EUROCORES Programme European Collaborative Research EuroMARC European Collaboration for Implementation of Marine Research on Cores
www.esf.org EUROCORES Programme European Collaborative Research
Objectives of the EuroMARC Programme
Scienti c marine drilling and coring from the sub-sea oor is crucial to progress in the Earth and environmental sciences because the oceans regulate climate, cover the sites of fundamental geodynamic, geochemical and biological processes and preserve high- resolution records of the Earth’s history.
EuroMARC is an ESF EUROCORES, running for three years and aiming to support all coring activities in marine areas. EuroMARC aims at enhancing the bene t from already established funding groups and research communities such as the International Marine Past Global Change Study (IMAGES) and the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD), which is a contributing member of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP).
EuroMARC is an essential enabling tool to boost European leadership in the planning of international marine coring expeditions and the preparation of European proposals, hence ensuring the effective exploitation of research opportunities. Support of a prop- erly resourced pre- and post-cruise science-enabling programme will ensure that the nine participating countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland and the United Kingdom) will obtain the maximum bene t from ma- rine coring investment, meet their mission requirements to maintain world-class environ- mental science communities, conduct excellent, innovative and societal-relevant science and maintain international science leadership. List of funded Collaborative Research Projects (CRPs)
Ultra-slow spreading and Associated Partners: hydrogen-based deep biosphere Dr. Nils Holm (H2DEEP) Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden Dr. Christopher MacLeod (SNF, CNRS, NFR, FCT) Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom The purpose of H2DEEP is to study geodynamic and hydrothermal processes along one of the most slow-spreading segments of the global The last deglacial sea-level and ridge system. This will lay the ground for climatic changes (CHECREEF) a European lead proposal to be submitted (SNF, DFG, CNRS, NERC) to IODP. The Knipovich Ridge, which is one The timing and course of the last deglaciation of the Arctic spreading ridges in the Norwegian- are essential components of the understanding Greenland Sea, is the target area for the of the dynamics of large ice sheets and their project. Water column analyses show that effects on Earth’s isostasy and the complex hydrothermal venting currently takes place relationship between freshwater uxes to the along this ridge segment. A thick sedimentary ocean, thermohaline circulation and, hence, sequence covering large parts of the rift valley global climate during the Late Pleistocene and oor provides a record of the extent and nature the Holocene. The general scienti c objectives of this hydrothermal activity. This sedimentary of CHECREEF (in relation to IODP proposal No. cover further provides a unique opportunity 519) are to establish the course of post-glacial for zero-age drilling and a potentially sea-level rise during the last deglaciation, groundbreaking new insight into the existence to de ne sea-surface temperature variations of a hydrogen-based deep biosphere sustained during this period and to analyse the impact by the formation and alteration of oceanic crust of sea-level and environmental changes on reef and mantle by ultra-slow spreading. development with a special emphasis on the comprehensive reconstruction of environmental Project Leader: changes. To achieve these objectives, we will Professor Rolf-Birger Pedersen study reef cores retrieved around Tahiti during University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway IODP expedition No. 310, investigate further Principal Investigators: the Tahiti reef slopes, and perform a site survey Professor Fernando Barriga cruise on the Great Barrier Reef to generate University of Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal high resolution bathymetric and seismic data. Dr. Javier Escartin Project Leader: Institut de Physique du Globe, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France Dr. Gilbert Camoin Dr. Gretchen Früh-Green Centre National de la Recherche Scientifi que, Aix-en-Provence, France Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zürich, Switzerland Principal Investigators: Professor Rolf Mjelde Professor Edouard Bard University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway University of Aix-Marseille III, Aix-en-Provence, France Dr. Ingunn Thorseth Professor Wolf-Christian Dullo University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway IFM-GEOMAR, Kiel, Germany Professor Anton Eisenhauer interglacials, and to provide a feasibility study Kiel University, Kiel, Germany based on already available cores from IMAGES Dr. Thomas Felis cruises and new cores taken within this project. University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany Dr. Martin Koelling Project Leader: University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany Professor Eystein Jansen Professor Jörn Peckmann University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany Principal Investigators: Dr. Elias Samankassou Dr. Catherine Kissel University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland Centre National de la Recherche Scientifi que, Dr. Alexander Tudhope Gif-sur-Yvette, France Edinburgh University, Edinburgh, UK Dr. Silvia Nave Dr. Hildegard