Over the past 30 years, sea ice in the Arctic has declined by 3-4% per decade, making the Arctic the area experiencing the most rapid ecological changes due to climate change. Understanding the consequences of climate change on the Arctic ecosystem is therefore part of the European Union’s (EU) wider efforts. As a consequence of rapid sea-ice loss and increasing temperatures, the abundance, diversity and distribution of low trophic level organisms will be inevitably altered, generating cascading effects through the entire marine food chain from phytoplankton to apex predators. Despite their crucial role as bio-indicators of the Arctic marine ecosystem, the capacity of Arctic cetaceans to adjust their behaviour (foraging, movement patterns) and physiology (fat storage, thermoregulation) to climate-induced perturbations remains poorly understood. By compiling a multi-species long-term dataset covering 25 years and including 2 Arctic (narwhal and bowhead whale) and 2 sub-Arctic (humpback whale and harbour porpoise) apex predators, the WARMM project aims at investigating the behavioural and physiological responses of these species to climate change. The choice of the 4 cetaceans is based on their contrasting diet, habitats and level of activity, making this dataset unique to feed a comparative analysis of how these 4 species will cope with an imminent warming ocean. I will exploit a large existing dataset that will be augmented by physiological data collected during the project to (1) identify the foraging strategies from acoustic and accelerometry data, (2) link the behaviours and physiology to the environment, to finally (3) predict the future responses of apex predators in terms of thermal stress and geographical range. Our project will constitute an unprecedented scientific baseline to advise the EU and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in mitigating the effects of climate change and safeguarding the Arctic marine biodiversity.

SUMMARY: The background for this proposal originates from scientific fieldwork performed by the proposer on the sea ice around the Qaanaaq region (NW Greenland) in the spring of 2008. The aim of this climate-change driven field programme was to evaluate the local sea ice thickness. Because no satellite technology is presently available to do this remotely we hired local hunters to take us out on their sledges to measure and document the sea ice thickness in different regions. During our time with the Inuit hunters we learnt of the severe difficulties that the local communities face because of the climate driven changes to sea ice conditions. As the fieldwork progressed it soon became apparent that it should be possible for scientists and the indigenous population to work together for the mutual benefit of each community. Climate change has immediate implications for the sustainability of many northern indigenous communities, their economies, health and well-being. In many ways sea ice can be viewed as the glue that binds these northern communities together because it is utilised both for commercial (hunting/fishing) and social (transport network) means. However the sea ice is changing; it is melting earlier and forming later and as a result it is becoming thinner and less stable. These dramatic changes influence global climate as well as the safety of people on the ice, but also the hunting ability of the Inuit, thus threatening the cultural survival of these people. For many years these communities have been highlighting these changes to the world community. However their evidence is generally empirical in nature, i.e. knowledge gained through personal observations, and therefore it is difficult to assimilate by the world scientific community. This can be overcome by the novel adaptation of a scientific instrument that is commonly used to measure ice thickness, the EM31-SH. By combining this instrumentation on their sledges these communities are able to obtain scientifically valuable data on sea ice thickness whenever they travel across the ice. These data will be automatically transmitted, via satellite, back to SAMS where it will be available in near real time on the project website. A similar system, the ferrybox, has revolutionised the collection of oceanographic data via commercial vessels, we envisage a similar revolution. By combining knowledge and innovation with traditional know-how the collection of scientific data on ice thickness can be achieved on scales, both spatial and temporal, that have not been logistically possible before. Access to these data in near-real time will enhance the safety of all persons travelling in sea ice covered areas and thereby laying the foundation for the long-term sustainability of these communities by bringing about positive economic, social and ecological benefits to all. The benefit to the scientific community can not be measured by monetary means as the continuous collection of ice thickness data, day-in and day-out, would not be possible by any other means. As a result his time series will be eagerly anticipated by both the observational and modelling scientific community. Our proposal empowers the local communities to take a lead in the climate change debate by obtaining scientifically valuable data that is urgently needed by scientists and policy makers on a truly global scale. By developing the local capacity to gathering scientific data for climate change studies we provides an additional forum for the community to highlight to the world the changes that are occurring in their region through scientific measurements. At present the Inuit are very much shut out of the scientific debate regarding climate change.

POMP will advance the scientific understanding of how climate change impacts biodiversity and carbon sequestration potential in emerging and rapidly changing polar marine ecosystems, and, through these impacts, the project will evaluate how resilience and adaptation potential in the polar regions are being altered. The aim is to provide new quantitative knowledge of the mitigation potential of blue carbon in emerging coastal and oceanic habitats and to assess the scope for their inclusion in carbon accounting at national and international levels. Our approach is to study each step in the biological carbon flow from CO2-capture by primary producers, through transformations and intermediate storage, to long-term sequestration. We will do this by combining analyses of new and existing data at several Arctic and Antarctic Learning Sites and use this to develop and validate new ecosystem models and remote sensing algorithms. These will then be used to provide large-scale assessments of changes in blue carbon habitat distributions and their CO2 capture and sequestration potential, both now and in the future. The new knowledge generated will be presented to the scientific community and to decision makers and managers as policy briefs to guide the designation of marine protected areas that recognize both diversity and blue carbon potential. The POMP consortium is highly qualified to meet this task with world-leading experts on blue carbon and climate change impacts in the polar regions, and partners that bring together scientific expertise, extensive unpublished data, polar infrastructure, and unique sampling opportunities as well as experience and resources from several national and EU projects directly related to this call. Participation of three Canadian partners eligible for national funding assures excellent opportunities for cross Atlantic collaboration with a pan-Arctic focus.

UPGRADE seeks to broaden the research scope of the involved teams, focusing on tackling key challenges in geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering. Specifically, it aims to pioneer innovative solutions for repurposing waste geomaterials generated by construction and mining industries worldwide. Waste geomaterials represents half of the waste volume generated in EU. These waste geomaterials generally exhibit poor engineering characteristics that prevent their direct use at construction/mining sites. However, if adequately treated, they could represent an excellent resource for construction purposes with significant money saving and reduction in the environmental footprint, thus contributing to the establishment of a circular handling/management of geomaterials. To achieve this, UPGRADE will develop protocols, software and tools to improve the engineering characteristics of waste geomaterials, and to guarantee the performance level over the service life of geostructures built from waste geomaterials considering site-specific conditions. The fundamental concern of UPGRADE is to promote strategies for sustainable use of waste geomaterials generated by geoengineering activities, and to determine how to turn a waste geomaterial into a durable material, with a positive revenue stream. The originality of UPGRADE's approach is that not only it draws expertise on the environment and geotechnics, but also in computer sciences, geochemistry, analytical chemistry, natural resources exploitation, and in the circulatory economy. We intend to form a multidisciplinary consortium composed of 10 academic and 5 industrial beneficiaries and 6 Third Country partners which aim to address this problem. UPGRADE will create an international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral network of creative and innovative researchers and practising engineers ready to face geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering challenges which arise in the vanguard of technological innovation.