Who we are
Our Subject Matter
The world ocean is a critical component of the Earth’s climate system, because it stores and transports heat, freshwater, carbon, oxygen and nutrients. These oceanic storage and transport processes are both influenced by anthropogenic global warming and are likely to have a critical influence on how climate change plays out, particularly on multi-decadal and longer time scales. Human activities have caused a rise in atmospheric CO2 content that our planet has not experienced for hundreds of thousands of years. The resulting global climate change is one of the biggest problems that humanity faces.
What we do
Our research crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries and lies at the junction of climate dynamics, physical oceanography, biogeochemistry and ecosystem dynamics. We run global climate models and study their output; we analyze satellite observations and field measurements of ocean and atmospheric variables; and we develop theoretical frameworks to advance the knowledge of ocean biogeochemistry, physics, and ecology, as well as the ocean-atmosphere interactions. Our work has relevance for understanding both past and future climate change. Recent research directions include: 1) The distinct role of Southern Ocean dynamics in global climate 2) The response of ocean biogeochemistry to climate change, including feedbacks 3) Observations of ocean ecology and biodiversity from space 4) Ocean ecological responses to climate change
Group News
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Media Coverage
Irina Marinov participated in the National Public Radio program Radio Times together with her fellow climate change experts Michael Mann (University of Pennyslvania) and Naomi Oreskes (Harvard University), discussing the science and politics of climate change with the program’s host Marty Moss-Coane