Glacier ecosystems play significant roles in large-scale physical and biogeochemical processes, and are very vulnerable to the ongoing climate change, with potentially significant impacts. Despite the growing number of studies from glaciers and ice sheets, our understanding of the functioning of glacial ecosystems is far from complete. As a result, predictions of future ecosystem change of glaciers and ice sheets, essential for scientists as well as residents of glaciated countries and policy makers, are virtually impossible.
This project addresses the current absence of a theoretical framework of glacier and ice sheet ecosystems in order to enable their mathematical modelling, predicting their future changes, and using them as model systems for theoretical ecology. The principal aims of the proposed fellowship are the following:
1) To provide a theoretical framework of the supraglacial ecosystem of the Greenland Ice Sheet and to develop a modelling tool for prediction of the future change of the ecosystem. This objective includes the development of a conceptual model, its mathematical formulation and validation, and the application of future scenarios of the ice sheet. Special attention will be paid to identifying feedback mechanisms that could potentially result in runaway processes and further acceleration of the current change of the GrIS.
2) To establish the supraglacial ecosystem of the GrIS as a model system for studying microbial biogeography and diversity patterns. This objective includes the identification of ecologically relevant factors that affect microbial diversity on the surface of the ice sheet, the formulation of hypotheses testable by field experiments and analyses, and the development of a specific sampling strategy that will test these hypotheses.
The project has achieved its main scientific objectives and milestones, and, moreover, the fellowship has enabled me to broaden my research palette and to establish myself as an independent scientist and team leader producing high quality research.
