The University of Sheffield is offering a PhD project on the storage and release of legacy atmospheric pollutants from mountain glaciers
This project will quantify a potentially major unknown global reservoir of organic contaminants in temperate and cold-based glaciers and investigate the impacts of climate change on the quantity and quality of water supplies from glacier-fed catchments.
The specific objectives are to: (1) quantify the volume of contaminants contained within two typical glaciers in the Himalaya (temperate) and Arctic Svalbard (cold-based) and simulate their transport and storage; (2) measure the age of the pollutant-bearing ice to explore rates of ice flow and establish the lifecycle of glacial contaminants; (3) investigate the release of contaminants downstream and impacts on water quality.
The post would suit a motivated student interested in the impacts of anthropogenic pollution and climate change on the cryosphere, with a particular interest in developing an understanding of glacier dynamics using numerical modelling. The student will ideally have enthusiasm for a mix of field, lab and computer-based work and be willing to spend two field seasons working in the high Himalaya and Arctic Norway alongside ongoing research by the supervisors’ research teams.
Application deadline: 9 January 2018
