Understanding North Atlantic climate
- Natural climate variability during the Quaternary. Anthropologically induced climate impact calls for improved understanding of natural climate variations. Possible future natural variations.
- High resolution paleoceanographic variability around Iceland and in the Nordic Seas since the Weichsel glaciation maximum (18-20 ka BP.
- Reconstruction of the Iceland Ice Sheet during the last glacial maximum (18-20 ka BP)
- Climate and glacier variations in Iceland during the Holocene (<10 ka BP).
- Sea ice in Icelandic waters (Remote sensing, monitoring of drift, ice drift modeling, forecasting, climatology, analyses of historical sources, impact on nature and society).
- Record of marine mollusc migration
- Analyses of Greenland ice cores
- Fluvial sedimentation rates.
- Paleo-ecology
- Soil erosion
How do Icelandic glaciers respond to their environment?
- Field measurements and satellite remote sensing of present-day glaciers in Iceland: storage, annual and long-term changes in mass balance (and overburden), runoff, jökulhlaups, erosion and sedimentation, ice flow, surge, response to subglacial geothermal and volcanic activity and meteorological observations.
- Mass balance modeling.
- Ice dynamic modeling
- Ice deformation studies
- Glacio-hydrological modeling
- Prediction of glacier response and glacial runoff to prescribed past and future climate change.
- Breiðamerkurjökull, a model of a rapidly retreating calving glacier in a world of rising sea level.
Atmosphere-water-soil-rock interaction
- CO2 budget andfluxes in terrestrial eco-systems (vegetation, soil, rivers, lakes), present and past
- CO2 fixationin basalt
- Chemical weathering
- Water pollution (surface water, groundwater, geothermal water)
- The influence of major eruptions in the past on global climate
Environmental impact on the society
- The impact of climate change on utilization of glacio-hydrological and geothermal resources, and groundwater systems supplying water for domestic and industrial use.
- The impact of climate change on crustal uplift, vegetation, soil erosion, soil organic carbon, coastline changes and sea level rise.
- The quality of air and water (pollution), concentration of greenhouse gasses, sediment flux to the ocean (including nutrition).
- Geo-hazards threatening inhabited regions, damaging vegetation and soils, and disrupting the Icelandic road and aviation system.
- Particulate matter pollution
- Wildfires