Projects, Collaborations, Networks
We are involved in projects funded by BMBF, DFG, AWI's strategy fund and other funding sources. Cooperations and collaborations have led to a strong network links in the national and international paleoclimate communities.
Ongoing projects
AWI funded projects
Funding programm: AWI INSPIRES, International Science Program for Integrative Research in Earth Systems
Cost (Kostenstelle): DM 87011015
Project duration: July 1st 2021 - November 30 2025
Contact: Dr. Christian Stepanek | Prof. Dr. Gerrit Lohmann | Dr. Tido Semmler
PhD candidate: Fernanda Matos
Climate models, despite their uncertainties and biases, are essential tools for forecasting future climate conditions. Their refinement comes from identifying and addressing model weaknesses, a challenging task given the lack of independent data to validate future climate scenarios. The AWI Earth System Model (AWI-ESM3) is enhanced through the integration of past climate reconstructions and current observations, providing reference states for both past and future warm climate zones. This contributes significantly to key climate initiatives and utilizes historical climate properties as analogies for future predictions.
More Informations WaClim
INSP-II, Topic 2, Subtopic 2.2 - Variability and extremes
Cost (Kostenstelle): PS87010202
Project duration: November 2021 - October 2024
Applicant: Dr. Monica Ionita-Scholz
PhD candidate: Smit Doshi
To understand the processes responsible for different types of compound extremes (e.g., drought/heatwaves in the mid-latitudes, rain on snow events in the polar regions and ocean heatwaves and their ecological consequences) over a wide range of climate backgrounds: paleo - present-day - future.
Funding programme: AWI INSPIRES, International Science Program for Integrative Research in Earth Systems
INSP-II, Topic 2, Subtopic 2.1 – Warming climates
Cost (Kostenstelle): PS87010202
Project duration: July 1st 2021 - December 31 2024
Applicants: PD Dr. Martin Werner | Dr. Moritz Langer
PostDoc: Jan Nitzbon
Cooperation partner: AWI: Permafrost Research
PERMICE aims to develop a modular permafrost model for AWI-ESM to enhance understanding of permafrost's role in the climate system, addressing urgent concerns about rapid Arctic warming. This involves upgrading the CryoGrid model and integrating it with ESM-Tools, with the model's performance validated through various climate simulations for better predictions of future Arctic warming.
More Informations about this project
INSP-IV, Topic 2, Subtopic 2.1 – Warming climates
Cost (Kostenstelle): PS87010201
Principal investigator: Prof. Dr. Gerrit Lohmann
co-PIs: Gregor Knorr, Johann Klages, Thomas Jung, Karsten Gohl
PhD Candidate: Alexander Thorneloe
This study explores the warming of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, focusing on deep water formation and the long-term effects of both external influences and internal changes. It emphasizes the importance of high-resolution models for accurately simulating small-scale ocean dynamics, which are crucial for improving climate predictions.
More information about this project
Funding programm: AWI INSPIRES, International Science Program for Integrative Research in Earth Systems
INSP-I, Topic 2, Subtopic 2.2 - Variability and extremes
Cost (Kostenstelle): PS87010202
Principal investigator: Prof. Dr. Gerrit Lohmann
PhD Candidate: Hanna Sophie Knahl
Future warming of the Southern Ocean may significantly affect the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. A collapse of the WAIS occurred during the last interglacial period when polar surface temperature and global sea level were higher than today. This project aims to quantify processes that lead to sea level rise during climate warming. This requires integrating an interactive ice sheet - solid Earth component into our multi-scale Earth system model AWI-ESM. We will assess feedbacks and potential thresholds using model scenarios on a time scale of tens to several millennia.
