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FABIO BERZAGHI


I am a researcher studying the role of wild animals (mammals and fish) in
ecosystems and how their interactions with the environment affects
biogeochemical cycles and climate. I work across disciplines including ecology,
environmental sciences, and financial economics. I use different types of data
and models to quantify the contribution of animals to Earth System processes and
valuate their ecosystem services to finance conservation and help decision
making.

I'm currently a researcher at the World Maritime University, part of the United
Nations, where I work on the carbon sequestration of mesopelagic fish in
relation to fishing deepsea mining. I am also leading the science at Rebalance
Earth, a global ecosystems services platform for valuing and funding a living
nature to combat climate change, biodiversity loss and lifting communities out
of poverty and a scientific advisor for Blue Green Future, a private company
bringing finance into the protection of nature to apply financial tools to
real-life nature-based solutions.

 * Homepage
 * Current research
 * News
 * Publications-CV
 * Bio
 * Contact


CURRENT RESEARCH


 * MAMMALS, BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES, & CLIMATE
   
   Mammals influence primary productivity, and the functioning of ecosystems by
   consuming biomass, predating on mammals and other animals, and recycling
   nutrients. These interactions have consequences on carbon
   dynamics,biogeochemical cycles, green house gas fluxes, and ultimately
   climate. During my EU H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie project "MegaBiCycle", I
   have explored the global role of large terrestrial herbivores in nutrient
   cycling and climate and produced a financial valuation of wild animal carbon
   services. I am now expanding to marine mammals and carnivores.


 * REMAP - GLOBAL MODEL OF MAMMALS POPULATIONS
   
   REMAP (REproducing MAmmal Populations) is a global model simulating the
   population dynamics of different mammal functional types competing for
   resources. Currently REMAP simulates present-day and Late Pleistocene
   herbivore populations and includes up to 28 Herbivore Functional Types
   defined by their diet, digestive system, and body mass. REMAP can be coupled
   with global vegetation models to study the ecology and functional role of
   mammals in ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles; a description of REMAP can
   be found in our publication.


 * PNUTS: GLOBAL DATABASE OF PLANT NUTRITIONAL PROPERTIES
   
   Plant nutritional properties (crude proteins, fibers, minerals, tannins, and
   dry matter) and energy content are key traits determining the quality and
   quantity of food intake of humans, wild and domestic animals. I am interested
   in how these properties vary as a function of other plan traits and how they
   influence animal and human eco-physiology and food quality. To investigate
   these questions, we have created PNuts a global database of Plant Nutritional
   values, containing 12000+ georeferenced records and 1000+ species of
   nutritional traits for different plant organs (leaf, stem, fruit, seed,
   flower, bark, etc.). PNuts can be used for macroecology, modelling, and plant
   ecology studies. Please get in touch if you would like to get involved to
   improve PNuts or develop a collaboration.

 * Learn more about current and past projects


NEWS AND PRESS COVERAGE

 * July 2022: Our article Value wild animals’ carbon services to fill the
   biodiversity financing gap was featured on the cover of Nature Climate
   Change. We describe a new framework to value the carbon services of wild
   animals to achieve the win-win of mitigating climate change, reducing
   biodiversity loss, and financing local communities to be nature caretakers.

 * June 2022: Our article on Financing conservation by valuing carbon services
   produced by wild animals was published in PNAS. We estimate that if African
   forest elephants were protected, their carbon services would be worth $20.8
   billion within the next 10 years, that is enough to finance conservation and
   improve socio-economic conditions of local communities.

 * April 2022: BBC Future published an article on the importance of forest
   elephants and African rainforests in mitigating climate change and the
   valuation of carbon services provided by elephants that could help finance
   conservation.

 * September 2020: Through a collaboration with financial economists, including
   the International Monetary Fund, we evaluated the carbon service provided by
   forest elephants. "Each elephant provides a service worth up to 1.75 million
   USD!. The IMF also produced a podcast featuring myself and IMF assistant
   director Ralph Chami . We are now developing a pilot conservation project in
   central Africa so that elephant services can be used to finance their
   protection and conservation and for the benefit of local communities.

 * December 2019: Our opinion paper on how to include trait variability in
   vegetation models was published in Trends in Ecology and Evolution "Towards a
   New Generation of Trait-Flexible Vegetation Models" . Thanks to all the
   colleagues from PROFOUND who participated in this work!

 * August 2019 and press coverage: Nature Geoscience published our paper on the
   effect of forest elephants on the carbon cycling of African tropical forests
   . The paper received worldwide press coverage including The New York Times ,
   The Conversation , The Independent , and several news outlets in countries
   such as India, Russia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, and was even featured in
   The Poetry of Science .

