| Welcome to EUROPROX |
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The European Graduate College 'Proxies in Earth History' (EUROPROX) is an initiative for bilateral cooperation between the Universities of Bremen, Utrecht and Amsterdam. This research school in marine geosciences has been engaged in integrated post-graduate research, education and exchange since its starting days in November 2001. A second funding term started in January 2005, involving additional project partners of the Université de Bordeaux, the Southampton Oceanographic Centre and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2008, Europrox will enter its third and final phase.
Realisation and development of the research conceptLasting success in life has always been a question of adapting to climatic and environ-mental conditions. With growing awareness of climate-induced crises in the geological and historical past, present and future, investigating causes and consequences of both natural and human-induced climate variability has become a key research issue involving all natural sciences. Geoscientists describe and explain the long-term variability of the land-ocean-atmosphere system by interpreting the signatures in the sedimentary record.Proxy parameters are measurable properties of biogenic or lithogenic sediment components, which transform the latent geological manifestation of atmospheric, aquatic and sedimentary processes back into estimative system-state descriptors such as palaeo-temperature, -salinity, -productivity, -currents, -environments, particle or nutrient fluxes. Proxies are therefore the essential links between the 'muddy archives' and stratigraphy, statistics and models. Modern multi-proxy methods steadily expand the resolution, reliability and specificity of paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Proxy research is per se interdisciplinary and international. The EUROPROX research program integrates the geoscientific disciplines of marine geology, geochemistry and geophysics, earth system modelling, paleoceanography, paleontology, paleomagnetics and sedimentology. All these disciplines are represented at the partner institutions, however with somewhat distinct orientation, equipment and interest. It was therefore tried to find a good operational balance between a narrow, streamlined concept (which would have hindered corporate partnerships and multidisciplinarity) and a loose assemblage of hot topics (which would have inhibited internal co-operation). Needless to say that any such balance is a compromise, which does not make every participant equally happy. But more important, the succession of proposals shows, that there is growing acceptance by the partners to commit themselves to coordinated working areas, samples and research strategies, in spite of frustratingly incompatible national research funding policies. The coherence between EUROPROX projects and partners has noticeably increased from first to second phase and the joint operations at land and sea projected for the third phase will certainly enhance this tendency. Every proxy implementation follows the stages of proxy development, validation, and, in case of convincing advantages, wider application. On the other hand, it is important to determine, when and how established proxy parameters fail or run into limitations, e.g. due to secondary alteration. This fundamental approach was adopted as the substructure of the first EUROPROX research program 2002 - 2004: A. Paleoceanographic proxies as the key to paleoenvironment B. Alteration of primary proxy signals by diagenesis C. Development and application of proxies in Earth history. Under these common headlines, twelve relatively independent projects were initiated following promising research ideas and suitable available materials. In most of the projects, excellent contributions towards a more precise understanding of the formation and expression of specific proxy parameters and signatures could be made. Interdisciplinary ties were mainly established between paleoceanographers and micropalaeontologists as well as between geochemists and rock magnetism researchers. When planning the second EUROPROX phase it was realized that only mutual scientific benefit makes international partnerships continuously attractive. The strong interest and expertise in particular of the Dutch partners in pre-Pleistocene extreme climates and abrupt climate changes lead to a focus on Miocene and older periods. The regional focus shifted away from the Southern hemisphere to the wider region of the Mediterranean, Other evolving options are equally tempting - to consider 'affordable' joint field work on marine land series and even shared research cruises with the RV POSEIDON during the third EUROPROX phase. The facilitated access to prestigious ODP cores from this region at the Bremen Core Repository was another argument in favor. When no convincing platforms were found, project partnerships were modified or replaced by new co-operations with other excellent marine research institutions: the Université de Bordeaux, the Southampton Oceanographic Centre and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The resulting international research and training networks put the international mix of EUROPROX colleagues into a better position to pursue their work and careers. The new substructure is more focused and explicit: A. Sea surface temperature B. Past primary productivity and diagenesis C. Marine signals of terrestrial climate is more focused and explicit |
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