Category: Partners

Description of the organisation

ETH Zurich (ETHZ) is one of the world’s leading international universities in natural sciences, engineering and architecture. It has more than 20,000 students from over 120 countries including 4000 doctoral students. ETH Zurich is consistently ranked first among all universities in continental Europe, and among the top 10 worldwide. According to the Nature Index 2018, ETHZ is the world’s top ranked university in the field of Earth and Environmental Sciences. The participating Environmental Physics group under the leadership of Prof. Gruber is part of the Environmental System Sciences Department, which encompasses 42 professorships ranging from agriculture, ecology and evolution to atmospheric and climate sciences.

Expertise particularly relevant for the project

The Environmental Physics group has nearly 20 years of experience in the analysis and modelling of physical, biogeochemical, and biological processes in the Earth system. The group has currently 15 members (1 group leader, 2 senior scientists, 1 programmer, 4 post-docs, and 6 Ph.D. students, 1 support staff). One of the focus areas in recent years is the regional modelling of the coupled biogeochemical-physical-ecological processes in the circumpolar Southern Ocean, and in three of the Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems (California, Humboldt, and Canary). The setups of the employed Regional Oceanic Modeling System (ROMS) combine full eddy-resolution in the region of interest with basin-wide coverage, permitting the group to explicitly include all exchanges between the region of interest and the entire basin. The group has also long-term experience in the analysis and synthesis of ocean observations. For example, the group recently developed and applied a new method to identify the global change in the amount of anthropogenic CO2 stored in the ocean. Further, Gruber co-led several synthetic analyses of the global carbon budget, including RECCAP.

For more information visit ETHZ website.

Description of the organization

The CSIC is the largest public institution dedicated to research in Spain and the third largest one in Europe. Belonging to the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, its main objective is to develop and promote research that will help bring about scientific and technological progress. The CSIC is formed by 126 institutes distributed all around the country and undertakes projects covering all fields of knowledge. The Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas de Vigo (IIM) hosts a wide range of oceanographic analytical facilities and a 25 meters long vessel, which allow the development of interdisciplinary research in marine sciences. In particular, its Oceanography Department has experience in field-orientated research, both in coastal and open ocean systems, covering key issues of the chemistry (carbon and nutrients cycling) and biology (microplankton ecology, primary production models) of marine ecosystems. The Instituto de Ciencias Marinas de Andalucía (ICMAN) also develops research projects at the coastal fringe and at basin scale. Its infrastructures include a remote sensing service for ocean colour and several analytical facilities. Its Department of Ecology and Coastal Management has a broad experience in the study of the physical-biological coupling in several marine eco-regions, such as the Gulf of Cádiz, Strait of Gibraltar, Alboran Sea and the Antarctic. Both CSIC institutes have been actively involved in EU projects, such as MORENA, OMEGA, CANIGO, CAVASSOO, SESAME, CARBOOCEAN, CARBOCHANGE, INGOS, PERSEUS, MareFRAME ATLANTOS and FarFish.

Expertise particularly relevant for the project

The IIM group has been a pioneer in determining the capacity of the ocean to take up anthropogenic carbon. The magnitude and dynamics of the uptake has been assessed in different regions, including the entire Atlantic Ocean. Through its participation in national and European funded projects, numerous high impact publications have been released, mainly dealing with the improvement of methodological techniques to estimate the oceanic withdrawal of anthropogenic CO2 but also with the characterization of CO2 transport by water masses and mixing processes along with the study of the air-sea CO2 exchange fluxes variability. The ICMAN group research interests lie within the field of marine biogeochemistry. Its members have been involved in a a high number of projects funded either by the EC or national agencies, whose main region of study has been the Mediterranean Sea. The expertise of the group will be then applied to assess the influence of the Mediterranean flow on the biogeochemical cycles of the North Atlantic.

In meantime visit CSIC website.

Description of the organisation

The University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) was established as a full University in 1992 but was before acting as Polytechnic University by 30 years. It now has 21,000 students and nearly 2,500 staff members, and it is at the forefront of teaching and research in Marine Science, Veterinary and Engineer. The Marine Science study was established as a Faculty in Spain in 1982 in the ULPGC. More than 400 undergraduate students and 30 doctoral students receive teaching class and research at the Faculty every year. The Marine Chemistry group at the University of Las Palmas ULPGC, (QUIMA) was created 24 years ago and became part of the Instituto de Oceanografía y Cambio Global (IOCAG) in 2014, focusing in the study of the carbonate system chemistry and in the trace metal speciation processes in seawater with international collaborations with the University of Miami, the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology at the Russian Academic of Sciences, and most of the European Marine research centres.

