Project description
Human and climate impacts on the carbon sink ecosystems
Carbon sinks are instrumental in preventing atmospheric carbon levels from rising as they absorb more carbon than they release. Peatlands and seagrass meadows are a valuable agent in resisting climate change and their conservation is vitally important. Due to the scarcity of long-term monitoring, knowledge on factors that threaten natural carbon sinks is limited. The EU-funded PALAEOCON project proposes a palaeoecological approach to study terrestrial and marine carbon sinks for informed conservation processes. The researcher will investigate the peatlands and seagrass meadows in the Iberian Peninsula to estimate human and climate impacts on carbon sink ecosystems.
Objective
Carbon sink conservation is a priority under the current Global Change scenario. However, our understanding of the factors that threaten natural carbon-storage systems is limited by the paucity of long-term records capturing their responses to anthropogenic- and climate-driven perturbations. Much of this limitation arises from the short time span covered by ecological monitoring, usually going back just a few decades at best. To capture decadal-to-millennial scale dynamics, an alternative approach is to use the palaeoecological record. Here, I propose a multiproxy palaeoecological approach to study the long-term resilience of two paradigmatic terrestrial and marine carbon sinks: peatlands and seagrass meadows. I will monitor changes in biodiversity and carbon storage ability using a state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary combination of palynology and charcoal analysis, dating by lead and carbon isotopes, sedimentology, geochemistry and numerical methods. Integrating these complementary proxies, I will reconstruct millennial-long ecological dynamics (e.g. long-term trends and regime shifts) to evaluate the effect of human and climate impacts on carbon sinks’ ecosystem services. This knowledge will inform conservation priorities by identifying the most influential drivers of ecological change. Moreover, it will propose conservation targets by reconstructing pre-anthropogenic ecosystem states. To increase its translatable impact, PALAEOCON will focus on Iberian habitats that are protected under the Habitats Directive of the European Commission. Indeed, I am committed to engaging with environmental authorities to complement current conservation strategies. On a broader scale, PALAEOCON will produce high-resolution, multiproxy records on the Holocene palaeoenvironmental history of southwestern Europe. By offering valuable insight to both applied and basic science, PALAEOCON will help advance my career aspiration of establishing as a world-class leader in palaeoecology.
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.
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences geology sedimentology
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences palaeontology palynology
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences palaeontology paleoecology
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
- natural sciences mathematics applied mathematics numerical analysis
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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-2018
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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.
15782 SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA
Spain
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.