INSP-IV, Topic 2, Subtopic 2.2 - Variability and extremes
Cost (Kostenstelle): PS87010202
Applicant: Dr. Monica Ionita-Scholz
PhD candidate: Alessandro Gagliardi
The growing number of high temporal resolution ice cores from the Greenland ice sheet now gives valuable information on climate variations from seasonal to multidecadal or even longer time scales. The variability of δ18O from Greenland ice cores is commonly linked to changes in the general climate and associated teleconnection patterns. In this respect, in this project we aim to investigate ice core δ18O variability from a synoptic scale perspective to assess the potential of such records as proxies for extreme climate variability and associated weather patterns over Europe. The signature of climate modes, like the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) or the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) is clearly imprinted in Greenland ice core records (Rimbu et al. 2017). Recent studies (Rimbu et al. 2021) have investigated the links between statistics of synoptic scale patterns, particularly atmospheric blocking, and Greenland ice core δ18O, giving a complementary, physically based, interpretation of ice core δ18O variability. But up to now there are no studies relating the variability from the Greenland ice cores with the occurrence of extreme hydroclimatic events (e.g., cold spells, heatwaves, droughts) over Europe. Using high resolution Greenland ice cores and other related proxies from the mid-latitudes (e.g., oxygen isotopes in tree rings, lake sediments and corals), (paleo)reanalysis data, observations and future projections (based on model runs specially designed to include freshwater housing to simulate potential strong melt events in Greenland), the PhD project aims to investigate the teleconnections between Greenland ice cores and mid-latitude weather extremes, as well as how the relationship between Greenland climate and extreme weather events over Europe is changing in time. In this way, the recent changes in Greenland climate and the associated extremes over Europe will be put into a long-term perspective.
Externally funded projects
Funding identification number (FZK): HORIZON-CL5-2021-D1-01
Cost (Kostenstelle): DM 87015003
Project duration: September 1st 2022 - August 23 2026
Applicants: Dr. Christian Rodehacke
The RESCUE (Response of the Earth System to overshoot, Climate neUtrality and negative Emissions) project will improve knowledge and understanding of the “Climate and Earth System responses to climate neutrality and net negative emissions” by pursuing two overall objectives:
- Quantify the climate and Earth system responses to pathways achieving climate neutrality by Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) deployment with and without temperature overshoot, and
- Assess the potential role of CDR in reducing net greenhouse gas emissions and its potential environmental risks and co-benefits.
To achieve the first objective, RESCUE will design a suite of new global temperature stabilization scenarios at several target values. These new pathways to climate neutrality will consider multiple aspects of the climate system response, such as sea-level rise, carbon cycling, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. On focus is the reversibility of induced changes by comparing scenarios with and without temporary temperature overshoots.
The Alfred-Wegener-Insitute on Polar and Marine Research, in collaboration with the Danish Meteorological Institute, will perform ice sheet simulations to assess the sea-level consequence of various scenarios. In addition, we will evaluate if overshoot scenarios may lead to irreversible changes in the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets, driving a sustained sea-level rise.
Decay of ice sheets – Interactive Icesheet dynamics in AWI-ESM
Funding programm: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
Funding identification number (FZK): 01LP2313A
Cost (Kostenstelle): DM 87011017
Project duration:January 1st 2024 - December 31 2026
Applicants: Prof. Dr. Gerrit Lohmann | Dr. Gregor Knorr
PostDoc: Dr. Lars Ackermann
This project aims to enhance our understanding of the interactions between ice sheets and the climate system during the last deglaciation and into the future, utilizing a fully-coupled Earth System Model with interactive ice sheets (AWI-ESM). By comparing past climate models with proxy data, we will investigate changes in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets and assess the potential for future abrupt climate events.
More Informations about this project
Glacial Climate Variability
Funding programm: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
Funding identification number (FZK): 01LP2303A
Cost (Kostenstelle): DM 87011018
Project duration: January 01 2024 - December 31 2026
Applicants: Dr. Gregor Knorr | Prof. Dr. Gerrit Lohmann
PostDoc: Dr. Lu Niu
In this project, we will simulate abrupt climate changes during MIS3, including DO-oscillations and H-DO events, using PalMod's advanced models with interactive ice sheet dynamics. Our goal is to understand these changes in relation to Earth's orbital shifts and greenhouse gas concentrations, and to compare our simulations with proxy data for validation and deeper insight into the underlying mechanisms.