Westphal Instituto Nacional de Engenharia Tecnologia e Inovação, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany Alfragide, Portugal Dr. Mara Weinelt Associated Partners: University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany Professor Juan Carlos Braga Granada University, Granada, Spain Associated Partner: Dr. Jody Webster Professor Henry Elderfi eld James Cook University, Townsville, Australia University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK Dr. Yusuke Yokoyama University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan Response of tropical Atlantic surface and intermediate waters to Atlantic meridional overturning changes in the Atlantic meridional circulation during interglacials overturning circulation (RETRO) (AMOCINT) (DFG, CNRS, NWO, NFR) (DFG, CNRS, NFR, FCT) Palaeo-oceanographic data have demonstrated that the ocean current mode of ventilation is not AMOCINT aims to decipher the spatial and unique but can switch rapidly between different temporal structure of the interglacial peaks states with severe climate repercussions. and demises in the Northern Atlantic and Recent studies indicate that changes in the their timing with forcing variations. The meridional overturning circulation (MOC) are project will provide multiproxy data sets to associated with ocean-wide reorganisation in correlate land and ocean climate records heat transport and temperature distribution. and forcings, focusing in particular on two However, the hypotheses concerning oceanic prominent interglacials events. Lags and leads processes are still poorly constrained by the of the different forcing mechanisms and the observations. It is possible to interpret past respective thresholds will be quanti ed with a changes of the Atlantic MOC only if palaeo- property gradients can be estimated over depth century-scale resolution. Through these studies transects perpendicular to the main ocean the groundwork will be laid to justify coring the currents feeding the MOC. In RETRO, IMAGES complete suite of interglacials over the past one cores from two speci ed depth transects will million years through a future IODP proposal to be retrieved. The vertical temperature and be submitted. The main objectives of AMOCINT density gradients in the ocean interior will be will be to survey and core sites for sampling of reconstructed and the links between high- and high sedimentation rate interglacial sections, low-latitude climate change will be investigated to conduct detailed site surveys to recover through innovative modelling experiments thick marine sediment sections over past making use of high quality data. Project Leader: Principal Investigators: Dr. Trond Dokken Dr. Henk Brinkhuis University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway Utrecht Universiteit, Utrecht, The Netherlands Principal Investigators: Dr. Chris Nicholas University of Dublin, Dublin, Ireland Dr. Stefan Mulitza Professor Paul Pearson University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK Dr. Frank Peeters Professor Ralph Robert Schneider Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel, Germany Dr. Claire Waelbroeck Centre National de la Recheche Scientifi que, Gif-sur-Yvette, France Mid-latitude carbonate systems: Associated Partner: complete sequences from Dr. Luke Skinner cold-water coral carbonate University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK mounds in the northeast Atlantic (CARBONATE) Tropical temperature history during (FWO, DFG, IRCSET, NWO) Palaeogene global warming events Along the European Atlantic continental (GLOW) margin, fossil carbonate mounds occur from (DFG, IRCSET, NWO, NERC) northern Norway to the Gulf of Cadiz. Up to now the carbonate stored in these mounds The Cenozoic represents a period during which has not been considered in the global carbon the Earth’s climate system switched from a budget. A major challenge exists to quantify warm, greenhouse to a cold, icehouse world. the amount and ux of carbon stored by Several rapid global warming events occurred these newly discovered areas. Europe is in during the already warm Palaeogene. The main a unique position to champion carbonate objective of GLOW is to better understand the mound research providing that appropriate processes that underlie such switches of the sedimentary sequences are made accessible. climate system at long and short timescales. Previous investigations of short sediment Speci cally, the project aims at documenting cores revealed that all mounds possess the response of the West Indian Ocean system different growth histories depending on the to these kinds of global climate changes, the environmental setting and the involved faunal variability of the sea surface temperature and associations. These previous cores penetrated the evolution of the biota. These Palaeogene only the upper few metres of the mounds thus intervals of extreme warmth will provide limiting the research to the very late stage insights into possible future climate patterns of mound development. One exception to and biogeochemical state of the ocean. Within this is IODP 307 which retrieved a complete GLOW, the onshore Tanzanian drilling transect sequence from one mound. By understanding will be extended offshore. A site survey offshore how biogeochemical processes control the Tanzania will be performed to obtain a grid development of these carbonate mounds and of seismic lines which can subsequently be their response to climate change, CARBONATE used in an IODP or IMAGES proposal to be aims at quantifying their role as mid-latitude submitted. carbonate sinks.
