Category: Partners

Description of the organisation

MPI-M is dedicated to fundamental climate research. The overall mission of MPI-M is to understand how chemical, physical, and biological processes, as well as human behaviour contribute to the dynamics of the Earth system, and specifically how they relate to global climate changes. MPI-M develops a state- of-the-art MPI Earth System Model (MPI-ESM), which includes components dealing with the atmosphere (ECHAM), ocean and sea ice (MPIOM), land surface & biosphere (JSBACH), and oceanic biogeochemistry processes (HAMOCC). MPI-M acts as the focal point of climate research in Germany since 30 years, also contributing to integrated assessment studies and socio-economic/climate interactions. MPI-M is committed to make MPI-ESM available to the scientific community in Europe and elsewhere and to inform decision-makers and the public on questions related to Climate Change and Global Change. MPI-M manages an International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) for Earth system modelling, which hosts approximately 50 PhD students.

Expertise particularly relevant for the project

MPI-M develops MPI-ESM and uses it to understand and project climate and carbon cycle dynamics, in particular under anthropogenic forcings. The MPI-ESM is used in the sixth phase of the coupled model intercomparison project (CMIP6) in concerted action with many other world leading climate centres, including groups developing other European ESMs (e.g., EC-Earth, IPSL-CM, UKESM). A strength of the MPI-M team is in joint efforts of land, ocean, and atmospheric departments on linking processes and feedbacks in the Earth system.

For more information visit MPI-M website.

Description of the organisation

The Institute for Marine Ecosystem and Fisheries Science (IMF) at University of Hamburg (UHAM) conducts interdisciplinary research in all fields of marine science with a focus of understanding the functioning of marine ecosystems under climate change and fisheries exploitation. IMF is member of the German Science Foundation Cluster of Excellence in Climate System Analysis and Prediction (CLiSAP) and the UHAM Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN) that unites the expertise of oceanographers, meteorologists, marine biologists, geophysicists, geologists, soil scientists, geographers and biogeochemists, as well as researchers in the business and social sciences.

Expertise particularly relevant for the project

The IMF department on Marine Ecosystem Dynamics and Management lead by Prof. Dr. Christian Möllmann is analysing climate and fisheries effects on the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems with the goal to develop better ecosystem-based management strategies. Members of the working group are significantly involved in Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) development within the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES). The research group has a special focus on the analysis of ecosystem regime shift including the identification of drivers and mechanism leading to abrupt ecosystem change including tipping points. The methodological portfolio of the group includes advanced, non-linear statistical and process modelling approaches.

For more information visit UHAM website.

Description of the organisation

The University of Bremen is a medium sized university in Germany with special focus on marine research. Both the university as a whole and the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM) are funded by the German national excellence initiative. At MARUM, the scientific information system PANGAEA® is located, which is a system for acquisition, processing, long term storage, and publication of geo-referenced data related to earth science The department of oceanography at UBREMEN is specialised in hydrographic and tracer measurements along deep ocean sections and data analyses. With its expertise, UBREMEN has contributed to several international oceanographic projects, such as CLIVAR, CARBOOCEAN and SOLAS/SOPRAN.

Expertise particularly relevant for the project

The department of oceanography at UBREMEN has performed measurements and analyses of transient anthropogenic tracers (CFCs, SF6) and noble gases (helium, neon) in the Atlantic Ocean since almost 30 years. We will use this expertise for an analyse of the subpolar North Atlantic as a potential hot spot of global change, especially with respect to hydrographic properties, anthropogenic carbon (derived from CFCs) and advection of melt water from the Greenland Ice sheets (derived from noble gas measurements).

For more information visit UBREMEN website.

Description of the organisation

GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel is one of the world’s leading institutes in the field of marine sciences. The institute investigates the chemical, physical, biological and geological processes of the seafloor, oceans and ocean margins and their interactions with the atmosphere. GEOMAR is a foundation under public law jointly funded by the federal (90 %) and state (10 %) government. It has a staff of 1,000 (status on 31 March 2017) and a yearly budget of around 75 Mio. Euro.

