Programmes and Projects

SOCCO is heavily involved in the South African National Antarctic Programme and has typically been successfully awarded funding to support 3 projects per 3 year funding cycle since 2011 covering a range of research that covers 1) the physical drivers of CO₂ and heat, 2) trace metal chemistry and photophysiology and 3) the sensitivity of the biological carbon pump (using bio-optics and biogeochemical approaches). Our SANAP projects grant us access to South Africa’s polar research vessel the RV SA Agulhas II on relief voyages to SANAE, Marion and Gough and on dedicated research cruises e.g. to the ice in winter. 

WAM is a Schmidt Sciences funded project, which falls under Schmidt Science’s new initiative, the Ocean Biogeochemistry Virtual Institute (OBVI). The West African ocean margin is a highly productive zone, critical for supporting key fisheries and marine diversity. It is also characterised by extensive oxygen-poor regions making it particularly susceptible to future environmental changes such as deoxygenation, which could have major socio-economic consequences for several West African countries. Yet, the future of ocean oxygenation and productivity is highly uncertain, in part because of the array of processes involved, ranging from global-scale atmospheric circulation to fine-scale (1-10 km) complex coastal currents. WAM aims to determine the inter-related controls on oxygen and productivity along the west African margin, from the tip of South Africa to the equator, and to identify implications for natural resources. This margin hosts several socioeconomically important ecosystems characterized by different oxygen conditions and levels of productivity. The project seeks to identify the organizing principles underlying the margin’s oxygen dynamics in order to develop predictive capacity for the region, with regard to oxygen and productivity and to the biogeochemical and ecosystem-level implications of changes in these parameters.

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 CO2 (DeVries et al., 2017; Friedlingstein et al., 2019) and 75% of the excess heat generated by anthropogenic CO2 (Frolicher et al., 2015). Phytoplankton primary production and carbon export (the biological carbon pump) plays an important role in the Southern Ocean carbon cycle and it is thus important to understand the sensitivity of its response to environmental drivers associated with climate change. Earth System Models and decadal data sets predict changes in the earth’s climate that will alter sea surface temperatures, stratification, mixing and pH, all of which will impact the effectiveness of the Southern Ocean's biological carbon pump. However, the processes and dynamics that define the direction, the magnitude and the rates of change (ie: climate sensitivity) are not well understood. Part of our lack of understanding of this complex problem lies in the chronic under-sampling of the region and inappropriate parameterisation of biological processes in Earth System Models that do not reflect the Southern Ocean. This proposal addresses this challenge by deriving regionally robust information from observations that allow new insight into Southern Ocean ecosystem function. It does so through three work packages that 1) characterise the phytoplankton population and drivers of variability of primary production, 2) investigate the impacts of ocean acidification from a multi driver context and 3) quantifies the drivers of variability in carbon export and efficiency. Understanding gained from this research will provide the basis for revised model parameterisations in Earth System Models that represent Southern Ocean processes for improved climate projections.

SWINGS is the first cruise to perform a GEOTRACES survey through the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean passing by all the sub-Antarctic Islands. The cruise was completed in March 2021, where the SOCCO research objectives included assessing iron limitation with the island mass effects and the impacts of iron limitation on primary production and nutrient uptake.

COMFORT aims to close knowledge gaps for key ocean tipping elements within the Earth system under anthropogenic physical and chemical climate forcing in order to support decision and policy makers in terms of science based safe marine operating spaces, refined climate mitigation targets, and feasible long-term mitigation pathways. Our specific contribution looks at thresholds of abrupt change or tipping points in the carbon system of the Southern Ocean by focusing on the interactions between physical tipping points and biogeochemical thresholds (e.g. increased number of storms, ocean acidification, changes in upwelling strength and sea ice concentration).

This project aims to develop and apply knowledge-based resources for a better understanding and management of the Atlantic Ocean and its ecosystem services. Our specific contribution is in understanding gained from nutrient co-limitation experiments that investigate the effects of different RCP climate scenarios on primary production and calcification as well as glider and Marine Snow Catcher deployments that investigate the drivers of variability of carbon export. In addition, understanding is used to re-parameterise biogeochemical models for improved climate predictions.