More Informations about this project
Build up of ice sheets
Funding programm: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
Funding identification number (FZK): 01LP2317A
Cost (Kostenstelle): DM 87011019
Project duration: January 01 2024 - December 31 2026
Applicants: Dr. Gregor Knorr | Prof. Dr. Gerrit Lohmann
PhD student: Pengyang Song
This project aims to simulate the significant ice volume accumulation during MIS 4, extending from MIS 5 using coupled ESMs, by continuing Last Glacial Inception simulations from PalMod phase II up to 45 ka, comparing model outcomes with sea level, ice sheet, and climate proxy data in collaboration with CC2 and CC3.
More Informations about this project
Isotope and climate variability since the last deglaciation
Funding programm: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
Funding identification number (FZK): 01LP2309A
Cost (Kostenstelle): DM 87011020
Project duration:January 01 2024 - December 31 2026
Applicant: PD Dr. Martin Werner
PostDoc: Dr. Yuchen Sun
This project aims to closely examine changes in water isotopes during and after the last deglacial phase, focusing on whether the AWI-ESM model, now equipped with an isotope diagnostic, accurately reflects the spatial and temporal variations of isotopes found in paleo-archives. Through detailed model analysis, it seeks to pinpoint key climate processes influencing past isotope changes and identify any potential inaccuracies in simulating the Earth's water cycle.
More Informations about this project
BMBF-funded German-Sino Cooperation Program in Climate Research
Funding identification number (FZK): 01LP2004A
Cost (Kostenstelle): DM 87011015
Project duration: 01 June 2021 - 31 May 2024
Applicants: Prof. Dr. Gerrit Lohmann | Dr. Monica Ionita-Scholz | Prof. Dr. Xun Gong, University of Geoscience , Wuhan, China
PostDoc: Dr. Dmitry Sein
We examine the climate relationship between the Arctic and the mid- latitudes, focusing on the abrupt changes and extremes in the Eurasian climate system in response to the temporal fluctuations of the Arctic Sea ice. We are carrying out this project in close scientific cooperation with our Chinese partner, the China University of Geoscience.
More information about the project ACE
Test
Funding programm: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
Funding identification number (FZK): DFG LO 895/20-1
Cost (Kostenstelle): via Uni Bremen
Project term: July 1st 2022 - June 30 2025
Applicants: Prof. Dr. Gerrit Lohmann | Dr. Martin Butzin | Prof. Dr. Edouard Bard
We will reconstruct the distribution of radiocarbon at the sea surface with unprecedented temporal and spatial resolution and simulate it using a novel multi-scale climate radiocarbon model. This will allow marine data to be corrected and hypotheses about abrupt climate changes during the last ice age to be tested.
More information about this project MARCARA
Funding programm: Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen (MARUM)
Project term: January 1st 2021 - June 30 2024
Applicants: Prof. Dr. Gerrit Lohmann | Dr. Lars Nerger
PhD Candidate: Ahmadreza Masoum
The fundamental idea behind paleoclimate data assimilation (PDA) is to constrain a climate model trajectory using proxy data and an observation operator (e.g., a forward model) and consequently optimally estimate past climate. It is also possible to quantitatively estimate uncertainties of proxies and simulations. Although the PDA and regular data assimilation root in the same statistical theory, the PDA has some specific characteristics.
More information about the project PDA
Funding programm: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Funding identification number (FZK): 13N16395
Cost (Kostenstelle): DM87011016
Project duration: October 1st 2022 - September 30 2025
Contact: Dr. Monica Ionita
The joint project launched on 01.10.2022 under the title "agile network control to increase the resilience of the critical infrastructure water supply" (aKtIv) is intended to contribute to making the water supply more crisis-proof. The overarching goal of aKtIv is to prevent the failure of drinking water supplies due to insufficient available water, e.g. due to flooded water systems or dry periods.
