The Indian summer monsoon (ISM) occurs within the word’s strongest hydrological regime and its rainfall and wind patterns affect the livelihoods of billions of people. Globally, the area influenced by monsoon systems is predicted to increase over the 21st century as a result of anthropogenic temperature and greenhouse gas forcing. However, model uncertainty for projections of monsoon rainfall is high, and the instrumental record is too short to resolve natural monsoon variability and forcings. Many fundamental questions on the functioning and feedbacks of the ISM, which varies on seasonal to tectonic timescales, remain unanswered. Our ability to predict future responses of the ISM to warming and high CO2 is hindered by a limited geological perspective, and reconstructions of the monsoon from older time intervals with warmer mean climate states are needed. During the late Miocene (around 11 to 5 million years ago, Ma) global temperatures and CO2 levels are estimated to have been significantly higher than during the Pleistocene; this interval therefore represents an important analogue for future climate. The iMonsoon project aims to reconstruct past climate and ISM variability during the warm late Miocene via the application of multiple geochemical and micropaleontological proxies to a new unique sediment core from the Bay of Bengal (IODP Site U1443), located in the core convective region of the ISM. In this single sedimentary sequence, we will reconstruct orbital to secular timescales changes in global climate (deep-sea temperature/ice volume), forcing mechanisms (surface ocean CO2 concentration) and parameters sensitive to the ISM (sea surface productivity, stratification, and temperature), producing the first reference record for this key interval. Global climate will be reconstructed via the analysis of stable isotopes in benthic foraminifers, and the use of paired stable isotope and trace element analyses in planktic foraminifers will allow us to assess upper water-column structure. Using calcareous nannofossil assemblages, we will reconstruct primary productivity and at the same time gain new insights into biotic evolutionary responses to changing climate. A unique aspect of this project will be the coeval reconstruction of CO2 concentrations, achieved by the continued development of a new proxy using coccolith geochemistry. These marine records, the first of their kind from the Miocene Indian Ocean, will be compared with new simulations of Miocene climate using the IPSL-CM6VLR model. These simulations will model the impact of changes in CO2 and orbital parameters on ISM intensity and productivity. This will allow us to better understand the mechanisms driving identified climate changes and potential monsoon-climate feedbacks in a warm background climate state. Results from this project will contribute to answering important questions in the field, namely (1) the sensitivity and timing of changes in monsoon circulation relative to external insolation forcing and internal boundary conditions including the export of latent heat from the southern hemisphere, the extent of global ice volume, and greenhouse gas concentrations, and (2) the timing and conditions under which monsoonal circulation initiated and evolved, and (3) the degree of coupling between the various subsystems of the Asian monsoon. This project will lead to the establishment of the PI’s research theme within the group at CEREGE, increasing the scope of paleoclimate research already carried out at this world-class institute. It will also provide her with the means to establish a research group centred on this theme, to create valuable long-lasting collaborations in the national and international communities, and to carry out research at a high level.

Orbital and in-situ detections of hydrous minerals on Mars, especially phyllosilicates, suggest a warmer and wetter climate existed in the past, but exact physico-chemical surface conditions (temperature, oxidation state, atmospheric composition and pressure) remain debated. In particular, the relative role of weathering versus hydrothermal alteration in forming phyllosilicates remains unclear and no definitive answer has emerged from a decade of local and global studies. The search for oxidizing or reducing environments and the state of iron is a major aspect of investigations of Early Mars surface conditions. Although oxidizing conditions have been locally identified from abundant iron oxides both from orbital data and in the new meteorite breccia, it remains unclear how such conditions were able to create the observed amount of phyllosilicates. In addition, new findings from the Curiosity rover and from meteorite analyses show that the Martian crust is more felsic and alkali-rich than previously expected. This finding is a change from the previous paradigm for the surface of Mars as a basalt-dominated world and opens new perspectives for the understanding of alteration products. Our project will aim to take a multi-disciplinary approach, connecting researchers who usually work in separated groups in planetary science in France: instrumental teams at the forefront of data analyses (both orbital and in situ), specialists of chemical and mineralogical analyses of Martian meteorite analyses and mineralogists/petrologists with terrestrial backgrounds. The development of experimental simulations of alteration with a well-defined set of environmental conditions and starting materials addressing the question of the alteration products of ancient crustal material under an anoxic CO2 atmosphere is central to the proposal. Indeed, the conditions on Mars are far from the usual conditions on Earth, and there is a lack of knowledge regarding alteration under an anoxic CO2 atmosphere, especially the role of oxidants such as H2O2 or perchlorates, and reducing gas species such as H2. Analyses of relevant martian meteorites, especially the recently found regolith breccias containing phyllosilicates and iron oxides, will provide support for interpretation of the experimental analyses and will help to improve our knowledge of Mars early environment. Further analyses of orbital and in situ data (Curiosity rover) will help to constrain the composition of early crust material, and the alteration conditions, focusing on the identification of weathering as opposed to higher-T alteration. Our project will build a consortium of well-established researchers in their respective fields of expertise.

