20.11.2024

DFG: Priority Programme “Tropical Climate Variability and Coral Reefs. A Past to Future Perspective on Current Rates of Change at Ultra-High Resolution” (SPP 2299)

Deadline: 01.04.2025

In May 2020, the Senate of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) established the Priority Programme “Tropical Climate Variability and Coral Reefs. A Past to Future Perspective on Current Rates of Change at Ultra-High Resolution” (SPP 2299). The programme is designed to run for six years. The present call invites new or renewal proposals for the second three-year funding period.

Aims and Scope of the Programme
Climate change, in particular the rise in tropical sea surface temperatures, is the greatest threat to coral reef ecosystems today and causes climatic extremes affecting the livelihood of tropical societies. In 2023–2024, record sea surface temperatures caused the fourth global coral bleaching event, the unprecedented severity of which required a revision of previously defined bleaching thresholds. Assessing how future warming will change coral reef ecosystems and tropical climate variability is therefore of extreme urgency. Ultra-high-resolution coral geochemistry provides a tool to understand the temporal response of corals and coral reefs to ongoing climate and environmental change, to reconstruct past tropical climate and environmental variability and to use these data in conjunction with advanced statistical methods, earth system modelling and observed ecosystem responses for improved projections of future changes in tropical climate and coral reef ecosystems.

The Priority Programme aims to enhance our current understanding of tropical marine climate variability and its impact on coral reef ecosystems in a warming world by quantifying climatic and environmental changes during both the ongoing warming and past warm periods on timescales relevant for society. The programme aims to provide an ultra-high-resolution past-to-future perspective on current rates of change in order to project how tropical marine climate variability and coral reef ecosystems will change in a warming world.

Successful proposals contribute to the overall scientific questions of the Priority Programme:
• Can we understand the interaction between global climate change and modes of tropical climate variability, and their combined impact on coral reef ecosystems and tropical societies in a warming world?
• Can we identify and understand rapid changes and transitions, their precursors and thresholds on seasonal, interannual and decadal timescales during the current and past warm climates – in coral proxy records of climate and environment, coral reef ecosystems and earth system model simulations?
• Can monthly climatic and environmental information extracted from coral skeletons by novel geochemical and isotopic analysis tools, combined with advanced statistical methods, earth system modelling and observed ecosystem responses quantify rates of change to project future coral reef ecosystem and tropical marine climate change?
• What are the future risks associated with the impact of increasing tropical sea surface temperature on dominant tropical climate modes, regional climate extremes, long-term precipitation trends, tropical societies and in particular coral reef ecosystems?

DFG Roundtable Discussion
A DFG roundtable discussion will be held in Kiel on 15 and 16 January 2025 for invited participants and further interested researchers (if you are interested, please get in touch with the coordinator). This meeting will present the organisational structure of the Priority Programme and provide a networking opportunity for potential applicants. Please note that participation in this meeting is not mandatory for the submission of project proposals. Researchers who are interested in submitting a proposal but are unable to join this meeting are encouraged to contact the programme committee of the Priority Programme for further information (for contact details see below).

Proposal Submission
Proposals must be written in English and submitted to the DFG by 1 April 2025. The maximum funding period is 36 months.

For more information, please visit: https://www.dfg.de/de/aktuelles/neuigkeiten-themen/info-wissenschaft/2024/ifw-24-107