Jorien Vonk
Faculty of Science > Earth and Climate
Utrecht University
Netherlands
Biography
she was a talented earth scientist Jorien Vonk has ambitious plans. She will form a multidisciplinary team with which, over the coming years, she will study the thawing of permafrost in the Arctic Circle. At times, this is a gradual process and at others, it occurs quite suddenly. When the underlying permafrost disintegrates, large tracts of frozen land and ice are swept away. The partially thawed sediments seep through groundwater towards pools, rivers and the sea and release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Vonk plans to analyse these extra emissions in the water, through quantitative measurements recorded around the North Pole. The research could have major implications for current climate models and the predictions based upon them.
Research Interest
environmental sciences
