The objectives of the National Doctoral Program in Polar Sciences are manyfold and can be clustered as follows:
The standard language for the doctoral programme will be English. All PhD candidates will be required to have a good knowledge of the English language. All the summer/winter schools will be conducted in English. The PhD-thesis must be written in English.
On the basis of the positions available and the relative doctoral program, the enrolled student chooses the relative University of the consortium and the supervisor for the given position.
So far, the following Institutions have agreed. The fourth column is concerned with the grants and has to be intended only half due to the Institutions. The second half will be required to MUR as part of the accreditation project.
A description of the main topics that each curriculum is going to focus on is included hereafter:
The biological diversity in Polar Regions has long been thought as generally simple, species poor and isolated.
A very different picture is now emerging, demonstrating that some marine or terrestrial polar ecosystems are highly diverse and that regional and global connectivity is greater than supposed. Nonetheless, polar areas remain extremely stressful to organisms: the polar species, most of them exhibiting a high degree of endemism, are often close to their threshold of growth and have developed highly sophisticated adaptations which make them more vulnerable to rapid environmental changes.
The direct effect of climate change on organisms is combined with those of human impacts, including, local pollution, invasion of non-native species or infectious diseases. These drivers directly affect the survival of populations already weakened by climate change and initiate new trophic links which fundamentally modify the structure and functioning of these ecosystems.
However, the complex interactions among these drivers are rarely addressed. For instance, we don't really know how alien invasive species combined with temperature changes will affect marine and terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystems.
As for terrestrial ecosystems, enormous changes in vegetation are happening across the Arctic and these changes will have important impacts both at the ecosystem level, but also at the global climate level, due to the changing nature of biogeochemical fluxes
The potential wealth of information hidden in unidentified polar species, especially marine microorganisms, includes the possibility of providing new active compounds and processes relevant for new and improved biotechnological and biomedical applications.
The polar oceans in their ice-covered state in winter are known to be quite data poor, and much effort is underway to remedy that. Polar waters are also thought to be among the regions that will be most affected by ocean acidification. Amongst other things, acidification disrupts the formation of protective carbonate exoskeletons in many marine dwellers, disrupting and potentially changing the marine food web. This would directly affect living resources and commercially important species. Harvesting of living resources by fisheries, hunting, etc., is also vulnerable to direct human influence and their sustainability is crucial to maintain the ecological functioning in both oceans and terrestrial ecosystems and ensure future resource availability.
Conservation of these terrestrial and marine ecosystems remains a key issue and management policy highly depends on our knowledge of their threats and their capacity to cope with them.
Long-range transported pollutants and bioaccumulation of contaminants in polar food chains represent major challenges for both ecosystems and human health.
Due to the increase in maritime operations and transport in the Arctic, a larger risk of oil spills and environmental pollution is expected in ice-covered seas. Arctic and indigenous communities are experiencing large impacts of climate change and pollution on food and water security and the availability of traditional food due to bioaccumulation of environmental contaminants, changed migration patterns of animals and difficult hunting conditions as the climate changes and sea ice retreats.
Pollutants and atmospheric aerosols are transported by ocean and air currents and deposited in polar terrestrial and aquatic environments. Aerosols of natural origin (erupting volcanoes) and from human industrial and agricultural activities (black carbon) scatter light and directly modify the atmospheric radiation balance and temperature. Indirectly, the Earth's climate is influenced by aerosols modifying cloud properties, i.e. the way clouds reflect and absorb light, thus changing the Earth’s energy budget.
Stratospheric ozone depletion, with a large springtime decrease in ozone around both Polar Regions, has been a major challenge to polar ecosystems and people. The resulting increased levels of harmful ultraviolet radiation passing through the Earth’s atmosphere have created worldwide concern for a variety of biological consequences such as increases in sunburn, skin cancer, cataracts, damage to plants, and changes in plankton populations in the ocean's euphotic zone. Although on the path to recovery as a result of the Montreal Protocol, continuous monitoring of stratospheric ozone and its atmospheric chemistry are still needed as new substances with ozone-depleting potential maybe used by industry.
Further, there is a potential for political struggle due to the large economic, environmental, political and social consequences, and the intense media attention that may occur in climate-change degraded areas on Earth.
The curriculum Solid Earth aims to develop multidisciplinary research in a broad range of the Earth Science disciplines, encompassing the structure, composition, and dynamics of the Earth, and including processes acting at present from the surface to the deep interior. It also encompasses the collection and study of meteorites, taking advantage of the specific Antarctic environment that favors their accumulation and preservation.
