Faculty bio | Oceans & Ice Lab | (541) 346-8753

David Sutherland is an academic expert in oceanography and the ocean's role in climate change, specifically how the ocean affects ice-covered areas such as Greenland, Antarctica, and the Arctic Ocean. He works closely with the Environmental Science Institute and the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology. Dave’s research focuses on coastal oceanography--in the Arctic this means how melting glaciers impact the ocean (and vice versa), while on the Oregon coast, this means how coastal waters affect ecosystem functioning. While he spends his summers in Greenland studying ocean temperatures and glacier behavior, he can also speak to the melting polar ice caps in the Arctic Ocean or other high-latitude ocean processes in places like Patagonian Chile or SE Alaska. 

Recent Media: 
A major ocean current may be hurtling towards collapse (Gizmodo, Feb. 24, 2021)
UO and OSU to work together on glacier melting research (Around the O, Aug. 24, 2020)
Scientists find far higher than expected rate of underwater glacial melting (EurekAlert!, Jan. 29, 2020)
Alaska’s melting glaciers tell the story of climate change (Yes! Magazine, Dec. 5, 2019)
New data from UO-led study may change glacial melt predictions (Around the O, July 24, 2019)
Study: Melting icebergs cause warming climate (KGW, Jan. 28, 2019)
Third pod from the sun (Sharing Science Podcast, February 2018)
Science at the border between ice and ocean (Earth & Space Science News, Dec. 11, 2017)
Why it’s impossible to predict when that giant Antarctic ice sheet will split (Wired, Jan. 12, 2017)
Know the ocean’s role in Greenland’s glacier meltdown (NDTV, June 24, 2014)