EGU General Assembly 2021 (vEGU21: Gather Online)

The EGU General Assembly is a prominent annual event that brings together geoscientists from all over the world into one meeting covering all disciplines of the Earth, planetary and space sciences. The EGU aims to provide a forum where scientists, especially early-career researchers, can present their work and discuss their ideas with experts in all fields of geoscience.

EGU21: Gather Online, which will be accessible from around the globe, will feature the 2020 and 2021 awards ceremonies and lectures, mentoring, networking events, and many more non-technical activities in addition to nearly 700 scientific sessions.

With the return of so many in-person General Assembly traditions, the 2021 meeting will offer members an entirely different experience from last year's meeting, Sharing Geoscience Online.

Background

The EGU is Europe’s premier geosciences union, dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in the Earth, planetary, and space sciences for the benefit of humanity, worldwide. It was established in September 2002 as a merger of the European Geophysical Society (EGS) and the European Union of Geosciences (EUG), and has headquarters in Munich, Germany.

Format

Find out more about the meeting format: https://egu21.eu/about/provisional_format_of_egu21.html

Program

Access the program groups: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/sessionprogramme

The full program will be available in March 2021.

Abstract submission

Abstract submission closes 20 January 2021 at 13:00 CET.

The Abstract Processing Charge (APC) will remain the same as in previous years.

Access all information on submitting abstracts: https://egu21.eu/abstracts_and_programme/how_to_submit_an_abstract.html

Registration

Since EGU will be offering a more complete experience in 2021, a registration fee will be charged, but the cost will be substantially lower than for an in-person annual meeting.

Registration is free if you are
- an undergraduate or master student,
- a PhD student from a middle- or low-income country, or
- a researcher from a low- or lower-middle income country.

To check which income category applies to your country, visit the World Bank site: https://data.worldbank.org/country

Registration fees for all other groups are listed here: https://egu21.eu/register.html

Travel grants

The Roland Schlich travel support scheme will be replaced by a registration fee waiver for participants from lower- and lower-middle income countries.

Further information

Go to the official website: https://www.egu2021.eu/

PAGES working group sessions (alphabetical order)

Friday 30 April, 09:00–12:30 CEST (07:00–10:30 UTC)

i. 2k Network: Studying the climate of the last two millennia: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/session/40692
Conveners: Sarah Eggleston, Stella Alexandroff, Hugo Beltrami, Steven Phipps, Andrea Seim

This session aims to place recently observed climate change in a long-term perspective by highlighting the importance of paleoclimate research spanning the past 2000 years. We invite presentations that provide insights into past climate variability, over decadal to millennial timescales, from different paleoclimate archives (ice cores, marine sediments, terrestrial records, historical archives and more). In particular, we are focussing on quantitative temperature and hydroclimate reconstructions, and reconstructions of large-scale modes of climate variability from local to global scales.

This session also encourages presentations on the attribution of past climate variability to external drivers or internal climate processes, data syntheses, model-data comparison exercises, proxy system modelling, and novel approaches to producing multi-proxy climate field reconstructions.

Thursday 29 April, 13:30–15:00 CEST (11:30–13:00 UTC)

ii. CVAS: Climate Variability Across Scales and Climate States: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/session/39134, co-sponsored by PAGES
Convener: Raphael Hébert. Co-conveners: Mathieu Casado, Shaun Lovejoy, Tine Nilsen, Kira Rehfeld

The Earth's climate is highly variable on all spatial and temporal scales, and this has direct consequences for society. For example, changes in variability (spatial or temporal) can impact the recurrence frequency of extreme events. Yet it is unclear if a warmer future is one with more or with less climate variability, and at which scales, as a multitude of feedbacks is involved and the instrumental record is short.

We welcome contributions that improve quantification, understanding, and prediction of climate variability in the Earth system across space and timescales through case studies, idealized or realistic modeling, synthesis, and model-data comparison studies that provide insights into past, present and future climate variability on local to global, and synoptic to orbital timescales.

The session is multidisciplinary and brings together people working in the geosciences, atmospheric science, oceanography, glaciology, paleoclimatology and environmental physics, to examine the complementarity of ideas and approaches. Members of the PAGES working group on Climate Variability Across Scales (CVAS) and others are welcome.

This session aims to provide a forum to present work on:

1. the characterization of climate dynamics using a variety of techniques (e.g. scaling and multifractal techniques and models, recurrence plots, or variance analyses) to study its variability including periodicities, noise levels, or intermittency)
2. the relationship between changes in the mean state (e.g. glacial to interglacial or preindustrial to present to future), and higher-order moments of relevant climate variables, to changes in extreme-event occurrence and the predictability of climate
3. the role of ocean, atmosphere, cryosphere, and land-surface processes in fostering long-term climate variability through linear – or nonlinear – feedbacks and mechanisms
4. the attribution of climate variability to internal dynamics, or the response to natural (volcanic or solar) and anthropogenic forcing
5. the interaction of external forcing (e.g. orbital forcing) and internal variability such as mechanisms for synchronization and pacing of glacial cycles
6. the characterization of probabilities of extremes, including linkage between slow climate variability and extreme event recurrence.

