Project description
Resilience of cold-water coral communities to environmental change
Cold-water coral (CWC) reefs are threatened by fishing activities. Considered vulnerable marine ecosystems, several mounds and canyons hosting CWC reefs in EU Atlantic waters have been classified as Marine Protected Areas. But this is not enough. There is a need to incorporate management plans and policies that take into account particulate organic carbon fluxes that shape deep-sea benthic communities. The EU-funded CWCC-Dynamics project will explore the dynamics of CWC communities in mounds and margins of the North Atlantic and examine how different environmental factors may be influencing them. The results will shed light on the resilience of CWC communities to environmental change.
Objective
Mounds and margins on the North Atlantic host highly diverse and structurally complex megabenthic communities, such as cold-water coral (CWC) reefs. These communities have been widely impacted by fishing activities, and thus CWC reefs are identified as vulnerable marine ecosystems in need of protection. Recently, several deep-sea environments (e.g. mounts, canyons) hosting CWC reefs, in EU Atlantic waters have been integrated in Marine Protected Areas (MPA). However, few of these MPAs have incorporated management plans. To establish suitable management policies, it is required to implement monitoring strategies that account for these diverse community dynamics and how they may be influenced by environmental drivers. Particulate organic carbon (POC) fluxes are known to shape deep-sea benthic communities, indicating that variations in food supply is a major driver affecting community structure and dynamics. Yet, the relationship between POC fluxes and benthic community dynamics at different temporal and spatial scales are not fully understood. Elucidating deep-sea benthic community dynamics, represents an important challenge for future research especially as management of human impacts becomes a priority. This project’s main goals are to assess the dynamics of CWC communities in mound and margins on the North Atlantic, and examine how different environmental factors may be influencing them. Community dynamics will be assessed via convolutional neural networks which will allow to assess changes in community composition and structural complexity on 3 areas that have been monitored with benthic platforms equipped with HD cameras and several environmental sensors during several months (12 – 24 months). This project will be of wide scientific interest as it will provide insight into the resilience of CWC communities to environmental change and the basis to establish a set of essential variables to be monitored over the long term and support sound conservation actions.
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: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries fisheries
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering sensors optical sensors
- natural sciences computer and information sciences artificial intelligence computational intelligence
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
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.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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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.
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.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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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.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
3526 KV Utrecht
Netherlands
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.