Nutrient Factories under the Ice (NuttI): Quantifying the subglacial biogeochemical reactor and its response to climate change
Prof. Sandra Arndt as coordinator (BGeoSys) and Prof. Frank Pattyn (Laboratoire de Glaciologie), are funded for their "Actions de Recherche Concertée-ARC" project: NuttI.
Climate change is amplified in polar regions. As a consequence, ice sheets and glaciers (and in particular the Greenland Ice Sheet) are currently experiencing record melting, resulting in a significant increase of already substantial summer freshwater fluxes to the ocean. While the physical consequences of this freshwater input, as well as its alarming increase have been intensively studied, its biogeochemical dimension remains poorly understood.
The specific objectives of NuttI are to:
- develop and test the very first, mechanistic, hydrological-biogeochemical model framework for subglacial environments and, thus, provide novel analytic and predictive capabilities for assessing the consequences of ice sheet retreat
- use the newly developed model to quantitatively identify the main hydrological and biogeochemical controls on subglacial carbon and nutrient export under different environmental conditions and over a melt season
More information on NuttI