Heat and salt are major components of the thermohaline circulation of the global conveyor belt as they regulate the masses of water bodies and and hence ocean-climate dynamics. The thermohaline circulation (THC) has played a significant role in the past climate extremes such as the onset of the Northern Hemisphere Glaciation. Although the temperature component of the THC can be extracted applying various methods such as foraminiferal magnesium/calcium thermometry and alkenone thermometry, salinity information of past seawaters is still among the unknowns in paleoclimate studies due to the lack of a direct paleosalinity proxy. Thus the role of one important salt contributor, the Mediterranean Outflow Water, to the deeper levels of the THC during major climate shifts in the geological record is scarcely documented. To that extent, this research proposal aims at establishing and exploring a new proxy that will allow to extract information on past salinity changes in seawater from deep-sea benthic foraminifers. As second step, I will investigate the role of the Mediterranean Outflow Water in the THC and the shift in ocean-climate dynamics during a well-documented major climate shift, i.e., the Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition (1.2-0.7 Million years ago), when the 41-kyr glacial-interglacial cycles were replaced with 100-kyr abrupt cycles. Execution of this project will allow me to enhance my scientific portfolio by learning a new technical instrument, joining a new research group in an internationally fast-growing research center, having the opportunity to manage my own research budget, and benefitting from the experience of the chosen supervisor, which are positive impacts for an early career scientist in becoming an established independent researcher.

We will map the optimal locations for Marine Protected Areas (MPA) in European seas using measures covering the range of biodiversity from species to ecosystems, including habitats. The contribution of these measures to carbon storage will be quantified and mapped. The top 10% and 30% of the area that includes most species, habitats, and ecosystems, and maximises blue carbon benefits, will be prioritised as an MPA network. The geographic scope is the Atlantic Exclusive Economic Zones of the EU and its neighbours, and all of the Mediterranean, Baltic and Black Seas. Feedback from Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) stakeholders in the regional seas on the proposed MPA network and methodology will be reported. A first data-driven classification of ecosystems in European seas will use environmental data from Copernicus and EMODnet. Environmental niche models will map thousands of species and biogenic (fauna and flora structured) habitat ranges and add to existing seabed habitat maps in EMODnet. Analyses of spatial relationships between biodiversity measures and evidence of carbon storage will support the prioritisation analyses. Parallel modelling of current connectivity and the velocity of climate change will map connectivity within the proposed MPA network and how it will accommodate species distribution shifts due to anthropogenic climate change. All data and maps will be freely available through EMODnet, the Ocean Biodiversity Information System, EC Knowledge Centre for Biodiversity, and the project’s online atlas. The atlas will provide transparency, traceability and enable reproducibility of the results. Its synthesis will show stakeholders (MSP, NGO, students, researchers) why areas have been prioritised. The use of decision support software will enable alternative network designs based on stakeholder preferences and could thus support wider MSP beyond the subject and study area.

The vast majority of marine habitats and species protected under the EU Habitats Directive still show an unfavourable conservation status. This situation is particularly pressing in Northern Europe, where the conservation status of marine habitats in the Kattegat-Skagerrak region is consistently bad. MARHAB’s objective is to improve the conservation status of marine ecosystems by demonstrating an ecosystem dynamics approach to restoration and maintenance of protected habitats. By employing cutting edge technology (genomics, tracking, in situ observations, machine learning) in state-of-art ecosystem research, the project will provide the scientific underpinnings needed to bring about the long overdue reconciliation of fisheries management with biodiversity conservation. Moreover, it will generate a leap in knowledge urgently needed to sustainably manage the productive but severely overexploited ecosystems harboured in the Kattegat-Skagerrak Seas and adjoining coastal waters. MARHAB is urgent, timely and innovative. Urgent, because key habitats and species are in the worst environmental status of the European waters, while European citizens rely on a healthy ocean for climate resilience, and marine resources support livelihoods and food security. Timely, because international agreements such as the 2030 European Biodiversity strategy and the Global Biodiversity Framework (COP15) committed parties to reach important conservation targets in less than 7 years from now, including effectively protecting 30% of the ocean, and 10% with strict protection (in EU). And innovative, because this is a highly understudied region in what concerns marine protection effectiveness. MARHAB engages with the full range of relevant stakeholders at local, regional, national, international, EU and global level. Through a communication strategy tailored to target audiences, MARHAB will contribute to increasing the public and politicians’ understanding of marine biodiversity conservation.

Poor nutritional regimes are main drivers of metabolic diseases and intestinal dysbiosis. Type 2 diabetes (T2D) prevalence is expected to reach 7% of the global population by 2023, and to curb its rise is an urgent public health need. Intestinal dysbiosis is a determinant factor in the progression of insulin resistance to T2D, shifting host metabolism though undefined mechanisms whose understanding would be crucial to allow personalized interventions. Advances have been limited by microbiome complexity and inter-individual variance. DiBaN binds together the necessary combination of expertise to address this question, based on the concept that the initial driver of the nutritional effects is the metabolic shift that takes place in the intestinal bacteria which is transduced to the host. In this context, technological breakthrough tools for novel food development, that ensure the promotion of a healthy microbiome-host metabolic interface, are an urgent need to prevent dysbiosis and T2D. DiBaN will overcome current limitations in nutrient-testing by developing advanced ex-vivo platforms that fully recapitulate the in vivo setting of dysbiosis and insulin resistance, that will be validated with in vivo omic data. To warrantee the health promoting effects of novel foods we will test a new concept in the emerging field of insect food technology, that an adequate insect’s metabolic-intestinal health ensures the healthy properties of its derived products. The validation of this idea will also serve to identify biomarkers for the monitorization of the insect’s health status. A. domesticus will be the testing model of choice, due to its excellent nutritional profile, that will be boosted by complementing the insect’s diet with microalgae bioactive-rich extracts. All these data will be integrated for the design of a pilot artificial intelligence (AI)-based application for the prediction of personalized responses to nutritional interventions.

In order to protect and manage marine species and habitats, there is an immediate need for the creation of robust evidence-based methods and integrated platforms. Therefore, there is a need to undertake marine research projects that are developed and implemented collaboratively, strategically, and at a sufficient scale. Animal tracking is the study of animal movements across various spatiotemporal scales (local, regional, continental, global; minutes to decades). Although animal tracking is not a new field of research, only recently have these electronic technologies necessary to follow marine animal movements across larger and longer scales have only recently become widely available. Strategic Infrastructure for improved animal Tracking in European Seas (STRAITS) will leverage ongoing acoustic tracking projects across the four corners of Europe (i.e., North Channel, Danish Straits, Straits of Gibraltar and the Bosporus/Dardanelles) by expanding efforts to connect initiatives on species-based biodiversity management while developing data management plans and networking channels to deliver data to national and international governing bodies. Coordinating aquatic animal tracking and environmental observation efforts at a scale that will be usable to make progress on international marine management and planning, is a major step towards an operational European Tracking Network (ETN) that contributes to major European biodiversity initiatives, conservation, and policy.