About GEM

Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring (GEM) is a long term monitoring programme operated by Research institutions in Denmark and Greenland. GEM has over the past two decades established itself firmly as an internationally leading climate change related environmental barometer measuring climate impacts and ecosystem changes in the Arctic.

Over the years the programme has developed from a comprehensive climate change and ecosystem monitoring programme at a single site in the National Park of North-East Greenland to also include two almost equally comprehensive programmes in West Greenland supplemented with strategic initiatives at other locations (see GEM Localities).

The mission of GEM is threefold and embraces the following actions:

1.    To contribute to a coherent and science-based description of the state of the environment, including its biodiversity, in Greenland and the Arctic in relation to climatic changes with focus on ecosystem responses and on global impacts related to feedback processes.

2.    To provide science-based input on the state of the environment in Greenland and the Arctic for danish, greenlandic and international policy development, adaptation and administration.

3.    To provide a platform for cutting-edge inter-disciplinary research on the structure and function of arctic ecosystems.