Historical and current pHytoplankton interactions with viruses: Emiliania huxleyi case study

Objective

The major problem of the global ecology is the abrupt increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in Earth's atmosphere. As one of the most critical effects of burning fossil carbon by human action is the rapid acidification of the oceans. Indeed the CO2 diffuses into the surface layers of the global ocean, including causing a significant decrease in pH and carbonate ion (CO3-). These acidic conditions make biomineralization of calcareous shell increasingly difficult, threatening biodiversity with extinction of calcifying plankton ecosystems, with all the brutal feedback effects on regional and global climate. In particular, coccolithophores, haptophytes microalgae covered with small calcareous scales occur today ~30% of pelagic carbonates, a central process of the carbon cycle between the different compartments of the biosphere. How will coccolithophores react to abrupt climate changes? More our understanding of how biodiversity will respond to abrupt climate changes is limited by a fundamental lack of understanding of eukaryotic ocean biodiversity, and rates of biodiversity change. This project aims to understand the complexity and rate of adaptation in Emiliania huxleyi, a dominant coccolithophore in modern oceans, through the study of its ecological distribution and genetic diversity in space and time. The study takes into account viruses that are fundamentally associated with E. huxleyi life history, regulating population dynamics, representing a significant biotic stress factor with dramatic effects on phytoplankton biodiversity. Metabarcoding methods will be applied in contrasting environments in the North Atlantic Ocean through series of historical samples dating from 1960. The overall goal of this study is to understand genetic adaptabilities in a key functional assemblage of the pelagic ecosystem; abilities that could enable organisms to adapt and survive in multi-stress environments, virus infection and increasing acidification of oceanic water masses.

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.

• humanities history and archaeology history
• natural sciences biological sciences microbiology virology
• natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry inorganic compounds
• natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences meteorology biosphera
• natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

• FP7-PEOPLE - Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

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.

• FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF - Marie-Curie Action: "Intra-European fellowships for career development"

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF
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.

MC-IEF - Intra-European Fellowships (IEF)

Coordinator