The EU has provided ISK 700 million in funding for a new research project on climate change, in which the Agricultural University of Iceland participates, RUV reports.
The project, entitled Future Arctic, provides insight into how grasslands and forests in Iceland respond to changes in climate and air quality. The project involves 51 scientists from 15 countries as well as six private companies. Research is underway at Reykjavík in Ölfus, where a geothermal system was disrupted due to the Suðurlandsskjálftan earthquake in 2009. The bedrock in previously cold areas began to heat up due to the earthquake.
Bjarni Diðrik Sigurðsson, professor of forestry at LBHÍ and one of the project supervisors, told RUV: “We take advantage of these new hot areas and look at the effects of this warming on nature. It is so that these new areas are both under grassland and under cultivated forest. “
During the earthquake, the soil warmed up to 40 degrees. Bjarni continues: “We can say that the most pessimistic forecast for climate change in the Arctic is around 8 ° C. So we are looking at everything that could happen in this area at the end of this century. “
Twenty similar studies are underway in the world, but none to the same extent as in Iceland. Bjarni says that he expects more projects to take over after these four years.
Source: The Nordic Page