Research on Oxygen Minimum Zones receives ERC Synergy Grant
Researchers from the University of Gothenburg and others are receiving €10 million from the European Research Council ERC to study oxygen depleted areas in the ocean, which play a major role in the Earth's climate by influencing the uptake and release of greenhouse gases.
“It’s incredibly exciting to receive such a large EU grant. It confirms that the marine research conducted at the University of Gothenburg is important for global marine research,” says Laura Bristow, researcher at the Department of Marine Sciences.
Laura Bristow is an expert on microbial nitrogen transformations in oxygen-depleted areas of the ocean known as oxygen minimum zones. She is one of four researchers sharing almost €10 million to better understand how microbes in the ocean react to oxygen depletion and how this affects the climate.
Oxygen minimum zones house microbes that convert fixed nitrogen to the nitrogen gases dinitrogen and the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. This is termed nitrogen loss. As the availability of fixed nitrogen limits primary production, these microbes have a major impact on the ocean's ability to take up CO2. By impacting the emission and uptake of greenhouse gases, these low oxygen regions ultimately influence climate.
Major knowledge gaps
“There are major gaps in our knowledge of how oxygen depletion in the ocean affects microbes, and whether fixed nitrogen is retained or lost under low oxygen conditions, which means that we cannot make accurate climate predictions. Moreover, oxygen minimum zones are expanding in recent decades, both in size and number, as a result of climate change, with models predicting further expansion in the future,’ says Laura Bristow.
Microbes is a collective term for microorganisms such as bacteria, and algae. They are usually single-celled and can only be seen under a microscope. In the ocean, microbes play a central role in the cycling of carbon and nitrogen, but it has always been very difficult to study processes that occur deep down in the ocean, and particularly in oxygen minimum zones.
Novel custom-made underwater laboratory
If the microbes and their activities are studied in a laboratory environment, after retrieval of waters samples, alterations in pressure, temperature, and light as well as oxygen contamination within the laboratory setting as opposed to the natural environment may influence the microbes, potentially leading to an incomplete or biased understanding.
The researchers will therefore use a completely novel method of investigation. Using a new custom-made underwater laboratory called CockTail, the researchers will collect and process water samples in situ deep in the ocean, allowing them to study the microbial processes in their natural environment.
Utilise R/V Skagerak in the Baltic Sea
“We tested CockTail earlier this year in the oxygen minimum zone off the coast of northern Chile with fantastic results. Now we plan to use the instrument across different oxygen minimum zones, including the Baltic Sea; a region heavily impacted by eutrophication which has increased the volume of oxygen depleted waters. The whole research team is excited to utilise the excellent facilities and work with the experienced team of the University of Gothenburg’s research vessel R/V Skagerak for the work in the Baltic”, says Laura Bristow.
“We need to understand the environmental factors that influence how these microbes thrive, die, and interact and the only way we can start to do this is to take the interdisciplinary approach proposed here, combining oceanographic, biogeochemical, microbiological, and model-based investigations. With this information, we will hopefully be able to better predict their responses to the expected decrease in marine oxygen levels, and thus make better future predictions about our climate”, says Bo Thamdrup, PI in the project from the University of Southern Denmark.
ERC Synergy Grant
To the European Research Council's press release: ERC Synergy Grants results.
Contact
Laura Bristow, senior lecturer at the Department of Marine Sciences, University of Gothenburg, phone: +46 766-18 61 96, email: laura.bristow@gu.se
Writer: Annika Wall
Project: RECLESS – Recycling versus loss in the marine nitrogen cycle: controls, feedbacks, and the impact of expanding low oxygen regions
RECLESS aims to create the first comprehensive global model of microbial ecosystems in oxygen-depleted marine environments. This model will help scientists predict how ongoing deoxygenation impacts nitrogen cycling, nitrogen loss, greenhouse gas emissions, and the overall carbon cycle.
Funded by: The European Research Council (ERC). ERC was set up by the European Union in 2007, and is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. The point of the ERC Synergy Grant is to bring together researchers with different expertise to work on very complex problems that no person or institute can address on its own.
Total amount: €10 million for 6 years duration. A total of approximately €3 million will be coming to the Department of Marine Sciences.
The research team:
- Laura Bristow, University of Gothenburg, expert on microbial nitrogen processes in oxygen minimum zones.
- Bo Thamdrup, University of Southern Denmark, specialised in techniques for studying these environments.
- Katharina Kitzinger, University of Vienna, focused on single-cell biology.
- Emily Zakem, Carnegie Institution for Science, expert in modelling microbial ecosystems.