Project duration: November 1st 2024 - October 31 2030
Applicant: Prof. Dr. Gerrit Lohmann |
More information about the project ERC
Helmholtz funded projects
Funding programm: Helmholtz
Project duration: January 2022 - December 2024
Contact: Dr. Monica Ionita-Scholz | Dr. Qiyun Ma
The main goal of this project is to develop and implement an innovative narrative-based approach to explore the potential outcomes of extreme events under various climate conditions. This approach complements traditional climate scenario methodologies. Additionally, by distinguishing between dynamic (high uncertainty) and thermodynamic drivers of change, we aim to introduce new methods for effectively communicating uncertainty.
We anticipate that our findings will enhance the understanding of climate change and its impacts, thereby facilitating adaptation and mitigation efforts.
At the core of our research lies the overarching question: How might recent extreme weather, climate, and environmental events evolve in future scenarios compared to both current and pre-industrial climates, with a focus on outcomes that are significant? Concentrating on Europe, our project, SCENIC, will address several key inquiries:
- What processes govern extreme events, and how might these processes evolve?
- What roles do thermodynamic and dynamic drivers of change play?
- How accurately do models represent extreme events, and what are the underlying causes of any deficiencies?
- How does the ocean respond to extreme Greenland melt events, and how would specific events like cold spells unfold in a scenario where the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is altered by global warming?
- What are the primary drivers of air pollution during heat waves and drought events in past, present, and future climates, and what implications does this hold for water resources, crop yields, and forests?
- How might various extreme events affect soil carbon sequestration, emissions from crops, heat-related fatalities, wildfires, traffic accidents, and other related phenomena?
One of REKLIM’s long-term goals is to develop optimized Earth system models at a regional scale, in which interactions between the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, biosphere, land masses and soils are taken into account and viewed in relation to human activities. These Earth system models, together with suitable observation and data analysis techniques, will allow us to assess and project regional climate change in the past, present and future.
Key aspects: "Drivers and coastal impacts of sea-level rise" & "Extreme events across temporal and spatial scales"
Website REKLIM: https://www.reklim.de/en/
Project term: October 1st 2009 - December 31 2027
Contact: Dr. Klaus Grosfeld | Prof. Dr. Gerrit Lohmann | Dr. Monica Ionita | Dr. Gregor Knorr
Our activities at AWI are embedded in the research programme: Program „Changing Earth – Sustaining our Future” in Topic 2 Ocean and Cryosphere under climate change
Cost (Kostenstelle): PS87010202
Project duration: January 1st 2021 - December 31 2027
Topic 2 will advance the understanding of past, present and future changes of the climate system from an ocean and cryosphere perspective by closing critical knowledge gaps related to warming climates, variability and extremes as well as sea level change for the benefit of society.
We are involded in the subtopics:
Subtopic 2.1 Warming climates
Subtopic 2.2 Variability and extremes
Subtopic 2.3 Sea level change
Subtopic 2.4 Advanced research methodologies for tomorrow
Persons: Prof. Dr. Gerrit Lohmann | Dr. Martin Werner | Dr. Monica Ionita-Scholz | Dr. Gregor Knorr | Dr. Klaus Grosfeld | Dr. Norel Rimbu | Dr. Uta Krebs-Kanzow | Dr. Christian Stepanek | Jan Streffing
Cooperative networks
PAGES supports scientific approaches to understand past environmental conditions with the aim of compiling projections for the future. The PAGES community brings together experts for paleo-climate and paleo-environment, and their supporters.
Website PAGES: http://www.pages-igbp.org/about/general-overview
Contact: Prof.Dr. Gerrit Lohmann
Project duration: Januar 1st 2010 - today
Contact: Dr. Christian Stepanek
Climate models are used to create projections of a future climate that is most likely to be very different from the current climate state for which the models were designed. In the Paleoclimate Model Intercomparison Project PMIP the models are validated for different climate states. To this end, the models are exposed to boundary conditions and influences that correspond to past climate states. The model results are compared with each other and with model-independent climate information from geological archives. The aim of the PMIP is to quantify uncertainties in the paleoclimate. An important aspect for our research group is the elucidation of uncertainties in the modeled climate states, in particular those related to modelling methodology and model parameters. In PMIP, a large consortium of climate research institutes creates with their models an ensemble of paleoclimate simulations that are evaluated in a coordinated manner against each other and against the geological archive. In particular, targets of interest are the middle Holocene, the Last Interglacial, the Last Glacial Maximum, as well as other periods such as the Pliocene and Miocene, which are covered by associated model intercomparison projects such as PlioMIP and MioMIP.
