Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research

How much of a menace can a goose be? In the greening valleys of Svalbard, flocks of geese peck at the moss, perforating the ground as if crowds of people with hiking poles had been there. Without its insulating moss, the permafrost ground is exposed to warm, summer air. How does this influence the thawing soil, its plants and its microbes? Lise Øvreås, a professor of geomicrobiology at the University of Bergen (UiB) and the Bjerknes Centre tries to find out – with a team from The University Centre in Svalbard, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, University of Copenhagen and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Realfag UiB

🌐 Havisen i Arktis spiller en viktig rolle i klimaet. Den reflekterer omkring 75 prosent av all solinnstråling. Havisen fungerer også som et isolerende dekke mellom et forholdsvis varmt arktisk hav og en kald atmosfære. Når isen sprekker opp, vil luften over havet varmes opp og vannet i havet kjøles ned.     Hvordan er samspillet mellom havis og vær?     I denne månedens «Klima Forklart» forteller forsker Clemens Spensberger hvordan havisen påvirker været vårt.  https://lnkd.in/e-UddwZt

The northern Barents Sea could be 7 degrees warmer in 2050. Two scenarios, one a 4 degree increase and the other a 2.5 increase showed similar results. "One of the main findings is that you can't see a difference between these scenarios in 2050," says researcher Marius Årthun, with UiB and BCCR. "Changes are already locked into the system," he says. 

Meet one of our newest member at the Bjerknes Centre. Dr. Joshua Dorrington came to Bergen as a Marie-Curie postdoctoral fellow. He focuses on understanding the causes of extreme rainfall in Europe: Will we see more intense rainfall? Where will it be worse? Read more about Josh and his study 👇

"We cannot move the light," says Mari Skuggedal Myksvoll, researcher at Institute of Marine Research (IMR), Norway and the Bjerknes Centre. As the sea gets warmer due to climate change, one might think that fish and other sea creatures could all go north to find cooler waters. But life is more than temperature. Mari Myksvoll has coordinated a study of future primary production, the phytoplankton at the lowest level of the food chain – food for everyone else in the ocean. Plankton growth depends on sun light, shifting through the year. This means that fish larvae need to be in the right place at the right time to find food. The study indicates that regions with sea ice today may be livelier in the future. Model simulations also suggest improved conditions for algal spring blooms off the coast of Norway. Researchers from all the Bjerknes Centre's partner institutions – Institute of Marine Research (IMR), Norway, University of Bergen, Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center and NORCE Norwegian Research Centre – contributed to the study. Realfag UiB

The ocean takes up three times as much CO2 as in 1960, mainly due to more CO2 in the air. Emissions have not stopped rising, the Global Carbon Budget 2024, released today shows. With ocean simulations and monitoring, Are Olsen, Siv Lauvset, Jörg Schwinger and Meike Becker from Realfag UiB, NORCE Norwegian Research Centre and the Bjerknes Centre contributed to the report.

Klimatoppmøtet 2024 – COP29 Azerbaijan, som i år holdes i Baku, er i gang. Hvert år samles verdens land til klimatoppmøte for å forhandle om klimatilpasning og finne løsninger på klimaendringene. Hva blir de viktigste punktene? Vår direktør, Kikki (Helga) Flesche Kleiven, gir deg fem!

Svalbard lake sediments extend our knowledge of Arctic storminess back about 10,000 years, and what they found was surprising in more than one way. Willem van der Bilt from Universitetet i Bergen (UiB) and the Bjerknes Centre presents findings on Arctic storminess: sediments from a coastal lake on Svalbard have trapped 10,000 years of storm-blown particles, revealing unexpected insights into past wind patterns. Read the whole story here 👇

💡 Even if you are not in Baku, there are plenty of opportunities to follow discussions at the COP29 Azerbaijan online. 🌊 For ocean-climate questions, check out the Virtual Ocean Pavilion. 💥 We highly recommend the Ocean Carbon Cycle Event on Tuesday next week, featuring Natalya Gallo and Richard Sanders, NORCE Norwegian Research Centre & the Bjerknes Centre

🧊 To curb our emissions and keep global temperatures down is more important than ever. One consequence of a warming world is sea level rise. 👂 Listen to ice sheet modeler Dr. Heiko Goelzer from NORCE Norwegian Research Centre and the Bjerknes Centre in this South Pole podcast episode, discussing complex climate tipping points and sea level rise due to the possible melting of the Antarctic ice sheets. #Antarctica might be far away, but the ice sheets at the South Pole contain enough ice to increase sea levels by 57 meters over a very long time scale. Even a one-meter rise in sea level will affect millions of people around the world 🫠