The angle of repose

John Crump

By GRID-Arendal

January 15^th, 2019

GRID-Arendal is back in school at the University of Agder in Kristiansand, a small city on the south coast of Norway, about an hour's drive from our office in Arendal.

From the back of the classroom, I listen to Peter Harris explain the importance of sediment to life in the sea, how the continental shelf is formed and the absolute havoc that glaciers play on the sea bottom. Harris, GRID-Arendal's Managing Director, is an oceanographer and he explains that these processes are fundamental to understanding what happens in the oceans.

Harris is one of several GRID-Arendal experts who will lecture in the university's new Master's course called Coastal Ecology and Global Change in the Anthropocene. The course, designed by GRID-Arendal and the university, focuses on environmental processes and global change, and the management of coastal and marine environments.

The importance of sediments to ocean life is only one part of the course GRIDArendal is leading at the University of Adger. Over the next few weeks, GRID experts will lecture in coastal ecosystems, land-sea interactions, eutrophication, regime changes, ecosystem services, and the global climate system, among other topics.