English_content

Laboratory for the analytical determination of legacy and emerging organic micropollutants (MicroChem Lab)

Brief description
The experimental activities carried out at the MicroChem Lab in Rome focus on the analytical determination of legacy and emerging organic micropollutants and their metabolites, in order to understand their diffusion, distribution, persistence dynamics and fate in the environment. The studies performed at the MicroChem Lab aim also to study the relationships between the climate change and the spread of contaminants at global and local scale. For these purposes, the development and optimization of highly specific and sensitive analytical methodologies for the detection of chemicals at trace and sub-trace concentration levels in the environmental matrices, is required.

Environmental compartments
The experimental activities focus on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, therefore the environmental matrices of interest are: Surface waters and sediments (seas, rivers, lakes), snow/ice, soils, aquatic and terrestrial vegetation, biota.

Analytical techniques
The analytical determination of the organic micropollutants is performed by the combination of:
  - Pre-treatment methods (e.g. freeze-drying, filtration, etc.);
  - Extraction/Clean up methods (solid-phase extraction-SPE, pressurized liquid extraction-PLE, liquid-liquid extraction-LL);
  - Sensitive and selective analytical methods based on the coupling of chromatographic techniques (HPLC or GC) with fluorescence, FID-ECD and mass spectrometry detection.

Equipment
The MicroChem Lab is equipped with the following analytical tools:

Benchtop lyophilizer (freeze-dryer LABCONCO) 2.5 L capacity, equipped with a touchscreen display, for the pre-treatment of solid matrices subsequently extracted with PLE.

Solid Phase Extraction (SPE): 12 inlets solid phase extractor connected to cartridges packed with specific adsorbents for the extraction of target compounds from liquid matrices through a vacuum system.

Sonicator (Branson, mod. 2510) for the extraction of chemical compounds from solid matrices by using suitable solvents.

ASE 150 (Dionex, Thermo Scientific) to perform pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) of organic pollutants from solid matrices.

Speed Extractor E-916 (Buchi) to perform simultaneous pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) of 6 samples, operating in different modes.

Rotavapor R 100 (Buchi), equipped with an electronic interface to control the vacuum system and the recirculating chiller.

Gas chromatograph (Thermo Fisher, Trace 3000) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) detector (Thermo Fisher, ISQ7000). The device is connected to an autosampler (Thermo Fisher. AI 1310) and is controlled by a Chromeleon software.

HPLC (quaternary pump, column Oven mod. LC-100 and Micro Pump Series 200, Perkin Elmer, USA) coupled to a fluorescence detector (Perkin Elmer Series 200a). The device is controlled by a Chromeleon Software.

HPLC (binary pump, Vanquish TM Core HPLC system, Thermo Scientific TM, Italy) coupled to a high-resolution mass spectrometer (Orbitrap Exploris 120, Thermo Scientific TM, Italy). The device is controlled by XcaliburSoftware (version 5.1).

Contact person: Dr.Luisa Patrolecco – luisa.patrolecco AT cnr.it

Director

Institute of Polar Science (CNR-ISP)

GIULIANA PANIERI Director

Giuliana Panieri is the new Director of the Institute of Polar Sciences, and her main interests are the study of extreme marine environments and their connections with climate change in the Arctic and elsewhere. For the last 12 years, she has been a full professor of Geology at the Department of Geosciences of the Arctic University of Norway. She has worked at ISMAR CNR (Italy) and at international universities in the USA, Spain, Germany and France. She has served as President of the Biogeosciences Division and Secretary General of the European Geosciences Union (EGU), managing and coordinating numerous national and international projects. Giuliana has published numerous scientific works, has been a book editor, and has been invited several times as a keynote speaker at international conferences. She has led numerous expeditions in the Arctic Oceans. Lately, she has been keen on developing tools for Ocean Literacy and supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals, implementing specific tasks and deliverables within the framework of numerous national and international projects.
ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9411-1729 Scopus - Author ID: 56135838100 Loop profile: 835890

E-mail: direttore.isp AT cnr.it
c/o Campus Scientifico - Università Ca' Foscari Venezia
Via Torino, 155
30172 VENEZIA MESTRE (VE)

Previous directors:
• Mauro Sclavo - Interim Director (From 1st May 2024 until 31st January 2025)
• Carlo Barbante (From 1st May 2020 until 30th April 2024)
• Leonardo Langone - Interim Director (From 1st June 2019 until 30th April 2020)

Internal Advisory Board

Advisory Board

The Institute Advisory Board (Art. 13, Regolamento Organizzazione e Funzionamento CNR del 2019) consists of the Director, who presides over it, six elected representatives of the researchers and technologists of the Institute and one technical-administrative staff representative.