Since the beginning of 2023, our working group, in collaboration with the British Antarctic Service, has been organizing the PMIP model comparison for Quaternary Interglacials.
More information about the project PMIP
Project duration: Januar 1st 2010 - Today
Contact: Dr. Christian Stepanek
The Pliocene is seen in many ways as a possible analogue of future warm climate states. The question of the characteristics and of the dynamics of the climate of the Pliocene thus becomes directly relevant to society. We investigate uncertainties in the modeled climate states of the Pliocene and compare the model statements with findings from geological archives.
The aim is to quantify uncertainties in our knowledge of the climate of the Pliocene. Sources of uncertainty are spanned by the so-called "PMIP triangle": uncertainties in climate reconstructions, differences in modelling methodology, and structural uncertainty in models and in their parameters. To this end, a large consortium of research institutes that are active in climate modelling is creating an ensemble of climate simulations that will be evaluated in a coordinated manner, both against each other and against the geological archive. In addition to climate states of the Pliocene, sensitivity studies are also taken into account. These allow a better understanding of the climate of the Pliocene in the context of the climate forcings of the future. This is an important step to do since climate forcings and boundary conditions, that impacted the climate of the Pliocene, are not identical to their future counterparts.
More information about the projekct PlioMIP3
Cooperation partners: Universität Leeds, School of Earth and Environment; United States Geological Survey; weitere modellierende Klima-Forschungseinrichtungen
Due to ongoing greenhouse gas emissions, we have already passed typical Pliocene atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Therefore, an “intermediate” deep-time climate analog, where boundary conditions are close to modern but extreme climate changes occurred, is of great interest. In this respect the Miocene and especially the Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO, ∼16.9–14.7 Ma) have been identified as valuable targets (Steinthorsdottir et al., 2021; Burls et al. 2022).
Project website: www.deepmip.org
Contact: Dr. Gregor Knorr
This modelling inter-comparisson project focuses on hothouse climate conditions without any large scale continental ice sheets with atmospheric CO2 concentrations including levels above 1000 ppmv. Other fundamental changes to include contain e.g. vegetation and continental configuration, thereby providing a particularly challenging test for state-of-the art models to operate out of their 'comfort' zone.
Project website: https://www.deepmip.org/
Contact: Dr. Gregor Knorr | Dr. Igor Niezgodski
Projects funded with scholarships
Funding through China Sholarship Council and AWI
Funding identification number (FZK): 202106330036
Project duration: November 11 2021 - today
Applicant: Di Cai
The scientific question to be addressed is how feedback mechanisms in the Arctic affect the phase shift of Arctic surface temperature. The function of each feedback will be quantified for understanding the physical processes of Arctic amplification underlying the climate change.
Funding through China Sholarship Council and AWI
Funding identification number (FZK): 202106330037
Project duration: 11 Nov 2021 - today
Applicant: Yugeng Chen
During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), tidal dissipation was about threefold higher than today, which could have led to a considerable increase in vertical mixing. This would enhance the glacial Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), contradicting the shoaled AMOC as indicated by paleo proxies. Here, we conduct ocean model simulations to investigate the impact of background climate conditions and tidal mixing on the AMOC during LGM. We successfully reproduce the stratified ocean characteristic of the LGM by accurately simulating the elevated salinity of the deep sea and the rapid temperature decrease in the ocean's upper layers. Our findings indicate that show that the shoaled glacial AMOC is mainly due to strong glacial ocean stratification, irrespective of enhanced tidal dissipation. However, glacial tidal dissipation plays a critical role in the intensification of the AABW during the LGM. Given the critical role of AMOC in (de-)glacial climate evolution, our results highlight the complex interactions of ocean stratification and tidal dissipation that have been neglected so far.
