Kyriaki M. Lekakou

Kyriaki M. Lekakou

Profile

My name is Kyriaki, I come from Greece and this summer I completed my master’s degree in the Department of Marine Sciences of the University of Aegean. My master’s thesis was about the projected wind regime over Mediterranean sea and more specific the regional phenomenon that is called etesian winds (using results from 2 models of the CMIP5 project).

Following these results about the changes of surface wind speed, I did a three months internship at NOCS (National Oceanography Centre of Southampton) studying the projected surface temperature and salinity and their correlation between them and surface wind speed.

Extreme weather conditions or changes in the sea temperature are just two out of many impacts of climate change I am interested in. Understanding environmental changes is my driven force and my interest lies in studying the cause of them and the future impact they will have on our planet. The next step for me will be to make my contribution on the extensively discussed debate about how much the sea level will rise.

Kyriaki M. Lekakou

Marine, Atmospheric and Climate Science

University of East Anglia, School of Environmental Sciences

PhD title: Ocean drivers of Antarctic ice shelf melt and sea level rise: Understanding future changes

Predicting future sea level is highly uncertain; debate about the future contribution of meltwater from Antarctica, which could contribute more than 1m of sea level rise by 2100, is particularly intense. The most rapid melting occurs in West Antarctica, where relatively warm water from the open ocean reaches the shallow seas in front of the retreating glaciers. This supply of warm water is highly variable, and may change in response to an increase in Antarctic melting.

Using existing simulations from climate models, the ocean’s influence on the Antarctic ice melt during the 21st century will be investigated. It is crucial to assess how well models simulate key ocean processes. That said, it is important to explore how the glacier-ward flows of warm water vary between different models that have different spatial resolution and different representation of ocean-ice interactions. The latest international observations from around Antarctica will be used to perform process-based model evaluation, comparing the models and reality.

The goal is to improve our understanding of how glaciers in Antarctica will contribute to future sea level rise, with the potential for these findings to feed into future international assessments of climate-induced sea level rise.

Conferences

  • E-poster Lekakou K.M., Tragou E. “PROJECTED CHANGES IN THE SURFACE WIND OVER THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA“, November 2018, 3rd International Congress on Applied Ichthyology & Aquatic Environment, HydroMedit 2018

Volunteer for Archelon, the sea turtle protection society of Greece

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4800-5383

Kyriaki M. Lekakou on Researchgate