SOCCO releases its Phase IV Integrated Science and Innovation Strategy: 2022-2027
Posted by Dr. Sandy Thomalla in News. March 30, 2022.
In March this year the Southern Ocean Carbon-Carbon Observatory (SOCCO) research programme based at the CSIR Smart Society, Holistic Climate Change Division released their Phase IV Integrated Science and Innovation Strategy: 2022-2027. More than a decade ago, the important (yet drastically understudied) role of the Southern Ocean in global climate was recognised, which together with South Africa’s comparative geographic advantage made a compelling argument to initiate a South African programme to study the Southern Ocean carbon – climate system. SOCCO is now a well established research programme in support of the Department of Science and Innovation’s Decadal and Strategic Plans to strengthen South Africa’s impact as a global citizen with a clear commitment to ocean and climate stewardship.
The Southern Ocean acts as the climate flywheel of the planet buffering the impacts of climate change by accounting for 50% of the total oceanic uptake of carbon dioxide and 75% of the excess heat generated by anthropogenic carbon dioxide. This large-scale negative feedback to climate change is achieved through effective physical-solubility and biological carbon pumps that reduce the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and thus reduce the negative impact of increased radiative forcing. However, the scientific challenge is that the Southern Ocean accounts for most of the uncertainty in global estimates of both contemporary and end of the century projections and it is not known how the Southern Ocean carbon-climate system will respond to different greenhouse gas emission and mitigation scenarios. Understanding the sensitivity of the Southern Ocean to climate change and being able to predict long term trends and tipping points in the ocean carbon – climate system is set to become one of the most important scientific and policy challenges of the 21st century. From a policy viewpoint it can impact on the calculation of the remaining carbon budgets for greenhouse gas emissions to maintain an agreed warming threshold as well as the pricing of carbon. From a scientific perspective it poses a challenge to improving the confidence in century scale projections of climate risk by Earth System Models. Finally it provides a unique platform from which to build the skills, innovation and transformation that South Africa will need for decision making in the 21st Century.
One of the key goals of SOCCO’s Phase IV strategy is to demonstrate that programme-scale planning and funding can not only link the value chain from basic science to societal impact in technological innovation and policy, but also to serve as a technological innovation system and an end-to-end Human Capital Development platform. SOCCO uses the scientific challenges of the Southern Ocean carbon-climate system to attract excellent young South Africans to produce a new generation of graduates with the skills required to address the challenges of the 21st century. SOCCO builds capabilities through earth science, big data, robotics, computer science and technical engineering which are all essential for the future digital world that requires a skilled and capable workforce for a knowledge based economy and knowledge society.
Figure 1: The science to society value chain.
SOCCO Phase IV builds on its science, innovation and human capital development trajectory through alignment of both national and international strategic priorities that frame and inform the science and innovation direction of SOCCO Phase IV (Figure 2). In so doing, the innovation potential, research enterprise, scientific knowledge and human capital development that SOCCO generates is at the epicentre of national development and embedded in the necessity for social impact (Figures 1 and 2).
Figure 2: The SOCCO science, innovation and knowledge landscape: adding societal value and addressing national and international priorities. This figure highlights the international landscape within which SOCCO operates: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS), World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR), Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS), Global Carbon Project (GCP), Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR), Surface Ocean CO₂ Atlas (SOCAT), Global Ocean Data Analysis Project (GLODAP) and Ocean metabolism and nutrient cycles on a changing planet – BIOGEOSCAPES. It similarly highlights the National strategies and plans that frame and inform the direction of our science and innovation strategy to achieve maximum societal impact, namely the: Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) Decadal plan and Strategic Plan 2020-2025, National Development Plan (NDP), South African Marine and Antarctic Research Strategy (MARS), Presidential Climate Commission (PCC), Antarctic and Southern Ocean Strategy (ASOS), South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap (SARIR), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE).
SOCCO have adopted a niche approach to address the challenge of understanding the role of the Southern Ocean in global and regional climate which is to address the system through the lens of the seasonal cycle. This niche approach is underpinned by a need to resolve fine scale ocean dynamics that are key to understanding the variability of air-sea fluxes of carbon dioxide and heat. Addressing the relevant time and space scales that link physical forcing mechanisms associated with climate change to ocean physical and ecosystem responses requires innovative fine-scale observations (ocean robotics and satellite remote sensing) and innovative modelling techniques (prognostic and empirical) that can be used together to link the temporal and spatial scale gaps in our knowledge of a hitherto under sampled Southern Ocean.