Thursday 29 April, 09:00–10:30 CEST (07:00–08:30 UTC)

iii. SISAL: Speleothem and Continental Carbonate Archives of Modern and Palaeoenvironmental Change: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/session/40674
Convener: Jens Fohlmeister. Co-conveners: Andrea Borsato, Gabriella Koltai, Sophie Warken, Andrea Columbu

Speleothems and continental carbonates (e.g. freshwater, pedogenic, lacustrine, subglacial and cryogenic carbonates) are important terrestrial archives, which can provide precisely dated, high-resolution records of past environmental and climate changes. The field of carbonate-based paleoclimatology has seen (1) continuously improving analytical capacity, producing detailed records of climate variability integrating established as well as novel and innovative techniques. (2) Long-term monitoring campaigns facilitating the calibration and interpretation of high-resolution proxy time series from carbonate archives. (3) At the same time proxy-system models can help understanding the measured proxies, by describing processes such as water infiltration, CO2 and carbonate dissolution, and carbonate precipitation and diagenesis. Applied together, advancements in these cornerstones of carbonate related research pave the way towards developing highly reliable quantitative terrestrial climate reconstructions.

Here, we invite contributions that show case studies as well as progresses in one of the three outlined domains. We especially welcome integrated and interdisciplinary studies, connecting these branches of carbonate related research in order to better understand the climate system on various time scales.

Tuesday 27 April, 09:00–12:30 CEST (07:00-10:30 UTC)

iv. VICS: Understanding volcano-climate impacts and the stratospheric aerosol layer: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/session/40861
Main Conveners: Graham Mann (lead), Matthew Toohey (co-lead). Co-conveners: Myriam Khodri, Claudia Timmreck, Davide Zanchettin

Volcanic aerosol clouds from major tropical eruptions cause periods of strong surface cooling in the historical climate record and are dominant influences within decadal surface temperature trends. Even the transition from the unusual 1998-2002 period of a “fully decayed to quiescence” stratospheric aerosol layer, into a more typical period of modest volcanic activity temporarily offset a substantial proportion of the subsequent decadal forcing from increased greenhouse gases.

Advancing our understanding of the influence of volcanoes on climate relies upon better knowledge of (i) the radiative forcings of past eruptions and the microphysical, chemical and dynamical processes which affect the evolution of stratospheric aerosol properties and (ii) the response mechanisms governing post-eruption climate variability and their dependency on the climate state at the time of the eruption. This can only be achieved by combining information from satellite and in-situ observations of recent eruptions, stratospheric aerosol and climate modelling activities, and reconstructions of past volcanic histories and post- eruption climate state from proxies. In recent years the smoke from intense wildfires in North America and Australia has also been an important component of the stratospheric aerosol layer, the presence of organic aerosol and meteoric particles in background conditions now also firmly established.

This session seeks presentations from research aimed at better understanding the stratospheric aerosol layer, its volcanic perturbations and the associated impacts on climate through the post-industrial period (1750-present) and also those further back in the historical record. We also welcome contributions to understand the societal impacts of volcanic eruptions and the human responses to them. Contributions addressing volcanic influences on atmospheric composition, such as changes in stratospheric water vapour, ozone and other trace gases are also encouraged. The session aims to bring together research contributing to several current international co- ordinated activities: SPARC-SSiRC, CMIP6-VolMIP, CMIP6-PMIP, and PAGES-VICS.

PAGES endorsed-group session

Wednesday 28 April, 15:30–17:00 CEST (13:30–15:00 UTC)

Varves Working Group: Geochronological tools for environmental reconstructions: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/session/40784, co-sponsored by PAGES
Convener Arne Ramisch. Co-conveners: Irka Hajdas, Andreas Lang, Kathleen Wendt

The Quaternary Period (last 2.6 million years) is characterized by frequent and abrupt climate swings that were accompanied by rapid environmental change. Studying these changes requires accurate and precise dating methods that can be effectively applied to environmental archives. A range of different methods or a combination of various dating techniques can be used, depending on the archive, time range, and research question. Varve counting and dendrochronology allow for the construction of high-resolution chronologies, whereas radiometric methods (radiocarbon, cosmogenic in-situ, U-Th) and luminescence dating provide independent anchors for chronologies that span over longer timescales. We particularly welcome contributions that aim to (1) reduce, quantify and express dating uncertainties in any dating method, including high-resolution radiocarbon approaches; (2) use established geochronological methods to answer new questions; (3) use new methods to address longstanding issues, or; (4) combine different chronometric techniques for improved results, including the analysis of chronological datasets with novel methods, e.g. Bayesian age-depth modeling. Applications may aim to understand long-term landscape evolution, quantify rates of geomorphological processes, or provide chronologies for records of climate change.

