Descripción: Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro «CITAB is a multidisciplinary centre with researchers that have expertise in agri-food, forestry, environmental studies and engineering. The key focus area for the new centre is ecosystems sustainability and the improved uses of natural resources. To cover vertical studies in all the systems the foci for the new centre were divided into four areas: ecointegrity, integrative biology & quality, biosystems engineering, and climate change. Emphasis will also be given on assessing the impacts of climate change in the living systems by practical experimentation and mathematical modelling. Biological and biochemical studies from the cell to the plant, technological inputs from the biosystems engineering group for physical and analytical modelling, embedded systems for remote sensing, monitoring environmental and physiological parameters, will generate data that can be applied to the systems to improve and optimise production techniques to overcome climatic effects whilst maintaining quality and high yields. Ecological disruption of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems will be evaluated using appropriate ecological indicators; indices and models will be established to integrate and predict cumulative anthropogenic effects, and the interaction between different ecosystems (e.g. ecotones).»
