• Canada
• 2012-2021close
• 2021 close

ChAOS will quantify the effect of changing sea ice cover on organic matter quality, benthic biodiversity, biological transformations of carbon and nutrient pools, and resulting ecosystem function at the Arctic Ocean seafloor. We will achieve this by determining the amount, source, and bioavailability of organic matter (OM) and associated nutrients exported to the Arctic seafloor; its consumption, transformation, and cycling through the benthic food chain; and its eventual burial or recycling back into the water column. We will study these coupled biological and biogeochemical processes by combining (i) a detailed study of representative Arctic shelf sea habitats that intersect the ice edge, with (ii) broad-scale in situ validation studies and shipboard experiments, (iii) manipulative laboratory experiments that will identify causal relationships and mechanisms, (iv) analyses of highly spatially and temporally resolved data obtained by the Canadian, Norwegian and German Arctic programmes to establish generality, and (v) we will integrate new understanding of controls and effects on biodiversity, biogeochemical pathways and nutrient cycles into modelling approaches to explore how changes in Arctic sea ice alter ecosystems at regional scales. We will focus on parts of the Arctic Ocean where drastic changes in sea ice cover are the main environmental control, e.g., the Barents Sea. Common fieldwork campaigns will form the core of our research activity. Although our preferred focal region is a N-S transect along 30 degree East in the Barents Sea where ice expansion and retreat are well known and safely accessible, we will also use additional cruises to locations that share similar sediment and water conditions in Norway, retrieving key species for extended laboratory experiments that consider future environmental forcing. Importantly, the design of our campaign is not site specific, allowing our approach to be applied in other areas that share similar regional characteristics. This flexibility maximizes the scope for coordinated activities between all programme consortia (pelagic or benthic) should other areas of the Arctic shelf be preferable once all responses to the Announcement of Opportunity have been evaluated. In support of our field campaign, and informed by the analysis of field samples and data obtained by our international partners (in Norway, Canada, USA, Italy, Poland and Germany), we will conduct a range of well-constrained laboratory experiments, exposing incubated natural sediment to environmental conditions that are most likely to vary in response to the changing sea ice cover, and analysing the response of biology and biogeochemistry to these induced changes in present versus future environments (e.g., ocean acidification, warming). We will use existing complementary data sets provided by international project partners to achieve a wider spatial and temporal coverage of different parts of the Arctic Ocean. The unique combination of expertise (microbiologists, geochemists, ecologists, modellers) and facilities across eight leading UK research institutions will allow us to make new links between the quantity and quality of exported OM as a food source for benthic ecosystems, the response of the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning across the full spectrum of benthic organisms, and the effects on the partitioning of carbon and nutrients between recycled and buried pools. To link the benthic sub-system to the Arctic Ocean as a whole, we will establish close links with complementary projects studying biogeochemical processes in the water column, benthic environment (and their interactions) and across the land-ocean transition. This will provide the combined data sets and process understanding, as well as novel, numerically efficient upscaling tools, required to develop predictive models (e.g., MEDUSA) that allow for a quantitative inclusion seafloor into environmental predictions of the changing Arctic Ocean.

STFC: William Parrott: ST/S505390/1 The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, possibly the most famous physics experiment ever, and certainly one of the most exciting, continues to push the boundaries of our knowledge, and questions our perceived notions of the workings of the universe. But how well do we understand the particles that are detected there? Most particles made of quarks that are seen at the LHC have a well-understood theoretical explanation, being simple mesons and baryons with a standard quark and/or antiquark content. These confirm what we think we know about the universe, but there also seem to be particles that do not fit into this box. Recent hints of exciting new particles have prompted questions about what kinds of particles can exist within our theoretical framework, and for those that can, what masses we would expect them to have. For some non-standard particles, called tetraquarks, there is some emerging evidence that their existnce may be consistent with our current theories, and also some evidence of their possible detection at the LHC. In order to confirm the possibility of these new particles, a much clearer theoretical picture is needed and that means more precise determination of their mass. This is what we intend to calculate, using improved methods to obtain a better picture of how the binding of a particular set of possible tetraquarks depends on the masses of the quarks they contain. The unambiguous discovery of such a particle would be extremely exciting for the world of particle physics, and improved theory calculations will help the experimentalists searching for them. Another exciting frontier of physics is the development of new and better computers. Computers have become a huge part of everyday life and computing power has increased vastly since their inception, but we want to carry out ever more complicated tasks and do so ever more quickly. There is a limit to how powerful we can make a classical computer, so we must look for other options. The most exciting option, which is in the early stages of development, is the so-called quantum computer. It is looking increasingly likely that quantum computers will one day be a reality, and so it is important that we have thought through how to use them. They could be a real game-changer for computationally very challenging fields such as that of quark physics. Because quantum computers work in a very different way to existing computers, we need to develop the tools to make use of them. This project will equip me to work in this area by setting up a prototype of a possible calculation in quark physics. My project will combine these two cutting-edge areas of physics, calculating the masses of tetraquarks, as well as working towards the use of quantum computers to carry out similar calculations in future. As well as pushing the boundaries of physics, the project will help the development of my own personal skills. I will be able to bring my knowledge of computational techniques to a new challenge in the tetraquark calculation, as well as learn from my Canadian hosts about a whole new area of research in the quantum computing work.

