BA Geography with International Study / Course details

The cryosphere, including glaciers, ice sheets, ice shelves and sea ice, is a fascinating part of Earth's climate system. Ice masses are sensitive to changes in temperature and precipitation over a range of timescales and offer some of the most visible signs of past and present climate change. Studying ice on Earth can provide an insight into interactions between physical, biological and (increasingly) human environments. Our Frozen Planet provides an introduction to the cryosphere and its response to past, present and future climate change. The course covers topics such as the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets, mountain glaciers and sea ice, as well as techniques used to reconstruct past ice masses and monitor present change. Students will learn how the fate of ice on Earth is intrinsically linked to changes in the atmosphere and oceans, with implications for geomorphology, water resources, wildlife and sea-level rise.

• Appreciate the importance of the cryosphere within the Earth’s climate system
• Understand how ice masses respond to – and interact with – changes in climate
• Consider the longer-term (Quaternary) context of current trends in the cryosphere
• Critically assess the evidence for past, present and future cryosphere change

Introduction
Greenland
Antarctica
Sea level
Glaciers I
Glaciers II
Sea Ice
Monitoring
Reconstruction
Conclusions

Total: 30 hours
2 : 1   Lecture : Non-lecture ratio
Lectures (20 hours)
Seminars (10 hours)
 

• Demonstrate an understanding of the response of the cryosphere to changing climate
• Demonstrate knowledge of how current trends in cryosphere change relate to past changes and future projections

• Be able to explain how different parts of the cryosphere interact with climate and the environment
• Provide critical insights into the methods used to reconstruct past ice masses and monitor current change

• Use graphics to convey the core messages of complex scientific research
• Work in groups to discuss and critique scientific literature
• Use basic, open-source ice models to consider the relationship between ice masses and climate

• Convey information to different audiences, from public to specialist scientific
• Condense key findings and approaches from high impact publications into short reports
• Examine a broad scientific concept in detail and explain advances and limitations through a comprehensive review

A flavour of introductory reading is provided below; full reading lists will be provided each week.
 

There is no single course textbook, but we look at many ideas covered in detail in Chapter 9 of the IPCC AR6 WG1 Report (Fox-Kemper et al. 2021: Ocean, Cryosphere and Sea Level Change. In Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)

Burkhart, P.A., Alley, R.B., Thompson, L.G., Balog, J.D., Baldauf, P. and Baker, G.S., 2017. Savor the cryosphere. GSA Today v. 27 issue 8, p.4.
Christ, A.J., Bierman, P.R., Schaefer, J.M., Dahl-Jensen, D., Steffensen, J.P., Corbett, L.B., Peteet, D.M., Thomas, E.K., Steig, E.J., Rittenour, T.M. and Tison, J.L., 2021. A multimillion-year-old record of Greenland vegetation and glacial history preserved in sediment beneath 1.4 km of ice at Camp Century. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(13).
Dutton, A., Carlson, A.E., Long, A., Milne, G.A., Clark, P.U., DeConto, R., Horton, B.P., Rahmstorf, S. and Raymo, M.E., 2015. Sea-level rise due to polar ice-sheet mass loss during past warm periods. science, 349(6244).
Flowers, G.E., 2018. Hydrology and the future of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Nature communications, 9(1), pp.1-4.
Frederikse, T., Landerer, F., Caron, L., Adhikari, S., Parkes, D., Humphrey, V.W., Dangendorf, S., Hogarth, P., Zanna, L., Cheng, L. and Wu, Y.H., 2020. The causes of sea-level rise since 1900. Nature, 584(7821), pp.393-397.
Hanna, E., Topál, D., Box, J.E., Buzzard, S., Christie, F.D., Hvidberg, C., Morlighem, M., De Santis, L., Silvano, A., Colleoni, F. and Sasgen, I., 2024. Short-and long-term variability of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, pp.1-18.
Hugonnet, R., McNabb, R., Berthier, E., Menounos, B., Nuth, C., Girod, L., Farinotti, D., Huss, M., Dussaillant, I., Brun, F. and Kääb, A., 2021. Accelerated global glacier mass loss in the early twenty-first century. Nature, 592(7856), pp.726-731.
Magruder, L.A., Farrell, S.L., Neuenschwander, A., Duncanson, L., Csatho, B., Kacimi, S. and Fricker, H.A., 2024. Monitoring Earth’s climate variables with satellite laser altimetry. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, pp.1-17.
Pattyn, F., Ritz, C., Hanna, E., Asay-Davis, X., DeConto, R., Durand, G., Favier, L., Fettweis, X., Goelzer, H., Golledge, N.R. and Munneke, P.K., 2018. The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets under 1.5 C global warming. Nature Climate Change, 8(12), pp.1053-1061.
Roach, L.A. and Meier, W.N., 2024. Sea ice in 2023. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, pp.1-3.
Stokes, C.R., Tarasov, L., Blomdin, R., Cronin, T.M., Fisher, T.G., Gyllencreutz, R., Hättestrand, C., Heyman, J., Hindmarsh, R.C., Hughes, A.L. and Jakobsson, M., 2015. On the reconstruction of palaeo-ice sheets: recent advances and future challenges. Quaternary Science Reviews, 125, pp.15-49.