NWO Open Competition Domain Science – M awards for 3 NIOZ scientists

Theme

A bar-tailed godwit flying above the Wadden Sea. These migratory birds travel thousands of kilometres between their wintering grounds in Africa and breeding grounds in Siberia.

Bar-tailed godwit in flight above the Wadden Sea (photo: Jan van de Kam)

The NWO Domain Board Science has approved the grant applications of NIOZ scientists Femke the Jong, Stefan Schouten and Peter Kraal in the Open Competition Domain Science-M program. M-grants are intended for innovative, high-quality, fundamental research and/or studies involving matters of scientific urgency.

Overturning the ocean, understanding the eddy driven exchange of denser and lighter waters 

Dr Femke de Jong (NIOZ) 

The northward heat transport in the Atlantic Ocean is important for our climate, but this transport will likely decrease as a result of climate change. How strong the decrease will be is difficult to predict because the transformation from light upper waters to dense waters in the southward flowing deep boundary current is not yet well understood. This project will use novel observations from autonomous ocean vehicles, satellite and oxygen sensors to trace how upper waters that are transformed in winter enter the deep ocean boundary current. Better process understanding will contribute to more accurate projections of our future climate. 

Polar microbes reveal past sea water temperatures 

Prof dr ir Stefan Schouten (NIOZ) 

The largest temperature changes which are predicted to occur due to the ongoing global warming is in the polar regions. Studying past climate change in polar regions will help us to constrain the magnitude of this warming. Unfortunately, there are no accurate methods available to reconstruct past temperatures in polar regions, in particular for sea water temperature. In this project we will develop a novel method based on fossilized molecules of polar microbes which has the potential to yield accurate reconstructs of past sea water temperatures in polar regions. 

Phosphorus in an acidifying ocean 

Dr Peter Kraal & Dr Mariette Wolthers (NIOZ/UU) 

Ocean acidification as a result of increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations is a global problem. It has potential negative, but poorly understood consequences for microscopic organisms (plankton) that live in the ocean and take up huge amounts of CO2, thereby affecting the functioning of the ocean as CO2 sink. In this project, researchers will shed light on a completely new aspect of this problem: what happens to the essential nutrient phosphorus in an acidifying ocean? By combining field work, laboratory experiments and computer models, the coupling between CO2, ocean acidification and phosphorus availability for plankton will be evaluated.