Land uses disrupt the natural functioning of soils, leading to degradation of soil resources. At the same time, forecasts estimate that agricultural production has to be increased by 1.85-fold to meet the food demand of 9 billion people by 2050. Agro-ecological practices thus have to fulfil two main objectives simultaneously—minimize soil degradation while improving ecosystem services. Agro-ecological strategies for restoring soil functioning mainly strive to enhance the soil organic matter pool by increasing organic matter input fluxes. We argue that future agro-ecological techniques should also be geared towards increasing the residence time of organic matter in soil. This would represent a win-win strategy since long-term C storage in soils is also an issue in terms of climate change. This has been highlighted recently by the French Minister of Agriculture when proclaiming the future launch of the "4 per 1000" project at COP21. A better understanding of the mechanisms that control organic matter stabilisation in soils is therefore needed. Mineral surfaces are suspected to play a major role in C storage in soils and the “nanoSoilC” project focuses specifically on the study of OM stabilization by organo-mineral interactions. We propose a conceptual breakthrough of organo-mineral interactions: our model no longer consider mineral surfaces as stable, but instead, subject to weathering. Weathering generates nanometric amorphous Al Si and Fe polymers with large specific surface areas and high reactivity towards organic compounds that they may stabilize on long-term timescales (Basile-Doelsch et al. 2015). The overall objective of the project is to explain the process of soil organic matter stabilization and destabilization by describing the mechanisms that control the organo-mineral interactions at the nano-scale. Organo-mineral complexes, considered at nanoscale, are called nCOMx. We focus on mechanisms of nCOMx formation (during phases of soil formation and steady-state), and on mechanisms of nCOMx destabilization (loss of soil OM during the transition from forest to cultivated soil). These different mechanisms are addressed by complementary approaches. The project is organized in five Work Packages. nCOMx formation is addressed by experimental laboratory approaches (WP1) and field experiments (WP4). nCOMx destabilization is addressed by both laboratory (WP1) and field experiments (WP3), but also by an innovative modelling approach (WP2). WP0 is dedicated to the coordination of the project between partners. The consortium brings together four partners (CEREGE, ECOSYS, BEF and Recyclage& Risques) representing 5 French institutes (CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université, Collège de France, INRA and CIRAD). The panel of scientists provides expertise in various disciplines. It aims to bring together the science of nanoparticles (and their characterization tools) with soil science. The overall budget requested to ANR is 690000 euros and includes training of post-doctoral fellows, PhD, and Master’s students. Outputs toward scientific communities and popularization of soil OM issues are also proposed. Beyond the basic knowledge on soil functioning, two main outputs of this project are expected: (1) providing a hierarchy of processes controlling the C residence time to improve our capacity to understand and model long-term ecosystem services provided by organic matter in soils; and (2) providing the basis for understanding agro-ecological practices with respect to C storage and proposing innovation items. The Soils-nCOMx research project will thus be an innovative input for restoring the OM pool in cultivated soils to address two major societal issues: food security and climate change mitigation.

The Sea of Marmara has been in the focus of national and international research groups for tectonic, paleoseismological and paleoceanographic studies because of its tectonic setting on the North Anatolian Fault (NAF), its earthquake risk and its location on a gateway between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. After the 1912 Mürefte and 1999 Kocaeli earthquakes, the presence of a seismic gap in the Sea of Marmara and its rupture with a M>7 earthquake in the near future are now accepted by most authorities. Determination of the NAF segment(s) constituting the seismic gap and the magnitude of the earthquake(s) that could be caused by their rupture are of vital importance for earthquake risk assessment for the Istanbul area specifically and for the Marmara region in general. Within the framework of 15 years of continuous collaboration between Turkish and French research groups, we carried out a marine survey in the Sea of Marmara during October-November 2014 with R/V Pourquoi Pas?. During this 20-day cruise we set up an acoustic ranging geodetic experiment along the Central High segment of NAF and deployed ocean bottom seismometers (OBS). This proposal will analyze the cores and the data generated by the geodetic experiment and the OBSs, with the following objectives of: (1) Evaluating the possibility to measure creep on the Central Marmara segment by analyzing the data from the in-situ marine acoustic-ranging experiment and from far-field continuous land-based (2) Acquiring new hydrologic data and bottom pressure time series to eliminate the effect of the water column on acoustic travel time variability (3) Improving the fine-scale distribution of the near-fault seismicity. The OBS data will be integrated with land-network data to better characterize the near-fault seismicity (4) Designing an optimal submarine monitoring observatory to be implemented in the Sea of Marmara. The design will be based on the results from these seismological data integration, geodetic experiments and bottom pressure recordings, and from previous submarine equipment deployments, which mostly focused on fluid emission sites. This collaborative project consists of five work packages and involves 7 research groups : 5 from France (Ifremer, LDO, CEREGE, ISTERRE, LIENs) and 2 from Turkey (ITU and KOERI).

Italian, American, Australian and French a scientists unite their knowledge and capability to study the interior of the Antarctic plateau between the French-Italian Concordia station (75°S, 123° E), and the US South Pole station (90°S). The scientific objectives of EAIIST are to study the icy terrain of the Antarctic continent in its driest places. These areas are largely unexplored and unknowns and offer unique and extraordinary morphological characteristics suspected to be analog of glacial conditions. This international consortium of scientists is built around the idea to explore and study by the means of ground vehicles the geophysical (snow physics, surface mass balance, density, temperature, seismicity, etc.), geochemical (impurities, aerosols, air-snow transfer, water isotopes, etc.) and meteorological dimensions (AWS, atmospheric dynamic, air mass transport, etc.) of these most inhospitable and remote place on Earth nevertheless so important for the functioning of the climatic machinery of the Earth's climate.