The ISP Advisory Board members are:

.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
	Giuliana Panieri M.Sclavo (until 2024/31/01) C.Barbante (until 2024/30/04)		Warren Raymond Lee Cairns (Representative of the Researchers and Technologists)		Pamela Cialli (Representative of the Technical-Administrative staff)		Fabiana Corami (Representative of the Researchers and Technologists)
	Francesco Filiciotto (Representative of the Researchers and Technologists)		Angelina Lo Giudice (Representative of the Researchers and Technologists)		Angelo Lupi (Representative of the Researchers and Technologists)		Francesca Spataro (Representative of the Researchers and Technologists)

Previous Advisory Board
December 21, 2019 - December 19, 2023
Director: Carlo Barbante
Representatives of the researchers and technologists: Maurizio Azzaro, Fabiana Corami, Federico Giglio, Elena Gregoris, Mauro Mazzola, Rosamaria Salvatori
Representative technical-administrative staff: Alessandro Cosenza

Climate Change Tower

The Amundsen-Nobile Climate Change Tower (CCT) is a scientific platform dedicated to studying the thermodynamic characteristics of the atmospheric boundary layer and the exchange processes between the surface and the lower layers of the atmosphere. The structure is composed of 17 modules equipped with patch boxes to provide a power supply and data connection that ends in a dedicated hut at 40 m from the tower, where the acquisition systems are located. The CCT provides continuous profiles of meteorological parameters at four levels up to 34 m, measurements of turbulent fluxes of momentum heat and moisture at two levels as well as of radiation balance components (visible and infrared). Measurement of the characteristics of the snow layer (depth and temperature) are also provided in conjunction with the atmospheric parameters.

Due to the uniqueness of such an infrastructure in Ny-Ålesund, since 2012, the CCT and the surrounding area have become a point of reference for the integrated observation of the components of the climate system. Offering access to national and international research groups, new scientific installations have been set up. In particular for the measurement of greenhouse gases (in collaboration with KOPRI); for the measurement of the snow cover index and spectral reflectivity of the snow; for remote sensing of wind profiles with SODAR and WindLIDAR (in collaboration with KOPRI); to study processes in the active layer, the vegetation, the snow cover and the permafrost temperature profiles.

- Welcome page with real time data

History

The Institute of Polar Sciences (ISP) of the National Research Council was born on June 1st, 2019 with act n.81 on 31/05/2019 of President Inguscio. The idea of a Polar Institute has its roots in research activities, which have expanded over time, starting from the first years of Antarctic research in 1985. The construction of the Italian base in Antarctica (MZS station) before and the base in the Arctic (DI station) afterwards, has allowed the development of two generations of polar researchers who have made these remote environments their natural laboratory and their home away from home.

The National Research Program in Antarctica (PNRA)

Since its first expeditions in 1968, 1973 and 1978, the CNR has strongly supported the diplomatic action of the MAECI (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation) which led to the accession of Italy to the Antarctic Treaty. The CNR initially contributed to identifying the construction site of the Italian station Mario Zucchelli and is currently coordinating the different lines of scientific activity of the National Research Program in Antarctica (PNRA). The implementation of research in Antarctica is carried out by the national scientific community, of which 51% are university research groups, 23% CNR research groups, 9% from INGV, 5% from ENEA, 4 % from OGS and INAF and the remaining 4 % is carried out by other institutions. The scientific priorities identified within the framework of the National Research Program in Antarctica, are mostly multidisciplinary, and can be traced around the following topics: dynamics of the atmosphere and climate processes, dynamics of the polar ice cap, solid earth dynamics, polar ocean dynamics, Sun-Earth relationships and space-weather, the universe above Antarctica, evolution, adaptation and biodiversity, humankind in extreme environments, environmental contamination, paleoclimate, environmental issues and risks, as well as technology: innovation and experimentation. In many of these research areas, the CNR’s activity, thanks to its research network, is at an excellent level, although it is still fragmented into numerous institutes belonging to various departments.