SOCCO’s Phase IV innovation and science strategy builds on its historical niche of fine scale dynamics and seasonally resolved long-term carbon observations but also expands to build new national capabilities in modelling and model infrastructure. This approach to constrain climate risk is appropriate in the context of the 2020-2030 UN Decade of the Ocean and will be directed at one of the most important scientific and policy challenges of the 21st century. Namely, to improve long-term projections of the Southern Ocean carbon-climate system in order to detect trends and identify thresholds of abrupt change and tipping points for informed adaptation planning and decision-making that will meet society’s urgent need for robust and actionable climate risk management (Figure 1 and Figure 2). An envisioned gap in South Africa’s future capacity, is an ability to support robust assessment of the opportunities and risks of Carbon Dioxide Removal strategies in general and in the ocean in particular.
In line with the above, the SOCCO Integrated science innovation and research strategy is organised into four primary research themes for delivering high impact research:
Theme 1: Advancing the understanding of the physics-carbon dioxide-heat nexus in the Southern Ocean: improving the confidence of Earth System Model projections and feedbacks
Theme 2: Understanding the sensitivity of the Southern Ocean biological carbon pump to climate change
Theme 3: Long-term observations and ocean carbon-climate projections for national, regional and global policy support
Theme 4: Carbon Dioxide Removal: Building a new national science capability to support the assessment of ocean carbon dioxide removal in South Africa
Overall SOCCO’s Phase IV Integrated Science and Innovation Strategy will extend the historical excellence in basic Southern Ocean carbon-climate science expertise closer to addressing societal needs more explicitly. This will be achieved through four priority areas that link SOCCO science to societal benefits through models, observations, data products and capacity building:
Advancing models and modelling capabilities towards strengthening Earth System Model projections.
Advancing process understanding for improved model parameterisation.
Advancing observational-based constraints for models for ocean carbon.
Building a nationally integrated observational and modelling capability to support robust policy development around ocean carbon dioxide removal.
In March this year the Southern Ocean Carbon-Carbon Observatory (SOCCO) research programme based at the CSIR Smart Society, Holistic Climate Change Division released their Phase IV Integrated Science and Innovation Strategy: 2022-2027. More than a decade ago, the important (yet drastically understudied) role of the Southern Ocean in global climate was recognised, which together with South Africa’s comparative geographic advantage made a compelling argument to initiate a South African programme to study the Southern Ocean carbon – climate system. SOCCO is now a well established research programme in support of the Department of Science and Innovation’s Decadal and Strategic Plans to strengthen South Africa’s impact as a global citizen with a clear commitment to ocean and climate stewardship.
The Southern Ocean acts as the climate flywheel of the planet buffering the impacts of climate change by accounting for 50% of the total oceanic uptake of carbon dioxide and 75% of the excess heat generated by anthropogenic carbon dioxide. This large-scale negative feedback to climate change is achieved through effective physical-solubility and biological carbon pumps that reduce the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and thus reduce the negative impact of increased radiative forcing. However, the scientific challenge is that the Southern Ocean accounts for most of the uncertainty in global estimates of both contemporary and end of the century projections and it is not known how the Southern Ocean carbon-climate system will respond to different greenhouse gas emission and mitigation scenarios. Understanding the sensitivity of the Southern Ocean to climate change and being able to predict long term trends and tipping points in the ocean carbon – climate system is set to become one of the most important scientific and policy challenges of the 21st century. From a policy viewpoint it can impact on the calculation of the remaining carbon budgets for greenhouse gas emissions to maintain an agreed warming threshold as well as the pricing of carbon. From a scientific perspective it poses a challenge to improving the confidence in century scale projections of climate risk by Earth System Models. Finally it provides a unique platform from which to build the skills, innovation and transformation that South Africa will need for decision making in the 21st Century.