Expertise particularly relevant for the project

GEOMAR hosts both observing groups of diverse marine (sea going) disciplines (biology, chemistry, physics) as well as theoretical and modelling groups (biogeochemistry, physics of ocean and atmosphere).
GEOMAR runs state-of-the-art infrastructure, particularly adapted for deployment in the open ocean and the deep sea. It includes four research vessels, one of the largest fleets of autonomously-operated underwater gliders in Europe, and state-of-the-art analytical facilities. For development, construction, maintenance and deployment of large seagoing equipment GEOMAR operates a state-of-the-art Technology and Logistics Centre.
The modelling groups run and maintain models at local, regional and global scales. Recent developments include coupled physical-biogeochemical models that allow nested designs of high resolution (e.g., “FOCI” – Flexible Ocean Climate Infrastructure, based on NEMO/ORCA), as well as global Earth system models of coarse resolution (UVic), and ocean-only models that allow automated calibration of marine biogeochemical models (MOPS-TMM).

For more information visit: GEOMAR website.

Description of the organisation

The AWI is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (HGF). With a staff of more than 1000 employees, about half of them scientists, AWI conducts multidisciplinary research focussed on the Arctic and Antarctic, but is also active in temperate latitudes. AWI coordinates the polar research in Germany and provides the necessary equipment, infrastructure, and logistics for other German and foreign institutions performing polar research. The AWI was established as a public foundation in 1980 and has an annual budget of more than 100 million Euros, making it one of the largest polar institutes worldwide. The institute keeps the German federal government updated on its research results, and provides advice for the development of environmental policies.

Expertise particularly relevant for the project

Given the major role played by polar regions within the climate system, global change is a focal point of AWI. The multi-resolution ocean model FESOM (Finite Element Sea ice –Ocean Model, fesom.de) was developed at AWI and together with the atmospheric model ECHAM6 forms the core of the AWI-Climate Model (AWI-CM), which is used for AWI’s contribution to CMIP6, and in particular HiResMIP. AWI-CM contributes to the EU projects PRIMAVERA and APPLICATE (the latter is coordinated by AWI). AWI coordinates the HGF Initiative Advanced Earth System Modelling Capacity (ESM). The flexibility of the unstructured mesh models is a topic of intense research worldwide and AWI is at the forefront of this discipline. AWI has carried out measurements of CO2 and ancillary variables in the Southern Ocean since 1992 and sustains repeat sections in the Weddell region (Hoppema) and published extensively about it. Our group has expertise in numerical simulation of the marine carbonate system, marine plankton and iron chemistry (various publications by Völker et al.), in identifying climate-carbon and carbon-carbon feedback mechanisms (Hauck) and in combining observational and process studies with modelling. We have been partner in various EU-projects (CARBOOCEAN, CARBOCHANGE, CARUSO). In CARBOOCEAN and CARBOCHANGE, we contributed to the numerical study of feedbacks in the Southern Ocean and to data retrieval, quality control and analysis.

For more information visit AWI website.

Description of the organisation

The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) was founded in year 1992 as a member of the Leibniz association. The non-profit research institute employs about 300 people. Among them are about 200 natural and social scientists. On the international forefront, the institute addresses a broad spectrum of scientific questions regarding global climate change and sustainable development while providing trans-disciplinary concepts for climate impact mitigation and political decision-making. In 2017, PIK published 370 articles where 82% appeared in refereed ISI journals. Among them, 35 are appearing in high-impact journals (26 in Nature, seven in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, one in Science Advances and one in Science). In the same year PIK, publications were cited more than 20000 times. PIK essentially contributed to the scientific reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Expertise particularly relevant for the project

