Objective
Groundwater provides drinking water for billions and sustains a large share of global agriculture and industry. In Europe, it supplies 65% of drinking water and 25% of irrigation, yet increased abstraction, contamination, and climate change threaten groundwater resources. For example, a recent EU-wide analysis found that nearly 25% of European groundwater regions exhibit poor quality, while roughly 10% lack sufficient quantitative capacity, attributing these issues to anthropogenic drivers. Our ability to strategically act is limited by an incomplete understanding of how human activities have historically altered groundwater levels and biogeochemistry prior to the widespread availability of observational records.
TabPhish will address this need by introducing a novel multi-tracer approach to reconstruct changes in groundwater recharge properties on decadal-to-centennial timescales. By establishing clumped N2 isotopologues as new hydrogeologic tracers, bolstered by independent constraints from noble gases, TabPhish will simultaneously reconstruct changes in (i) the magnitude, source, and fate of nitrate, and (ii) water table depth at the time and location of recharge. The project explores six key groundwater regions around Europe and North America impacted by human activity, generating unique data and a transferable methodological toolkit.
Leveraging the PI’s expertise in dissolved gas tracers and analytical method development, TabPhish represents an advance for tracer hydrogeology that will: (i) establish a new tracer for excess biogenic nitrogen in groundwater (clumped N2 isotopologues); (ii) independently evaluate biogenic N2 via a noble gas-N2-based method; (iii) reconstruct the initial isotopic source fingerprint of groundwater nitrate, rigorously accounting for fractionation by denitrification; and (iv) develop a multi-tracer inverse modelling framework to reconstruct histories of groundwater recharge properties despite signal attenuation by physical mixing.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry noble gases
- engineering and technology environmental engineering water treatment processes drinking water treatment processes
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences hydrology hydrogeology
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences climatology climatic changes
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences geochemistry biogeochemistry
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2026-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
4 Dublin
Ireland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.