This proposal is based on a fundamentally important and previously unexpected change to our understanding of the marine inorganic carbon cycle. It follows our recent revelation that calcium carbonates excreted by fish make a significant contribution but our current estimates vary over more than a 10-fold range (3 to 45 % of global marine carbonate). BACKGROUND: As humans burn more fossil fuels, atmospheric concentrations of the 'greenhouse gas' carbon dioxide (CO2) rise contributing to climate change. Atmospheric CO2 is in balance with CO2 dissolved in the oceans, in something referred to as the marine-atmospheric carbon cycle. Whatever happens to CO2 in the oceans, will ultimately have an effect on CO2 in the atmosphere, and hence can influence global climate. When CO2 dissolves in seawater, it forms bicarbonate ions. An important part of the marine-atmospheric carbon cycle is the reaction of this bicarbonate with seawater calcium to produce a solid precipitate of white calcium carbonate (the mineral found in limestone). These precipitates are very dense, and sink to the ocean bottom in a continuous 'rain' of white crystals. The rate at which they form and sink (or re-dissolve) is important in the marine carbon cycle. The majority of calcium carbonate is generated by marine life that promotes this reaction to make a hard protective 'shell'. The most famous organisms involved in this 'biogenic' calcification are corals. However, those thought to produce the most are actually microscopic phytoplankton called coccolithophores that live in the open ocean. Dense skeletons of these and other microscopic organisms are normally considered to be the only important source of marine carbonates. Scientists collect samples in deep ocean traps, to measure this carbonate 'rainfall' for use in computer models of the carbon cycle. We have recently discovered that marine fish also produce substantial amounts of precipitated calcium carbonate, but for a very different purpose. They produce it in their intestines, by drinking large volumes of seawater and actively promoting the reaction of seawater calcium with bicarbonate ions that are produced by their own metabolism. Fish then excrete the precipitated calcium carbonate into the surrounding seawater, where it probably mixes with all the better known (planktonic) sources. In fact, some tropical fish will excrete calcium carbonate equivalent to its own dry body weight every year! We have conservatively estimated that the contribution of fish may be up to 45% of the total global carbonate production. This novel discovery suggests that fish also contribute to the marine carbon cycle, but scientists who model this cycle have never previously taken this into account. Indeed, the unusual chemistry of fish carbonates (which are more soluble than carbonate from more traditional sources), may explain a phenomenon that has puzzled oceanographers for decades - the rapid dissolution of 'apparently insoluble' carbonates in the upper layers of the ocean. Our research is a multi-disciplinary project that for the first time aims to precisely model how much calcium carbonate is produced by marine fish under different environmental conditions and determine its fate within in our oceans. This will also help with predictions about how carbonate excretion by marine fish will be affected by future environmental changes, such as temperature and CO2. We predict that fish will become even more important in this regard in the future, whereas marine plankton will become less important. Thus a precise understanding of this fish contribution to the global marine carbon cycle is both a novel and environmentally important topic.

