image: What is the role of glaciers in the changing climate and the environment? Picture from th Smeerenburger Glacier on Spitsbergen, Svalbard
Credit: Jørn Berger-Nyvoll / UiT
Four top scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Norway have agreed to join the new Centre for ice, Cryosphere, Carbon and Climate (iC3) in Tromsø in adjunct positions (20%), boosting its efforts to discover how the links between ice sheets, carbon cycles and ocean ecosystems will impact life on earth.
Dr Monica Winsborrow, iC3 Assistant Director, said:
“Right now, nobody knows how much carbon is stored beneath the world’s polar ice sheets, how much of will be released as the ice melts, and how that is going to affect global climate and life in the oceans. Solving this urgent puzzle requires collaboration between scientists from many different disciplines , so I'm delighted that four world-class scientists are joining our team.”
iC3’s four new team members bring essential skills needed to tackle the biggest questions in polar science. They will contribute expertise in glacier biogeochemistry (Dr Jon Hawkings, University of Pennsylvania), ocean modelling (Dr Fanny Monteiro, University of Bristol), biogeochemical modelling (Professor Sandra Arndt, Free University of Brussels), and ice sheet modelling (Dr Petra Langebroek, NORCE).
Dr Terri Souter, iC3 centre manager said:
“This vote of confidence into iC3 by globally leading scientists builds our reputation as a global hub of excellence in polar research. We look forward to attracting even more top scientific talent to Tromsø over the coming months and years.”
The iC3 centre, based in Tromsø in northern Norway, on the edge of the Arctic, is a partnership between UiT The Arctic University of Norway, the Norwegian Polar Institute and NORCE.
The Norwegian Research Council recently awarded UiT a ten-year grant of NOK 155,555,000 to establish iC3 as a Norwegian Centre of Excellence for Outstanding Research. The centre will systematically documentinventory the carbon stored within and beneath ice sheets, understand how melting ice sheets will affect these carbon stores and study what impact this will have on sensitive ocean ecosystems and global climate.