DECISION

Consolidación Investigadora research project (Ref: CNS2024-154895) (2025-2027) Spanish State Research Agency

Project overview

The purpose of DECISION is to test the pragmatic yet ambitious hypothesis that the onset and early rice cultivation and natural drivers of Ebro Delta long-term change and variability can be determined using a combination of aquatic palaeoecological proxies preserved in the sediments and Earth System’s modeling. First, we will examine past environmental conditions under which rice cultivation thrived following pre-dam and post-dam influences (last ca. 200 years). Then, we will reconstruct natural drivers of delta ecosystem change over the last 4000 years applying a combination of geochemistry (sediment provenance through XRF and foraminifera-based salinity paleoreconstructions) and modeling (past sea level curves and fluvial sediment discharges) methods. DECISION will finally translate past human-environmental dynamics to future simulations in the form of sensitivity maps to visualize where and when in the Ebro Delta natural and human-driven habitats may change.

My role

I am the principal investigator of the project.

Team

Contact me if you are interested to explore BSc or MSc opportunities around this topic and if have any questions

News

On August 21 and 22 we conducted the first sediment coring campaign in the Ebro Delta. The region selected was the peatland located in the inner border of the delta, locally known as “Ullals”. These are freshwater wells formed by karstic-originated sediments that slow down the underground water coming from the catchment and push the water up to the surface. Organic matter with high water content (peat) is prevalent in these freshwater wetlands. This sedimentary system is very relevant to recover sequence of environmental change, including hydrological alteration in the most recent past and sea level and riverine sediment discharge changes at longer temporal scales.