News

  • Kristin Schild, Ph.D. Student

    August 8, 2014

    Earth Sciences Kristin is studying specific environmental controls, such as warming temperatures that are driving an increase in ice mass loss through Greenland's tidewater glaciers. She uses remote sensing (satellite imagery and time lapse cameras taking pictures of the glacier terminus) to determine how much of the glacier is experiencing melt and when meltwater exits the glacier and enters the fjord. The timing between melt onset and when the meltwater emerges gives her an idea as to how the meltwater travels through and below the glacier.

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  • Chris Polashenski, Ph.D.

    August 8, 2014

    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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  • Chelsea Vario Petrenko, Ph.D. Student

    August 8, 2014
    Chelsea Vario Petrenko

    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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  • Thomas Overly, Ph.D. Student

    August 8, 2014
    Thomas Overly

    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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  • Laura Levy, Ph.D.

    August 8, 2014
    Laura Levy

    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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