Project description
Revealing the secrets of hibernation
Surviving harsh winters requires physiological adaptations, especially for small mammals that hibernate. These animals enter a state of prolonged torpor, relying on internal and environmental cues such as daylight duration and temperature changes to regulate their cycles. Understanding the impact of past and present climate shifts on hibernation patterns is key to predicting how species will cope with future global warming. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the AROUSE project will analyse the teeth of fossil and modern Alpine marmots. Using cutting-edge chemical and microscopic techniques, it will uncover insights into hibernation duration, metabolic shifts, and enamel mineralisation. This research will provide tools for studying hibernation history and forecasting its future evolution.
Objective
Many heterothermic mammals exploit multi-day torpor (i.e. hibernation) to face harsh climates. The timings and the regulations of this process are controlled and influenced by several intrinsic and extrinsic factors such as e.g. the circannual biological clock of the animal, the day-length, the spring temperature, the snow-melt date. Yet, how these animals answer(ed) global climate changes is still a matter of debate. With the AROUSE project I will examine the hibernation timing and the bone elemental metabolism of small mammals from a new unexplored perspective, by analyzing well-dated fossil and modern hibernating rodent teeth straddling the last glacial-interglacial cycle. Specifically, I will exploit the enamel incisor micro-chemistry (high-spatially resolved elements and isotopes), histomorphometry and proteomics of geographically-constrained Alpine marmots to: 1) precisely measure sex-specific hibernation length; 2) investigate metabolic changes in relation to (paleo)climate seasonal fluctuations; 3) unravel dental enamel secretion and mineralization behavior during winter torpor; 4) search for specific dental chemical biomarkers of hibernation, transferable to other disciplines. For the first time, this project will provide a robust tool for the retrospective study of hibernation events in dental specimens, allowing to deepen our knowledge about hibernation plasticity but also to possibly investigate the evolutionary trajectories of torpor in deep-time. AROUSE will also help to understand how marmots adapted to secular climate variations, possibly forecasting the effects of global warming on modern hibernating mammals.
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 biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins proteomics
- natural sciences biological sciences zoology mammalogy
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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.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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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.
Funding Scheme
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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-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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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) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01
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60323 Frankfurt Am Main
Germany
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