Renato Castelao
University of Georgia, GA·Earth & Environmental Science
Greenland's ice sheet is losing mass, and the fresh water it releases enters the ocean along the island's coastline. Where that fresh water ends up matters for climate.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Physics
- Topics
Greenland ice sheet
subglacial discharge
meltwater
- Grants
- 1 known grant, last ended Sep 2026
What they work on
- Test the hypothesis that subsurface meltwater from East Greenland fjords, released by subglacial discharge, reaches the Labrador Sea more effectively than meltwater entering at the ocean surface, using numerical model simulations and satellite data.
- Identify and quantify how subglacial discharge alters transport pathways between the Greenland ice sheet margin and the central Labrador Sea, where deep convection occurs in winter.
- Evaluate two competing outcomes of warming for outflow plumes: stronger wind influence off West Greenland reducing meltwater transport inward, versus increased flow instability and variability increasing it.
- Quantify the effect of added Greenland meltwater on wintertime deep convection in the Labrador Sea.
More about the research
In the Labrador Sea, west of Greenland, surface water becomes dense in winter and sinks in a process called deep convection, which helps drive the large-scale circulation of the Atlantic. Adding fresh, light water to that region could interfere with the sinking. This project asks how the depth at which meltwater enters the ocean changes its eventual fate.
Why it matters
Deep sinking of water in the Labrador Sea is part of the Atlantic circulation that moves heat around the planet, so fresh water from Greenland reaching that region has consequences for climate. Showing whether meltwater released below the surface travels differently from surface meltwater would tell climate modelers whether they need to resolve fjord circulation to simulate convection and ocean circulation reliably.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
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Yao Fu
University of South Florida, FL·Earth & Environmental Science
Calculate human-made carbon transport across the RAPID array at 26°N (2004–2024) and the subpolar OSNAP section (2014–2024), and test how sensitive it is to changes in the AMOC.
The school
University of Georgia: 27 labs on PI Pages, $628M a year on research, 598 research doctorates a year.
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