Large-scale melting of the Greenland ice sheet is irreversible and happening at a rapid rate, and now a new international study is the first to understand why. 

A University of Waterloo scientist and a team of international collaborators found that airborne mineral dust and other aerosols are directly connected to how much algae grows on the ice. The algae interfere with albedo, or the reflection of the sun’s rays, exacerbating melting.   

MPI-GEA researchers are part of a long-term collaborative ethnographic framework applying isotope analysis to human hair to study how pastoralist diets in eastern Africa adapt to rainfall variation in increasingly extreme 21^st century conditions.

Climate change, deforestation, and habitat loss are promoting increasingly uniform forests, where fast-growing tree species displace native trees. This reduces biodiversity, makes trees less resilient to disease, and weakens forests’ ability to store CO₂. This is shown by a comprehensive international study.