About us
Since its inception in 2021, the Mubadala Arabian Center for Climate and Environmental Sciences (ACCESS) has emerged as a center of excellence, bringing climate and environmental science up to speed with the rapid development of societies and economies in the Gulf region.
Mubadala ACCESS focuses on the pressing need for scientific research on climate change and local environmental issues. By establishing a comprehensive local observation network and enhancing modeling capabilities, the Center is significantly contributing to understanding and managing the region’s environmental challenges, particularly in the UAE. This region, rich in marine ecosystems yet understudied, faces complex environmental dynamics, with limited quality data covering climatologically relevant periods and topics such as heat waves, sand storms, and rainfall trends.
The Center builds observational and modeling capacity in the marine and atmospheric sectors by integrating the multidisciplinary competencies within NYU Abu Dhabi and the broader NYU Global Network. In collaboration with UAE government agencies and public stakeholders, and as part of the Climate Change Research Network (CCRN), Mubadala ACCESS is driving both locally motivated basic scientific research and initiatives with global implications, focusing on areas like rainfall, coral reefs, plankton dynamics, urban environments, and instrument development. This research supports critical sectors such as food and water security, urban infrastructure, and tourism.
Our goal is to provide the data and the scientific knowledge necessary to policymakers and government agencies to design conservation, adaptation, and resilience measures. We have laid the foundation of a modern, expandable environmental observation network, complemented by regional ocean and atmospheric models specifically tailored for the Gulf region. We continue our efforts to bring the UAE on par with other advanced countries concerning the ability to observe, forecast, and manage environmental issues.
The Center is divided into seven interdisciplinary research cores:
1: Biochemical Extremes in the Southern Gulf
The Gulf is characterized by extreme environmental conditions, including the highest annual sea temperatures on earth, exceeding 36°C, and significant seasonal temperature variation, as well as high salinity levels. These extremes, compounded by climate change, pose a significant threat to the region’s marine ecosystem. Recent observations have revealed surprising daily cycles in oxygen concentration, leading to hypoxic conditions that challenge previous assumptions about the region’s mixing dynamics. This project aims to address these issues by establishing 10 marine stations along the Abu Dhabi coast to monitor various environmental parameters such as temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and more, using in-situ data-logging sensors and UAV platforms for advanced marine observation. The collected data will be used to develop a biogeochemical model specific to the Southern Gulf, enhancing our understanding of the region’s ecosystem dynamics and aiding in the prediction and management of future climate impacts.
2: Climate of the Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula experiences a diverse range of weather phenomena, from extreme heat and aridity to tropical cyclones and shamal wind storms. Addressing the regional impacts of climate change necessitates a deep understanding of these local weather patterns and the development of robust climate and weather models. Over the past five years, scientists at NYUAD, supported by the National Center for Meteorology, have developed a high-resolution atmospheric model to study the Middle East and South Asia’s weather systems. This project aims to build on this work by assessing the impacts of climate change on water security, heat waves, and air quality, improving our understanding of regional weather phenomena, and collecting local weather data using drones and monitoring stations.
The project will focus on generating high-resolution simulations for the Arabian Peninsula, understanding local weather patterns, gathering and analyzing local data, and identifying regional risks and vulnerabilities. By developing a pseudo-global warming framework, the team will perform simulations to assess the impacts of climate change on regional climate patterns. Additionally, the project will study specific local weather phenomena, such as shamal winds, tropical cyclones, and sandstorms, to understand their behavior and potential changes due to climate change. The modeling activities will be complemented by local monitoring and data collection efforts, including the implementation of a high-resolution sensor network and the development of a UAV platform to investigate the planetary boundary layer’s structure.
3: Arabian Marine Systems in a Warming Climate
The UAE is strategically located between the Arabian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, two critical marine ecosystems rich in biodiversity and fisheries, second only to oil in economic importance. The Sea of Oman hosts extensive coral reefs and economically important fisheries, but faces increasing challenges from an expanding oxygen dead zone linked to the Arabian Sea’s oxygen minimum zone (OMZ), the world’s thickest OMZ. This zone’s extreme conditions result in significant bioavailable nitrogen loss, vital for phytoplankton growth. Concurrently, the Arabian Gulf, known for its extreme temperature ranges and resilient corals, is experiencing increasing deoxygenation due to global warming.
