Objective
Tropical forests and savannahs cover between 15 and 20% of the Earth’s land surface, and dominate the tropics of South America, Australia, Asia and Africa. These two biomes exert a profound control on temperature, precipitation and carbon storage, and are also important centres of biodiversity. The evolutionary history of tropical forests and savannahs is of major international concern, and an understanding of the controls on tropical plant diversity can inform conservation efforts designed to prevent tropical plant extinction during the current anthropogenic biodiversity and climate crises. Project MioVAT (Miocene Vegetation of the African Tropics) will investigate the evolutionary history of the tropical forest and savannah biomes in West Africa during the Miocene (23-5.3 million years ago) using fossilized pollen and spores. The Miocene was a critical period in the evolution of West African tropical vegetation when grasses utilizing the C4 photosynthetic pathway began an explosive phase of ecological expansion that resulted in the birth of the savannah biome. The objectives of Project MioVAT are as follows: (1) To generate a c.20 million-year record of tropical plant diversity in West Africa from the latest Oligocene to the earliest Pliocene; (2) To quantify the nature and timing of plant extinction in the Miocene of tropical west Africa; (3) To quantify the taxonomic diversity of grasses during the birth of the savannah biome in the Late Miocene using fossil pollen grains. This research is designed to investigate the long-term controls on tropical plant diversity such as global temperature, investigate the role of extinction in shaping the tropical vegetation of West Africa, and understand the biome-scale diversification history that underlies the evolutionary success of grasses. Project MioVAT will create long-term collaborations, share knowledge, and result in mutually beneficial research co-operation between Europe and the United States.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- humanities history and archaeology history
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture grains and oilseeds
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences climatology climatic changes
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IIF
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
EX4 4QJ Exeter
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.