#TakeOnTomorrow
Autumn 2019 • northumbria.ac.uk
Issue 20
BARONESS TANNI GREY-THOMPSON
£1.2 MILLION FORENSIC BOOST
HOW SAFE IS SOIL?
Northumbria Chancellor and 11-times gold medallist in exclusive interview
Research grant will help identify previously unidentified bodies
Study investigates if lead in soil is impacting gardeners’ health
Turn to page 11 for the full story
Turn to page 12 to find out more
Turn to page 24
THE ANTARCTIC
Predictions to protect the planet While some parts of the environment may respond gradually to changes in climate, others may potentially undergo large and sudden, irreversible step changes with global implications, which is known as a tipping point. Researchers will be working to find out what tipping points within the Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Southern Ocean will cause the ice sheets to become permanently unstable, leading to sudden changes in the environment with significant global implications. Antarctica’s ice is situated both on land – known as the ice sheet – and on the sea, where it forms floating ice shelves bordering the land. The point where the ice sheets and
Experts from Northumbria University are playing a major role in a £4 million study investigating how changes in Antarctica may lead to large and unexpected rises in global sea levels over the coming decades. ice shelves meet is called the grounding line. The ice shelves act as a safety band holding the land-based ice sheet in place. If the grounding line becomes unstable and retreats it will result in a greatly increased flow of ice into the ocean. Hilmar Gudmundsson, Professor of Glaciology and Extreme Environments, at
Northumbria said researchers have recently discovered that the position of the grounding line can become unstable, which can cause an uncontrolled and unstoppable advance of ice moving into the sea. “We are very concerned at how much ice mass can flow from the land into the ocean across the grounding
line,” he said. “This could have catastrophic global impacts and raise sea levels by several metres in as little as 100 years.” Continues on page 2
“WE ARE VERY CONCERNED AT HOW MUCH ICE MASS CAN FLOW FROM THE LAND INTO THE OCEAN. THIS COULD HAVE CATASTROPHIC GLOBAL IMPACTS AND RAISE SEA LEVELS BY SEVERAL METRES IN AS LITTLE AS 100 YEARS.” PROFESSOR HILMAR GUDMUNDSSON