Arctic research of the CNR

The Italian presence in the Arctic became permanent in the mid-nineties, thanks to the opening of the CNR station in the Svalbard Islands. In recent years, the interests of the Italian scientific community have been extended to other remote areas such as Greenland, areas of the Arctic Ocean, the Tibetan plateau and the Himalayas. In addition to the CNR, OGS, ENEA, INGV, INAF, ASI and some universities carry out research activities in these areas. In addition, Italy has strong economic interests in the Arctic with numerous industries that are active in this area, including ENI, Finmeccanica, Telespazio, E-geos, and Fincantieri. Since 1997 the has CNR carried out research in Ny-Ålesund in cooperation with national and international universities and other scientific institutions. The topics include climate, manmade pollution, instability of the ozone layer, the physical properties of aerosols and clouds in their role in radiation balances, ecology, genetics, physiology, biochemistry and the molecular and cellular biology of polar organisms, the optical properties of glacial surfaces, geochemistry, environment and permafrost, oceanography aimed at studying the transfer of energy and matter in relation to glacial coverage and, finally, historical and geographical studies that evaluate the Italian contribution to polar exploration and research. Recently there has been an intensification in the study of legal issues of specific to the Arctic with advice given to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs within the framework of the Arctic round table.
New logo - CNR Dirigibile Italia Contrary to the National Antarctic Research Programme, research in the Arctic has not received structured funding until very recently. However, within the CNR, the Department of Earth Sciences and Technologies for the Environment (DSSTTA) has always supported part of the logistical and research activities at the station Dirigibile Italia in the Svalbard Islands. Very recently (2018) an Arctic Research Program (PRA) was established, like that for Antarctica, although it is not yet permanent.

Within this frame of reference there is an urgent need to strengthen the position of Italy in the polar regions. This must be done by developing proposal capacities, and aggregating the management of Community funds directed towards polar research. Polar activities are based on the concept of maximum effectiveness of the financing, and should provide, with a limited investment, a strong opportunity to include Italian research in European projects, while involving universities and other research institutions.

POLARNET

On December 6th, 2006, the CNR, with the decision of the Director of the then Department of Earth and Environment, constituted the Polarnet Support Organizational Unit to respond to the increasingly pressing need to have a structure that promoted, coordinated and managed the polar activities of its researchers.
Polarnet was thus a first step towards the birth of a Polar Institute, establishing a coordinated system of CNR Research Institutes strongly involved in the polar sciences and presenting themselves as a focal point and a forum for national and international scientific cooperation on polar issues.
The Polarnet Support Organizational Unit had the task of annually updating the Research Program in Polar Areas, that is, all the Antarctic and Arctic projects that the CNR coordinates or participates in with its own research units. The Research Program in Polar Areas is a programming element for the Assembly of Directors which approves the management and coordination activities of the Polarnet Network, any assistance to the Antarctica Consortium and the related budgets that make up the Annual Programme of Activities.

INSTITUTE OF POLAR SCIENCES – ISP

The idea

Italian researchers involved in research in polar areas and other remote areas of the planet are involved in highly interdisciplinary research in life sciences, Earth and climate sciences, marine sciences, atmospheric and space sciences, in addition to technological innovation. But national research in polar areas has often been very fragmented and scarcely visible in an international context, because, although carried out within highly qualified research groups, they have so far only been individually recognizable and not associated with a national structure.
The natural consequence of this situation was the strengthening of the idea, to the point of necessity, of a Polar Institute that could act as a recognized interlocutor for the international scientific community in the field of polar research. The lack of a research institute in the polar regions in Italy was an anomaly in the European and international context. The new Institute of Polar Sciences remedies this anomaly and intends to restore Italy to its rightful status among the nations that play a decisive role in research in the polar and high-altitude areas.

One of the tasks of the Institute of Polar Sciences is to enhance the indisputable scientific relevance and capabilities of the CNR in the field of polar research and to establish a research platform to catalyze, promote and implement national research programs in polar regions, within a framework of international cooperation and coordination, with particular reference to the strategies implemented by the European Community.
Polar research, as well as being an irreplaceable driver of international scientific collaboration, is a valuable tool to support the continuous commitment of the international community towards research geared to mitigation and adaptation to climate change, the major challenge of our century. In addition, polar research also plays an important strategic role for the country, allowing Italy to previously join the Antarctic Treaty, and more recently to sit as a permanent observer on the Arctic Council.

