P4 · Plight of Pelagic Primary Producers in a Changing Marine Environment
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-05-06 → 2023-05-05
- EU contribution
- €224,934
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Plight of Pelagic Primary Producers in a Changing Marine Environment
One of the regions that is currently experiencing the largest warming trend is the Indian Ocean. Within this region, the marine plankton communities, that forms the base of the marine food web is already significantly impacted by rising sea surface temperatures. With the projected anthropogenic increase in future global temperatures and consequent atmospheric and oceanographic changes likely happening over the coming decades, understanding long-term biotic variability and ecosystem function is a key prerequisite to advance our capability in modelling the present and future marine ecosystem response to climate change. Using unprecedented high-resolution sediment materials from the Southern Indian Ocean, this fellowship, ‘Plight of Pelagic Primary Producers in a Changing Marine Environment (P4)’ has combined biological, physical, and geochemical signals from coccolithophores, a major group of calcifying marine algae, focusing on the MPWP, a time interval considered to be the closest past analogue for future warm climate scenarios we will experience during the coming century. Through the generation of quantitative coccolithophore-based palaeoclimate records, P4 offers multiple potential opportunities to address the role of the Indian Ocean in the Earth’s climate system and better assess the impacts of extreme climate events in the marine environment. Motivated to investigate the impact of past climate extremes on these ecosystems and to shed light on the dynamics of coccolithophores in the tropical and subtropical Indian Ocean during the MPWP, P4 has tested the following key hypotheses: (1) Coccolithophore communities quantitatively responded to long-term climatic changes during the MPWP; (2) Coccolithophore calcification and production increase with elevated atmospheric pCO2 concentrations; and (3) Variations in local carbonate chemistry impact the coccolithophore calcification process. Associated with these key hypotheses are three primary research objectives (RO): RO1. To determine the response of coccolithophore communities to sustained global warmth during the MPWP; RO2. To investigate the relationship between coccolith production and pCO2 levels; and RO3. To examine the long-term adaptation of coccolithophores to variations in CO2 concentrations in the surface water.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The P4 fellowship will test the impact of past climate extremes on marine ecosystems using coccolithophores, a group of marine primary producers that experienced first order effects of climatic changes in ancient pelagic oceans. Here we will use sedimentary materials of exceptional quality recovered during IODP Expedition 361: South African Climates from the Mozambique Channel (Site U1476), Natal Valley (U1474), Agulhas Plateau (U1475), and Cape Basin (U1479), to reconstruct surface water biotic response during the Mid-Pliocene Warm Period (MPWP; 3.264 to 3.025 Ma), an interval considered to be the nearest analogue for future warm climate. For the first-time, recovery of a complete Pliocene/Pleistocene succession in this region offers an unprecedented and timely opportunity to investigate episodes of major ocean and climate reorganizations during the Neogene period. With this, P4 is original and novel, being able to combine biological (assemblage composition), physical (volume, mass), and geochemical (trace elements, stable isotopes) coccolithophore-derived datasets for understanding the climate of the MPWP, and explore its link with the past dynamics of the greater Agulhas Current system. P4 is innovative and collaborative, using state-of-the-art analytical techniques, and in combination with other proxies from ongoing works of other IODP Expedition 361 scientists, offer a broad context for understanding 21st century global climate vulnerabilities. Thus, P4 results and our understanding of the potential future response of coccolithophore species to a warming world will underpin the future design of evidence-based monitoring, mitigation, and management strategies of marine ecosystem and environment. Furthermore, an exceptional set of training and transferable skills between the Experienced Researcher, the Supervisor, and the Secondment Hosts is envisioned, an important prerequisite for the successful delivery of P4’s ambitious research objectives.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- CARDIFF UNIVERSITY · CARDIFFCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union