PIK is a leading institute in the research field of the ocean circulation dynamics with a primary focus on the AMOC, which is documented by a multitude of peer-reviewed papers in high-impact journals. PIK’s more than twenty years long experience in complex Earth system development and modelling makes it an excellent partner in addressing scientific questions regarding natural and anthropogenic global climate change on time scales ranging from deep paleo-times to near future projections. The suite of Earth system models of intermediate complexity (EMIC’s) developed at PIK – among them CLIMBER-3 and POEM (under development) – allows to efficiently simulating the evolution of relevant climate system variables within the necessary accuracy requirements. Notably, the investigation of a weakening/shut-down of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) and its potential impacts on the marine biogeochemistry as a consequence of anthropogenic emissions of CO₂ requires the time integration of the models into a steady-state over several thousand years. The efficient run-time performances of the EMICs on PIKs own high-performance computer cluster (an IBM / Lenovo NeXtScale based system) provides the necessary precondition to successfully accomplish the proposed task.

For more information visit PIK website.

Description of the organisation

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, commonly known as the CSIR, is a world-class African research and development organisation established through an Act of Parliament in 1945. The CSIR undertakes directed, multidisciplinary research and technological innovation that contributes to the improved quality of life of South Africans. The organisation plays a key role in supporting government’s programmes through directed research that is aligned with the country’s priorities, the organisation’s mandate and its science, engineering and technology competences.

Expertise particularly relevant for the project

The CSIR’s Southern Ocean Carbon – Climate Observatory (SOCCO) is a South African research programme that contributes to understanding the ocean physics and biogeochemical mechanisms that explain the variability and long-term trends of CO₂ fluxes in the Southern Ocean. SOCCO has a particular focus on understanding, through observations and modelling, the role of fine scale ocean physics, the interaction of storms with meso- and submesoscale gradients, in determining the thermal and biological control of the seasonal cycle of air-sea fluxes of CO₂. The seasonal cycle is used to diagnose forcing mechanisms that explain model biases. SOCCO also undertakes research in the use of machine learning empirical models to address the space and time data gaps in ocean CO₂ in order to provide improved constraints for the inter-annual variability of the seasonal cycle as well as identify forcing factors for the observed variability.

For more information please visit CSIR website.

Description of the organisation

The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is a non-governmental, non-profit research organization conducting interdisciplinary scientific studies on environmental, economic, technological, and social issues in the context of human dimensions of global change. The institute has about 450 employees and research associates, who are nationals of about 50 countries. Sponsored by 22 National Member Organizations in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, IIASA researchers have a long tradition of generating methods and tools useful to both decision makers and the scientific community. IIASA’s independent non-governmental status allows it to provide non-political and unbiased scientific insight. Since its inception in 1972, IIASA has been a hub of successful international scientific collaboration, and has built a distinguished track record of cutting-edge research.

The Evolution and Ecology Program (EEP) at IIASA is an internationally respected hub for research into fisheries-induced evolution, complex adaptive systems, cooperation evolution, adaptive dynamics theory, and theoretical speciation research. Since its inception in 1997, the Program has produced more than 30 publications in Nature and Science. Several of the affiliated senior research scholars have h-indices in excess of 40 (ISI Web of Science) and 60 (Google Scholar).

Expertise particularly relevant for the project

The Evolution and Ecology Program (EEP) at IIASA has more than 20 years of experience in analysing anthropogenic impacts on living marine resources. In particular, the program has pioneered research on fisheries- induced evolution, i.e., on rapid contemporary evolutionary adaptations caused by the exploitation of fish stocks. The associated scientific expertise available in the program extends from marine ecology and fisheries science, over life-history theory, adaptive dynamics theory, and quantitative genetics theory, to ecological modelling, network theory, and common-goods governance. Members of the program have been the founding chairs of the international expert group WGEVO (Working Group on Fisheries-Induced Evolution) representing this field within the advisory system of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. The WGEVO-based research consortium has worked on calibrating life-history models for more than 60 fish stocks from around the world to enable estimating the anthropogenic selection pressures these stocks are experiencing.

For more information visit IIASA website.