Research project
BLACK and BLOOM
- Start date: 1 January 2016
- End date: 31 December 2021
- Funder: Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
- Primary investigator: Professor Liane G. Benning
With this project we aim to assess the various aspects that effect the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet. This is a large collaborative grant funded by NERC with co-funding through my German Helmholtz Recruiting Initiative funds. Our aims are to elucidate the causes and mechanisms of why the Grewenland Icer Sheet is melting faster and we do this through four interrelated workpackages: W1: pigmentation, and microbial physiology, Bristol, W2: particulates, Leeds, W3: albedo, Sheffield and W4. modelling, Bristol.
The Leeds work is spearheaded by the PDRA Dr. Jenine McCutheon who focusses on all issues related to particulates in snow, slush, and ice. Our aim is to understand how and to what extent any particles (regardless if mineral dust, anthropogenic black carbon or microbes) contribute to the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet. The Lees based research is complemented through the work of Dr. Stefanie Lutz from the GFZ who is looking at the diversity and function of microbial communities using ‘omics’ techniques.