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How salty was the Mediterranean Outflow Water?

Project description

Studying the salinity of Mediterranean outflow water in the past

Temperature and salinity are crucial seawater parameters as they have a profound impact on marine ecosystems and climate change by regulating global thermohaline circulation in the Atlantic Ocean. Among the two, the salinity aspect remains largely unstudied. In this context, the MSCA-funded HowMOW project aims to explore a new salinity indicator by extracting geochemical components of calcareous marine microfossils to reconstruct past salinity variations of the Mediterranean outflow water (MOW), which plays a vital role in global thermohaline circulation. The goal is to obtain a new tool for studying and improving our understanding of past climate variations.

Objective

Heat and salt are major components of the thermohaline circulation of the global conveyor belt as they regulate the masses of water bodies and and hence ocean-climate dynamics. The thermohaline circulation (THC) has played a significant role in the past climate extremes such as the onset of the Northern Hemisphere Glaciation. Although the temperature component of the THC can be extracted applying various methods such as foraminiferal magnesium/calcium thermometry and alkenone thermometry, salinity information of past seawaters is still among the unknowns in paleoclimate studies due to the lack of a direct paleosalinity proxy. Thus the role of one important salt contributor, the Mediterranean Outflow Water, to the deeper levels of the THC during major climate shifts in the geological record is scarcely documented. To that extent, this research proposal aims at establishing and exploring a new proxy that will allow to extract information on past salinity changes in seawater from deep-sea benthic foraminifers. As second step, I will investigate the role of the Mediterranean Outflow Water in the THC and the shift in ocean-climate dynamics during a well-documented major climate shift, i.e. the Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition (1.2-0.7 Million years ago), when the 41-kyr glacial-interglacial cycles were replaced with 100-kyr abrupt cycles. Execution of this project will allow me to enhance my scientific portfolio by learning a new technical instrument, joining a new research group in an internationally fast-growing research center, having the opportunity to manage my own research budget, and benefitting from the experience of the chosen supervisor, which are positive impacts for an early career scientist in becoming an established independent researcher.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01

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Coordinator

CENTRO DE CIENCIAS DO MAR DO ALGARVE
Net EU contribution

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.

€ 172 618,56
Address
UNIVERSIDADE DO ALGARVE
8005-139 FARO
Portugal

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Region
Continente Algarve Algarve
Activity type
Research Organisations
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Total cost

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