A recent study led by Annette Samuelsen investigated environmental change at deep-sea sponge grounds in the North Atlantic. She and her team were able to establish a baseline for water conditions in four different areas through simulations – over 67 years. Such a baseline is important for future studies. Sponges have far-reaching implications for life both in the ocean and on land, and their wellbeing is dependent on their environment.

A new publication in Nature shows that a shift in air circulation is responsible for the eastern African climate having changed to dry conditions about two million years ago. The authors studied a marine core to prove their hypothesis. Björn Backeberg is a co-author – he has an adjunct position with NERSC and is affiliated with Deltares in the Netherlands and the Nansen-Tutu Centre for Marine Environmental Research in South Africa.

Annette Samuelsen, research leader of our Ocean Modelling Group, published an article in 2019 that recently made it on the “Hidden gems” list of the ICES Journal of Marine Science! These articles are hand-picked by the Editor-in-Chief for being of high quality and special interest, but not having many citations yet.