supply nor the legislative framework has kept up with this market expansion, been necessary a further harmonisation of methodology in data collection. On the other hand, the lack of reliable markers for the discrimination between organic and conventional products makes this market susceptible to attempted fraud. The Commission Regulation in a recent report (No 889/2008) highlights the need for greater cooperation between industry, Government, enforcement agencies, consumer groups and organisations. In this context, the project proposes to confirm the utility of the new state-of-the-art techniques in mass spectrometry analysis (IRMS and HRMS), in combination with MSA, to improve information (qualitative/quantitative) in both food control safety and quality and their application to organic products. It will offer analytical approaches to (i) obtain wide-ranging information about contaminants, (ii) determine natural components and (iii) establish (dis)similarities between products. The “ORGANIC QUAL TRACERS” project comes in response to the key requirement for solving the authentication challenges in the organic-food sector, especially in organic vegetables as they are the pioneering products in Europe. The proposal offers a contribution to the objectives set out in the Horizon 2020 Strategy (“A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth”).

Every landscape on Earth is influenced to some degree by people, and in turn, societies and cultures are shaped by landscapes. Biocultural diversity is the notion that biological and cultural diversity are dependent on each other, and that biological diversity is managed, conserved, and created by different cultural groups. Agricultural landscapes are visibly shaped by human practices, and in these areas the relationship between nature and culture runs deep, where everyday practices and traditions have coevolved with the environment over millennia. This is especially true in Mediterranean agricultural landscapes where the traditional management of the land have endured over millennia. However, these landscapes depend on human interventions and currently are threatened by their abandonment, driving by migration to more urban areas, intensification processes, or aging of population, having a direct impact on the human well-being of local communities. In this project, I propose an interdisciplinary methodology to identify how gender equity can promote pathways for future conservation of mountain agricultural in the biocultural regions of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in South of Spain. To this end, I will first (1) evaluate current and future biocultural practices developed by local communities in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. Then (2) I will map biocultural practices as elements for conservation of landscapes and the ecosystem services provided using a gender perspective. Finally (3), based on participatory approaches, I will identify future pathways to secure the maintenance of local well-being and the conservation of biocultural landscapes to foster gender equity and landscape sustainability. By considering traditional ecological knowledge, perspectives and needs, the project will inherently address broader societal issues such as gender and environmental justice, with the last goal to support future development of rural areas in south of Spain.