RV Tangaroa at Cape Wheatstone, 2023. Photo: Joshu Mountjoy/NIWA
Antarctic research voyage departs Wellington for the Ross Sea
ASP researchers have set sail for Antarctica on NIWA’s research vessel Tangaroa. The voyage, with a multinational group of scientists led by Prof Craig Stevens and Dr Denise Fernandez, will spend approximately 39 days at sea.
Prof Stevens, ASP’s Project 2 – Ocean Mechanics co-leader, says the science carried out on the voyage will help to better understand the impacts of climate change on Antarctica’s Ross Sea, and the impacts of a changing Ross Sea on the rest of the globe.
The voyage hopes to reach the front of the Ross Ice Shelf to revisit instruments fixed to ocean floor last year during the NZ-Italy Ross Sea Voyage, which have been monitoring changes in ocean heat, salt and oxygen in that area for a full year, for the first time
RV Laura Bassi travels along the Ross Ice Shelf, January 2024. Photo: Lana Young
He says the expedition is sailing into waters that are feeling the effects of continual record-breaking low sea ice conditions.
“This lack of ice is having knock-on effects for not only the regional ocean but the whole planet. This work is very sweet and sour. It is amazing to get the opportunity to advance the science, but at the same time, we are catching glimpses of a future for the planet that we really want to avoid. It brings home in a very tangible way the need to limit emissions of climate-affecting gasses.”
Co-voyage lead, Dr Denise Fernandez says the voyage has a packed science programme.
She is a specialist in Argo floats, ocean-monitoring robots that will be deployed along the route to measure ocean characteristics such as temperature and salinity.
“This year, we are excited to deploy two Biogeochemical Argo floats, funded by the New Zealand Antarctic Science Platform, with additional technical support from our Australian partners at CSIRO. These are souped-up floats that capture lots more data.
“They are the first of their type to be deployed for New Zealand and are equipped with extra sensors allowing us to examine oxygen and chlorophyll levels. This will help fill an observational gap and provide a better picture of the wider changes in the state of the ocean and the marine food web,” said Dr Fernandez.
Life in our frozen world
A vital part of the work is assessing marine life and change in the Ross Sea Marine Protected Area (MPA), which is the world’s largest MPA at five times the size of New Zealand. The expedition will explore seafloor habitats and biological communities to provide fundamental data to determine how the changing ocean is impacting marine life. ASP Project 3 - Ecosystems co-leader, University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka Professor of Marine Sciences Miles Lamare, who sailed with the 2023 Tangaroa expedition, is leading this work.
“Mapping and sampling the biodiversity of marine communities along the Ross Sea coastline is critical for understanding how processes, such as sea ice and productivity, shape the nearshore ecosystems. [pull quote Miles Lamare]
“With this information we can better forecast how these communities will respond to future warming. This will include observing regions likely never sampled before, and which contain many species uniquely adapted to these regions.
“An important part of this research is applying modern approaches to understanding biodiversity, such as environmental DNA (eDNA). The DNA shed from plants and animals in the ocean can be collected, sequenced, and can provide information such as the range of species that occur at a location, their abundances and genetic structure,” said Prof. Lamare.
A final major component will be making samples to try and link the ocean structure with the distribution of marine life at a very fine scale through the use of eDNA techniques. This is a critical aspect of linking changing climate-driven ocean behaviour with fish species.
About the voyage
Our ability to project the trajectory and rate of change that we can expect in Antarctica, and how that will impact on such global priorities such as sea level rise and future weather, depends on our ability to model the environment. The multi-skilled team on board will use an array of instruments to collect data and samples from the ocean and atmosphere to assist the iterative enhancement of these models. This allows us to continuously improve the confidence with which we can advise on the urgency that needs to be given to global responses to climate-threatening change.
The multidisciplinary team onboard includes participants from Australia, Europe, India and the UK. RV Tangaroa will be in Antarctica waters alongside the Italian icebreaker Laura Bassi, following from the just-returned South Korean Araon, and with the Chinese icebreaker Xue Long 2 scheduled for a few months later – all with New Zealand science aboard. The combined activities demonstrate how nations are working together, through science, for this critical work.
The voyage is supported by funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE), the Antarctic Science Platform, NIWA Strategic Science Investment Funds, University of Auckland, University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, University of Canterbury, and overseas funding agencies.
For updates - see the voyage page on NIWA's website