The overall objective of the project is to demonstrate the ecological role of fontinal systems in minimizing global biodiversity loss in the face of climate change.

The project “Fontanal habitats in the face of climate change” is part of the “NATURAL SOURCES” program, led byBIOSCICAT, the Catalan Society of Sciences for the Conservation of Biodiversity, and has the support of the Biodiversity Foundation through its call for grants. It aims to explore and reveal for the first time the biological richness of natural springs, thus demonstrating that fontanal environments could be the richest habitats in biodiversity of Mediterranean continental ecosystems, but at the same time the most unknown, fragile, tiny and scarce, as well as the most vulnerable to climate change. Finally, the aim has been to be able to have data that demonstrate this worrying fact, initiating a process of awareness and mobilization of all the agents that should be involved in the conservation of natural sources, and of society in general, a process that will be reinforced in the future through new research and communication actions.

The research work has made it possible to demonstrate that natural springs are authentic oases of life, but also to obtain a better understanding of the structure and functioning of the fontanal ecosystem in mountain areas (both continental and insular), of the threats that affect them and of their state of conservation, as well as to lay the first foundations for their management and management. Among the results and conclusions obtained, it is worth highlighting the fact that all the sources studied have exclusive biological communities that are different from those of the rest of the sources, a fact that makes each of these small habitats a unique and unrepeatable biological universe, and underlines their fragility and the importance of their conservation.

The dissemination actions have made it possible to raise awareness among all the agents most directly involved in the conservation of the habitat (technicians and managers, administrations, natural spaces, owners, conservation entities, etc.), in whose hands the responsibility of restoring and preserving natural sources will remain. The conservation efforts that these agents can articulate in a coordinated manner will serve to enhance the functionality and ecological resilience of the fontanal ecosystem, and constitute the main possible adaptation measure to climate change scenarios that compromise its integrity.