A critical agenda for earth and life sciences is to determine how diverse tropical marine ecosystems such as coral reefs will respond to global environmental change. This will require long-term environmental and ecological data that rarely exist for living coral reefs. In contrast, the fossil record provides abundant examples that can be mined to predict future outcomes. The THROUGHFLOW network will train a cohort of eleven ESRs to enable them to reconstruct past environments and patterns of biotic change using state-of-the-art technologies within a collaborative interdisciplinary framework. The training program will explore the past record of change on coral reefs in SE Asia in response to reorganization of ocean currents during the Cenozoic. This region contains both the Indo-West Pacific Center of Biodiversity (the most diverse shallow marine ecosystems on Earth) and the Indonesian Through flow (a primary control of global climate). THROUGHFLOW will reconstruct the history of these two features and develop a model for how coral reefs respond to regional environmental change. Practical training will include eleven integrated research projects and a series of joint training activities to facilitate collaboration and provide access to a variety of expertise. THROUGHFLOW will bring important new data to bear on long-standing scientific controversies, and the results will be relevant to a broad audience including industry and policy makers working to predict and plan for the effects of ongoing anthropogenic environmental change. By providing rigorous training in a range of applied techniques in geology and biodiversity, THROUGHFLOW will produce researchers able to pursue successful careers in academia or industry and will enhance the power of the European research community to tackle pressing issues related to the effects of ongoing environmental change on the biosphere.

The UG leads the following projects and NTA: Project B2. The origins and evolution of the modern Pacific reef algal flora (UG/RHUL/UQ). The aim is to document the timing and patterns of the diversification of Indo-Pacific reef-building coralline algae, the second most important builders in modern Indo-Pacific reefs. This group appeared in Late Oligocene-Early Miocene times in the IWP area. Sedimentary and paleo-oceanographic signals will be used to correlate algal origination (and extinction) events to variations in reef fossil assemblages and regional/global paleo-environmental changes. This project will provide insight into the possible environmental/global context responsible for the origins and maintenance of modern-day diversity. Project E1. Shallow marine paleo-environments and the ITF (UG/NNM/CU). This project aims to characterize shallow-water non-reef carbonate paleo-environments during the Oligocene-Miocene transition and to understand how these environments responded to the initial constriction of the ITF reducing deep-water circulation. Research methods to be applied include identification of lithostratigraphic units, carbonate lithofacies, and major taphonomic attributes and biotic components in each site/section. Results will be compared with those from other work areas to correlate paleo-environmental variations with available data indicative of local to global environmental changes. The project will contribute important new knowledge about the environmental context of formation of non-reef carbonates in SE Asia, which are volumetrically very significant deposits. NTA-6. Sedimentology, biostratigraphy, and paleoecology at a seismic scale (Work Area E /UG). Theoretical Training (2 days): Sequence stratigraphy offers the best theoretical framework to integrate data and interpretations from different fields into a single scheme of temporal-spatial relationships of sedimentary rocks. Signals from regional to global scale can be decoded to understand the spatiotemporal distribution of local depositional environments and correlate these signals among different areas in the world. Applied Training (3 days): The Neogene Almeria basins in southern Spain provide one of the world's finest 'natural laboratories' for the study of sedimentation at a seismic scale. Exposures of Upper Miocene carbonates allow any sampling/observation site to be placed in a sequence-stratigraphic framework and original 3D physical gradients such as paleo-depth. Sea-level changes observed in shallow water reefs can be correlated with paleo-oceanographic signals (temperature and in a lesser degree productivity) at the Milankovich time scale.

Local Training: Research Training Projects: Specific training for each work area will be centered on practical experience available at the host institutions. We plan to organise a set of six NTAs.

This ITN provides an integrated training to 11 ESRs in diverse fields including geology, stratigraphy, geochemistry, paleontology, oceanography, palaeoclimate modeling, taxonomy, and systematics through individual learning and NTAs. At international symposiums, NTAs, and by networking within THROUGHFLOW, the ESRs will have the opportunity to meet and work closely with leading experts from these fields in both academia and industry. Network Institutions THROUGHFLOW will both improve existing channels and result in new interactions among its partners and catalyze individual research groups to produce and integrate diverse data streams enabling truly interdisciplinary research. European Research There is increasing recognition that rapid advances in our understanding of the Earth System can only be gained through the assembly of large volumes of data that can be analyzed rigorously using state-of-the art quantitative techniques.

Paleogeografía de Cuencas Sedimentarias

Code PAIDI: RNM 190

Juan Carlos Braga Alarcón. Socio. 

Universidad de Granada

Budget of Andalusian group: € 399,755.90

http://www.ugr.es/~estratig/

• Natural History Museum, UK,
• Nationaal Natuurhistorish Museum Naturalis, Holanda,
• ChristianAlbrechtsUniversität zu Kiel, Alemania,
• Royal Holloway University of London, UK,
• Universität Bremen, Alemania,
• Universiteit Utrecht, Holanda