Centre for Polar Studies – research on glaciers and climate change
The development of interdisciplinary research on the natural environment of the Arctic and Antarctic at a global level is the main goal of the Centre for Polar Studies (CPS). The projects implemented within the facility provided e.g. data on the basis of which scientists attempt to predict the direction of climate change. The Arctic is one of these areas in which the effects of change are particularly visible. Observation of the processes that occur in this region allows e.g. to estimate the amount of fresh water supplied to the environment as a result of glacier shrinkage, which affects the entire ecosystem. This is one of the priority tasks of modern research on nature.
As part of the scientific and teaching activity, CPS has created the International Environmental Doctoral School, which will educate doctoral students at the highest world level.
CPS operates within the framework of cooperation of the Faculty of Earth Sciences of the University of Silesia (leading facility) with the Institute of Geophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw and the Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Sopot.
Do you know that…?
Over 50 polar expeditions to Spitsbergen have already been organised. Scientists participating in expeditions primarily collect materials for further analysis – they collect samples and monitor the condition of glaciers.
Centre for Polar Studies website: www.polarknow.us.edu.pl.