One of the key goals of SOCCO’s Phase IV strategy is to demonstrate that programme-scale planning and funding can not only link the value chain from basic science to societal impact in technological innovation and policy, but also to serve as a technological innovation system and an end-to-end Human Capital Development platform. SOCCO uses the scientific challenges of the Southern Ocean carbon-climate system to attract excellent young South Africans to produce a new generation of graduates with the skills required to address the challenges of the 21st century. SOCCO builds capabilities through earth science, big data, robotics, computer science and technical engineering which are all essential for the future digital world that requires a skilled and capable workforce for a knowledge based economy and knowledge society.
Figure 1: The science to society value chain.
SOCCO Phase IV builds on its science, innovation and human capital development trajectory through alignment of both national and international strategic priorities that frame and inform the science and innovation direction of SOCCO Phase IV (Figure 2). In so doing, the innovation potential, research enterprise, scientific knowledge and human capital development that SOCCO generates is at the epicentre of national development and embedded in the necessity for social impact (Figures 1 and 2).
Figure 2: The SOCCO science, innovation and knowledge landscape: adding societal value and addressing national and international priorities. This figure highlights the international landscape within which SOCCO operates: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS), World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR), Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS), Global Carbon Project (GCP), Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR), Surface Ocean CO₂ Atlas (SOCAT), Global Ocean Data Analysis Project (GLODAP) and Ocean metabolism and nutrient cycles on a changing planet – BIOGEOSCAPES. It similarly highlights the National strategies and plans that frame and inform the direction of our science and innovation strategy to achieve maximum societal impact, namely the: Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) Decadal plan and Strategic Plan 2020-2025, National Development Plan (NDP), South African Marine and Antarctic Research Strategy (MARS), Presidential Climate Commission (PCC), Antarctic and Southern Ocean Strategy (ASOS), South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap (SARIR), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE).
SOCCO have adopted a niche approach to address the challenge of understanding the role of the Southern Ocean in global and regional climate which is to address the system through the lens of the seasonal cycle. This niche approach is underpinned by a need to resolve fine scale ocean dynamics that are key to understanding the variability of air-sea fluxes of carbon dioxide and heat. Addressing the relevant time and space scales that link physical forcing mechanisms associated with climate change to ocean physical and ecosystem responses requires innovative fine-scale observations (ocean robotics and satellite remote sensing) and innovative modelling techniques (prognostic and empirical) that can be used together to link the temporal and spatial scale gaps in our knowledge of a hitherto under sampled Southern Ocean.
SOCCO’s Phase IV innovation and science strategy builds on its historical niche of fine scale dynamics and seasonally resolved long-term carbon observations but also expands to build new national capabilities in modelling and model infrastructure. This approach to constrain climate risk is appropriate in the context of the 2020-2030 UN Decade of the Ocean and will be directed at one of the most important scientific and policy challenges of the 21st century. Namely, to improve long-term projections of the Southern Ocean carbon-climate system in order to detect trends and identify thresholds of abrupt change and tipping points for informed adaptation planning and decision-making that will meet society’s urgent need for robust and actionable climate risk management (Figure 1 and Figure 2). An envisioned gap in South Africa’s future capacity, is an ability to support robust assessment of the opportunities and risks of Carbon Dioxide Removal strategies in general and in the ocean in particular.
In line with the above, the SOCCO Integrated science innovation and research strategy is organised into four primary research themes for delivering high impact research:
Theme 1: Advancing the understanding of the physics-carbon dioxide-heat nexus in the Southern Ocean: improving the confidence of Earth System Model projections and feedbacks
Theme 2: Understanding the sensitivity of the Southern Ocean biological carbon pump to climate change
Theme 3: Long-term observations and ocean carbon-climate projections for national, regional and global policy support
Theme 4: Carbon Dioxide Removal: Building a new national science capability to support the assessment of ocean carbon dioxide removal in South Africa
Overall SOCCO’s Phase IV Integrated Science and Innovation Strategy will extend the historical excellence in basic Southern Ocean carbon-climate science expertise closer to addressing societal needs more explicitly. This will be achieved through four priority areas that link SOCCO science to societal benefits through models, observations, data products and capacity building:
Advancing models and modelling capabilities towards strengthening Earth System Model projections.
Advancing process understanding for improved model parameterisation.
Advancing observational-based constraints for models for ocean carbon.
Building a nationally integrated observational and modelling capability to support robust policy development around ocean carbon dioxide removal.
