Engineering Sciences Chris studies the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS), which is the second largest ice cap in the world and contains 10% of Earth's glacial ice. In the past several years, melt on the GIS has been increasing and contributing to sea level rise, but understanding how rapidly the ice sheet will melt in the future remains fairly limited.
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Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Arctic soils contain more than half of the soil carbon that is stored worldwide. Because microorganisms are more active at higher temperatures, warming temperatures in the Arctic could cause a significant release of carbon from soils to the atmosphere, creating a positive feedback to climate change. Chelsea is measuring the sensitivity of Greenlandic soils to warming temperatures and determining if and how vegetative cover (shrub versus grass-dominated) influences belowground soil carbon dynamics.
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Earth Sciences Combining a background in remote-sensing, glaciology, and cultural geography, Thomas examines how people can integrate knowledge to best understand and prepare for polar environmental change.
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Earth Sciences The future of the Greenland Ice Sheet is uncertain due to modern day climate change. Laura looks at how the Greenland Ice Sheet and glaciers in Greenland have responded to climate changes during the past 11,500 years in order to help understand how it will change in the future. She uses detailed mapping and surface exposure dating of glacier deposits and analyses of glacial lake sediments.
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Earth Sciences Ben studies the current state of the hydrologic cycle across Greenland and surrounding regions and how it might change with a warming climate. In 2011 and 2012, Ben traveled to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, to measure water chemistry in lakes and water vapor concentrations in the air.
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