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Earth Scientists Funded to Study Climatic and Environmental Change in European Alps

May 8, 2015

Earth Scientists Funded to Study Climatic and Environmental Change in European Alps

Climate study

Paolo Gabrielli, research scientist and PI; and Lonnie Thompson, Distinguished University Professor and co-PI, School of Earth Sciences, have been awarded $239,000 by the Geography and Spatial Science program of the National Science Foundation to study atmospheric warming and environmental changes from high-altitude ice cores.

Gabrielli and Thompson will analyze and study three ice cores retrieved from the ice field atop Mt. Ortles, the highest mountain in South Tyrol (Italy) to reveal records of at least four centuries of climatic and environmental history. These ice cores, which were extracted in 2011 from one of the most rapidly warming and environmentally impacted areas in the world, offer a unique opportunity to investigate the interactions of strong regional environmental variations and wider-ranging global climatic patterns.

“The project will provide new perspectives about the synergies between atmospheric pollution and climate change, especially at higher elevations where rapid glacial melting often occurs,” said Gabrielli. “The insights from this project will advance basic understanding about relationships between the impacts of human-induced atmospheric pollution on climate as well as factors that may lead to both the amplification of atmospheric warming and the suppression of atmospheric temperatures.”

Gabrielli went on to explain that project results will help guide policy makers, governmental agencies and resource administrators in assessing appropriate courses of action. This project also will strengthen international research collaborations among U.S. and European scientists and institutions.

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