£8.5 million for climate change research
3 Jul 2015 by Evoluted New Media
NERC has announced £8.5 million for research on climate change and its effects.
The funding – part of NERC’s large grants scheme – was awarded to three projects to support large-scale and complex research focussing on big scientific gaps in the area of climate change.
Professor Duncan Wingham, chief executive at NERC, said: “Although much of the fundamental science of climate change is well established, many important questions remain about how it will unfold. These investments will help to address key gaps in our knowledge, and will ultimately leave society better equipped to confront the challenges ahead.”
£3.1 million has been awarded to Dr Richard Sanders of NERC’s National Oceanography Centre to study the factors affecting carbon transportation from the atmosphere in oceans at depths between 100m and 1,000m. This will allow the scientists to predict how much carbon will remain in the atmosphere.
Dr Guy Woodward of Imperial College London will lead a team of researchers in a £3 million project aiming to examine the resilience of ecosystems to climate change. The team will use genetic sequencing techniques to monitor changes in the genetic profile of ecosystems over time.
The remaining £2.4 million have been awarded to Professor Martyn Tranter and his team at the University of Bristol to investigate the causes of accelerated melting of the Greenland ice sheet. This will allow the team to predict how the ice sheet evolves as the climate changes.
