Greenland ice core project Greenland ice core project The Greenland Ice Core Project (GRIP) was a multinational European research project, organized through the European Science Foundation. Funding came from 8 nations (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Switzerland, and United Kingdom), and from the European Union. The project ran from 1989 to 1995, with drilling seasons from 1990 to 1992. GRIP successfully drilled a 3029-metre ice core to the bed of the Greenland ice sheet at Summit, Central Greenland from 1989 to 1992 at . Studies of isotopes and various atmospheric constituents in the core have revealed a detailed record of climatic variations reaching
Greenland from Europe. There are no native or free-living reptiles or amphibians on the island. Phytogeographically, Greenland belongs to the Arctic province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. The island is sparsely populated in vegetation; plant life consists mainly of grassland and small bushes, which is regularly grazed by livestock. The most common tree native to Greenland is the European white birch ("Betula pubescens") along with gray-leaf willow ("Salix glauca"), rowans ("Sorbus aucuparia"), common junipers ("Juniperus communis") and other smaller trees, mainly willows. Greenland's flora comprises about 500 species of higher plants, i.e. flowering plants, ferns, horsetails and lycopodiophyta.