{"668521":{"#nid":"668521","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Turning the Tide on Climate Change","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.gatech.edu\/turning-tide-climate-change\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThis story was first published in the Georgia Tech Research Newsroom. Read the full feature here.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe entire ocean is connected. Species like coral can be similar in entirely different parts of the ocean because those waters share characteristics like salinity, temperature, and nutrients. But how did this shared DNA travel in the first place? Currents connect ecosystems, and understanding their flow could help to rebuild other ecosystems. That\u2019s the focus of the research from \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/eas.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sites.gatech.edu\/annalisabracco\/\u0022\u003EAnnalisa Bracco\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cCorals spread through larvae, which are transported by ocean currents. This is something that naturally happens and is, in the case of corals, definitely quite beneficial,\u201d Bracco said. \u201cIf the coral gets bleached and dies, other coral DNA can come in the form of larvae and recolonize the territory.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBracco\u2019s research is about more than just following these currents. She also determines how they could be used to rejuvenate weakened or destroyed ecosystems. Marine protected areas in the Gulf of Mexico could be expanded to deliver more flora and fauna larvae to repopulate stressed or damaged areas.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe need to preserve ecosystems that are diverse, but also well connected, so they can transfer that diversity if something happens in another place,\u201d Bracco said. \u003Cem\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.gatech.edu\/turning-tide-climate-change\u0022\u003ERead more.\u003C\/a\u003E \u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch4\u003EModeling the Future of Glaciers and Ice Sheets\u003C\/h4\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ERetreating glaciers and the animals who live on them have become highly visible symbols of climate change. They are also a key to predicting its future. \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/iceclimate.eas.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EAlex Robel\u003C\/a\u003E, an assistant professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/eas.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E, uses computational modeling to better understand how ice reacts to climate change and how, in turn, that causes global sea level to rise. His research group creates equations to explain how ice not only responds to climate change, but also how it flows, fractures, and melts.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u201cUnlike other fields, we don\u0027t have the standard set of equations that describe how ice sheets and glaciers work,\u201d Robel said. \u201cWe use high-performance computing to simulate real glaciers on Antarctica and Greenland and try to understand how they have changed in the past and predict how they will change in the future.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nNot all ice is created the same. While sea ice freezes over a few feet of the top of the ocean in wintertime, glaciers are formed by the accumulation and compression of snow on land over long periods of time to depths of hundreds, even thousands, of feet. When enough accumulates, ice can start to flow like honey under its own weight and then is considered an ice sheet.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nDeveloping these equations must account for how glaciers and ice sheets are exposed to the volatile climate system \u2014 and measuring conditions at the bottom of a glacier is no easy task. The field comes with a lot of inherent uncertainty that Robel\u2019s group must plan for. \u003Cem\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.gatech.edu\/turning-tide-climate-change\u0022\u003ERead more.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Georgia Tech researchers look to our waterways to build a better planet"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ESolar and wind power have been used as renewable energy for years, but what about waves, tides, and currents? Georgia Tech researchers are turning to our waterways to build a better planet.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Solar and wind power have been used as renewable energy for years, but what about waves, tides, and currents? Georgia Tech researchers are turning to our waterways to build a better planet."}],"uid":"34528","created_gmt":"2023-07-19 17:52:10","changed_gmt":"2023-07-19 18:06:58","author":"jhunt7","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2023-07-18T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2023-07-18T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"671189":{"id":"671189","type":"image","title":"The sparkling shoreline along Deception Pass State Park in Oak Harbor, Washington (Photo: Jess Hunt-Ralston)","body":"\u003Cp\u003EThe sparkling shoreline along Deception Pass State Park in Oak Harbor, Washington (Photo: Jess Hunt-Ralston)\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","created":"1689789611","gmt_created":"2023-07-19 18:00:11","changed":"1689789611","gmt_changed":"2023-07-19 18:00:11","alt":"The sparkling shoreline along Deception Pass State Park in Oak Harbor, Washington","file":{"fid":"254204","name":"Deception-Pass-State-Park-jesshuntralston.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/07\/19\/Deception-Pass-State-Park-jesshuntralston.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/07\/19\/Deception-Pass-State-Park-jesshuntralston.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1094048,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2023\/07\/19\/Deception-Pass-State-Park-jesshuntralston.jpg?itok=vZdAUyOo"}}},"media_ids":["671189"],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"364801","name":"School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS)"},{"id":"565971","name":"Ocean Science and Engineering (OSE)"}],"categories":[{"id":"144","name":"Energy"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"154","name":"Environment"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"192254","name":"cos-climate"},{"id":"192258","name":"cos-data"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\r\n\u003Cdiv\u003E\r\n\u003Cdiv\u003E\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWriter and Media Contact:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nTess Malone | \u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:tess.malone@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Etess.malone@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\u003C\/div\u003E\r\n\u003C\/div\u003E\r\n\u003C\/div\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["tess.malone@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}