DELTAPULSE

Generacion de Conocimiento research project (Ref: PID2024-161132NA-I00) (2025-2028) Spanish State Research Agency

Project overview

Steamed by the hypothesis that modern deltas can survive future sea-level rise forced by warmer conditions if pulsing events can supply sediments, waters, and nutrients, the objective of DELTAPULSE is to develop the methodological and paleoecological basis of deltaic ecosystem development. We aim at determining which biotic and geological proxies for past deltaic pulse events are critical for sustainability of the Ebro Delta in the present and future, validating them with basin and coastal environmental forcings driven by paleoclimate and historical human impacts. First, we will investigate past environmental conditions under which coastal wetland developed using a restored ecosystem preceding 200 years of hydrologic presses and pulses driven by rice fields and dams. Then, we will reconstruct natural drivers of delta ecosystem change over the last 10,000 years combining evidence at catchment and delta scales, and studying the paleoecological signal of pulse events using a read-to-use, chronologically dated sediment core. We will focus on an inversed modeling approach to identify flood layers, and biological and geochemical signatures that might be triggered by independent paleoclimatic and sea-level histories. Finally, we will turn our attention to modelling future probabilities of delta natural habitats crossing critical thresholdstransitioning from vegetated to submerged states. DELTAPULSE also includes a knowledge transfer plan to increase social awareness about the complex long-term dynamics and adaptability of the Ebro Delta, and for efficient strategies relevant to stakeholders and ecosystem managers.

My role

I am the principal investigator of the project.

Team

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