Future Earth session

Thursday 29 April, 09:00–10:30 CEST (07:00-08:30 UTC)

Learning from the past? The role of extreme events and natural hazards in the human past: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/session/40434
Convener: Felix Riede. Co-conveners: Huw S. Groucutt, Amy Prendergast

Extreme events and natural hazards are frequent occurrences on our unstable planet. They are predicted to become more common, severe and costly in the future and this session explores their role in human prehistory and history. In order to understand the potential of contemporary and future extreme events to impact human societies, it is critical to understand the mechanisms of how they may have occurred in the past, and elucidate their effects. This session invites contributions from across relevant disciplines. Global in scope and not limited to specific types of extreme events or natural hazards, we hope to compare and contrast differing methods and datasets that address the character and role of extreme events in the human past. Ultimately, we also seek to discuss how the evidence base of Pleistocene and Holocene calamities can be brought into play in the discussion about sustainability and disaster risk reduction in the Anthropocene, as well as to explore how extreme events may have shaped our past.

The session is co-sponsored by Future Earth’s Knowledge Action Network on Emergent Risks and Extreme Events.

PAGES ECN members involved in sessions

PAGES Early-Career Network (ECN) has collated the details (in date order) of its members presenting at vEGU21.

Marina A. Morlock (co-convener)
Session SSP3.1: Limnogeology - reading the geological record of lakes
Monday 26 April 2021, 11:00–12:30 (CEST)
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/session/39663#vPICO_presentations

Paul Zander et al.
“Searching for weather in varves: use of ultra-high-resolution scanning techniques to reconstruct seasonal meteorological conditions”
Monday 26 April 2021, 11:02-11:04 (CEST)
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/EGU21-16510.html

Ramesh Glückler et al.
“Towards a better understanding of Siberian wildfires: linking paleoenvironmental fire reconstructions with an individual-based spatially explicit fire-vegetation model”
Monday 26 April 2021, 11:28–11:30 (CEST)
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/EGU21-10840.html

Jesse Velay-Vitow and William Richard Peltier
“Arctic Ocean tidal regime change across the Bolling-Allerod onset”
Monday 26 April 2021, 13:49 - 13:51 (CEST)
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/EGU21-29.html

David Armstrong McKay (co-convener)
Session CL3.1.10: Earth resilience and tipping dynamics in the Anthropocene
Monday 26 April, 2021, 15:30-17:00 (CEST)
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/session/40781

Marlene Klockmann et al.
“Different ice sheets – different AMOC? Revisiting the ice-sheet effect on the LGM AMOC”
Tuesday 27 April 2021, 15:40–15:45 (CEST)
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/EGU21-8652.html

Hung Nguyen et al.
“Monthly streamflow reconstruction for the Chao Phraya River Basin with tree rings and δ180”
Tuesday 27 April 2021, 15:43-15:44 (CEST)
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/EGU21-9029.html

Giorgia Camperio et al.
“High-resolution radiocarbon dating to reconstruct last century environmental changes in the pacific island of Espiritu Santo”
Wednesday 28 April 2021, 12:02–12:04 (CEST)
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/EGU21-15449.html

Marina A. Morlock et al.
“Holocene human-environment interactions and their link to erosion in the Eastern Alps, inferred from sedaDNA”
Wednesday 28 April 2021, 12:09–12:11 (CEST)
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/EGU21-14979.html

Alexandra Zuhr et al.
“Assessing time uncertainty and sediment mixing using three-dimensional high-resolution radiocarbon measurements from a marine boxcore”
Wednesday 28 April 2021, 15:53 (CEST)
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/EGU21-8440.html

Matthew Chadwick et al.
“Reconstructing Antarctic winter sea-ice extent during Marine Isotope Stage 5e”
Wednesday 28 April 2021, 16:03-16:05 (CEST) https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/EGU21-1213.html

Katarzyna Marcisz et al.
“Wet in the Anthropocene – a report of exceptionally stable hydrological conditions in a small bog over the last 1500 years”
Friday 30 April 2021, 09:20-9:22 (CEST)
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/EGU21-12192.html

Giulia Wienhues et al.
“Multiproxy paleolimnological reconstruction of Lake Victoria’s environmental history, East Africa”
Friday 30 April 2021, 9:22-9:24 (CEST)
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/EGU21-7946.html

Marlene Klockmann and Eduardo Zorita
“Gaussian Process Regression – A tool for improved climate index reconstructions”
Friday 30 April 2021, 11:27-11:29 (CEST)
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/EGU21-4457.html

Madeleine Moyle et al.
“Towards a history of Holocene P dynamics for the Northern Hemisphere using lake sediment geochemical records”
Friday 30 April 2021, 13:35–13:37 (CEST)
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/EGU21-14897.html