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Annual growth ring studies of climate and pollution changes in Greenland

Researchers from departments of Geoscience, Bioscience, Chemistry and Engineering have received DKK 496.000 from Science and Technology for a joint project

Marit-Solveig Seidenkrantz, has, together with  Signe Normand, Department of Bioscience, Marianne Glasius, Department of Chemistry and Andreas Massling, Department of Environmental Sciences, received a grant of 496,000 DKK from the Faculty's funds for synergy-creating activities at ST.

The project "Annual growth ring studies of climate and pollution changes in Greenland (AnnuCliP)" aims to test the use of annual growth rings of Greenlandic bushes for the reconstruction of climate and environment over the past 200 years. This pilot project will especially explore the extent to which (i) wood anatomy and (ii) oxygen, carbon and sulfur isotopes can be used to reconstruct not only temperature variation but also other climatic variables (e.g. rainfall) or pollution. The project will also test (ii) whether the existence of pollutants in the growth rings allows investigation of changes in the influx of pollutants over time.

The project will specifically focus on establishing relationships for the last 10-20 years from sites with well-established climate and pollutant time series. We will specifically focus on St. Nord (NE Greenland, Villum Research Station) and Nuuk (SW Greenland). St. Nord represents a remote area (though affected by long-range transported pollution of so-called Arctic haze in the late winter and early spring months) while Nuuk exemplifies a southern site with greater local human influence.