MSCA Hydro-ALPS

Across Central Europe, the Alps cover four sub-climatic regions and play a major role in the continent's water storage and supply. Nicknamed the "water tower of Europe", the Alps are home to the majority of the sources of major rivers such as the Danube, Rhine, Po and Rhône. Although strongly influenced by human activities, water resources on the continent are also based on the hydro-climatic variability affecting the water cycle on a Euro-Mediterranean scale.

The Hydro-ALPS project aims to provide long-term records of hydrological changes and associated erosion for the pre-instrumental period. The project will use oxygen and silicon isotopes from diatoms extracted from lake sediments as tracers of hydrological conditions and chemical alteration of the crystalline basement. The study will focus on the southern part of the Alps located in the Mediterranean basin, which is one of the regions of the world expected to be most affected by climate change. The new records will increase the window of 'observation' of climate change beyond the last few hundred years to help validate regional climate models.