Description of the organisation
The Institute of Marine Research (IMR) is the largest national research institute of its kind in Europe, with about 1,000 employees with expertise encompassing all aspects of marine science. Our main activities are research, advisory work and monitoring with offices in Bergen, Tromsø and three research stations, laboratories as well as a fleet of research vessels, which are the most important platforms for collecting marine data. The IMR also has several laboratories that analyse the samples taken by its monitoring and research programmes.
Expertise particularly relevant for the project
The research group on ocean acidification started in 2011 as part of the research program “Ocean Acidification and effects in northern waters” within the FRAM-High north research centre for Climate and Environment. The leading scientist in the group has more than 20 years expertise of investigating ocean acidification and carbonate chemistry using field measurements with particular emphasis on the Nordic seas and the polar oceans. The research group has also long-standing expertise within studies of biological effects using both models and laboratory incubations. M. Chierici is dedicated to increase the data coverage in polar oceans for increased knowledge on the current changes that are observed in those regions and the effects on the carbon cycle and the marine environment. Her main interest and expertise is to investigate the major processes controlling the observed changes in carbonate chemistry and the fate of increased CO2 in the ocean. She has published more than 60 peer-review publications related to this topic. She was one of the first to report on undersaturation of aragonite in the Arctic Ocean, and has contributed with valuable and unique winter marine chemistry data in the Arctic Ocean. M. Chierici is currently leading the national monitoring program for ocean acidification in the Norwegian seas funded by the Environment Agency. She is also a research leader (RF2 Human impacts) in the new Norwegian national project “The Nansen Legacy” from year 2017 to 2023 and is responsible for the studies of carbonate chemistry, and ocean acidification in the Barents Sea. The Nansen Legacy cruises will mainly be on board the new icebreaking research vessel “Kronprins Haakon”.
For more information visit IMR website.