DIASIN · Integrative Eco-mechanics of Diatom Sinking: Cellular Physiology, Complex Advection and the Biological Carbon Pump
7РП — „Хора“ (Действия „Мария Кюри“)
- Период
- 2012-01-01 → 2015-12-31
- Финансиране от ЕС
- 100 000 €
- Участници
- 1
- Схема
- MC-CIG
Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.
Накратко на български
Диатомеите (едноклетъчни водорасли) се изследват чрез биофизика и механика на течностите, за да се разбере как контролират плаването си във водата. Това помага да се разбере как тези организми остават в горните слоеве на океана и как влияят върху екологията на фитопланктона.
Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.
Резултати накратко
Integrative Eco-mechanics of Diatom Sinking: Cellular Physiology, Complex Advection and the Biological Carbon Pump.
The proposal constitutes the first applications of modern methods from experimental and theoretical fluid mechanics and biophysics to the understanding of diatom physiologically controlled buoyancy response to environmental signals. The research program was developed within a bottom-up approach investigating in great detail the described phenomena at the level of the single organism, before scaling the results back up to populations and communities. This required an approach which combines modern techniques in fluid mechanics, video-microscopy, micro-fluidics, flow cytometry, mathematical analysis and state of the art computational tools, with biochemical and cell biological techniques. On the theoretical side, the foundation of the emerging field of Complex Advection involves the use of unconventional approaches based on a conceptual blend of chaotic advection and agent-based dynamics which has not been systematically explored and which provides extremely interesting perspectives for future research. By integrating living and physical systems analysis, we have started to disentangle the different ways by which complex advection occurs in diatoms. In particular, we have addressed here for the first time the role of buoyancy control as an active component of diatom advection. Our results clearly indicate that active buoyancy control significantly enhances the probability of cells to stay suspended high in the water column with important implications for phytoplankton ecology and the size structure of the phytoplankton community.
Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз
Цел на проекта
Perhaps the most striking example of the influence of aquatic microorganisms in global cycles is their role in the oxygenation of the Earth's atmosphere and the transfer of photosynthetically fixed carbon from the ocean's surface to the deep ocean through sinking, a mechanism referred to as the Biological Carbon Pump, the process responsible for most of the oceanic uptake of anthropogenic CO2.Mainly driven by phytoplankton sinking, the Biological Carbon Pump is, at its core, a fluid dynamical problem coupling physiological processes with biogeochemical cycles. As such, it spans multiple levels of biological organization and its study requires an integrative and interdisciplinary approach.This proposal aims at critically advancing our knowledge of the biological pump and its response to global changes in the environment by breaking through the current physiological bottleneck and examining the range of scales necessary to predict what the future is likely to hold. Specifically, I will focus on understanding the organism's role in organism-environment linkages, promoting phytoplankton to an active - physiologically controlled - performer in the carbon cycle. The interplay between active physiological responses and fluid transport, in what I like to call Complex (or Intelligent) Advection, remains largely unexplored whereas its consequences for biogeochemical cycles in the ocean are of paramount significance.The role of organisms in organism-environment interactions, its study through the integration of living and physical systems analysis, and its repercussions for the time course of adaptation and acclimation are three of the ""Grand Challenges"" in organismal biology, identified by the Executive Committee of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB). All three challenges will be tackled within the proposed research program for the case of one of the most successful groups of eukaryotic micro-organisms in aquatic environments: the diatoms.""
Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).
Участници
- UNIVERSITAT DE LES ILLES BALEARS · PALMA DE MALLORCAКоординаторИспания
Връзки
Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз