We Were Awarded a Fondecyt Grant to Research Mountain Networks on Southern Volcanoes

The project explores how mountain birds connect with one another, and with their environment, across 10 volcanoes in La Araucanía and Los Ríos. Through the study of nests, flocks, and soundscapes, it seeks to reveal invisible networks that sustain life under extreme and changing conditions. The research is led by our conservation director Tomás Altamirano, together with Tomás Ibarra (UC) and Ángela Sierra-Almeida (UdeC).

In the mountains, life happens in networks. A nest built in a rock crevice, a flock of different species foraging together, every relationship between a bird and the tree that shelters it — all are part of a web that sustains the functioning of mountain ecosystems. Understanding how these connections are organized, how they vary with elevation, and how they might be affected by climate change is the central goal of Mountain Bird Networks: Interactions Across Elevation Gradients and Climate Change in the Temperate Andes, a FONDECYT Regular 2026 project recently awarded to us under the leadership of our conservation director, Tomás Altamirano.
The project, carried out in partnership with the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, builds on our foundation’s ongoing research lines in mountain conservation and biodiversity, strengthening its scientific presence in collaboration with academia. Also part of this research are Tomás Ibarra, an ecologist and specialist in socio-ecological systems from the UC Center for Local Development (Cedel UC), and Ángela Sierra-Almeida, a high-altitude botanist from the Faculty of Natural and Oceanographic Sciences at the Universidad de Concepción.

Beyond species

Most biodiversity studies focus on how many species exist in a given place and in what numbers. But that approach has a limit: it doesn’t reveal how those species relate to one another. It is precisely those interactions that sustain the functioning of ecosystems and life on Earth. Ecological networks — understood as complex structures of interactions among coexisting species — are a powerful tool for evaluating how these bonds are organized under different habitat and climate conditions.
One of the novel aspects of this project is that it integrates two types of bird networks — nesting networks and flocking networks — within a single analytical framework, and in one of the most unique and least studied mountain ecosystems in the world.
The research will take place across 10 volcanoes in La Araucanía and Los Ríos — Tolhuaca, Lonquimay, Sierra Nevada, Llaima, Sollipulli, Rukapillán, Quetrupillán, Lanín, Choshuenco, and Mocho — along an elevation gradient ranging from 250 to 2,250 meters above sea level. The project will study which substrates birds use for cavity nesting (trees, soil, or rock) and which species associate in mixed-species flocks as they move and forage together.
“From the moment a bird lays an egg in the cavity of a tree or rock, a bond is established. We want to understand whether there are trees, rocks, or processes playing a fundamental role in these webs of life. Not all trees are the same, not all rocks serve the same purpose, and not all processes have the same impact. Beyond individual components (a tree or a rock), we want to know how processes such as tree decomposition, volcanic eruptions, or water erosion influence the organization of mountain life networks,” says Altamirano.

Mountain networks: where are they headed?

Two hypotheses shape this FONDECYT project. The first proposes that at higher elevations and in more extreme environments, species tend to cooperate more with one another — meaning networks will have more connections in high-altitude zones. The second suggests that these connections will form a network that is connected but less cohesive. The tension between both hypotheses points to one of the project’s central questions: do more connections translate into greater stability?
Climate change is amplified with elevation. There is growing evidence that climate change is pushing mountain birds toward higher elevations. For example, some forest species could be forced to move above the treeline, where forest no longer exists. Even more vulnerable, high-Andean species see their range restricted to the point of local extinction. Moreover, the impact on species interactions may occur even before changes in geographic distribution are detected.

To model this scenario, the Foundation, together with the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and the Universidad de Concepción, will project how the geographic range of each species might shift under different climate change scenarios through the year 2100, cross-referencing that information with the role each species or element plays within the network.
“This project is of great relevance. We are actively working with academia, as part of a biodiversity monitoring network on volcanoes, to understand the vulnerability of mountain biodiversity and contribute knowledge and possible pathways for adaptation. This is good news — we are paving a scientific and collaborative road in service of conservation,” adds Altamirano.

Carrying out this research in remote, climatically extreme, and ecologically complex ecosystems poses considerable logistical and analytical challenges. It is precisely those challenges that give the project its scientific value. By integrating ecological network theory with original field data from one of the least studied mountain regions in the world, this FONDECYT project addresses a gap in biodiversity science. Its results will not only contribute to national conservation priorities, but also to international efforts to understand and protect biodiversity in the face of accelerating climate change.

Footnotes:
[1] The progressive variation in temperature, vegetation, and species composition that occurs as one ascends from the base to the summit of a mountain.
[2] FONDECYT Regular is Chile’s main scientific and technological research competition, managed by the National Research and Development Agency (ANID). Its goal is to promote research grounded in science and technology across diverse fields of knowledge.