ABC News profiled several female scientists who are studying the effects of climate change on the Earth. Here are some of their photos and stories.<br><br>Allison Fong is a biological oceanographer and sea ice ecologist for the Alfred Wegener Institute Holmholtz Center For Polar and Marine Research in Breverhaven, Germany. She studies phytoplankton, bacteria and other microorganisms trapped in the Arctic ice.

Using a saw to section off ice-core samples, Fong will use the samples to study the biodiversity and biological activities within the vertical sea ice column. The in-field ice processing is performed in a dark tent to protect the organisms within ice cores from light and temperature shock. The core sections are taken onboard, melted and the water is studied. These samples are currently being processing in shore-based laboratories around the world.

Fong works with Mario Hoppmann and Jacob Allerholt to make a large hole in the ice for an instrument, which measures ocean currents. They worked for one to two hours removing 1-meter thick ice. "Making holes in the ice to deploy instrumentation is an important and grueling task, but it's imperative in order to quantify changes to the environment," Fong said.

During the MOSAiC expedition, Fong looks into a hole cut into the ice in the Arctic Ocean. MOSAiC is short for Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate.

Catherine Nakalembe won the 2020 Africa Food Prize for her work using technology to improve sustainable crops and food security throughout Africa.

Nakalembe shows NASA Earth science data collection techniques to a Village Knowledge Agent in Iringa, Tanzania.

Nakalembe demonstrates field data collection with local officials and government staff in Uganda.

Nakalembe conducts training on the use of Earth Observation Data for agriculture throughout Africa.

Asmeret Asefaw Berhe is a professor of soil biogeochemistry and the Falasco Chair in Earth Sciences at the University of California, Merced. Soil contains carbon dioxide. When erosion, deforestation or overgrazing occurs, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. Healthy soils hold more carbon dioxide so it is not released into the atmosphere to contribute to the greenhouse gas effect.

Berhe shows soil samples. "It was starting to be very evident that the soil system can either be part of the solution or the problem with respect to climate change, depending on how human beings treat the soil of how we use, overuse and sometimes abuse the soil system," Berhe said.

Berhe works in the soil biochemistry lab at University of California, Merced.

Emma Camp is a marine biologist and deputy team leader of the Future Reefs Program within the Climate Change Cluster at the University of Technology Sydney. Her research focuses on the physiology, ecology and biogeochemistry of coral reefs.

Using a novel in situ incubation chamber, Camp assesses the physiological health of a coral sample. Part of her research involves what is called “super corals.” In learning more about these highly tolerant corals, she hopes to help aid coral reefs that are in danger.

Camp freezes samples in liquid nitrogen as part of an extraction process to look at the DNA of coral. "Three coral bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef since 2016 is showing us the impact Climate Change is having on coral reefs. We must act to address our reliance on fossil fuels and continue efforts to research, conserve, and restore our reef habitats".

Lia Kajiki, an ecologist and doctoral student at the Universidade de Brasilia, holds a bird known as the helmeted manakin, a neotropical bird endemic to the Cerrado region in Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay. She investigates the breeding biology and mating system of this bird in her studies. The shrinking habitat of the species may have affected the species' behavior.

Using a unidirectional microphone to help in the identification process, Kajiki conducts bird censuses to study the local avifauna, in Minas Gerais, Brazil, in January 2016.

Isabella Velicogna is a Professor of Earth System Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. "I am a geophysicist. I study the glaciers and ice sheets using time variable gravity data from satellites in combination with other observations. My research goal is to understand how the ice sheets contribute to sea level rise now and in the future. I also conduct field experiments in glacial fjords to measure what we cannot observe from satellites to better understand the glacier evolution."

While surveying the glacial fjords of Greenland for water temperature and water depth, Veligocna and others onboard use long sticks to push away the ice to protect their instruments which are mounted on the side of the ship.

Nicole Yamase, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, studies the effects of climate change on the marine plant community. She took this selfie on a reef patch on her home island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia.

Yamase collects and takes photos of algae found on the reef in Chuuk, FSM. Her research focus is on the effects of climate change on the marine plant community. "Understanding how our primary producers respond to these changes will help us predict the future health of our reefs. This is crucial for the livelihoods of Pacific Islanders who highly depend on the ocean for many purposes," Yamase said.

Yamase holds the algae Microdictyon setchellianum, which is part of her research, at the Anuenue Fisheries Research Center in Honolulu where she conducts her experiments.

On March 11, 2021, Yamase and explorer Victor Vescovo traveled to Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench. This made Yamase the first Pacific Islander and marine botanist, second-youngest person and third woman to visit the Challenger Deep at a depth of about 10,925 meters. "This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to not only be a part of a team that continues to carry out groundbreaking scientific work, but also an opportunity to show the world how we, Pacific Islanders, are intimately connected to the ocean through our culture and ancestors who were the world’s best navigators," Yamase said.