Our site is using cookies to record anonymous visitor statistics and enhance your user experience.   OK | Find out more

Natural Environment Research Council Home
Skip to content

Watery attractions at the Summer Science Exhibition

Royal Society, London, 30 June - 3 July 2008

30 June 2008

An ocean and climate theme links three exhibits featuring research supported by the Natural Environment Research Council, that are presented over the next four days at the Royal Society's Summer Science Exhibition.

The breathing ocean

The dynamic links between the ocean and the atmosphere, and the climatic impacts of their interactions are the focus for 'The breathing ocean' exhibition from the UK Surface Ocean-Lower Atmosphere Study, hosted at the University of East Anglia and funded primarily by NERC.

The ocean provides a huge reservoir of elements that are essential for life - like carbon, oxygen and nitrogen - and which travel through the water, land and atmosphere in regular cycles. The carbon cycle is particularly important in regulating climate - with ocean uptake and release being the main natural factor determining carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

"The world's ocean currently takes in around 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year - that's about a quarter of the total produced by human activities," said Dr Phil Williamson from the University of East Anglia.

Whilst net uptake of carbon is expected to continue, it may not do so at the same rate. Recent international research has revealed a dramatic decline in carbon dioxide absorption in the North Atlantic and the Southern Ocean, a change that could greatly accelerate global warming.

"Other gases involved in climate change, such as iodine compounds, show a net release from the ocean" said Dr Williamson. "The ocean can be considered a 'sleeping giant' until disturbed. But once significant changes in temperature and circulation patterns start to occur, the balance of air-sea exchanges for a very wide range of gases will shift - and the consequences will be much harder to deal with."

Visitors to the interactive display can view data from research ships monitoring carbon dioxide uptake around the world and explore, via an animated spinning globe and giant water columns, the linkage between the Earth's climate and the range of other gases that go into, and come out of, the ocean.

A high-tech GLIMPSE of the Greenland Ice Sheet

The speed at which ice is being discharged by several of the large outlet glaciers from the Greenland Ice Sheet has risen dramatically in recent times - in some cases even doubling. This could mean that global sea level will rise faster than is currently predicted.

This exhibit from the GLIMPSE project (Greenland Ice Margin Prediction, Stability & Evolution) focuses on how aerial photographs, satellites, lasers and other high-tech gadgets help scientists to better understand climate change and measure the changing Greenland Ice Sheet. The research was funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

The international research team, led by Professor Tavi Murray of Swansea University, worked with NERC's Airborne Research & Survey Facility to obtain Lidar images (airborne mapping using a laser) of the Greenland glaciers.

By combining the new data with historical data, images and computer models, the researchers can measure the changes in ice thickness, and glacier flow. The project's key outcome will be better predictions of the future of the ice sheet, and the rate of future sea level rise.

GLIMPSE project manager, Dr Timothy James, said "The future of the Greenland Ice Sheet is one of the most important questions facing humankind. Everyone has an opinion and it's great to be able to put scientists and members of the public in the same arena to talk about it."

As well as talking to scientists, people will also be able to test how a ground-penetrating radar locates and identifies different types of material, and see themselves in 3D with the aid of a laser scanner.

Nutrients down the Mersey

Teenagers studying science at Childwall School in Liverpool have teamed up with scientists from the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL) to discover whether the river Mersey is over-fertilising the Irish Sea.

In partnership with the Royal Society, the school invested in its own monitoring equipment to provide data for analysis as part of GCSE coursework. The equipment has been sited in Liverpool Bay, where POL has been testing the level of nutrient pollution resulting from sewage effluent released into the water.

This research, carried out aboard the research vessel RV Prince Madog, combined with the data from the monitoring equipment, enables the Childwell students to measure the increase in nutrient and algae levels and the resulting reduction in oxygen. This enriched nutrient process, known as eutrophication, will not only affect the Mersey but could also reduce oxygen levels available for fish and other marine life in the Irish Sea.

"Exposing students to the real world of scientific research has benefits in terms of their career aspirations but also more generally in improving scientific literacy, creating so-called citizen scientists" said Mike McAteer, Information Communication Technology Co-ordinator at Childwall School.

Students and scientists will be on hand to explain their work in the Liverpool Bay coastal observatory. They will be showing footage from some of their field trips and demonstrating how fresh and salt waters interact, using coloured dyes in a stratification tank.

Further information

NERC Press Office
Natural Environment Research Council
Polaris House, North Star Avenue
Swindon, SN2 1EU
Tel: 01793 411561
Mob: 07917 557215

Notes

1. The Royal Society's Summer Science Exhibition starts at 18:00 today, Monday 30 June and runs until 16:30 on Thursday 3 July. The annual event at the Royal Society, London, will feature interactive exhibits presenting a selection of the best of UK science, engineering and technology.

2. 'The breathing ocean' exhibition combines research and data from a number of complementary UK projects and EU initiatives, with wider linkages through international programmes such as UK and the International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project (IOCCP).

Briefing note: 04/08

External links

 

Press links

 

Recent press news