The reasons

The structure and financing of Italian research at the poles, however, presented significant structural deficiencies that could only have been overcome with some changes in organization and governance, by taking inspiration from what is implemented in other countries, such as: Britain - British Antarctic Survey (BAS), France - Institut Polaire Français Paul Emile Victor (IPEV), Denmark - Danish Polar Center (DPC), Germany - Alfred Wegener Institut (AWI), Norway - Norsk Polar Institutt (NPI), Russia - Arctic Antartic Research Institute (AARI), USA- NSF Polar Programme, Switzerland - Swiss Polar Institute (SPI).

The National Scientific Commission for Antarctica (CSNA) has repeatedly drawn the attention of political decision-makers towards a high-profile reform that established an Italian polar entity, that leads under a single strategic direction the research and logistics, of Antarctic and Arctic science. The long-term strategy should be implemented through a series of intermediate steps accompanied and followed by careful analysis and evaluation by MIUR. Within these intermediate steps lies the birth of the Institute of Polar Sciences of the CNR.

The general vision shared at a meeting held at the Accademia dei Lincei on June 10th, 2016 (attended by Massimo Inguscio, Gianluigi Benedetti, Vincenzo Di Felice, Enrico Brugnoli and Carlo Barbante) included a short/medium term project (2016-2025) with the establishment of an interdepartmental Institute created within the CNR, merging functions that were until then dispersed between different organisms. Further developments should subsequently be possible following a possible future revision of the legislation then in force. An important pillar of this was the establishment of funding for research in the Arctic and the so-called Third Pole with the creation of a National Polar Research Programme (PNRP).

The Birth

The creation of the Institute of Polar Sciences thus fills a gap in the national scientific system and corrects an anomaly at the international level. The Italian polar scientific community, in fact, has for years been carrying out research of a high international standard, although it has never had a body of scientific and cultural aggregation and promotion and technical administrative skills to provide a strategic vision of multi-annual research and to encourage and coordinate all activities.

The establishment of the Institute of Polar Sciences therefore makes it possible to implement the simplification of decision-making and operating procedures in order to encourage greater internationalization and the occupation of new cultural and scientific spaces, especially thanks to the possibility of having a long term programme that is compatible with that of the various countries that are interested in collaboration with Italy.

The Institute, established by measure n.81 on 31/05/2019 by President Inguscio, belongs to the Department of Earth System Sciences and Technologies for the Environment (DSSTTA) as of June 1st, 2019.

The mission of the Institute of Polar Sciences is to contribute to increasing the quality of scientific and technological research carried out by Italy in the polar regions.

At its establishment, June 1st, 2019 and until April 31st, 2020, ISP has had an acting director in the figure of Dr. Leonardo Langone. From May 1st, 2020 the first director of ISP was appointed following a public competition, and Prof. Carlo Barbante, took office.

Vittuari Luca

Vittuari Luca Full Professor within the Class 08/A4 - Geomatics at the University of Bologna Department DICAM. Coordinator of the PhD@DICAM Doctoral course, composed by four curricula (PhD in Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering) of DICAM. Scientific Responsible of the Land Surveying and Geomatics Laboratory (LARIG). Part of the International GNSS Service and member of the University Consortium: UNAVCO.
Main scientific and research activities in the polar regions:
- Researches in Antarctica for the study of geodynamics and for the study of glaciers movements, within the National Program of Research in Antarctica (PNRA) since 1990.
- To date he attended 10 scientific expeditions in Antarctica and one in Arctic (Svalbard Islands) in 2002.
- Responsible of the GPS geodetic network for the study of the ice surface velocity field around the site of the deep ice coring at Dome Concordia (European Project for Ice Core in Antarctica, EPICA).
- Member of the European Project H2020 Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice, with the aim to retrieve a continuous ice core to bedrock in Antarctica, covering the climate history of the Mid Pleistocene Transition and beyond.
- Responsible of the GNSS permanent station installed at Station Concordia.
- Contribution for the installation and data analysis of a tide gauge station at Italian Mario Zucchelli Station (Antarctica).