   See older news
   
   May 2019: I was awarded the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship
   which will allow me to spend two years at the Laboratory of Climate and
   Environmental Sciences (LSCE) in France working on my "MegaBiCycle" project
   on the role of megafauna on biogeochemical cycles and climate! My supervisor
   will be Philippe Ciais
   
   Press coverage: The Independent and Atlas Obscura covered our recent
   publication regarding the conservation of birds in East Africa.
   
   September 2018: Article and blog post. Our article on bird conservation in
   the Albertine rift was published in The Condor, and I was invited by the
   American Ornithological Society to write a piece for their blog, cowrote with
   John Bates.
   
   April 2018: Seed masting working group at the University of Milan. The TG-20
   had its final meeting to set the ground for future collaborations on masting
   research to follow up on our article on how to model masting.
   
   March 2018: I joined the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences
   (LSCE) in Paris, France for a postdoc position. I was awarded a
   CEA-Eurotalents fellowship part of the Marie Skl odowska-Curie Actions
   Programme. At LSCE I will work with Philippe Ciais to study the role of large
   herbivores in biogeochemical cycles.

   


PUBLICATIONS - CV


2022

Berzaghi F, Cosimano T, Fullenkamp C, Scanlon J, Fon TE, Tunga Robson M, Forbang
JL, Chami R. Nature Climate Change. In press

Berzaghi F, Chami R, Cosimano T, Fullenkamp C. Financing conservation by valuing
carbon services produced by wild animals. PNAS.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2120426119


2021

Yang H, Ciais P, Chave J, Huang Y, Ballantyne A, Yu K,

Berzaghi F, Wigneron JP. Coarse woody debris are buffering mortality-induced
carbon losses to the atmosphere in tropical forests. Environmental Research
Letters. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abd58a


2020

Berzaghi F, Wright IJ, Kramer K, Oddou-Muratorio S, Bohn FJ, Reyer CPO, Sabate
S, Sanders T, Hartig F. Towards a New Generation of Trait-Flexible Vegetation
Models. Trends in Ecology & Evolution. doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2019.11.006


2019

Berzaghi F, Longo M, Ciais P, Blake S, Bretagnolle F, Vieira S, Scaranello M,
Scarascia-Mugnozza G, Doughty CE. Carbon stocks in Central African forests
enhanced by elephant disturbance. Nature Geoscience.
doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0395-6


2018

Berzaghi F, Engel J, Plumptre A, Mugabec M, Kujirakwinjad D, Ayebarec S, Bates
J. Comparative niche modeling of two Laniarius bush-shrikes and the conservation
of mid-elevation Afromontane forests of the Albertine Rift. The Condor:
Ornithological Applications. doi.org/10.1650/CONDOR-18-28.1

Berzaghi F, Verbeeck H, Nielsen MR, Doughty CE, Bretagnolle F, Marchetti M,
Scarascia-Mugnozza G. Assessing the role of megafauna in tropical forest
ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles - the potential of vegetation models.
Ecography. doi.org/10.1111/ecog.03309

Vacchiano G, Ascoli D, Berzaghi F, Lucas-Borja ME, Caignard T, Collalti A,
Mairota P, Palaghianu C, Reyer C, Sanders T, Schermer E, Wohlgemuth T,
Hacket-Pain A. Reproducing reproduction: How to simulate mast seeding in forest
models. Ecological modeling, 376, 40-53. doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2018.03.004


2017

Andersen JH, Berzaghi F, Christensen T, Geertz Hansen O, Mosbech A, Stock A,
Zinglersen K, Wisz M. Potential for cumulative effects of human stressors on
fish, sea birds and marine mammals in Arctic waters. Estuarine, Coastal and
Shelf Science, 184, 202-206. doi:dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2016.10.047


2014

Wisz M, Andersen JH, Berzaghi F(eds), Christensen T, Clausen DS, Johansen KL,
Geertz-Hansen O, Hedeholm R, Nymand, Zinglersen KB. A catalogue of available
data describing ecosystem components and human stressors in the sea west of
Greenland. Working Document for Nordic Council of Ministers, 38 pp.


SHORT BIO

I hold a PhD in Ecology, main topic "modelling plant-animal interactions in
tropical forests". Before becoming interested in Ecology, I completed a Master's
degree in Computer Science and, among others things, worked on educational and
commercial videogames. Thanks to my diverse background and mix of skills I have
worked across ecosystems and taxa, from African elephants to Greenland fishes,
and had the opportunity to experience life and cultures in countries around the
world. I also enjoy teaching and science outreach activities.


FABIO BERZAGHI

Address Parc National des Calanques
Marseille • France Email ti.sutinu@ebaf
 * 
 * Twitter
 * GitHub


RELEVANT PEOPLE AND RESEARCH GROUPS

Phillippe Ciais, LSCE University of Tuscia, DIBAF, Italy Chris Dougthy, Northern
Arizona University Ralph Chami, International Monetary Fund Hans Verbeeck,
CAVElab, University of Gent

© Fabio Berzaghi. Design: HTML5 UP.