University of Bucharest (UB) is one of the leading higher education institutions in Romania and South-Eastern Europe contributing actively through research and teaching to the development and use of knowledge. Its main objective is to offer high-quality academic programs and research facilities in order to become a forefront of research and education. In its 150 years of existence, UB has gained solid national and international recognition, being the first Romanian academic institution in the QS World University Rankings. Part of the UB, the Department of Systems Ecology and Sustainability (DSES) is aimed at human resource formation in the field of systems ecology and sustainability at graduate, master and doctoral level and implementation of research projects in the field of ecology. The expertise of researchers in the department covers: the dynamic structure and functions of population/species, ecosystem structure, assessment of ecosystem functions and services, as well as their carrying capacity, studies of hydrogeomorphological units, GIS and remote sensing, and study of socio-ecological systems sustainability. Our department was the promoter of the implementation of integrated and adaptive management plans for protected areas and the establishment and development of the national network for long-term (socio-)ecological research (NLTSER) that is integrated in the European (ELTER) and Global (ILTER) networks.

Principal Investigator:

Constantin Cazacu is researcher at the Department of Systems Ecology and Sustainability of the University of Bucharest. His PhD thesis was entitled “Dynamic of structure and functional role of zooplankton in aquatic ecosystems from wetland areas / Lower Danube River System”. He was member of the research teams responsible for the implementation of over 15 EU – financed projects (Framework Programme 4-7). At national level, he was involved in the implementation of over 15 projects. In the last 5 years he was member of teams responsible for the implementation of 5 projects. He was coordinator of one project, entitled “Spatio-temporal dynamics of the ecosystems from Braila Islands LTSER under the impact of climate change”, funded by National Research Council (NURC). Recently he finished his postdoctoral studies in ecology aimed at describing the dynamics of ecosystem spatial distribution considering different climate change scenarios.
Within Ecopotential he is involved in WP5 and WP7, and leads the subtask 5.1 in WP5.