Funding through China Sholarship Council and AWI
Applicant: Pengyang Song
Tide-induced mixing is a necessity in energy balance of the earth system, which, however, is not well studied in paleoclimate. To deepen the understanding of vertical mixing in paleo-ocean as well as its role in climate, a numerical earth system model will be developed to simulate glacial-interglacial changes as well as centennial-tomillennial variations such as Heinrich events, which will contribute to a deeper knowledge of past, present and future climate changes.
Funding through China Sholarship Council and AWI
supervision: Prof. Gerrit Lohmann with Prof. Xianyao Chen, Ocean University of China
PhD candidate: Xiaojie Hao
The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) significantly influences global climate patterns through its impact on North Atlantic Sea surface temperatures, yet the mechanisms driving its representation in climate models, particularly at varying resolutions, are not well understood. Emerging research suggests a complex interplay between the Fram Strait Sea Ice Export (FSSIE) and the AMO, pointing to a critical, yet underexplored, feedback mechanism affecting Arctic and global climates.
More Information About This Project
Funding through China Sholarship Council and AWI
This project is aim to investigate the key processes contribute to the ice sheet growth in the North Hemisphere during the last glacial incpetion period through climate modeling.
Contact: Shan Xu
Knowledge Transfer Projects
Funding identification number (FZK): 67KF0164B
Cost (Kostenstelle): DM87014007
Project duration: January 1st 2022 - December 31 2024
Applicants: Dr. Klaus Grosfeld | Dr. Renate Treffeisen
REKLIM together with the WWF Germany and the University of Hamburg developed an adult education course on climate change, which will include region-specific issues, and offer it at community colleges throughout Germany. Funded by the National Climate Initiative of the Federal Ministry of Economy and Climate Protection klimafit will educate multipliers in communities to foster and support climate protection measures from grass route. By 2024 we aim to establish education programs at 170 community colleges over whole Germany.
Website: www.klimafit-kurs.de, www.klimafit-challenge.de, www.reklim.de/klimafit
Project duration: Januar 1st 2014 - Today
Applicants: Dr. Klaus Grosfeld | Dr. Renate Treffeisen
meereisportal.de / seaiceportal.de stands for pooling resources to investigate and share information on sea ice. Researching the sea ice of the Arctic and Antarctic and highlighting its essential role in the Earth system is a substantial scientific undertaking. Accordingly, research institutes from around the globe have joined forces, allowing each to benefit from the strengths of the others. The same applies to knowledge transfer. We pursue research on a public basis for the benefit of all, yet it is equally important that all have access to our findings. Consequently, four strong partners from the sea-ice research community have formed an alliance to share information on their findings in meereisportal. The aim of the portal is to provide a daily updated presentation of the sea ice situation in both polar regions in the form of prepared, printable graphics and maps as well as their raw data, the preparation of the basics and knowledge on the topic of sea ice as well as the current expert assessment of the sea ice situation in both hemispheres extensively for different target groups of society.
Website: www.meereisportal.de, www.seaiceportal.de
Based on global climate data, this project in collaboration with the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) aims to test and optimize the predictability of Elbe river streamflow at monthly and seasonal time scale and, if possible, to extend the forecast horizon up to 6 months ahead.
Project term: 2015-today
Contact: Dr. Monica Ionita-Scholz |Dr. Viorica Nagavcius
Testing/development/implementation of a statistical forecasting scheme for Rhine and Moselle and a password-based website, which could potentially be applied operationally to fulfill the request of different stakeholders (e.g. shipping companies, water managers)
Project term: 07.2022-06.2024
Contact: Dr. Monica Ionita-Scholz | Dr. Viorica Nagavcius
With the WWF Youth Campaign, we want to create awareness and understanding for the work and results of climate research and contribute to initiating the necessary social-ecological transformation in close exchange with politics and industry.
The campaign is divided into the subject areas climate research and climate policy. With the start of the campaign, the focus will be on climate research: here it is a matter of comprehensive knowledge transfer with the support of experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research as well as the pilot project to accompany the scientific research team to Finland.
