The cryosphere and hydrosphere are among the most dynamic components of the Earth system. Interactions between them play a critical role in global climate such as influencing ocean current patterns through redistributing heat and salt.
The marine ecosystem around the North Pole, the Central Arctic Ocean (CAO), is in fast transition from a permanently to a seasonally ice-covered ocean as a result of global warming. The sea-ice loss will enable summer access to the CAO for non-icebreaking ships, including fishery vessels, in the near future and this project is assessing the impact.
A crucial goal in climate research is to better understand the mechanisms of observed climate variability and change to assess the relative roles of internal variability and external forcing variations in explaining observed changes in the climate system.
Methane (CH4) is an important greenhouse gas and increased atmospheric concentrations of CH4 account for 20% of the postindustrial global warming. Marine sediments along continental margins contain vast amounts of CH4, stored as solid gas hydrate.
Solving the climate crisis will require the participation of many actors. This project leverages the expertise and passion of actors from many sectors to help create climate solutions and better understand how these co-creative processes work.
The proposed project calls for an investigation of mechanisms that led to the retreat of the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) from the Antarctic continental shelf since the Last Glacial Maximum.
The Ryder 2019 expedition with the Swedish icebreaker Oden targets the unexplored marine realm of Ryder Glacier, more specifically the Sherard Osborne Fjord and adjacent area of northern Nares Strait and the southern Lincoln Sea.
The Arctic Ocean is warming at an alarming rate and Arctic sea ice extent is at an all-time low. How will these drastic changes impact future Arctic marine ecosystems and what are the ocean-climate driving mechanisms that we must look out for to warn of a future change?
Atmospheric CH4 concentration has tripled since pre-industrial times and is now increasing faster than ever in the observational record. Our current inability to predict the trajectory of atmospheric CH4 concentrations indicates a formidable knowledge gap within global CH4 dynamics and its response to climate warming.
Icebreaker led expeditions into the central Arctic Ocean have retrieved vast numbers of marine sediment cores that record environmental changes on millennial and orbital timescales. A major obstacle to interpreting these records is to establish accurate age models, a unique challenge in the Arctic where many traditional dating methods do not appear to work.
This project aims to decipher the Arctic Ocean evolution of sea ice, ice sheets, and ocean circulation in the Arctic Ocean that comprise key components of the climate system.
This project will study the stability and deglacial history of the marine cryosphere in the area of the Petermann glacier, where substantial ice drainage occurs from the northwestern part of the Greenland Ice Sheet.
