FP7 - SOMFLOOD project

Programme: FP 7 Marie Curie

Project Title: Compositional changes of sedimentary organic matter from a 100-year flood deposit: insights into event-driven processes in the coastal ocean

Acronym: Somflood

Duration: 2008-2011

Total Budget : € 230.668

Web site: n/a

Summary: In spite of their importance as sites of long-term burial of organic matter (OM), key questions remain regarding the factors controlling carbon sequestration in river subaqueous deltas. One of the salient, but poorly understood, features of these river-dominated ocean margins (RIOMARs) is their highly dynamic nature. Specifically, we lack quantitative understanding of the role that perturbation events, such as floods, play in the OM biogeochemistry of RIOMAR systems. To address this knowledge gap, we propose to analyze the composition of OM in sediments from the Po River prodelta (Italy) that were emplaced during a 100-year flood.

We propose to conduct a series of analyses designed to test specific aspects of a conceptual model of non-steady state biogeochemical OM cycling in coastal margins. We will specifically test the effects of key physical forcings (sediment deposition, physical and biological reworking, and microbial activity) on the processes responsible for the cycling and ultimate fate of OM in the flood deposit. We will investigate changes in the physical properties and composition of a variety of OM constituents including organic carbon, organic nitrogen, isotopes, as well as specific biochemical classes (fatty acids, cutin, lignin and amino acid products).

Contact person in ISMAR: Tommaso.Tesi@cnr.it

Partnership: Oregon State University - USA