Project Leader: Project Leader: Professor Dick Kroon Dr. Andrew Wheeler Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands University College Cork, Cork, Ireland Principal Investigators: Project Leader: Professor André Freiwald Professor Gert De Lange University of Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands Professor Dierk Hebbeln Principal Investigators: University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany Professor Stefano Bernasconi Professor Rudy Swennen Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zürich, Catholic University of Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium Switzerland Professor Tjeerd Van Weering Dr. Gerard Versteegh Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany The Netherlands Dr. Karin Zonneveld University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany Multidisciplinary study of continental/ocean climate dynamics using high-resolution records from the eastern mediterranean (MOCCHA) (SNF, DFG, NWO) Located between low and mid-latitude borderlands and between monsoonal and NAO- in uenced climate systems, the Mediterranean is an important site for a continuous palaeoclimate record. The two sites explored by MOCCHA seem perfect high-resolution climate recorders for future IODP proposals, in particular the near-coastal site having a high- frequency 11-year climate cycle. Similar cycles occur at the deep anoxic basin sites where we aim to complete an uninterrupted 11-year sediment trap time series. This will permit us to unravel the actual mechanisms underlying the observed 11-year cycles in the sediments. Furthermore, the comparison between the two sites will allow us to unravel near-coastal land-ocean interaction-dominated signals from typical deep-ocean signals. In addition, we will calibrate potential new proxies so as to make them applicable to older units. Assessing the origin and mechanisms of the observed variations is needed to evaluate their potential functioning in more remote time periods. The aim of the European Collaborative Research (EUROCORES) Scheme is to enable re- searchers in different European countries to develop collaboration and scienti c synergy in areas where European scale and scope are required to reach the critical mass neces- sary for top class science in a global context. The scheme provides a exible framework which allows national basic research funding and performing organisations to join forces to support excellent European research in and across all scienti c areas. The European Science Foundation (ESF) provides scienti c coordination and support for networking activities of funded scientists currently through the EC FP6 Programme, un- der contract No. ERAS-CT-2003-980409. Research funding is provided by participating national organisations. www.esf.org/eurocores
THE FOLLOWING NATIONAL FUNDING ORGANISATIONS SUPPORT THE EuroMARC PROGRAMME:
Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Norges Forskningsråd (NFR) – Vlaanderen (FWO) Research Council of Norway, Norway Fund for Scientifi c Research, Belgium Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia Centre National de la Recherche (FCT) Scientifi que (CNRS) Foundation for Science and Technology, National Centre for Scientifi c Research, France Portugal
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF) German Research Foundation, Germany Swiss National Science Foundation, Switzerland Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering & Technology (IRCSET) Natural Environment Research Council Ireland (NERC) United Kingdom Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) Netherlands Organisation for Scientifi c Research, Netherlands EuroMARC European Collaboration for Implementation of Marine Research on Cores
The barrier-reef edge of Tahiti Courtesy K. Sugihara and T. Yamada
CONTACT DETAILS Dr. Didier Hauglustaine EUROCORES Programme Coordinator Ms. Anne-Sophie Gablin EUROCORES Programme Administrator
European Science Foundation 1 quai Lezay-Marnésia | BP 90015 67080 Strasbourg cedex | France Tel: +33 (0)3 88 76 21 89 / 71 55 Fax: +33 (0)3 88 37 05 32 Email: [email protected] www.esf.org/euromarc
The European Science Foundation (ESF) provides a platform for its Member Organisations to advance European research and explore new directions for research at the European level. Established in 1974 as an independent non-governmental organisation, the ESF currently serves
75 Member Organisations across 30 countries. Print run: 500 – August 2007
1 quai Lezay-Marnésia | BP 90015 67080 Strasbourg cedex | France Tel: +33 (0)3 88 76 71 00 | Fax: +33 (0)3 88 37 05 32 www.esf.org