Half time seminar: The impact of glacial meltwater on the marine carbonate system

Content

Glaciers globally are melting and retreating at an unprecedented rate. Increasing meltwater runoff and changes in the landscape from glaciers retreat may have consequences on the biogeochemistry of the coastal Arctic. 

Due to their remote and often harsh environments, few carbonate chemistry observations from glaciated coastal areas exist. The ones that do describe the fjords as sinks of CO2, but high-risk zones for ocean acidification. However, the lack of observations means that we still know very little about how different meltwater pathways impact the downstream carbon dynamics, and how different glacial systems and regions compare to each other.

Understanding the present impact of rapidly changing glacial runoff on the marine carbonate system becomes increasingly important to predict the effect of future changes. 

Opponent

Loraine Ropella, Doctoral student, Department of Marine Sciences