The project CINNAMOW aims to reconstruct Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene (~3.4 to ~2.3 Ma) climatic and oceanographic conditions at the Iberian Margin. This study will provide new insights into one of the major climate transitions in past Earth's climate, the shift from the warm Pliocene climate to the initiation of the Northern Hemisphere glaciations (NHG), in which the climate became characterized by the alternation between glacial and interglacial periods. The outcomes of this project will also help modelers to provide better predictions of future climate scenarios, since the Pliocene is the most recent interval in which greenhouse gases concentrations were as high as the levels we recently reached due to the anthropogenic pollution. ​​Even though the scientific community has carried out a great effort to unravel the mechanisms and processes that gave rise to this climatic cooling trend, the initiation of the NHG is still poorly understood. Recently, it has been suggested that the Mediterranean Overflow Water (MOW) may have played a major role modifying the patterns of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) by enhancing deep water formation in the North Atlantic. Reconstructing the physicochemical variations in the MOW during this interval will contribute to understand the role of this current in global ocean circulation changes. ​We are studying sediments from Site U1391, recently recovered from the Southwest Iberian margin during the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 339. This expedition provided for the first time long sediment cores from the area of the Gulf of Cadiz and SW Iberia, which guarantees the novelty and extraordinary interest of the data obtained in this project. Located in the path of the MOW, Site U1391 offers the possibility to conduct for the first time a high resolution study of MOW variations during the Plio-Pleistocene transition. Moreover, this site is placed at the Iberian Margin, a region that has been proved to be very valuable in recording climatic changes during the Pleistocene. In this regard, the sediments from Site U1391 offer the possibility to directly compare changes in MOW with regional climatic records. This comparison will shed light on the correlation of regional climate aridification and intensification of MOW. Besides, the regional climatic records of the Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene interval will be deeply relevant to improve model simulations, not only to get a better picture about past climate conditions but also to produce better simulations of future climate in the current context of climate warming. To accomplish this project we will use a multi-proxy approach that includes micropaleontological, sedimentological and geochemical proxies: 1) Benthic foraminifer oxygen stable isotopes (δ18O) to construct a precise age model; 2) Grain size analysis, for information about the fluctuations in the strength of the outflow; 3) Benthic foraminifer oxygen and carbon stable isotopes, and trace elements (particularly Mg/Ca), to reconstruct MOW changes in temperature and salinity; 4) Biomarker analysis to reconstruct sea surface temperature changes at the SW Iberian Margin (alkenone paleothermometry), productivity conditions in the area (concentration of alkenones), and dust input (alkanes and alcohols) to reconstruct wind patterns.    

The WiseFeed project will build an integrated network of research groups from the academia and partners in SME and large enterprises where the overall aim is to improve performance and sustainability of aquafeeds for fish production. The project is organized as a collaborative network with staff secondments where we will share knowledge and ideas and conduct joint research in disciplines ranging from building a knowledge in basic physiology and mechanistic modelling through selection of raw materials, applied testing of feed producing technology and feeding trials. The final applied aim is to implement the findings into innovative products and services in the industrial partners.   This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 691150 Academic partners University of Bergen (UiB), Bergen, Norway (Coordinator) National Institute for Nutrition and Seafood research (Nifes), Bergen, Norway Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior De Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Cadiz, Spain Center for Marine Sciences Algarve (CCMAR), Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal Non-academic partners Sparos Lda (Sparos), Faro, Portugal Evonik Industries Ag (Evonik), Essen, Germany Biomin Holding Gmbh (Biomin), Herzogenburg, Austria Partner organization (Third country) Nha Trang University (NTU), Nha Trang, Vietnam  

Aquaculture production has a lower carbon footprint per kg meat compared to terrestrial production systems, there are clear health benefits of consuming fish and aquaculture removes dependence on wild fish and contributes to protect ecosystems and biodiversity. The greatest gains in efficiency of aquaculture production can be obtained by management of animal production and by allying this to improved postharvest storage and processing. Modifications in production regimes to improve growth and yield will impact on flesh quality and shelf life and an integrated approach focused on these complementary aspects has the potential to amplify the benefits that can accrue. Sushifish is intersectorial and focuses on two essential parts of the value chain, aquaculture production and postharvest processing and resource utilization. The workplan targets the most important aquaculture species in Southern Europe (eg. sea bass and sea bream). Strategies are directed at shortening the production cycle and improving growth by manipulating sex ratios in favour of the faster growing sex, using egg/larval imprinting strategies to improve growth and muscle quality and by monitoring and reducing chronic stress. The impact on product quality of manipulating production cycles will be linked to strategies to optimize cold chain management and development of innovative processing technologies. Pre-slaughter conditioning to optimize production regimes and stress control prior to slaughter will interface with tasks directed at optimizing product quality by establishing its impact on post-harvest quality and new processing strategies. New technologies such as superchilling and high pressure processing of fish products will be tested together with Time-Temperature Integrators for monitoring spoilage enriched with novel data from "omics" analysis. The project will build on the existing knowledge base and innovate to increase aquaculture sustainability. The impact of the project on the aquaculture sector will be assured by the involvement of aquaculture companies, through industry based training workshops, pilot studies, implementation and validation of standard operating procedures and dissemination activities.  

Heavy metal pollution is one of the most important environmental problems today even threatening human life. A large number of industries produce and discharge wastes containing different heavy metals into the environment and do not comply with current EU directives. BIOMETAL DEMO project aims at demonstrating the feasibility of the application of novel biotechnologies for the treatment of metal polluted wastewaters though the development of two pilot plants to be implemented in two metal polluting representative industries which are a mine and an electroplating company. Actual metal treatment technologies implemented in polluting industries fail to comply with the reduction of metal concentration required by the EU for wastewater treatments. For this reason, new technologies will be developed to overcome this problem. The biotechnologies that will be evaluated in BIOMETAL DEMO project will be: metal bioprecipitation by sulphate-reducing bacteria and immobilized phytase biocatalysis, and metal biosorption on agricultural industry by-products and biopolymers such as alginate & chitosan based materials. After the evaluation of these techniques, an optimized bioprocess or a synergy of two integrated bioprocesses will be selected to design and build two demonstration pilot plants for scaling-up the metal removal biotreatment. The feasibility of the application of the selected bioprocess will be explored at pilot plant scale in acid mine drainage and electroplating wastewaters contaminated with heavy metals. The operation will be monitored and optimized, and the kinetics and the performance of the metal removal/recovery bioprocess will be integrated within the pilot demonstration plants. Finally, an economic, social and technical analysis of the benefits of such tertiary biotreatment of metal polluted industrial wastewater will be carried out for the corresponding and related industrial sectors across EU. Goals: - To develop, at a laboratory scale, a tertiary biological process based on the capabilities of sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB) as a final polishing step to integrate the treatment of metal wastewaters resulting from different sources (e.g. mining, plating), permitting the reuse of the treated waters for irrigation. - To use SRB communities simply enriched from environmental samples and natural and locally available substrates, which also need to be subjected to treatment, resulting in a simple, efficient and low-cost technology. - Optimization and technical improvement of the bioprecipitation process at laboratory scale (using SRB) in order to contribute to its industrial scale implementation.