Severi Mirko

Severi Mirko He received his bachelor's degree in Chemistry at the University of Florence in 2000. From 2001 to 2004, in the framework of his PhD at the Department of Chemistry, University of Florence, he worked on the development of semi-continuous ion chromatography coupled to Flow Analysis systems within the European project EPICA (European project for Ice Coring in Antarctica). On 20 April 2004 he got his PhD in Chemical Sciences. He took part in the national research campaigns in Antarctica 2001-2002 and 2003-2004 in the bases of Dome Concordia and Baia Terra Nova running chromatographic analyses in situ on a deep ice core perforated at Dome C as part of the EPICA project.
Since June 2002, he took part to several EPICA-DML and TALDICE ice core processing campaigns at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven (D). He participated to numerous sampling campaigns in the Arctic (at the Dirigibile Italia base in Ny Alesund) for the study of climate change through the monitoring of atmospheric aerosol. From December 2004 to 31st January 2018 he was the holder of several fellowships and research grants focused on to the development and application of analytical methods on ice cores and climate archives. From 01/02/2018 to 30/11/2018 he was Fixed term Researcher (RTDa) at the "Ugo Schiff" Department of Chemistry of the University of Florence SSD CHIM / 01. Starting from 01/12/2018 he held the position of Tenure track Researcher (RTDb) at the "Ugo Schiff" Department of Chemistry of the University of Florence SSD CHIM / 01. He is associated Professor at University of Florence since 1st December 2021.

Parmiggiani Flavio

Parmiggiani Fiorigi Flavio Degree in Physics from the University of Milan. Retired since 2013, he currently works as an associate researcher at CNR-ISAC where, since 2001, he has been Research Director. Recent research activity has been mainly carried out in the participation in two European projects:
- ICE-ARC
- SPICES
The research topic for which the association with CNR-ISP was requested is the study of the characteristics and distribution of sea ice in polar areas with SAR images.

Gambaro Andrea

Gambaro Andrea Full Professor at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Since 2003 he has supervised teaching activities in the Degree Courses in Chemistry, in Chemical Sciences for Conservation and Restoration (SCCR), in Materials Science and Technologies and in Environmental Sciences. His research is focused mainly on: 1) studies on the origin, seasonal evolution and environmental fate of organic sulfur compounds of biological origin (dimethyl sulfide, carbon sulfide and dimethyl sulfonyopropionate) produced in the aquatic system; 2) development of analytical methodologies for the determination of organic micro pollutants (PCB, PAH, PCN, PBDE, PCDD, PCDF, IA) in environmental matrices (water, sediment, atmospheric aerosol) by gas chromatography coupled to both low and high resolution mass spectrometry; 3) development of analytical methodologies for the determination of natural organic compounds (amino acids, sugars, methoxyphenols, algal and fungal toxins, etc.. ) and anthropic (fragrances, aromatic pollutants) in water, biota, aerosol, snow and ice by liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry for the study of local, global contamination and climate change. This activity has led to collaborations with various research groups (Griffith University, Australia; University of Charleston, U.S.A.; Boston College, U.S.A.; University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina; University of Belgrade, Serbia; Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece; University of Rijeka, Croatia; University of Tirana, Albania, etc.. ).
As part of the National Antarctic Research Programme he was responsible for Research Unit (UO) in 2004-2006; Principal Investigator in 2010-2012; responsible of UO in 2013-2014 and since 2016.
The research activity has led to the publication of over 140 publications of which 126 appear on SCOPUS, 10 chapters of books and about 200 communications at national and international conferences (h-index= 30).

Becagli Silvia

Becagli Silvia Graduate in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology in 1991 at the University of Florence, in 1998 Philosophy Doctor in Environmental Science with the thesis Study of Antarctic ecosystem by ice core chemical analysis. Since 1999 she has a permanent position at the Department of Chemistry - University of Florence. In 2013 and 2017 she obtained the National Abilitation for Professor in Analytical Chemistry and in 2017 she obtained the National Abilitation for full Professor in Analytical Chemistry.
Now she works on the application of innovative highly performance analytical methods for the determination of ions and metals in environmental matrices, mainly aerosols, snow and ice. The research activity is focused on the study of the atmospheric aerosol sources and transport processes in areas with different anthropogenic impact, with particular attention to polar areas (Arctic, Antarctica) and marine areas in the central Mediterranean basin. An important part of her research activity is the study of the cycles of natural substances, the anthropogenic contributions and the aerosol-climate interaction for present time, by aerosol measurements, and for the past by chemical analysis of ice cores drilled in Antarctica. She is Editor of the following Journal/issue:
- Special issue jointly organized between Biogeosciences and Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Atmospheric deposition in the low-nutrient-low-chlorophyll (LNLC) ocean: effects on marine life today and in the future.
- International Journal Environmental Research and Public Health – Section “Environmental Chemistry and Technology” (IF 2018 = 2.468).
She is author/co-author of 117 and 122 publications from ISI Web of Science and Scopus respectively and she has H-index of 30.

