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The entity points out that the effects of climate change can be detected from monitoring networks of biological communities and their biodiversity. These networks provide information on trends in biodiversity loss, on habitat alteration and on changes in interactions between organisms.

In Spain these networks are very scarce and usually refer to a single trophic level. In coordination with the Valencian Autonomous Administration, CSIC seeks to establish and subsequently maintain a network of permanent sampling plots in several of the existing Natural Parks in the Valencian Community that covers 20 of the terrestrial habitats of community interest present.

The purpose of this network is to provide a validated and scalable methodology to other territories, while providing data from different trophic levels to global biodiversity monitoring networks, allowing the Administration to comply with several international agreements on biodiversity and climate change.

The main objective of the project has been to establish a network for monitoring terrestrial biodiversity in different habitats and to validate a methodology that can be used in several autonomous communities in Spain.

The specific objectives were as follows:

• Establishment of permanent plots in the Valencian Community.
• Development of a methodology for monitoring biodiversity and data collection.
• Taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic analysis of sampling (plant species).
• Dissemination, distribution of data and results of the project.

• Dissemination and communication of the project.
• Establishment of 70 permanent plots in 10 natural parks in the Valencian Community, covering a total of 20 types of habitat.
• Data collection in the plot network during the execution of the project.
• Based on the data taken in the monitoring plots, physical, chemical, vegetation and soil DNA analyses have been carried out to identify the microbiota present in the plots (fungi and bacteria). In addition, a phylogenetic tree of the species identified in all the plots of the network has been developed.

The “Biodiversity and Climate Change Monitoring Network” project has focused on the creation of a network of plots for repeated biodiversity sampling over time, i.e. permanent plots. Each of the plots has been monitored in order to detect changes in vegetation and in the biological composition of the soil in the long term. These networks provide fundamental information on trends in biodiversity loss, on habitat alteration and on changes in interactions between organisms, since Spain are very scarce and there is currently no common methodology between regions.

In coordination with the Valencian Autonomous Administration, the project developed by CSIC has established a pioneering initiative called “Bioclima Network” based on the repeated sampling of 70 plots in different typical habitats of the region, distributed in 15 protected areas of the Valencian Community, including; the SCI/SAC “Aitana, Serrella i Puigcampana”, which shares territory with the SPA “Muntanyes de la Marina”, both areas of the Natura 2000 network located in the province of Alicante. Through the sampling, data have been obtained for the characterization of the soil, the associated microbial diversity , the vegetation and soil temperature through meteorological microsensors. Collaboration with natural parks, and the entities that manage the other protected areas, allows for greater protection of the sampling areas and a focus on the effects of climatic fluctuations.

Likewise, the initiative has made it possible to characterise 17 habitats of community interest , such as, for example, sub-steppic areas of grasses and annuals of Thero-Brachypodietea, Mediterranean pine forests of endemic Mesogean pines (9540) or forests of Quercus ilex and Quercus rotundifolia. 14 main tree species or subspecies have also been identified, such as; Juniperus oxycedrus subsp. macrocarpa, Juniperus thurifera, Pinus nigra, Pinus pinaster, Quercus ilex subsp. ballota or Quercus suber.

Within the framework of the project, a map of the location of the plots of the monitoring network was developed; the drafting of the “Sampling protocol in the plots of the Bioclima Network” and a citizen science sampling protocol for the collection of data on phenological stages. Finally, it has launched the Bioclima Network section on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development, Climate Emergency and Ecological Transition of the Generalitat Valenciana.

This network has made it possible to provide a validated methodology that can be exported to other territories, while providing data on different trophic levels (plants and microbial diversity, fungi and bacteria) and climate data at the soil surface level (currently very rare in the region). The data provided is in high demand by global biodiversity monitoring networks, enabling the Administration to comply with several international agreements on biodiversity and climate change.