Project term: 11.2022-12.2024
Contact: Dr. Jan Nitzbon | Dr. Josefine Lenz
Projekt website: https://www.wwf-jugend.de/page/expedition-klima
Funding identification number (FZK): 67KF0164B
Cost (Kostenstelle): DM 87014001
Project term: October 1st 2009 - December 31 2027
Applicants: Dr. Klaus Grosfeld | Dr. Renate Treffeisen
Knowledge transfer in REKLIM especially focuses on two areas that are vital to modern research: knowledge transfer, and dialogue processes with society at large. In this context, the goal of knowledge transfer is to achieve an open dialogue between the scientific community and society with regard to the findings produced by REKLIM, and to provide the best available scientific evidence so that it can be used as the basis for societal actors’ decision-making processes. Accordingly, the scientific outcomes of REKLIM will be contextualized, tailored to the needs of the respective actors, and made available in a broad range of formats, channels, instruments and activities. Special emphasis will be placed on working together with the scientific community to jointly develop and implement new ideas. Another important aspect: this process is bound to yield new research questions, which will inform and enrich the REKLIM network’s own research efforts.
REKLIM works within the scientific community and beyond on...
- making scientific findings useful for diverse target groups;
- promoting innovative approaches in the context of knowledge transfer;
- the dialogue between the scientific community and the public through a broad range
- of activities, transfer services and processes;
- the interface between external partners and the scientific community;
- helping shape structures for cooperation between the public and the scientific community;
- supporting the practice-oriented education of young people in a range of fields;
- integrating impulses from the public into REKLIM’s research activities.
Key aspects: Knowledge transfer
Website REKLIM: https://www.reklim.de/en/knowledge-transfer/
Previous projects
This project will examine the Asian monsoon evolution during the Holocene period with up-to-date climate model. Particularly, it will explore why the East Asian monsoon showed a lagged response to the orbital forcings, unlike other regional monsoons.
Contact: Jian Shi
The MOSAiC drift experiment offered the unique possibility to tackle the main hydrological processes occurring in the Central Arctic covering a complete seasonal cycle including the understudied Arctic winter. In the CiASOM project, stable water isotopes are exploited as key parameters for an improved understanding of the present-day Arctic water cycle.
Cooperation Partner: AWI: Polar Terrestrial Environmental
Contact: Dr. Martin Werner | Camilla Brunello
The reconstruction of extreme events (e.g. cold spells, droughts, heat waves) as well as atmospheric blocking and synoptic weather patterns.
Project term: 2019-2022
Contact: Dr. Monica Ionita-Scholz | Diana Calderescu
In this project we aim at investigating past climate variability by means of climate modelling. We focus in particular on the study of feedback mechanisms that include ocean circulation and the effects of sea ice and ice sheets.
Contact: Xiaoxu Shi, project finance provided by China Scholarship Council
Main objective of the project Iso-Arc, which is funded by the AWI strategy fund, is the first in-depth determination and description of the water cycle east of the Arctic, its isotopic composition (H218O, HD16O)and its mapping in different climate archives. Measurements of water vapour will be conducted in combination with ocean and precipitation data as well as with climate simulations with isotope diagnosis.
Contact: Martin Werner
Over the last few decades the contribution of the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica to sea level rise has grown. It is however not clear to what extent the recent reduction in land ice mass is related to the globally warming climate. This DFG funded project aims to assess natural variability and long-term trends in the ice sheets’ mass balance and to relate these to the changes during the industrial period. For this purpose we turn our attention to the last 6000 years, from Mid Holocene to present, as this period is characterized by similar to present ice sheet geometries as well as only moderate and gradual climate change before the onset of rising greenhouse gas concentration. Combining ice sheet simulations and climate simulations, we focus on those interactions between the climate system and the ice sheets, which are usually unresolved in millennial scale simulations.