Expertise particularly relevant for the project

The research group QUIMA-IOCAG at the ULPGC started in 2000 working on the biogeochemical behaviour of iron in seawater through laboratory experiments and in situ studies. Its expertise has benefited from both several long visits to the RSMAS-University of Miami research group and research projects by the Spanish Ministry of Science ECOFEMAR (MEC, BQU2003-04010), EFEMAR (MEC, CTM2006-09857), EFECO2 (MCI, CTM2009-12526), ECOFEMA (MCI, CTM2010-19517, subprograma MAR), EACFe (MINECO,

CTM2014-52432-P). These projects have resulted in numerours research publications of high impact factor related with the study of the iron oxidation kinetics under the effects of pH, temperature, ionic strength and the presence of organic ligands from natural exudates. The first paper on the effect of organic matter on the behaviour of Fe(II) in seawater (Santana-Casiano et al., 2000) is considered a master piece in the research group. The effect H2O2 in the persistence of Fe(II) in seawater and the competition with oxygen (González-Dávila et al., 2005, 2006) has also been studied. Using natural phytoplanckton cultures, the group has extracted and characterized different polyphenols compounds (Rico et al., 2013; López et al., 2015) and studied the effects of those individual compounds in the Fe(II) oxydation kinetics (Santana-Casiano et al., 2014). This type of work has shown how the presence of organic ligands with catecholate groups are able to reduce Fe(III) to the most bioavailable Fe(II) species, explaining also the decrease in the Fe(II) oxidation rate in these media and conditions. These studies have also been done in several oceanic regions at in situ conditions, including the Sub-Artic (Santana-González et al., 2018), and the submarine volcano Tagoro in the Canary Islands (Santana-Casiano et al., 2013, 2016; Santana-González et al., 2017). The kinetics equations developed by the ULPGC group for the inorganic Fe(II) oxidation as a function of temperature, pH and salinity (Santana-Casiano et al., 2005), have been included in the biogeochemical-circulation models (OGCBMs, ocean general circulation and biogeochemistry models) in the ocean (Tagliabue and Völker, 2011).

For more information ULPGC website.

Description of the Organisation

The Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques (MF-CNRM) is the research department of Météo-France. It is responsible for conducting the largest part of the research activities in weather forecasting, climate modelling, atmospheric chemistry, land-surface processes including snow related processes, oceanography, and for coordinating research/development within other departments of Météo-France, from the historical data rescue to numerical weather forecast, avalanche prediction, or wave and storm surge forecasting. Within MF-CNRM, the climate research group «GMGEC» is in charge of the development of global state-of-the-art CNRM climate models (CNRM-CM) and Earth system models (CNRM-ESM), which includes components dealing with the atmosphere dynamics and chemistry (ARPEGE), ocean and sea ice (NEMO-Gelato), land surface & biosphere (SURFEX), and oceanic biogeochemistry processes (PISCES). Alongside the development of its climate and Earth system model, MF-CNRM contributes to the study of climate variability, of the projection of climate at global and regional scales, of atmospheric chemistry, ocean-air interactions and global carbon cycle. MF-CNRM has a long history within the climate research community and contributes to the successive IPCC reports.

Expertise particularly relevant for the project

As the French weather forecast institution Météo-France (MF-CNRM) has closed connection with policy and stakeholders. Besides, Météo-France is deeply involved the COPERCINUS Climate Services as a providers of seasonal climate prediction at European scale.

For more information please visit: MF-CNRM website.

Description of the organisation

CLS, a subsidiary of CNES (French Space Agency) and IFREMER (French Research Institute for Exploration of the Sea), develops since 1986 satellite services in location and environmental data collection, space oceanography and radar detection. With a staff of more than 500, in France and abroad, CLS offers to a broad range of professionals including: government, industry and the scientific community, services in three major domains: environmental monitoring, maritime security, and management of marine resources. CLS has a solid experience in satellite data processing sea surface temperature, ocean colour and radar imagery as well as in in-situ data processing (ARGO float, drifters, and tide gauges). CLS operates the ARGOS data collection and location system offering a wide range of services for safety, environmental and human activity monitoring and ecological studies (animal tracking). CLS is both involved in research and development activities and in operational oceanography and services for end-users (off-shore industry, ship-routing, fisheries management). It is one among the partners of the COPERNICUS Marine Environment Monitoring Services (CMEMS), being responsible of the sea level TAC (Thematic Assembly Center) thanks to 20 years of experiences in processing, validation and disseminating satellite altimetry data.

