Descrizione del progetto
L’impatto del paleocene sull’alterazione da intemperie del basalto
Le rocce si degradano in diversi modi, influenzate dall’acqua, dalle radici delle piante e da altri oggetti insieme all’espansione dei minerali. Il basalto si altera ancora più rapidamente perché non è duro come altre rocce e fonti esterne possono manipolarne la struttura più facilmente. L’impatto dei cambiamenti climatici e le elevate condizioni dei gas a effetto serra sono quindi amplificati nel processo di alterazione da intemperie del basalto. Il progetto PALEOCARBON, finanziato dall’UE, affronta la questione attraverso un complesso studio dell’alterazione da intemperie del silicato dei basalti durante il periodo dei gas a effetto serra nell’era paleocenica, milioni di anni fa. Esperti irlandesi e internazionali nello sviluppo e nell’applicazione di studi di botanica contribuiranno a raggiungere gli obiettivi di ricerca.
Obiettivo
The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement brought nations together to mitigate anthropogenic climate change, with the aim to keep global temperature rise below 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Artificially enhanced weathering of basalt, driven by intensified geochemical and biological processes that naturally promote the absorption of CO2, is considered as a potentially significant negative emissions technology. However, the impact of climate change and elevated greenhouse conditions on the rate and processes of basalt weathering and the role of plants in mediating this process are unconstrained. This Marie Skłodowska Curie Individual Fellowship will address this uncertainty by a multidisciplinary study on silicate weathering of basalts during the Paleocene climatic greenhouse world, using state-of-the-art botanical and geochemical proxies, tools and methods in the PALEOCARBON project. The project will focus on three main objectives: (1) Quantifying elevated Paleocene pCO2, temperature and precipitation levels using fossil leaves; (2) Constraining processes & intensity of silicate weathering and carbon drawdown potential in Paleocene basalts; (3) Quantifying elemental uptake of plants grown in high pCO2 laboratory conditions, to constrain the role of plant in mediating weathering processes. The fellow will work with and bring together Irish and international world-experts in the development and application of botany-based climatic and atmospheric proxies (prof. Jennifer McElwain), and basalt (silicate) weathering processes (prof. Frank McDermott), to accomplish the PALEOCARBON research-objectives on constraining fundamental end-member parameters that control the efficiency of (artificially) enhanced weathering as a potential negative carbon emissions technology. This prestigious fellowship will enable the fellow to attain career maturity and independence, and to become a leader in the European research community.
Campo scientifico
Programma(i)
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Meccanismo di finanziamento
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinatore
4 Dublin
Irlanda