Project description
Research bridges the gap between marine biological diversity and climate models
The ocean’s microbes play an outsized role in global primary production – they contribute nearly half, despite their small biomass. Nitrogen fixation is a process where specialised microbes, called diazotrophs, convert nitrogen into a usable form for marine life. These microbes are incredibly diverse, thriving in various environments with unique growth strategies and metabolisms. Yet, current climate models fail to capture this diversity, creating uncertainty in predicting future ocean productivity. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the UNIT-FIX project plans to use large-scale meta-omics data to map diazotroph diversity and incorporate it into advanced frameworks. By improving predictions of marine ecosystems and their response to climate change, UNIT-FIX should help support global efforts to protect ocean health.
Objective
Marine microbes, while only representing 1% of the photosynthetic biomass on Earth, contribute nearly half of global net primary production. Nitrogen (N) is one of the most limiting nutrients in the ocean, controlling marine phytoplanktonic growth and carbon storage. The primary source of nitrogen in the ocean is nitrogen fixation, a process achieved by diazotrophs using the nitrogenase enzyme. Over the last 20 years, the biological knowledge on nitrogen fixation has significantly evolved with the advent of meta-omics data (i.e. high-throughput sequencing of full communities). It is now clear that diazotrophs are a diverse group with various lifestyles, growth strategies and metabolisms, allowing them to occupy a wide range of ecological niches. Yet, climate models models fail to capture diazotroph diversity, leading to uncertainty in predictions of future marine primary production. The advent of marine big data, including large scale environmental meta-omics datasets, offers a chance to bridge biological diversity observations with biogeochemical modelling to enhance marine ecosystem future predictions in a changing climate.
In UNIT-FIX, I aim to take advantage of the wealth of public meta-omics data to achieve three overarching goals: (1) develop a holistic and data-driven description of diazotroph diversity, (2) implement diazotroph diversity into data-driven modelling frameworks, and (3) improve predictions of the future states of diazotrophs and associated impacts on marine productions in a changing climate. These goals will be reached by bridging genome-level omics data and state-of-the-art modelling methods, including niche modelling, metabolic modelling and biogeochemical modelling. Highlighting key actors from marine microbial ecosystems and paving the way for their integration in climate models, UNIT-FIX will contribute to Sustainable Development Goals 13 and 14 of the United Nations: Climate Action and Life Below Water.
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 ecology ecosystems
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins enzymes
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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.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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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.
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.
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-2024-PF-01
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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.
BS8 1QU BRISTOL
United Kingdom
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.