PERMAFROST: Tipping Elements, Irreversibility, and Abrupt Change

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17 January 2022 16:00-17:30 CET

Observations and modeling of permafrost

AIMES, Earth Commission, Future Earth and the WCRP Safe Landing Climates Lighthouse Activity hosted the fourth webinar in a series that aims to advance the knowledge about tipping elements, irreversibility, and abrupt changes in the Earth system (MIRO board).

Presentations:

Permafrost and climate change – what are we observing ? – Hanne Hvidtfeld Christiansen
The Permafrost Carbon Feedback and potential tipping points - Gustaf Hugelius
Q&A/ Discussion

Moderated by Claire Treat (Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research) and Victor Brovkin (Max-Planck Institute for Meteorology and University of Hamburg).

The MIRO board can be accessed here.

The event recording is provided below.

Back to overview of the full series.

All you need to know

This event is part of a series of online discussions aims to advance the knowledge about tipping elements, irreversibility, and abrupt changes in the Earth system. It supports efforts to increase consistency in treatment of tipping elements in the scientific community, develop a research agenda, and design joint experiments and ideas for a Tipping Element Model Intercomparison Project (TipMip).

This discussion series is a joint activity of the Analysis, Integration, and Modeling of the Earth System (AIMES) global research project of Future Earth, the Earth Commission Working Group 1 Earth and Human Systems Intercomparison Modelling Project (EHSMIP) under the Global Commons Alliance and the Safe Landing Climates Lighthouse Activity of World Climate Research Program (WCRP).

This event has now passed

Speakers

Dr. Gustaf Hugelius

Dr Hugelius is Senior Lecturer, Department of Physical Geography at Stockholm University. He is Vice Director of the Bolin Centre of Climate Research and so-leads the research unit Landscape, Environment and Geomatics.

Professor Hanne H. Christiansen

Hanne H. Christiansen is a professor in Physical Geography at the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS). Her research is within periglacial geomorphology, focusing on active layer – permafrost dynamics including the ground thermal regime, cryostratigraphy, and climatic and meteorological control on periglacial landforms, processes and sediments. She has field experience from Greenland, Svalbard and former cold climatic landscapes of Scandinavia from the last 25 years.

Organized by

Analysis, Integration, and Modeling of the Earth System (AIMES)

The Analysis, Integration, and Modeling of the Earth System (AIMES) project is an international network of Earth system scientists and scholars that seek to develop innovative, interdisciplinary ways to understand the complexity of the natural world and its interactions with human activities. AIMES is a global research project of Future Earth.

WCRP Safe Landing Climates Lighthouse Activity.

The Safe Landing Climates Lighthouse Activity is an exploration of the routes to “safe landing” spaces for human and natural systems. It will explore future pathways that avoid dangerous climate change while at the same time contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including those of climate action, zero hunger, clean water and sanitation, good health and well-being, affordable and clean energy, and healthy ecosystems above and below water. The relevant time scale is multi-decadal to millennial.

Earth Commission

The Earth Commission is a major scientific assessment, hosted by Future Earth, to define a safe and just corridor for people and planet. The Commission will inform the creation of science-based targets, the “1.5-degree equivalents”, to help maintain and protect critical global commons – our shared climate, land, biodiversity, freshwater, atmosphere and oceans. The Earth Commission is an international team of leading natural and social scientists and five working groups of additional experts. It forms the scientific cornerstone of the Global Commons Alliance.

World Climate Research Programme

The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) leads the way in addressing frontier scientific questions related to the coupled climate system — questions that are too large and too complex to be tackled by a single nation, agency or scientific discipline. Through international science coordination and partnerships, WCRP contributes to advancing our understanding of the multi-scale dynamic interactions between natural and social systems that affect climate.

Future Earth

Future Earth is a global network of scientists, researchers, and innovators collaborating for a more sustainable planet. Future Earth initiates and supports international collaboration between researchers and stakeholders to identify and generate the integrated knowledge needed for successful transformations towards societies that provide good and fair lives for all within a stable and resilient Earth system. Future Earth is the host of the Earth Commission.