More...

Battistel Dario

Battistel Dario Associate professor at Ca' Foscari Unvierity of Venice (Italy) since 2019. He holds a PhD degree in Chemistry at Ca' Foscari (2011). The research interests have been focused on the development of electroanalytical methods for sensing and imaging (SECM). Since 2013, the research activity has been focused on the development of analytical methods mainly based on GC/MS and their application in environmental science and palaeoclimatology. He has been the coordinator of the project of Ateneo 2015 "The last tree standing" and of the project INSIDE in the framework of the programme SPIN 2018. Ha has been coordinator unit of the project Evasion in the framework of the PNRA 2016 programme. The research activity led to the pubblications of 39 papers with more than 400 citations (H-index 12). Since 2019 he is member of the editorial board as academic editor of the journal PlosONE and referee of a number of scientific journals.
Since 2013 he has in charged the teaching activity in Climate of the Past (Environmental Science), Chemical Methods for Cultural Heritage Materials (Conservation Science and Technology for Cultural Heritage) and Analytical Chemistry (Chimica e Tecnologie Sostenibili).
Since 2016 he has been member of the Didactic Board and member of the Quality Assurance (AQ) Board in Conservation Science and Technology for the Cultural Heritage at University Ca’ Foscari of Venice. Member of the PhD Program in Environmental Science of University Ca’ Foscari of Venice and Member of the Joint Committee Professors – Students (Commissione Paritetica Docenti – Studenti CPDS)

Sclavo Mauro

Sclavo Mauro Degree in Physics, University of Padua; Post Graduate School in Maritime and Coastal Engineering, University of Padua. In 1996-1997 Human Capital Mobility EC grant at Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (Birkenhead-Liverpool, UK) where he made research on numerical and physical sensitivity in coastal and shallow water environments.
Researcher at CNR from 1998, presently Director of Research at the Institute of Polar Sciences of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-ISP). He has done research work on wind wave modelling and on coastal processes with special focus on sediment transport; the models used are numerical wave and sediment transport models coupled with 3D circulation models. His research interests currently are the physical processes at the air-water and water-sediment interfaces, the wave-current coupling and the wave climate variations due to climate changes and their impact on coastal vulnerability. Other interests include the application of indicators for the integrated management of the coastal zone and the measurements of wave spectra with stereoscopic techniques.
Co-author of more than 70 scientific papers in ISI journals and of more than 150 conference papers; co-author of 2 patents and editor of MEDATLAS: Wind and Wave Atlas of the Mediterranean Sea. He participated in and coordinated several national and international research projects. In 2017 and 2018 he has been Head of the Institute of Marine Sciences of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-ISMAR).

Scopus - Author ID: 7004338399 Google Scholar Research Gate

Barbante Carlo

Barbante Carlo Director from the 1st May 2020 until the 30th April 2024.
Full Professor at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, he has been dealing with analytical methods development and paleoclimatic reconstructions since many years. He has participated in several expeditions in polar regions and in the Alps and is author of more than 250 publications in high impact scientific journals (h-index 45).
Professor of Earth's Climate at Ca' Foscari Harvard Summer School, he has been recently granted by the European Research Council with a prestigious Advanced Grant. He has been professor at the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (2012-2014) and is an elected member of the Accademia delle Scienze detta dei XL and of the Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti. He is currently past-President of the Italian Society for Climate Sciences and National Representative in the H2020 Programme Committee on Climate Action, Environment, Raw Material and Resource Efficiency.

Cryosphere

The increasingly evident melting of the ice sheets and glaciers with the consequent changes in sea level, together with the destruction of the ice shelves, highlight how this part of the cryosphere is an extremely fragile portion of the Earth system. Glaciers are unique climate archives that give us the opportunity to investigate the climate of the past and to assess the changes taking place with a long-term perspective. However, these changes are also evident from the melting of the permafrost, which has a dramatic impact in polar and high-altitude mid-latitudes areas. In the difficult context of climate change, the researchers of the Institute of Polar Sciences, through their interrelated research activities, deal with the study of snow and ice, their chemical composition and their main physical parameters, the evolution of the permafrost and the impact of increased melting on the atmosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere at both regional and global levels.