Website DFG: http://www.dfg.de/en/index.jsp
Contact: Uta Krebs-Kanzow | Hu Yang
Ice core records from Greenland and Antarctica show a profound connection between the climate history on the two hemispheres. We want to extend the mathematical model that has been used so far to describe this connection ("bipolar seesaw") and supplement it with additional climate parameters to deepen the understanding about paleoclimate variability on a global scale. Further, we want to use methods of extreme value theory to analyse recently observed and predicted climate changes and assess the magnitude and impacts of future extremal climate events. This will also include an analysis of spatio-temporal dependencies between extremal events.
Contact: Justus Contzen | Prof. Dr. Gerrit Lohmann
The goal of the PERMICE project is the development of a modular permafrost model and its application within AWI-ESM.
Cooperation Partner: AWI: Permafrost Research
Contact: Martin Werner | Jan Nitzbon
Large-scale ocean circulation is influenced by a variety of processes, for instance ventilation of the overturning circulation and interconnections between the subpolar and subtropical gyres. We aim to use both model simulations as well as paleoclimate proxies to examine this influence and the corresponding trigger mechanisms, which, occur on time scales varying from 10 to 1000 years.
Website OC1: https://www.marum.de/en/Research/Project-OC1.html
Contact: Christopher Danek | Gerrit Lohmann
This project aims to examine the influence of iron dust on the global climate, and the corresponding feedbacks between the high and mid latitudes, which occur on timescales ranging from one year to hundreds of thousands of years. A key aim is to examine feasibility of geoengineering projects in order to adapt to possible future climate change due to anthropogenic influence.
Website OC3: https://www.marum.de/en/Research/Project-OC3.html
Contact: Monica Ionita-Scholz | Gerrit Lohmann
The BMBF funded projects "PLOT - Paleolimnological Transect" aims at the reconstruction of climate and vegetation changes alongside a 6000km long transect from the Ladoga lake in West Russia to the El'gygytgyun lake in East Siberia. The reconstruction is based on a multi-disciplinary geoscientific analysis of sediment cores from five different lakes, which will be linked to results from respective paleoclimate simulations.
Website PLOT: http://www.geologie.uni-koeln.de/2045.html
Contact: Martin Werner
The aim of the project is to study the effect of paleotides on the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation under different conditions in the LGM.
Cooperation partners: Ocean University of China
Contact: Yugeng Chen
The longterm goal of REKLIM is the development of coupled Earth system modells with a regional focus, including the interdependency between atmosphere, ocean, cryoshere, biosphere, land surface and soil. In cooperation with appropriate observing strategies and data analysis techniques we aim at describing and evaluating climate changes in the past, present and future. Key aspects: "Sea level changes and coastal protection" & "Abrupt climate change derived from proxy data"
Website REKLIM: https://www.reklim.de/en/
Contact: Klaus Grosfeld | Gerrit Lohmann | Gregor Knorr
The main objective of DustIron is an improved characterization of the modern and past dust cycle and its link to SO iron fertilisation and atmospheric CO2 through a closely coupled novel data – model approach.
Cooperation Partner: AWI: Marine Geology, Marine BioGeoScience
Project term: 01.2019-12.2023
Contact: Dr. Martin Werner | Stephan Krätschmer
The last deglaciation (21~8ka BP) is characterized by abrupt climate changes, such as Bolling-Allerod warming, Young Dryas cooling, of which underlying dynamics remain elusive. In this project funded by the Helmholtz Association, we will employ an isotope-enabled climate model with ice sheet dynamics to simulate the climate evolution in the last 21,000 years. This approach enables us 1) make a direct data-model comparison for our understanding of recorded climate change and 2) evaluate feedbacks among different components of climate system that shape the last deglaciation.
Website Helmholtz Association: https://www.helmholtz.de/en/
Contact: Yuchen Sun | Xu Zhang
This project aims at enabling forcasting of seasonal variations in water levels and currents in Germany’s rivers based upon stable teleconnections, global climate indexes, and surface temperatures.
Website BfG: http://www.bafg.de/EN/Service/Contact/Contact_node.html
Contact: Dr. Monica Ionita-Scholz