Expertise particularly relevant for the project

Since 2006, CLS has developed a Marine Ecosystems Modelling activity to contribute to a better understanding of how marine ecosystems function, under the influence of both human activities and climate-environmental variability. It also provides useful tools for ecosystem-based management and sustainable exploitation of marine resources, especially the so-called SEAPODYM (Spatial Ecosystem And Population Dynamics Model) software (www.seapodym.eu). This model is coupled to physical-biogeochemical model to simulate low and mid-trophic functional groups, and then detailed spatially-explicit population dynamics of fish under the influence of their oceanic environment and the various fisheries exploiting the modelled target species. Once the model parameters have been optimized using historical fishing data, it can be used to run projections under climate change scenarios.

For more information please visit CLS website.

Description of the organisation

École normale supérieure (ENS): At the same time a French “Grande école” and a University. At the heart of the “Quartier Latin” in Paris, the École normale supérieure provides an excellent training, leading to various teaching and research professions. Through research, it contributes to the training of the senior executives in the public administrations, as well as in the French and European companies. The ENS also defines and applies scientific and technological research policies, from a multidisciplinary and international perspective. Intellectual freedom, multidisciplinarity in humanities and sciences, individual attention to students, bountiful campus life, gathering students and professors from all disciplines, forms the heart of the specificities of this institution. Since more than 2 centuries, the ENS prepares its students to the most various openings and the highest responsibilities, while being fully invested in the intellectual, scientific and cultural debates of its time – in particular through the multiplicity of the normaliens’ engagement. ENS welcomes in its 15 departments for training and research, 800 researchers and teacher researchers, 300 post-doctoral researchers and 600 doctoral students.

Expertise particularly relevant for the project

Within the department of Geosciences at ENS, the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD-ENS) hosts about 50 researchers, post-doctoral researchers and doctoral students. It is a member of the Institute Pierre-Simon Laplace (IPSL) that federates six large research centres, localised in Paris and around, and focused on environmental sciences. Its main objectives are to understand the evolution of the Earth’s climate as well as the dynamical processes driving the fluid envelops at the Earth surface. The research of LMD-ENS is clearly positioned at the same time on fundamental research of physical, chemical and biogeochemical processes, the dynamics and the physics of the atmosphere, ocean and the climate, and on finalized research, around particular questions relating to the anticipation of the global warming and its consequences. These scientific objectives are striven forward by the complementary approaches that go from theory and observing to modelling.

For more information please visit ENS website.

Description of the organisation

CEA/LSCE, Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l`Environnement (CEA/CNRS/Paris Saclay), is part of IPSL, is a federative institute composed of 9 laboratories working on global environmental and climate studies. LSCE participates to the development of the French Earth system model IPSL-CM. It is one of the leading European research institutions in Earth system modelling regularly contributing to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It has both strong atmospheric, as well as oceanographic research teams focusing on global biogeochemical cycles and climate change impacts

Expertise particularly relevant for the project

LSCE researchers have a well-established expertise in ocean acidification and climate change impact studies. Access to high performance computing has allowed development of global coupled ocean circulation biogeochemical models for the seamless representation of carbon and associated biogeochemical cycles from the open ocean to the continental shelf. LSCE will build on previous experience for assessing extreme events in the open ocean and on the continental shelf with particular focus on diurnal variability (WP1 and WP2). The combination of high-resolution hindcast simulations and future projections lays the ground for evaluating consequences of anthropogenic change against the backdrop of natural variability. This approach will benefit WP3 and WP4 for the definition of critical thresholds and assessment of impacts on deep-sea ecosystems.

For more information please visit CEA website.

 

Description of the organisation

Dalhousie University, which is celebrating its 200th anniversary in 2018, is located in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is Canada’s most research-intensive university east of Quebec. With annual research funding of $140 million per year, it is a member of the U15 (the top 15 research-intensive Universities in Canada). It is also the largest teaching University in Atlantic Canada. Dalhousie’s research excellence is concentrated in four Priority Research Areas, which include Ocean Studies. Dalhousie has world-leading expertise in almost all fields relating to the ocean, including oceanography, marine geology and geophysics, marine biology and genomics, marine conservation, ocean governance and management, engineering, risk management, and aquaculture.

