About
Current state
Warming in the Mediterranean Sea is faster than in the global ocean. A substantial increase is projected for the near future for both the mean sea surface temperature (SST) and the frequency and duration of marine heatwaves. At the same time, ocean acidification resulting from increased atmospheric CO2 is expected to synergistically act with warming, driving long-term shifts in marine habitats at the global scale.
Sessile marine invertebrates (i.e. organisms that live attached to the substrate) are more susceptible to climate change pressure, having reduced motility and therefore being incapable of escaping stressors. Usually characterized by a short mobile phase during their larval stage, sessile marine organisms have limited options for habitat choice and, thus, are often innately capable of undergoing physiological or morphological adaptation to acclimate to environmental gradients.
Structure
The research tasks in the framework of MACCIMO are organized into 6 distinct work packages (WPs). WP1 oversees the scientific management and coordination of the project. WP2 manages the experimental setup and provides samples to WPs 3-6, each one assigned one analytical approach for the assessment of response of target organisms to experimental treatment.
Innovation and impact
The innovative perspective of MACCIMO lies in the adoption of a coordinated investigation of climate change impacts to marine organisms, through a common experimental treatment that feeds multi-disciplinary, advanced analytical methods carried out by a team of highly skilled experts. These methods assess response to environmental stimuli at the level of the morphology, physiology, gene expression, and microsymbiont diversity. This integrative approach allows the research team to evaluate and compare different effects of the applied stressors on the relevant traits of target organisms, thus providing insights to a broad response spectrum.
Supporting facilities and infrastructure
MACCIMO is implemented at the Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture (IMBBC) of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR).
The IMBBC Scientific Diving Unit will undertake the field collection of organisms and their transfer to the experimental laboratories.
Experimental rearing of organisms and simulation of climate change scenarios will be implemented at the experimental cultivation tanks of CretAquarium, equipped with automated temperature and pH controllers.
The IMBBC Bioimaging Lab (part of BIOIMAGING-GR Research Infrastructure), equipped with a high resolution micro-tomograph (micro-CT) will undertake the creation of 3D models and implementation of morphological analyses.
Gene expression and molecular/genetic analyses will be performed at the IMBBC Genetics and Molecular Biotechnology Lab, equipped with a Real Time Thermal Cycler (qPCR), thermal cyclers (PCRs), and gel electrophoresis setups.
With over 20 MiSeq amplicon runs performed, the IMBBC DNA Sequencing Platform has all the necessary expertise and equipment for library construction and quality control, including magnetic separators, a Nanodrop spectrophotometer and an Agilent Bioanalyzer.
Computational resources for all bioinformatics analyses are available at the IMBBC High Performance Computing (HPC) system, hosting an array of software for Illumina read preprocessing and molecular ecology analyses.
Funding
MACCIMO is supported by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) under the “2nd Call for HFRI Research Projects to support Faculty Members & Researchers” (Project Number: 03280)
