Title: A Turbulent Arctic
Hayley Dosser, Hakai Institute, UBC
Thursday, April 26th, 2018
Snacks/Discussion begin at 15:00, Talk at 15:30
Location: The Welcome Centre Room, University Centre (Mystic Market)
Abstract
The Arctic is not the same place it was 20 years ago. Climate change has had a profound impact on the landscape, with rapid changes in sea-ice cover and thickness. The Arctic Ocean, historically low-energy and slow to change, is now seasonally ice free in many areas. This talk will focus on the impact of the rapidly changing Arctic climate on ocean mixing – a small-scale, intermittent process which is truly challenging to observe in the inhospitable Arctic environment. As the sea ice declined, the scientific community wondered: Would we see a newly turbulent Arctic Ocean? What would be the impact on the transport of heat, nutrients, carbon? How could we find out? I will talk about my contributions to the search for Arctic Ocean mixing, what we found, what we didn’t, why, and where we go from here.