EPSRC : Paul Smith : EP/N509498/1 Lipids are biological molecules that have hydrophobic tails and hydrophilic headgroups. Along with proteins, lipids constitute the complex fluid mixture of biological cell membranes. There are hundreds of types of lipids in cell membranes, each with a different combination of tail and headgroup, and many serving important biological functions. The lateral organization of lipids - the way in which different lipid types mix with one another - also serves important but poorly understood biological roles, including providing platforms for transmitting signals across the membrane. Physics-based computer simulations offer a unique opportunity to study biological structures at sub-nanometer resolution. We will use computer simulations to systematically study the effect of curvature on lipid mixing and the local physical properties of the membrane. This will both add to our general understanding of membrane biophysics as well as allow us to better model the behavior of complex biological structures like red blood cells.

EPSRC: Thomas Robinson: EP/S023070/1 Static mixers are solid structures that can be inserted into process piping to homogenise a fluid flow as it passes through it. This means that at any point in the pipe, the fluid is the same as at any other point. Currently, multiple different designs of static mixer exist, and the two most eminent static mixers are the Chemineer KM mixer and the Sulzer SMX mixer. These came to prominence in the early 1980s and most sold static mixers are derivative of these two designs. As part of my Chemical Engineering Master's thesis at the University of Birmingham, I worked with CALGAVIN LTD on the design of a brand-new static mixer design and compared it against those current market leaders. To assess the capabilities of this design we employed the use of Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence (PLIF). Put simply, if a mixture of two separate fluids is pumped into the inlet of static mixer, at the outlet of the mixer, the two fluids will have become more mixed. If you add a dye that fluoresces under laser light to one of the initial fluids, you can shine a laser at the outlet of the static mixer to make the dye give off light. This light can be captured with a camera and generates an image that shows the distribution of the fluid in the pipe after mixing. By doing some post-processing and calibration, the exact concentration of each fluid can be calculated from this image as well as a value for how mixed it is. Different static mixers and different flow conditions (temperatures, viscosities, velocity, etc...) can be tested and compared to find which static mixer offers the best mixing. The PLIF research validated the new static mixer and showed it has promise against the KM-type and SMX-type mixers. This PLIF technique can be used to rapidly iterate a new static mixer design but it has inherent downsides. Like when mixing squash and water, they cannot be unmixed. It is the same with the PLIF experiments, the test fluids are irreversibly mixed. When this test fluid is expensive, it adds significant costs to experimental testing. To mitigate this expense, this 12-week research project has been proposed. The premise is to use Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to run analogous testing in computer simulations. If the simulations can be accurately mapped to the experimental results that have already been taken, it will allow a computer to test multiple small design changes to the static mixer that could never all be tested experimentally. This proposal represents a significant benefit to both the UK and Canadian parties involved. The University of Birmingham and CALGAVIN will gain access to the expertise of the modelling team in the University of Alberta and in return, they will receive world-class experimental data that can be used to hone their simulations to match real work experimentation. The output of this research will, therefore, be higher confidence in more accurate CFD simulation techniques as well as drastically lower development costs of the new static mixer with increased chances of it becoming a viable market product.