38 scientists from 14 countries around the world met last week in the ICM to discuss issues about research in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.
38 scientists from 14 countries around the world met last week in the ICM to discuss issues about research in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.
The workshop was organized by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), the international organization responsible to manage and coordinate the logistic and scientific efforts on the white continent. This entity received the Príncipe de Asturias Award for International Cooperation in 2002.
The meeting served to stimulate new research related to topics such as the dynamics of the marine and continental ice, fertilization by micronutrients such as iron, and the relationship between biological and physical processes and climate change.
As Enrique Isla, scientist at the ICM and event coordinator says "The workshop attracted scientists from different disciplines to face and try to solve questions about Antarctica and climate change from a multidisciplinary platform. The exchange of ideas among participants enriched the basis of mathematical models in order to perform more accurate predictions of various biogeochemical processes that are changing rapidly due to industrial activity".
The participants also shared knowledge with researchers and students of the ICM in a public session of presentations, highlighting topics such as remote sensing and modelling of natural phenomena, atmospheric and oceanic circulation, dynamics and chemistry of the ice and sediment, ecology, biodiversity, biogeography and microbiology. This approach of the ICM staff with workshop participants will promote future collaborations with research groups of the Institute.
Jerónimo López Martínez, president of the SCAR and professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, gave the closing talk, where he highlighted that the meeting was a successful example of the integration and cooperation efforts of the Committee.