The duplication of genes provides new genetic material that can be used for novel functions, allowing plants and animals to evolve biological innovations and adapt to environmental conditions. Whole genome duplication (WGD) is arguably the most dramatic mechanism for duplication, resulting in the production of a new copy of every gene in the nuclear genome. Around 430 million years ago, spiders and scorpions diverged from a common ancestor that had experienced a WGD. The retained duplicated genes from this WGD event (genes called ohnologs) can still be found in the genomes of the approximately 45,000 species of these animals alive today and may have contributed to their adaptation and diversification. Since then, some families of Synspermiata spiders have undergone at least two additional WGDs within a single lineage, reflecting a similar series of WGDs in vertebrates. This presents an opportunity to compare these events to determine whether there are general principals shaping the outcomes of WGDs and their contribution to animal diversification. In addition, Synspermiata represent a wide diversity of spiders that are understudied and poorly understood Therefore, the aims of this project are to identify spider ohnologs after multiple WGDs, explore whether and how they have contributed to the evolutionary success of these animals, and compare the outcomes of these events to repeated WGDs in vertebrates. We will first collect and carry out the first large scale detailed study of the morphology of Synspermiata spiders to better understand their evolution and phenotypic diversity. In parallel, we will identify the ohnologs that have been retained in spider groups after WGDs by comparing the repertoire and arrangement of the duplicated genes in these animals with relatives where there is no evidence of additional WGDs. As part of this aim, we will sequence the genomes of Synspermiata spiders that have undergone one (Pholcus phalangioides, Scytodes thoracica and Loxosceles reclusa), and two (Oonops pulcher, Segestria senoculata and Dysdera crocata) WGD, as well as the transcriptomes of Caponiidae species with two (Orthonops zebra) or three (Calponia harrisonfordi) WGDs. Since relatively little is known about these spiders this will provide new insights into the biology of these animals as well as their genome evolution. We will then compare the repertoires of genes retained after WGD between spiders and vertebrates to determine whether there are any similarities in the aftermath of these events. This information will help us to better understand the general consequences of WGD and the principles underlying their outcomes in terms of genes being preferentially retained or lost again. Identification of ohnologs will also allow us to ask if these genes have been subject to sub-, neofunctionalisation or specialisation during spider development and if their expression is associated with morphological diversification. Overall our project will provide new insights into the genomes of spiders and how WGDs in these animals have contributed to their morphological evolution. Our data will also allow comparisons to WGD events in other animals, including vertebrates, to better understand the general consequences of these events and their contribution to animal adaptation and diversification.

The duplication of genes provides new genetic material that can be used for novel functions, allowing plants and animals to evolve biological innovations and adapt to environmental conditions. Whole genome duplication (WGD) is arguably the most dramatic mechanism for duplication, resulting in the production of a new copy of every gene in the nuclear genome. Around 430 million years ago, spiders and scorpions diverged from a common ancestor that had experienced a WGD. The retained duplicated genes from this WGD event (genes called ohnologs) can still be found in the genomes of the approximately 45,000 species of these animals alive today and may have contributed to their adaptation and diversification. Since then, some families of Synspermiata spiders have undergone at least two additional WGDs within a single lineage, reflecting a similar series of WGDs in vertebrates. This presents an opportunity to compare these events to determine whether there are general principals shaping the outcomes of WGDs and their contribution to animal diversification. In addition, Synspermiata represent a wide diversity of spiders that are understudied and poorly understood Therefore, the aims of this project are to identify spider ohnologs after multiple WGDs, explore whether and how they have contributed to the evolutionary success of these animals, and compare the outcomes of these events to repeated WGDs in vertebrates. We will first collect and carry out the first large scale detailed study of the morphology of Synspermiata spiders to better understand their evolution and phenotypic diversity. In parallel, we will identify the ohnologs that have been retained in spider groups after WGDs by comparing the repertoire and arrangement of the duplicated genes in these animals with relatives where there is no evidence of additional WGDs. As part of this aim, we will sequence the genomes of Synspermiata spiders that have undergone one (Pholcus phalangioides, Scytodes thoracica and Loxosceles reclusa), and two (Oonops pulcher, Segestria senoculata and Dysdera crocata) WGD, as well as the transcriptomes of Caponiidae species with two (Orthonops zebra) or three (Calponia harrisonfordi) WGDs. Since relatively little is known about these spiders this will provide new insights into the biology of these animals as well as their genome evolution. We will then compare the repertoires of genes retained after WGD between spiders and vertebrates to determine whether there are any similarities in the aftermath of these events. This information will help us to better understand the general consequences of WGD and the principles underlying their outcomes in terms of genes being preferentially retained or lost again. Identification of ohnologs will also allow us to ask if these genes have been subject to sub-, neofunctionalisation or specialisation during spider development and if their expression is associated with morphological diversification. Overall our project will provide new insights into the genomes of spiders and how WGDs in these animals have contributed to their morphological evolution. Our data will also allow comparisons to WGD events in other animals, including vertebrates, to better understand the general consequences of these events and their contribution to animal adaptation and diversification.

