Project description
Exploring Arctic microorganisms’ warming resilience
Warming in the Arctic poses significant threats to microorganisms in the sea ice biome, which plays a crucial role in marine life and climate gas interactions. However, our understanding remains limited due to the biome’s complexity and a narrow focus on specific microhabitats. This incomplete view may lead to inaccurate assessments. The ERC-funded Micro-SHIFT project aims to fill these knowledge gaps by investigating microbial diversity and production within the sea ice biome. By emphasising the importance of sea ice in Arctic marine biodiversity and production, the project seeks to address the uncertainties highlighted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It will combine microbiology, geography, and biogeochemistry and use innovative sampling techniques.
Objective
Unprecedented warming in the Arctic is threatening microorganisms of the sea ice biome that support life in the marine ecosystem and influence atmosphere-ocean interactions of climate relevant gases, like CO2. Yet, characterisation of sea ice biodiversity, an index of system susceptibility to environmental change, and its productivity, are dangerously incomplete. These shortcomings largely stem from the biome’s complexity, which is a dynamic relation of several microhabitats, and an oversimplified focus on photosynthetic activity in only a subset of all microhabitats present. My pilot research indicates these deficiencies likely misrepresent the biome’s resilience to warming and its function as an autotrophic carbon source in the Arctic Ocean.
Micro-SHIFT tests this hypothesis by targeting critical knowledge gaps on microbial diversity and production for the range of microhabitats truly comprising the sea ice biome. In doing so, it defines the contribution of sea ice to Arctic marine biodiversity and production, and addresses uncertainties highlighted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The multidisciplinary project traverses microbiology, geography, and biogeochemistry. It uses novel innovations for sampling microhabitats in targeted field campaigns and laboratory experiments to identify the biome’s resiliency. Together, these breakthroughs enable modelling that completely accounts for biome productivity, now and in the future.
Micro-SHIFT would be the first holistic project considering all sea ice microhabitats together. It is an ambitious task, but one that I am ideally suited for with 10+ years of sea ice experience. In this time, I have laid the foundations to accomplish project objectives: developing essential O2-based approaches and completing pilot studies that build best practices. Project outcomes will transform our view of the sea ice biome, revealing how we can expect this fragile system to change as the Arctic continues to warm.
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.
- social sciences economics and business economics production economics productivity
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences geochemistry biogeochemistry
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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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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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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.
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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.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-STG
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9019 Tromso
Norway
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