A new ERC synergy grant provides funding to investigate the role of turbulence in the physics of stratocumulus clouds and create meteorological models to improve weather and climate predictions

The interdisciplinary team consists of Eberhard Bodenschatz (Göttingen, Germany), Fabian Hoffmann (Berlin, Germany), Bernhard Mehlig (Gothenburg, Sweden) and Pier Siebesma (Delft, Netherlands), and their research groups

The team was awarded 13,7 million euros for six years

Pterosaur is the first group of vertebrates with powered flight. It originated in the Late Triassic and became extinct with dinosaurs (excluding birds) at the end of the Cretaceous. Various diets of pterosaurs were proposed using different interpretations, such as content fossils and comparative anatomy. However, the understanding of the diets of many pterosaurs have still been on debate, which is mainly because of the rarity of stomach content found in pterosaurs. In this paper, the researchers found an elliptical content in the stomach position of a Sinopterus specimen. They extracted more than 300 phytoliths from the stomach content but none from the matrix of the same specimen. This demonstrates that these phytoliths, firstly appeared in pterosaurs, were eaten by this Sinopterus rather than any pollution after its death. Phytolith is a microstructure produced by all kinds of plants, and it varies among different plants and different positions of the same individual. Besides the phytoliths, many gastroliths (stones within the body cavity) were also discovered in the stomach content, which is the second pterosaur specimen with gastroliths. The combination of phytoliths and gastroliths, without any bones, scales or exoskeletons, strongly suggest that Sinopterus is herbivorous.

Researchers have created CAROSEL (Chamber ARray for Observing Sediment Exchanges Long-term), an autonomous underwater system that continuously tracks nutrient exchanges between sediments and water. For the first time, scientists can observe these processes in real time, multiple times daily, over long periods. By revealing how sediment-driven nutrient releases respond to light, oxygen, and weather, CAROSEL offers a powerful new way to understand and manage nutrient pollution, helping protect water quality and prevent harmful algal blooms in lakes, estuaries, and coastal ecosystems.