Generation Cryosphere award-winning PhD student

Generation Cryosphere award-winning PhD student

BGEOSYS invited PhD student, Emeric Babut du Marès, has been selected to be part of the program “Génération Cryosphère” initiated by “La Fondation Albédo pour la Cryosphère“,  CNRS, France.

This unique initiative aimed at supporting a new generation of French-speaking researchers specializing in the study of polar regions and high-altitude glaciers as part of the “Decade of Cryosphere Sciences 2025-2034” decided by the UN General Assembly on 13 August 2024.

In the face of the major environmental challenges posed by the accelerated melting of the cryosphere, it is essential that Francophone research asserts a central place in this strategic field. In this perspective, this program aims to identify, promote and support 16 young doctoral researchers who are promising future scientists by providing them with exceptional opportunities for experience, visibility and immersion in the field.

Beyond the visibility and support that will be offered to the doctoral students, they will participate throughout the month of August on the “One Ocean Expedition” taking them along the North-West Passage aboard the sailing ship “Statsraad Lehmkuhl” from Nuuk to Cambridge Bay.

Global nitrous oxide budget (1980–2020)

Global nitrous oxide budget (1980–2020)

Nitrous oxide, a study shows a 40% increase in emissions over the last 40 years

Tian H., (…), Regnier P. et al.

Earth System Science Data: link

Carbon Brief: link

A study coordinated by the Global Carbon Project in which the BGEOSYS group (Pierre Regnier, Department of Geosciences, Environment and Society) participated, reveals that nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions have increased by 40% during the period 1980-2020, strongly accelerating climate change.

Emissions of N2O to the atmosphere – a greenhouse gas with a much greater warming power than CO2 and CH4 – increased relentlessly between 1980 and 2020, reaching more than 10 million tonnes today, mainly due to agricultural practices. 

A study carried out under the auspices of the Global Carbon Project and published in the journal “Earth System Science Data” highlights that 74% of anthropogenic emissions are linked to agricultural production (2010-2020), reaching values never observed before. This excess nitrogen contributes to soil, water and air pollution. In the atmosphere, it contributes to the destruction of the ozone layer and exacerbates climate change.

Princeton Hess Distinguished Visiting Professor

Princeton Hess Distinguished Visiting Professor

Pierre Regnier, Full Professor in the Department of Geosciences, Environment & Society, Biogeochemistry and Earth System Modelling, is this academic year “Hess Distinguished Visiting Professor” at Princeton University (NJ, USA).

Invited by the “Department of Geoscience and High Meadows Environmental Institute”, he will work closely with Professor Laure Respandy and her research group in physical and biogeochemical oceanography. The aim of the stay is to build on a nascent collaboration focused on a better understanding of the role of the ocean in the global carbon cycle.

The collaboration between our institution and Princeton University will mobilize methods combining “data science” and “Earth system modelling”. These methods will better resolve the spatial and temporal variability of CO2 exchanges at the air-sea interface, elucidate the physical and biogeochemical processes that regulate these exchanges, and reconstruct the long-term evolution of the carbon cycle from the pre-industrial period to the end of the 21st century.

 

Discover the brand new Arctic Permafrost atlas

Discover the brand new Arctic Permafrost atlas

How much do you know about permafrost ?

This is the name given to ground that stays frozen all year round. It occurs in polar or alpine regions, where the mean annual temperature is very low. Unsurprisingly, most of the world’s permafrost can be found in the Arctic. 

You want to know more about this Permafrost Atlas ?

Here is the link to the entire post of Constance Lefebvre on APECS Belgium website.

Publication in “Science” August 2019

Publication in “Science” August 2019

The geologic history of seawater oxygen isotopes from marine iron oxides

Galili N., Shemesh A., Yam R., Brailovsky I., Sela-Adler M., Schuster E.M., Collom C., Bekker A., Planavsky N., Macdonald F.A., Préat A., Rudmin M., Trela W., Sturesson U., Heikoop J.M., Aurell M., Ramajo J. and Halevy I.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/365/6452/469

Abstract

The oxygen isotope composition (δ18O) of marine sedimentary rocks has increased by 10 to 15 per mil since Archean time. Interpretation of this trend is hindered by the dual control of temperature and fluid δ18O on the rocks’ isotopic composition. A new δ18O record in marine iron oxides covering the past ~2000 million years shows a similar secular rise. Iron oxide precipitation experiments reveal a weakly temperature-dependent iron oxide–water oxygen isotope fractionation, suggesting that increasing seawater δ18O over time was the primary cause of the long-term rise in δ18O values of marine precipitates. The 18O enrichment may have been driven by an increase in terrestrial sediment cover, a change in the proportion of high- and low-temperature crustal alteration, or a combination of these and other factors.

Cruise in the Baltic Sea: study of the effects of hypoxia

Cruise in the Baltic Sea: study of the effects of hypoxia

From the 18th of June to the 5th of July, Prof. Lei Chou, Nathalie Roevros, Audrey Plante and Hailong Zhang participated to an oceanographic cruise on board of the R.V. BELGICA in the Baltic Sea near Gotland Island. This was organised in collaboration with Prof. Martine Leermakers from the Department of Analytical, Environmental and Geochemistry (AMGC) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).

The deep waters of this area are often hypoxic which have a great influence on the biogeochemical conditions of the water column and sediments.

The objectives are to understand benthic nutrient and trace metal cycling, benthic‐pelagic coupling, diagenetic pathways and the impact of hypoxia on these processes.