Dr Ben Galton-Fenzi: PhD (QMS), BSc (Hons EnvSc), Cert MarSc

Research interests

I am a senior scientist with the Australian Antarctic Division. As part of this role I lead a team of researchers focused on understanding how and why the Antarctic ice sheet will respond to climate change. I received my PhD in oceanography in 2009, which focused on understanding the mechanisms controlling the dynamic interaction between the ice sheets and the oceans.

I have worked in several remote, deep field locations, including Law Dome, the Amery Ice shelf and most recently the Totten Glacier (leading field seasons since 2016). The Totten is one of the largest glaciers in Antarctica and thought to be susceptible to rapid retreat due to a warming climate, and one of the main potential contributors to global sea level rise. My focus is on integrating observations, theory and models.

Current projects

Australian Antarctic Science projects

  • #4574: State estimate of East Antarctic ice shelves
  • #4511: ICECAP – EAGLE
  • #5145: Helicopter trials of ground penetrating radar on glaciers
  • #4436: Totten ice dynamics and evolution
  • #4287: Ocean forced evolution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet
  • #4346: ICECAP II
  • #4096 Interactions between ice shelf and ocean in the cavity beneath the Amery Ice Shelf

National & international projects

  • ARC Discovery: Predicting biodiversity distribution on the Antarctic continental shelf (2019–2022)
  • Finnish Academy of Science: Coupled ocean and land ice dynamics (COLD)
National & international collaborations
  • Theme Leader “Cryosphere-Ocean interaction”, Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative. July 2014–March 2020
  • Project leader (interim) Australian Antarctic Partnership Program (May 2019–)
  • Project co-leader 1.2 Ocean forced evolution of the Antarctic ice sheet, ACE CRC. Jul 2014–Sept 2019
  • Liaison to IAPSO and IACS to develop and establish an International Commission on ice/ocean interactions
  • Member, World Climate Research Programme Data Advisory Council (WCRP DAC) as the Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) representative. July 2017-June 2020
  • Member, coordination committee for the Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP) in the Southern Hemisphere. July 2015–mid 2019
  • Chair, Realistic Ice-sheet/ocean State Estimates (RISE) international program, endorsed by both the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) and WCRP-CliC
  • Co-chair, Second Ice-Shelf Ocean Model Inter-comParison (ISOMIP+) experiments component of the MISOMIP WCRP-CliC targeted research activity
  • Australian liaison to the International Association of Cryospheric Sciences (IACS). 2016–ongoing
  • Editor, The Cryosphere
  • Editor, Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
  • Co-chief editor, special issue on Ice/ocean interactions with Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
Key outcome areas
  • Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
  • World Glacier Monitoring Service
  • Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS)
Publications

Gwyther D.G., T. O’Kane, B.K. Galton-Fenzi and D.P. Monselesan, 2018. Observed Totten Glacier ice shelf melt rate variability due to intrinsic processes. Nature Communications.

White D.A., D. Fink, A.L. Post, K. Simon, B.K. Galton-Fenzi, et al., 2019. Beryllium isotope signatures of ice shelves and sub-ice shelf circulation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of U.S.A.

Jansen J., N.A. Hill, P.K. Dunstan, J. McKinlay, M.D. Sumner, et al., 2017. Abundance and richness of key Antarctic seafloor fauna correlates with modelled food availability, Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Jong L. M., Gladstone R. M., Galton-Fenzi B. K., and M.A. King, 2018. Simulated dynamic regrounding during marine ice sheet retreat.The Cryosphere, 12: 2425–2436.

Naughten K.A., K.J. Meissner, B.K. Galton-Fenzi, M.H. England, R. Timmermann and H.H. Hellmer, 2018. Future Projections of Antarctic Ice Shelf Melting Based on CMIP5 Scenarios. J. Climate 31: 5243–5261.

See more of Dr Galton-Fenzi’s publications on Google Scholar.

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