Snow cover

As well as affecting the mass balance of glaciers and polar ice caps, snow preserves the chemical composition of the atmosphere and interacts dynamically with all other environmental components of the polar regions. It represents an extremely reactive portion of the cryosphere where multiple post-depositional processes can occur. The study of snow cover in these regions is therefore essential to understanding the processes, interactions and changes that are occurring as a result of climate change and help us to assess the impacts on the global system. It is also critical for understanding the mechanisms of re-emission and release of compounds accumulated during the polar night and the significant impact that these releases may have on polar bio-geochemical cycles.

Photo by Elena Barbaro (CNR-ISP)

Paleoclimate

The ice cores, taken from both polar areas and glaciers of medium latitudes, constitute a real climate archive, allowing the study of climatic and paleoclimatic events that occurred over time, allowing us to assess the impact of natural forcings like volcanoes, fires, sea ice, ocean productivity, understanding these allows to estimate what impact human activities have had and will have on the climatic evolution of our planet. Further diagnostic elements are provided by the marine climate archives which, in analogy with the terrestrial records, allow the reconstruction of sea ice, primary productivity and the human impacts.
In this perspective, the integration of different but complementary records is fundamental to the integrated study of the climate of the past. Analysis of organic compounds, ionic species, trace elements and climatic proxies can provide useful information on the evolution over time of environmental processes, how they have changed in historical epochs and how they may have amplified/mitigated climatic alterations. The study of data related to our planet’s climate past as well as understanding the climate impact of human activities and/or exceptional natural events, can help us to define possible future scenarios through the implementation of climate models and multi-proxy approaches.

Photo by Jacopo Gabrieli (CNR-ISP)

Permafrost

The permafrost keeps large amounts of organic carbon (OC) stored and segregated inside. The rise in temperature, due to climate change, is causing melting of large portions of permafrost, making the OC content available for microbial decomposition. Metabolic processes linked to the reactivation of permafrost can therefore release significant amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide and methane, which can affect climate change. The extent, the melting rate and the spatial variability of these processes are poorly known and represent one of the main unknowns about predicting climate feedbacks. But the permafrost, as well as on land, is also found under the seabed, in the continental platforms of the polar regions. The undersea permafrost, formed during the last ice age, is a very important factor for the stability/instability of coastal areas and structures based on the seabed, but above all its destabilization can lead to the release of large quantities of methane gas, which is a powerful greenhouse gas.

Photo by Rachele Lodi (CNR-ISP)

Remote-sensing

The ISP has expertise in the use of satellite remote sensing for the study of the Earth and marine surfaces, using passive and active sensors.

Remote Sensing with active sensors
Active sensors are radar that operates day and night and with and without cloud cover at microwave frequencies. They are therefore suitable for monitoring polar zones. In the Svalbard and the Arctic, images provided by the Synthetic Aperture Radar high spatial resolution sensors (a few meters) allow us to identify areas of marine ice in coastal areas, the determination of wind on the surface of the sea and the movements of arctic ice. The latter activity is carried out as part of the Arctic project MOSAiC with the SAR images of CosmoSkyMed provided by the Italian Space Agency. Wind data provided by scatterometers on the sea, for climatological studies and dynamic meteorology are also used.

Glaciers modelling of Van Pelt (Paper - data repository)

An example of ASI COSMO-SkyMed satellite SAR images in the operations area of the MOSAiC expedition obtained daily. The asterisk in red indicates the position of the Polarstern icebreaker, while the red lines show its movements in the previous days.

Remote sensing with passive sensors
Passive sensors are designed to record reflected solar radiation from the Earth’s surface in specific spectral ranges ranging from visible, near infrared, medium and thermal. By measuring the reflected radiation in these ranges, it is possible to recognize remotely the chemical and physical properties of surface materials.
In polar areas, the use of multispectral images, with different spatial and temporal resolutions, therefore, plays an important role in the recognition and monitoring of snow cover, sea and terrestrial ice extent and vegetation coverage. The satellite missions dedicated to Earth observation (Copernicus) are increasingly numerous. Through the integration of acquired data from active and passive sensors we try to monitor the delicate balances present in polar areas.