Project description
Assessing vegetation under different climatic conditions globally
The optimised balance between the photochemical and non-photochemical energy pathways of absorbed radiation in plant species is poorly understood. To enhance our knowledge of this concept, the EU-funded PHOTOFLUX project aims to understand and quantify the dynamic plant adaptation process, which will allow a quantitative assessment of photosynthesis optimisation in a changing global context. To do this, the project will employ an interdisciplinary experimental approach to quantify carbon absorption from the description of the processes of use and dissipation of solar energy absorbed by plants. The project’s work is part of the developments of the European Space Agency’s 8th Earth Explorer mission termed Fluorescence Explorer.
Objective
Millions of years of evolution have produced extraordinary adaptations and solutions for plants to face the naturally excessive solar energy which commonly cannot be fully utilized by the light harvesting pigments of leaves. To find a balance between the harvesting of and the protection against the solar radiation conditions, all plants employ flexible thermal or non-photochemical energy dissipation mechanisms. Yet, inherent capacities for these flexible dissipation mechanisms differ between plant species and can change along seasonal conditions but also short-term physiological strain of the plants. The optimized balance between the photochemical and non-photochemical energy pathways of absorbed radiation is a very dynamic concept which remains physically poorly understood. Deriving these energy components and assessing them in a global context would greatly advance our knowledge on the basic energy functioning of vegetation, making room for possible improvements in food production or understand required capacities to cope with climatic changes. With the ambition to quantify actual photosynthesis from space for agricultural management units, ESA will launch in 2024 the FLuorescence Explorer (FLEX) as 8th Earth Explorer mission equipped with a novel sensor payload dedicated to the retrieval of solar-induced fluorescence and the reflectance at a high-spectral resolution. This proposal, named PHOTOFLUX, will take a novel approach to spectrally disentangle the photochemical and non-photochemical components of harvested light, building on a quantitative understanding of the energy partitioning within the light reactions. Not only will this strategy serve a bottom-up conceptual understanding of the photosynthetic light harvesting at global scale, it will also bring the possibilities to quantitatively assess productivity under the climatic constraints and the need to dissipate the excess energy to keep photosynthesis at optimal rates.
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: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- social sciences economics and business economics production economics productivity
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering sensors
- natural sciences biological sciences botany
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
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.
-
HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
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.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
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) ERC-2021-STG
See all projects funded under this callHost institution
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.
46010 Valencia
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.