AQUARIUS Funding Call – Marine and Freshwater Infrastructure Access: Open 02 September 2025 – 28 October 2025
DENGATE
Towards a complete record of past oceanic flow through the Denmark Strait critical Arctic-Atlantic gateway
Funded by AQUARIUS Transnational Access Call 1
The DENGATE project aims to investigate the past behavior of Denmark Strait Overflow Water (DSOW) to understand its role in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and its impact on climate.
Research Infrastructure Used: RV G. O. Sars, AUV Barabas, Glider Yoko
“We are excited to have this opportunity to fill a major gap in our understanding of Atlantic oceanic flow, which plays a big role in our climate system.”
“Flow of ocean water from the Arctic to the Atlantic is fundamentally important to our society – it affects weather across continental Europe and biodiversity in the North Atlantic ocean. It’s not clear how this flow will change in the future because we don’t know how it has changed in the past. Our project will reconstruct the past history of this important oceanic current to fill our knowledge gap.”
University of Birmingham
PARTNERS
MAIN OBJECTIVES
The DENGATE project aims to investigate the past behavior of Denmark Strait Overflow Water (DSOW) to understand its role in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and its impact on climate. The project will conduct a site survey, coring, and baseline core analysis at the Freydis Drift to obtain a high-resolution record of DSOW, which will help apportion its role in recent and past climate oscillations.
MORE INFORMATION
AQUARIUS TA Project Name:
Towards a complete record of past oceanic flow through the Denmark Strait critical Arctic-Atlantic gateway
Project acronym:
DENGATE
TA Project Unique ID:
26
Partners involved:
• University of Birmingham
• Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS)
• University of Galway
• University of Barcelona
• Cassandra Frey (Independent PSO)
• Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)
• University of Bergen
• University of Iceland
Start date
1 January 2027
End date
28 February 2028
Mission Lighthouse Region
Atlantic-Arctic
Work/research geographical
area
Freydis Drift, near Denmark Strait: Northern hub of AMOC, focusing on the seas surrounding Greenland.
Names of RI facilities used
RV G. O. Sars, AUV Barabas, Glider Yoko
Scientific discipline(s)
Earth Sciences & Environment: Global change & Climate observation
Principal Investigator
(PI) Affiliation
University of Birmingham