This project investigates the difference between the time of the clock and the lived time of experience. We live in a world dominated by the time of the clock, yet many aspects of life have a different rhtyhm and temporality. The time of community, especially, is very often more complex and differentiated that standardised clock time. A co-inquiry of researchers from a range of disciplines in the arts and humanities and practioners in community organisations will explore ways by which communities can acquire a more open and diversified relation to time; they will approach this question both from a theoretical point of view as well as from a practice- and intervention-based point of view. As such the project will make a significant contribution to developing a concrete ethics and culture of temporal diversity. The project is a co-inquiry between researchers and community organisations and the impact runs therefore in both ways: we aim to develop interventions that will enable communities to reflect on common assumptions about time, but also recognise that like any other community, the research and knowledge production community itself is driven by certain assumptions about time which are in need of examination, and so this project will also explore what the research community can learn from its engagement with other communities. In addition to the theoretical research, the project contains three 'pathfinders' for community engagement on the issue of time: 1. This strand considers contextualisation of interventions on temporal diversity. What have alternative clocks looked like, such as the Doomsday Clock, the Clock of the Long Now and the 100 Months Clock, how have they affected communities, which methods, justifications and broader impacts do they have? What can we learn from previous community interventions by artists, art organisations but also others? The strand will consider both older and recent interventions. 2. The question of the diversity of time will also be explored in a community project about 'the score'. The score is a convergence between measured time (regular beat) and lived time (unique patterns of individual composition), expressed visually through the grid/frame in notation/drawing as the structural principle and the line as depicting movement. The experimental score (in music and the visual arts) is an embodiment of freedom within constraint, offering the potential for a different, variable relationship with time from the purely mechanical. 3. In a psychoanalytical study the experiences of children with time, and how ways of dealing with time can include and exclude, will be examined in the context of a Special Needs School. The importance of issues of temporality for the building of sustainable communities in which people can feel at home from an early age will be the focus here. The research and analytical findings will be connected to an artistic practice intervention on alternative clocks - clocks that measure different temporalities from normal clock time - which will be designed in collaboration with the school and will take place at the school (including a workshop for the school community). Throughout the project the three strands will give input to each other, will learn from and reflect on each other's practice through regular workshops and will contribute to, and use the findings of, the theoretical research activity (co-inquiry). The project will consist of research activity, exhibitions and interventions, an on-line forum and blog, workshops and a conference.

Carbon is one of the essential elements required for life to exist, alongside energy and liquid water. In contrast to other parts of the Earth's biosphere, cycling of carbon compounds beneath glaciers and ice sheets is poorly understood, since these environments were believed to be devoid of life until recently. Significant populations of micro-organisms have recently been found beneath ice masses (Sharp et al., 1999; Skidmore et al., 2000; Foght et al., 2004). Evidence shows that, as in other watery environments on Earth, these sub-ice microbes are able to process a variety of carbon forms over a range of conditions, producing greenhouse gases, such as CO2 and CH4 (Skidmore et al., 2000). Almost nothing is known about 1) the range of carbon compounds available to microbes beneath ice, 2) the degree to which they can be used as food by microbes and 3) the rates of utilisation and the full spectrum of products (e.g. gases). This information is important for understanding the global carbon cycle on Earth. The fate of large amounts of organic carbon during the advance of the glaciers over the boreal forest during the last ice age (Van Campo et al., 1993), for example, is unknown and is likely to depend fundamentally on microbial processes in sub-ice environments. Current models of Earth's global carbon cycle assume this carbon is 'lost' from the Earth's system (Adarns et al., 1990; Van Campo et al., 1993; Francois et al., 1999). The possibility that it is used by subglacial microbes and converted to CO2 and CH4 has not been considered. This may have potential for explaining variations in Earth's atmospheric greenhouse gas composition over the last 2 million years. Sub-glacial environments lacking a modern carbon supply (e.g. trees, microbial cells) may represent ideal model systems for icy habitats on other terrestrial planets (e.g. Mars and Jupiter moons; Clifford, 1987; Pathare et al. 1998; Kivelson et al. 2000), and may be used to help determine whether life is possible in these more extreme systems.