The concentrated expertise in Ocean Studies has made it a national and international centre for major research initiatives. Building, in part, on the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Ocean Science and Technology (www.dal.ca/diff/cerc.html), the University together with Memorial University received $94 million from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund to establish the Ocean Frontier Institute (OFI) (www.oceanfrontierinstitute.com). The OFI is partnered with a number of European and US institutions and dedicated to documenting and understanding changes underway within the Northwest Atlantic Ocean and to developing safe and sustainable solutions for strengthening the ocean economy in Canada. Dalhousie University is host to two additional research networks: the Ocean Tracking Network (OTN; www.oceantrackingnetwork.org/) which pioneers international development of animal telemetry, and the Marine Environmental Observation, Prediction and Response (MEOPAR) Network of Centres of Excellence (www.meopar.ca), which is a national research network focussed on marine environmental risk.

Expertise particularly relevant to the project

Dalhousie investigators conduct a broad program of research examining carbon uptake and cycling as well as studies of ocean acidification in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic. This includes field work from research vessels and long-term measurements of inorganic carbon in the Northwest Atlantic from moored sensors and volunteer observing ships.

Special expertise and capacity exists at Dalhousie in relation to studies of the sensitivity of Arctic waters and the Arctic outflow to ocean acidification, including impacts of freshwater inputs, and the impacts of changes in deep- water formation in the Labrador Sea on carbon, oxygen and nutrient budgets including air-sea exchange.

The Northwest Atlantic Ocean off the east coast of Canada is a major region of deep-water formation and anthropogenic carbon uptake. Due to the deep-water formation, the continental slope waters off eastern Canada are one of the first deep ocean habitats to be experiencing ocean acidification. The changes in biogeochemical cycling associated with Arctic environmental change as well as the impacts of climate change on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation are focused in this region where Dalhousie University and the Ocean Frontier Institute conducts its research.

For more information please visit Dalhousie website.

Description of the organisation

Lancaster University is one of the UK’s top research-intensive university, ranked in the top 10 for all 3 major UK university league tables, and named the Times and Sunday Times University of the Year in 2018. It was 10th (top for UK) in the 2014 Times global universities under 50 years old. Lancaster University is also home to one of the largest environmental research groups in Europe: the Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC). Lancaster has embraced interdisciplinary, through the LEC, which spans the physical, biological and social environmental sciences. LEC has a growing focus on marine systems, building a strong tropical marine grouping, to complement its tropical forest group.

Expertise particularly relevant to the project

Lancaster houses one of the main emerging tropical marine ecology groups in the UK. The multidisciplinary Lancaster Environment Centre has expertise ranging from marine macroecology to fisheries food security. There is specific expertise in resilience and ecological threshold identification, along with the social and biophysical drivers of ecosystem change. Lancaster researchers have also had a leading role in identifying flows among ecosystems of energy and nutrients, how these flows may be disrupted, and what they mean for ecosystem productivity and functioning. The impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems and the people that rely on them has been a central focus of Lancaster’s research, including impacts on fisheries, biodiversity and ecosystem stability.

For more information please visit ULANC website.

 

Description of the organisation

The University of Exeter (UNEXE) was formed in 1955 and has 22,085 students from more than 130 different countries. It is a member of the Russell Group of leading research-intensive universities. It is ranked amongst the UK’s top universities in the Higher Education league tables produced by the Times and the Sunday Times. It is also ranked amongst the world’s top 200 universities in the QS and Times Higher Education rankings. Recent breakthroughs to come out of Exeter’s research include the identification and treatment of new forms of diabetes and the creation of the world’s most transparent, lightweight and flexible conductor of electricity.

Expertise particularly relevant for the project

The University of Exeter has rapidly built a world-leading capability in climate science, taking advantage of close links with the UK Met Office Hadley Centre. Within Exeter, Environmental Sciences is ranked 47th and Geography ranked 11th in the QS World University Rankings. Complementing the strength and breadth of physical climate science, and terrestrial biogeochemistry in Exeter, Marine biogeochemistry, an already strong area (Exeter Marine), has been identified for expansion with the development of the multi- million Euro Exeter Global Systems Institute.

For more information please visit UNEXE website.