A proper understanding of sediment transport is extremely important in many areas of engineering and socio-economic development. On time scales of months to years, the knowledge of where sediment accumulates could save billions of dollars on annual port dredging and beach nourishment. On length scales of deltas, estuaries and coastal zones, such knowledge plays a crucial role for decision-makers to govern the development of a country or region. Unfortunately, high-fidelity, long-term in situ data of sediment transport, particularly suspended particulate matter concentration are often unavailable and/or unreliable. Hence, this project aims to propose a novel approach to reduce the calibration effort and improve the accuracy of long-term, high-frequency in situ measurements. This project will integrate field and laboratory studies to demonstrate that combination of at least one pair of optical and acoustic (O/A) sensors will help to “see” the mud better and “hear” the sand better, which in turn allows us to comprehensively reproduce detailed information of suspended sediment concentration profile in a river, estuarine or coastal zone. Field measurements help to provide input of the boundary conditions for the experiments, whereas the experiments help to isolate variables in order to decipher the behavior of O/A signals that occur in nature. This project will 1) enhance understanding of O/A signals behaviors under similar and different environments, 2) derive empirical functions from field and lab data to describe the ratio of O/A signals as a dependent variable of environmental characteristics and 3) test the functionality and efficiency of the empirical functions, obtained above, with field data collected from different parts of Europe. The primary intellectual merit of this project will be a guideline for water agencies and local authorities throughout Europe and the world to improve their performance in long-term, high-frequency monitoring of water quality.

Baleen whales (Mysticeti), the largest animals on earth, are a spectacular example of evolutionary adaptation and, as predators and nutrient distributors, a major component of the modern ocean ecosystem. Their relatively good fossil record, large ecological impact and the existence of extant species as a source of comparative data make mysticetes an ideal macroevolutionary case study – promising fundamental insights into the interaction between biodiversity, evolution, and the physical environment. Previous research into the mode and tempo of baleen whale evolution has been hampered by a historical data bias towards the Northern Hemisphere, poor taxon sampling, and disjunct methodologies. I propose to address these issues through (1) targeted sampling of Southern Hemisphere fossil material to create the most comprehensive and most balanced dataset on mysticete morphology to date; (2) the application of cutting-edge phylogenetic methods, including new Bayesian techniques to simultaneously infer phylogeny, divergence dates, evolutionary rates and ancestral body size; (3) reconstructing past mysticete diversity, disparity (morphological diversity) and shifts in their rate of diversification, as well as ancestral geographic ranges and dispersal patterns; and (4) integrating all available data and results with palaeoenvironmental proxies to test whether mysticete evolution has been driven by environmental change. This project will create a benchmark for future studies as one of the most comprehensive and multifaceted macroevolutionary syntheses for any major vertebrate clade, and provide profound insights into evolutionary processes and the workings of the marine ecosystem.

Biodiversity in Afrotropical forests is declining dramatically due to deforestation and intensified bushmeat trade. At the same time there is an increased frequency of outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases (EID) that have a natural reservoir in wild small mammals. The effect of biodiversity changes on the risk of spillover of these EID to humans is not yet clear. Higher biodiversity may reduce transmission rates in the small mammal community (“dilution effect”) or may facilitate it (“amplification effect”). Biodiversity changes may also be associated with changes in human behaviour that affect contact rates with wildlife. BIODIV-AFREID will explore these relations in different forest sites in DR Congo and Côte d'Ivoire. The consortium consists of European and African partners with strong zoological, ecological, biomedical, virological and anthropological expertise, vast experience in field work in Africa and a history of earlier collaborations. We will investigate a range of viral pathogens but with a focus on two contrasting EID that are of major concern: Monkeypoxvirus (found in a variety of small mammals and with frequent human infections) and Ebola virus (with rare spillover events to humans and the reservoir not yet identified with certainty). In areas where these EID have been reported before, we will select sites with differences in forest degradation and bushmeat hunting and describe the biodiversity of small mammal communities (WP1) and the presence and prevalence of the viruses in these communities (WP2). The work will be based on newly collected material as well as considerable amounts of samples that different partners collected during earlier fieldwork. We will then test hypotheses about dilution and amplification effects (WP3) and about the ecological and anthropological conditions that facilitate spillover to humans (WP4). Two additional WP include activities to ensure stakeholder engagement (WP5) and project coordination (WP6). With BIODIV-AFREID, the relations between biodiversity and emergence of new infectious will be better understood and these insights can form a basis for more targeted conservation and public health strategies.