The overall objective of SO-CHIC is to understand and quantify variability of heat and carbon budgets in the Southern Ocean through an investigation of the key processes controlling exchanges between the atmosphere, ocean and sea ice using a combination of observational and modelling approaches. SO-CHIC considers the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean as a natural laboratory both because of its worldwide importance in water-mass formation and because of the strong European presence in this sector already established at national levels, which allow to best leverage existing expertise, infrastructure, and observation network, around one single coordinated overall objective. SO-CHIC also takes the opportunity of the recent re-appearance of the Atlantic Sector Weddell Polynya to unveil its dynamics and global impact on heat and carbon cycles. A combination of dedicated observation, existing decades- long time-series, and state-of-the-art modelling will be used to address specific objectives on key processes, as well as their impact and feedback on the large-scale atmosphere-ocean system.

SCALE is a novel interdisciplinary experiment that spans seasonal to decadal time scales in the south east Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. SCALE contributes both long-term and experimental observations towards a greater understanding of the role of fine scale dynamics in shaping the phasing and magnitude of the Southern Ocean seasonal cycle through novel integrated ship and robotics experiments. The winter cruise was completed in August 2019 and the spring cruise was completed in November 2019. A second winter cruise was completed in July 2022.

This bilateral project between Sweden and South Africa uses an innovative, coordinated and multidisciplinary approach to understanding the Antarctic marginal ice zone (MIZ) using novel autonomous ocean glider observations combined with realistically forced modelling experiments to shed light on rapidly evolving dynamics and processes of the upper ocean and their impacts on phytoplankton growth and associated carbon export.

Climate change is a big challenge to society, and preparation of new national and international strategies for society to adapt to these changes depend on the ability to make realistic future climate scenarios. Using physical, chemical and biological oceanographic data from SA Agulhas II and RV Kronprins Haakon will enhance the transfer knowledge between South Africa and Norway, and will contribute with increased knowledge in establishing a Marine Protected Area in the Dronning Maud Land (DML), Antarctica. The applied project will provide new, unique and fundamental data and knowledge to fill the gaps in a highly under-sampled area, related to climate and environmental change focusing on the phytoplankton primary production and community characteristics, the oceanic carbon dioxide (CO2) uptake, progressing ocean acidification and changes in marine ecosystem. Changes in the Antarctic marine environment have caused an urgency to protect habitats that are essential for the ecosystem. A new Marine Protected Area near the coast and ice edge of DML is a Norwegian priority. Interdisciplinary Norway-South Africa collaboration, lead by two female Principal Investigators (PI), one from Norway and one from South Africa, will strengthen the goal for the project, including joint cruises, data analysis, instrumentation/laboratory, exchange and visit of students, joint workshop and publications that will improve the success of the outcome of the projects. South Africa students from Historical Disadvantaged groups will participate in all aspects of the project. Researchers from both countries will actively take part in the project and collaborate for the success of the project as well as planning for future collaborative research joint proposals. Sharing knowledge, cruises, technology, laboratory facilities and students will lead to enhanced collaboration and competence building, which will result in enhanced expertise in marine science for future job opportunities in South Africa.

Phytoplankton production and associated seasonal blooms play an important role in regional ecosystem services supporting food web energy needs and fisheries. However, it is widely hypothesised that phytoplankton may impact global climate through their role on aerosol air-sea fluxes, which influence regional and global albedo through stratus cloud formation over eastern boundary upwelling systems. The interconnections between aerosols, clouds, and marine ecosystems are among the largest sources of uncertainty in existing and future albedo projections. This project addresses these challenging problems through advanced research based on interdisciplinary local and international partnerships. Examining the role of phytoplankton in modulating regional and global albedo is vital if we are to better understand regional sensitivities to climate change. This has implications for fisheries and endangered species, and accurately predict the effects of physical and biotic change as well as potentially reducing regional biases in Earth Systems Models (Moline et al., 2004, Deppeler and Davidson, 2017). This proposal supports a system-scale interdisciplinary project at the intersection of oceanography, biogeochemistry, atmospheric science, marine technology, remote sensing and modelling centred on multiple field-based programmes. A major impact of this work will be the generation of high-resolution earth observation capabilities - providing assessment of long-term trends in this environmentally important region. The project findings will contribute to the continued development of the CSIR’s Variable Resolution Earth’s Systems Model, for improved climate projections, whilst the model will at the same time be used to study the relevant aerosol air-sea fluxes under climate change.

Greenseas was a multinational programme that aimed to develop a global plankton database and model system for eco-climate early warning. GreenSeas advanced the quantitative knowledge of how planktonic marine ecosystems, including phytoplankton, bacterioplankton and zooplankton, respond to environmental and climate changes. The focus of the project was on capturing the latitudinal gradients, biogeographical distributions and provinces in the planktonic ecosystem from the Arctic, through the Atlantic and into the Southern Ocean.