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Scholarship code CU6.268

Climate Change Impacts in Polar and Alpine permafrost areas

  • Reference person
    Mauro
    Guglielmin
    mauro.guglielmin@uninsubria.it
  • Host University/Institute
    Università dell insubria
  • Internship
    Y
  • Research Keywords
    Permafrost
    POlar areas
    Alpine
  • Reference ERCs
    PE10_3
    PE10_18
    PE10_13
  • Reference SDGs
    GOAL 13: Climate Action
    GOAL 15: Life on Land
  • Studente
  • Supervisor
  • Co-Supervisor

Description

The research will be focused on the analyses of the impacts of the climate change on permafrost environments and the related ecosystems in polar areas and alpine mountains. In these areas permafrost is thawing almost everywhere ,changing deeply the landscape and triggering surface instability that interacts with the evolution of the ecosystems and with the CO2 and CH4 fluxes. TheResearch will be focused on these complex and dynamic relationships in Alaska where Insubria will open in 2022 his international Branch and, for comparison in the Italian Alps where Insubria had traditional study sites in Upper Valtellina. This comparison will be important because both the areas are suffering the more intense warming in the planet.

Suggested skills:

The candidate should have basic knowledge on the climate change, on the climate change impacts on theCryosphere and on the ecosystems of periglacial environment. Basic knowledge on GIS and statistical analyses are also welcome. The candidates should be ready to work in a dynamic, international context with an important field work activity in polar environment.

Research team and environment

This PhD is within the framework of Climate Change Research Center of Insubria University where it will bePossible work in a multidisciplinar team including the CRyosphere Lab (resp. Prof. Mauro Guglielmin) with a Researcher (Dr. S. Ponti, expert in remote sensing), one Post Doc (dr. Alessandro Longhi, expert in soils) and twp PhD dr. Silvia Picone (expert in debris flows and permafrost hydrology) and dr. Vasudha Chaturvedy. (expert of CH4 emissions modelling and remote sensing). THis group interacts with the Botany and Climate Change Lab (Resp. Prof. Nicoletta Cannone) in which other experts of vegetation and terrestrial ecology of alpine and polar areas are working. The Climate Change Research Center of Insubria will have since 2022 the possibility to use the International Branch of Insubria at Barrow (USA, Alaska). The team is working in cooperation of many national and international Instititution like the British Antarctic Survey, the Alfred Wegener Institute, the Trieste University and many other foreigner universities.