Professor Adrian Jenkins

Professor

School: Geography and Natural Sciences

0191 227 4118

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

My research focuses on the interaction between the Earth’s ice sheets and oceans, with a particular emphasis on Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. There the interaction between ice and ocean occurs mainly beneath the vast floating ice shelves. I have undertaken fieldwork, both on the ice and aboard ships from which I have deployed autonomous submarines to make observations beneath the ice. I have also developed numerical models of the critical processes, ranging from relatively simple one-dimensional models to complex Earth System Models. The ultimate aim of my work is to understand how the ocean drives change in the ice sheet and how that will impact global climate and sea level in the future.

Key Publications

Bedmap3 updated ice bed, surface and thickness gridded datasets for Antarctica, Pritchard, H., Fretwell, P., Fremand, A., Bodart, J., Kirkham, J., Aitken, A., Bamber, J., Bell, R., Bianchi, C., Bingham, R., Blankenship, D., Casassa, G., Christianson, K., Conway, H., Corr, H., Cui, X., Damaske, D., Damm, V., Dorschel, B., Drews, R., Eagles, G., Eisen, O., Eisermann, H., Ferraccioli, F., Field, E., Forsberg, R., Franke, S., Goel, V., Gogineni, S., Greenbaum, J., Hills, B., Hindmarsh, R., Hoffman, A., Holschuh, N., Holt, J., Humbert, A., Jacobel, R., Jansen, D., Jenkins, A., Jokat, W., Jong, L., Jordan, T., King, E., Kohler, J., Krabill, W., Maton, J., Gillespie, M., Langley, K., Lee, J., Leitchenkov, G., Leuschen, C., Luyendyk, B., MacGregor, J., MacKie, E., Moholdt, G., Matsuoka, K., Morlighem, M., Mouginot, J., Nitsche, F., Nost, O., Paden, J., Pattyn, F., Popov, S., Rignot, E., Rippin, D., Rivera, A., Roberts, J., Ross, N., Ruppel, A., Schroeder, D., Siegert, M., Smith, A., Steinhage, D., Studinger, M., Sun, B., Tabacco, I., Tinto, K., Urbini, S., Vaughan, D., Wilson, D., Young, D., Zirizzotti, A. 10 Mar 2025, In: Scientific data
Calibrated sea level contribution from the Amundsen Sea sector, West Antarctica, under RCP8.5 and Paris 2C scenarios, Rosier, S., Gudmundsson, G., Jenkins, A., Naughten, K. 14 Jul 2025, In: The Cryosphere
Influence of Freshwater Fluxes and Topography on the Distribution of Water Masses on the Antarctic Continental Shelf, Bull, C., Munday, D., Jenkins, A. 26 Aug 2025, In: Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
Influence of topography and winds on the distribution of water masses on the Antarctic Continental Shelf, Bull, C., Munday, D., Jenkins, A. 1 Sep 2025, In: Journal of Physical Oceanography
Physics-based parameterisation framework for basal melting in ice-ocean boundary layers over dynamically stable pycnoclines, Jayasankar, T., Jenkins, A. 13 Nov 2025, In: Communications Earth and Environment
The OCEAN ICE mooring compilation: A standardised, pan-Antarctic database of ocean hydrography and current time series, Zhou, S., Dutrieux, P., Giulivi, C., Jenkins, A., Silvano, A., Auckland, C., Abrahamsen, E., Meredith, M., VaÅková, I., Nicholls, K., Davis, P., Østerhus, S., Gordon, A., Zappa, C., Dotto, T., Scambos, T., Gunn, K., Rintoul, S., Aoki, S., Stevens, C., Liu, C., Yun, S., Kim, T., Lee, W., Janout, M., Hattermann, T., Lauber, J., Darelius, E., Wåhlin, A., Middleton, L., Castagno, P., Budillon, G., Heywood, K., Graham, J., Dye, S., Hirano, D., Miller, U. 28 Oct 2025, In: Earth System Science Data
An Amundsen Sea source of decadal temperature changes on the Antarctic continental shelf, Drijfhout, S., Bull, C., Hewitt, H., Holland, P., Jenkins, A., Mathiot, P., Garabato, A. 1 Jan 2024, In: Ocean Dynamics
Ice base slope effects on the turbulent ice shelf-ocean boundary current, Anselin, J., Holland, P., Jenkins, A., Taylor, J. 1 Jul 2024, In: Journal of Physical Oceanography
Ice shelf basal channel shape determines channelized ice-ocean interactions, Cheng, C., Jenkins, A., Holland, P., Wang, Z., Dong, J., Liu, C. 3 Apr 2024, In: Nature Communications
Melt sensitivity of irreversible retreat of Pine Island Glacier, Reed, B., Green, J., Jenkins, A., Gudmundsson, G. 7 Oct 2024, In: The Cryosphere

Current and Recent Projects

The influence of ocean circulation on local biogeochemistry and melting tidewater golaciers in north Baffin Bay, Jenkins, A. (Principal Investigator), Natural Environment Research Council, 01/09/22 - 31/08/23, £12,484.00
Ocean Forcing of Ice Sheet Evolution Beyond West Antarctica, Jenkins, A. (Principal Investigator), Natural Environment Research Council, 01/10/20 - 30/09/24, £657,760.00

PGR Supervision

Emma White Ocean Circulation and Ice Shelf Melting in the Bellingshausen Sea Start Date: 01/10/2020
Emma White Ocean Circulation and Ice Shelf Melting in the Bellingshausen Sea Start Date: 01/10/2020 End Date: 17/10/2025