Eastern Mediterranean Sea – Process study (Summer)

• Applicant: Thomas Browning, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Oceanography
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 566621867

Current climate model projections suggest that local warming diminishes nutrient supply to the surface ocean, thereby altering the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems. Increased intensity and frequency of extreme events (droughts, floods, surface ocean heating) have further unknown consequences for biogeochemical and ecosystem processes. A collaboration of German and Israeli scientists are working together to use the rapidly changing Eastern Mediterranean Sea (EMS) as a natural laboratory to gain mechanistic understanding of biogeochemical and ecosystem transitions of a future (sub-)tropical ocean affected by global warming and other anthropogenic pressures (Helmholtz International Laboratory “The Eastern Mediterranean Sea Centre- An Early-Warning Model-System for our Future Oceans: Eastern Mediterranean Sea Future Ocean REsearch (EMS FORE)”. The proposed EMS PS (Summer) cruise will form a key part of meeting the objectives of the wider EMS FORE programme by (i) characterizing (micro)nutrient biogeochemistry and phytoplankton nutrient limitation of the EMS in the summertime, (ii) documenting in detail the microbial communities that inhabit these waters from the surface ocean to sediments and resolve seasonal shifts (via comparison to already conducted winter cruise), (iii) assessing mechanistic connections between nutrient biogeochemistry, surface ocean productivity, deeper water metabolism, and shelf sediments on C and major nutrient cycling, (iv) using the sedimentary record to assess past change in the EMS.

• DFG Programme: Infrastructure Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 2520: Infrastructure area - Research Vessels
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr. Eric Achterberg; Dr. Zvi Steiner, Ph.D.