A lift from Cost Action ‘Bottoms-Up’

The “bubbles” are the symbol of Grenoble. They are the famous tourist cable cars, shaped as spheres, that, with a journey through the air, will bring you quickly to the top of the mount that watch over the town. In few minutes, you get right at the Bastille, so that you can keep your energy to continue the day trip to the other peaks.

I think that the “bubbles” are a good metaphor of what the Short-Term Scientific Mission in Grenoble meant to me.

Between the 5^th and the 22^nd of February, I have been hosted by Dr. Yoan Paillet at the INRAE Institute of Grenoble to work on the topic of birdlife diversity in relation to temperate subalpine forests’ structure. This topic fits, of course, within the main focus of the Cost Action 18207 “Bottoms Up - Biodiversity Of Temperate forest Taxa Orienting Management Sustainability by Unifying Perspectives”, but it is also very relevant to my PhD research project. Indeed, the core objective of my study is to assess the additionality in biodiversity conservation of Natura 2000 network in forest areas, using bird as biodiversity indicators.

They have been two and a half very intensive weeks of collaboration. Data from different regions of Europe (mainly Italy and France) have been put together, to find a pattern of relationship of bird species richness and forest features. The dataset was quite large, and the approach entailed the application of recent methodologies. However, having a close collaboration with an expert from another country helped to speed up the process. All the people involved in the data collection and elaboration have been kind and helpful throughout my stay in Grenoble. Knowing that time was limited fostered my receptive attitude and allowed me to learn and acquire more.

The Short-Term Scientific Mission carried out in Grenoble acted like a catalyser, like a cable car it brought me to the set target: remarkable progress in my PhD research. The experience opened a path for future collaborations, and it pushed the Cost Action a step further.

A lot of energy has been saved – all those ‘tartes au citron’ where not justified by an increased need of sugars, then - now I can head to the next peaks I see at the horizon.

Post by Alessia Portaccio