Over recent decades, the northern Arabian Sea has warmed significantly, leading to notable ecological shifts such as changes in phytoplankton species and reduced calcification rates. Mubadala ACCESS proponents have made significant strides in understanding the biogeochemistry of these seas, particularly the role of mesoscale eddies, organic matter export, and dust deposition. This project aims to develop a high-resolution model of the Gulf, coupled with an existing larger-scale Arabian Sea and Gulf model, to simulate and investigate the drivers of recent environmental changes. The model will be calibrated with observational data to explore the impacts of deoxygenation, warming, and acidification on marine ecosystems and assess future vulnerabilities, providing critical insights into the region’s ecological dynamics and long-term evolution.
4: Environmental and Climate Change in the UAE's Urban Areas
Understanding the relationship between urban areas and the environment is crucial as over half of the world’s population now resides in cities. In Abu Dhabi, road transportation is a major source of pollutants such as NOx, CO, and particulate matter, which contribute to climate change and public health issues. This project aims to combine empirical data from Abu Dhabi with high-resolution atmospheric simulations to model the impact of urban mobility on the local climate and the effects of weather events on transportation. The initial phase involves deploying a high-resolution monitoring network on Al Maryah Island to collect data on environmental indicators and validate the regional atmospheric model for predicting local weather events.
The project will also explore the design of more sustainable and resilient transportation systems for Abu Dhabi. Collaboration with Dr. Aaron Chow will enhance flood modeling capabilities to assess coastal transport infrastructure vulnerability. The insights gained could inform strategies for sustainable traffic control, resilient urban infrastructure, evacuation models, and improved emergency response management. While the primary focus is on data analysis and modeling, the project aims to pursue additional research directions with further funding.
5: Impacts of the Gulfs Changing Salinity
The Gulf is the world’s most saline marginal sea, with evaporation vastly exceeding freshwater inputs. Its water properties exhibit significant horizontal gradients in temperature, salinity, and density, driving complex circulation patterns. Freshwater mainly comes from the Shatt-Al-Arab and Mand rivers, but reduced flow due to agricultural demands has impacted coastal ecosystems. The proliferation of desalination plants in the region, producing hypersaline brine wastewater, further complicates the Gulf’s salinity dynamics. This project aims to develop a high-resolution ocean model of the Gulf to assess the impact of desalination and climate change on salinity, marine ecosystems, and fisheries. The model incorporates various data sources and will evaluate different scenarios, including diminished river runoff and increased desalination. Enhanced with a biogeochemical module, the model will also study the transport and sedimentation of pollutants. Collaboration with Dr. Aaron Chow will integrate local-scale models for detailed analysis.
6: Enhancing the Conservation of the UAE's Coral Reefs
Coral reefs in the UAE are the most biodiverse ecosystems in the nation, crucial for commercial fisheries and home to endangered species like the hawksbill turtle. Despite their importance, these reefs face significant threats from coastal development, algal blooms, and extreme marine heat waves, leading to widespread degradation in some areas. The UAE’s coral reefs are particularly resilient, surviving in the world’s hottest sea, which has spurred research into their coping mechanisms against extreme temperatures and the insights these can provide on climate change resilience in a warming world. However, there has been a lack of comprehensive national-level monitoring, with limited data available from only a few locations.
To address these challenges, Mubadala ACCESS has established a national coral reef monitoring program with sites across all seven Emirates. Annual SCUBA surveys track live coral abundance, coral health, and demographics. The project has also extended regional ocean models to enhance understanding of larval exchange among reefs, crucial for reef recovery and resilience. This comprehensive approach aims to inform marine protected area design and management strategies for coral reef conservation in the UAE.
7: Impacts of Phytoplankton Dynamics on UAE's Costal Waters
Our research and measurements show that the gulf is highly oligotrophic (nutrient deplete) it essentially resembles the surface open ocean waters. This means that generally, the productivity of the gulf is not as high as other water bodies around the world, particularly in coastal areas, where productivity is high. On the other hand, it also means that any perturbation of this ‘constant’ low-nutrient environment leads to major changes that happen rapidly. This is the reason why harmful algal blooms are observed in the Gulf because while there are not enough nutrients to sustain large populations of algae, the moment nutrients are introduced, either via the Gulf of Oman or through coastal development, algal blooms thrive.