Research at BCCR

The overall objective of the Bjerknes Centre is to understand and quantify regional climate changes in the context of the global climate system.

Our key research themes are:

• The climate system and climate changes in the past, present and future, caused by both natural and man-made changes.
• Abrupt and regional climate changes in the context of the global climate system.
• The role of the oceans in the climate system and feedback mechanisms caused by changes in, for example, sea ice and the marine carbon cycle.
• Natural uptake and emission of greenhouse gases, particularly CO2, and the importance of changes in natural CO2 sources and sinks for climate changes in the future.
  

The Bjerknes Centre is internationally acknowledged for its research efforts in the field of paleoclimate (climate of the past), which is crucial in order to understand present and future climate changes. Due to our leading position in this and other areas, we had a central role in the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report (2007), including coordinating lead author, lead author and several contributing authors. We are the only research centre from the Nordic countries that has provided climate scenarios to the report, entailing different simulations on climate developments between 1850 and 2100. The Bjerknes Centre also cooperates with other research institutions concerning effects of climate change on ecosystems, health and society, which are founded in natural science.

The research activity is organized into five interdisciplinary research groups, which combine modelling, paleo- and instrumental observations, and theory.

Past Climate Variability (RG1)
Present-Day Climate Changes (RG2)
Ocean, Sea ice and Atmosphere Processes (RG3)
Ocean Carbon Cycles (RG4)
Future Climate and Regional effects (RG5)