This August, the University of Barcelona will lead a new research campaign in the far north of Greenland as part of the GRELARCTIC project, coordinated by Professor Marc Oliva, from the Department of Geography. The expedition will travel to the Qaanaaq region and continue the work carried out last year, with the aim of deepening our understanding of the effects of glacier retreat in Greenland and its implications for the evolution of Arctic ecosystems. Specifically, this year's research will focus on the areas that are becoming ice-free as the glaciers retreat.
The main objective is to understand how the process of colonization of these new ice-free areas begins and evolves: how the soil gradually forms, which plant species arrive first, and how biological communities become established in these emerging territories, among other aspects. These studies will provide a better understanding of the ecological changes associated with global warming in one of the regions of the planet most sensitive to climate change. This builds on the research carried out during the 2025 expedition, which provided geomorphological records enabling the reconstruction of glacier evolution over the last decades, centuries and millennia.
The scientific team for this August's expedition comprises Joaquim Farguell and Carles Barriocanal, from the UB's Department of Geography; Xosé Lois Otero, from the University of Santiago de Compostela; Julia García, from the Complutense University of Madrid; and Marcelo Fernandes, from the University of Évora (Portugal).
