Dr Pedro MS Monteiro is a Chief Oceanographer at CSIR with a special interest in the understanding of how and why the ocean biogeochemistry of oxygen and carbon adjusts to climate variability. The use of numerical modelling as experimental platforms to understand scale sensitivities of coupled physics and biogeochemical processes in the Southern Ocean is a key focus.  This is being used to contribute to reducing uncertainty in long term evolution of the climate-carbon system in fully coupled Earth Systems models.

Current activities and research interests:

  • Understanding the coupled carbon-climate system in the Southern Ocean and the way that natural and anthropogenic CO2 fluxes in the Southern Ocean influence the long term trend of atmospheric CO2
  • Understanding and modelling the incidence and variability of oxygen in shelf and oceanic systems and their ecosystem implications
  • Modelling the biophysical processes which start and maintain phytoplankton new production in upwelling and open ocean systems