Research tasks are directed at different spatial scale (both at local and at continental scale) and temporal scales and include:
Other tasks include:
The great ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland, together with the smaller glacier systems across the Arctic and on the Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic Islands, hold sufficient water to significantly raise global sea-level over coming centuries. The uncertain stability of these glacier systems, many of which are in areas of recent, rapid climate change make them uniquely vulnerable to both atmospheric warming and changes in ocean temperature and circulation. This is also reflected through the uncertain projections of future global sea-level rise. Improving our understanding of these systems poses particular challenges to science, but is essential to manage the risks to coastal communities, precious coastal ecosystems and major capital assets across the globe. Governments, businesses and individuals who own, or are charged with protecting these assets, need to work more with science to inform their decisions on investment in and management of coastal regions.
Understanding the Antarctic terrestrial and sub-sea permafrost and the consequences of its degradation is also a crucial issue. Terrestrial and sub-sea permafrost is susceptible to climate change, directly impacting the infrastructure and landscape, in the Canadian and Alaskan Arctic in particular, where vulnerability to coastal erosion is increasing. In Russia, major infrastructure is at risk of damage from thawing permafrost. The indirect impacts on climate through the potential release of greenhouse gases will add to those resulting from anthropogenic sources. Patterns and rates of permafrost change are poorly measured in all areas of the Arctic, and improved understanding of such changes is urgently needed.
Sea ice and icebergs present hazards to shipping and marines structures, depending on the location within the Polar Regions. Improvements in monitoring of these would reduce risks for shipping and other ocean operations and activities.
The Polar Regions provide an ideal platform from which to study the Earth’s upper atmosphere, the solar system and outer space, to improve understanding of sun-earth connections and space-weather, and answer fundamental questions such as the origin of the universe. The unique features of the polar environment mean that these areas provide astronomers and other scientists with a unique window on our universe, and environmental analogues that allow the prototyping and testing of equipment destined for space use. Similarly, space agencies have long understood the similarity of the isolation, lack of day-night cycles, and extreme environmental conditions to which polar communities are subject, and those that humans engaged in space flight must endure. These agencies can benefit significantly from the use of polar platforms and the medical and technical advances which can be made in these areas.
At another scale, severe space weather event arise from occasional massive ejections of material and energy from the Sun. These events pose risks to satellites and key infrastructure on the ground (e.g., power systems). Better understanding of the likelihood of damaging events and the ability to forecast their occurrence would provide satellite operators, and those who manage terrestrial infrastructure, better tools with which to build resilience into their systems and an opportunity to take protective measures against specific events. The location of the Polar Regions with respect to the Earth’s geomagnetic field means that these are the favoured sites for many instruments used to observe and understand the interactions of the solar particle radiation and solar wind with the magnetosphere-ionosphere system.
Many of the natural physical processes occurring in the polar atmosphere and oceans are of profound significance in controlling conditions across the globe and affecting lives and livelihoods across the world.
The great ocean current “conveyor belt” originates in the Arctic and Antarctic, it ventilates the deepest portions of the world’s oceans, and feeds the atmospheric and ocean current systems that shape the climate in Europe. Future changes in climate mean that many of these processes may be modified in intensity or effect, and the impacts will induce changes across the planet. These effects are not confined to the distant future, as it is clear that the inclusion of Polar Regions in forecast models has greatly improved regional weather prediction. The residents and operators in the Polar Regions are the most directly affected by climate change, but such changes have global importance. Understanding the polar processes in a global context will benefit the people, policy, ecosystem management, and businesses well beyond the Polar Regions.
Future climate scenarios strongly benefit from paleo-reconstructions conducted in both Polar Regions as they allow a better understanding of how the climate system worked both regionally and globally during abrupt climatic transitions and under warmer or colder than present-day conditions. Paleo-records from ice and sediment cores provide key insights into changes in both physical and biochemical parameters within the ocean, atmosphere, terrestrial and cryosphere components under natural and anthropogenic forcing, which is increasingly impacting local Arctic communities and ecosystems in the context of global warming
Additional specific topics can be activated upon request of the partners. One of the most sensitive is that related to people, societies and cultures of the Arctic. Cultural heritage management in the Polar Regions is an increasingly challenging endeavour as management authorities face impacts from climate and environmental change as well as increasing human activity such as oil and gas extraction and tourism. Natural resource dependent communities and industries, throughout the Arctic are experiencing direct and indirect impacts of climate change. Many questions remain about how they will be affected, how they can adapt and what resources are needed for strengthening adaptive capacities and ensuring adaptation.
The information contained in this section, including annexes, refers exclusively to the organisation of the old four-year course, still active - until completion - for doctoral students enrolled up to the 38th cycle.
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PhD overview, programme, faculty
Cycles 35th-38th |
411 KB |
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Training activities 38th cycle [ITA] | 807 KB |
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Survival kit a.y. 2022/2023 | 658 KB |
