Our research group works on reconstructing past climate and environmental change over the Cenozoic. We analyze various geological archives of past conditions from the tropics to the poles, but mostly focus on marine records from the North Atlantic and Arctic regions. Our group studies the interactions between the oceans, the atmosphere, the land surface, and the cryosphere, as well as human-environmental interactions, by performing multi-proxy analyses of high-resolution sedimentary deposits. Our analytical techniques range from classical micropaleontology to inorganic and organic geochemistry. We also apply computational approaches, like time series analyses, to decipher patterns and research climate drivers. For more information on our active projects, see below.
SEA-Quester is an interdisciplinary research initiative designed to quantify and model blue carbon sequestration in polar and sub-polar marine ecosystems. The project integrates advanced in situ observations, remote sensing, and mechanistic, trait-based modeling to evaluate how climatic drivers—such as rising temperatures, sea ice retreat, and altered stratification—modulate primary productivity, carbon export, and sedimentary carbon burial. By combining detailed field measurements from planktonic, macrophyte, and benthic communities with paleoceanographic sediment records and high-resolution ocean circulation models, SEA-Quester aims to refine blue carbon accounting frameworks, elucidate the mechanistic controls on carbon residence times, and provide robust data to support sustainable marine management and climate change mitigation strategies. More information.
The MSCA postdoctoral project ‘PNut- A Multi-Isotope Assessment of the past Arctic Nutrient Cycle’ by Kristin Doering studies the effects of sea-ice loss, GIS melting and water-mass re-distribution of nutrients during the Deglacial and Holocene based on sediment cores from the East and West Greenland shelf and from Baffin Bay.
The Marine Arctic Diatoms (MARDI) Working Group of the global research network PAGES aims to improve our understanding of diatom ecology in Arctic waters, and the use of diatom fossils in paleoceanography and paleoclimatology. If you want to learn more, you can subscribe to our mailing list and join our annual workshop and online meetings. More information can be found on the MARDI homepage at PAGES.
Current global warming is faster in the Arctic already affecting the region profoundly. In the Arctic, key players that are likely to have a strong impact on global warming are permafrost and gas hydrates, because both host large amounts of carbon. Permafrost and gas hydrates also likely occur offshore as relics of the Pleistocene. Current global warming may cause melting of these marine permafrost and gas hydrates and release more greenhouse gases into the ocean or even atmosphere (climatic feedback). However, the geologic processes that govern such melting and the sensitivity to climate change are poorly constrained. The Marie-Sklodowska-Curie project GreenFlux is an original investigation on the contribution of (sub-) Arctic marine gas hydrate and permafrost systems to marine geologic greenhouse gas emissions.
PI: Christoph Böttner, Supervisors: Marit-Solveig Seidenkrantz, Katrine Juul Andresen
This project uses medical CT scanning techniques on marine sediment cores for the segmentation of trace fossils and combines paleoceanography, benthic ecology, and image analyses with deep learning. The project will investigate the effects of climate change on sea floor ecosystems in the Arctic, and the associated impact on carbon sequestration in marine sediments.
The NE Greenland shelf is still close to being a blank spot on the world map with respect to its geology and its present and past climate and oceanography and this project aims at mitigating this lack of knowledge. Visit the homepage
The MSCA ‘IceLab – Ice-ocean interactions during Heinrich events in the Labrador Sea’ aims to determine the role of sea ice in past events of ice sheet collapse. Specifically, IceLab will investigate North Atlantic sea-ice dynamics across Heinrich events of the last glacial period, with focus on the Labrador Sea. Visit the homepage
The Department of Geoscience, Aarhus University is Partner in the collaborative project ECOTIP funded by the Horizon2020 programme. ECOTIP will map out past and present Arctic biodiversity and its response to external drivers, and the effects of expanding commercial activities in the Arctic under expected climate change. Visit the homepage
The project Carbon Lag of Arctic Marginal Seas (CLAMS) will improve our estimates of the radiocarbon reservoir age in Arctic waters. Historic mollusc samples from museum collections are dated by AMS 14C and compared to their year of collection. Visit the homepage
This project aims at reconstructing sea ice variability around Greenland during the deglaciation and Holocene. For this purpose, marine sediment cores from the shelf seas around Greenland are being analyzed for foraminifera, diatoms, dinoflagellates, grain size distribution and biomarkers. Visit the homepage
This Marie-Curie postdoctoral project by Teodora Pados deals with sea ice variability on the northeast Greenland shelf using a variety of methods. Visit the homepage
