Case study: Biological data informs Ross Sea marine ecosystem management
The Ross Sea region Marine Protected Area (RSr MPA) was established in 2017 by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), the body established through the Antarctic Treaty System to conserve Antarctic marine life. Aotearoa New Zealand, a founding proponent of the Marine Protected Area, is one of the nations investing in science to monitor its effectiveness.
This science is critical, as the continuance of the RSr MPA beyond 2052, and the protection for marine life that it provides, is conditional on consensus agreement within CCAMLR that it is achieving its objectives. The case for continuation will be built on research outcomes and long-term monitoring datasets, the collection of which is best managed within the extended time frames facilitated by the Strategic Science Investment Fund.
RSr MPA-relevant research
The aims of the RSr MPA are listed in CCAMLR Conservation Measure 91-05 (2016), those that align with research within the Platform are shown in Table 1. Critical elements common to many specific objectives include to:
- Protect and conserve natural ecological structure, dynamics productivity and functional integrity throughout the Ross Sea region
- Monitor natural variability and long-term change, to better gauge the ecosystem effects of climate change and fishing
- Protect areas with vulnerable, rare or ecologically important characteristics, including of specific importance to air-breathing predators and their prey.
The Platform’s MPA-relevant research, aligned with the Ross Sea Region Research and Monitoring Programme (Ross-RAMP), emphasises understanding likely and possible climate change impacts on Ross Sea ecosystems. Platform research has focussed on providing information that is essential to link the baseline ecosystem structure, dynamic and function to environmental drivers.
Platform research complements international science and monitoring, as well as other New Zealand-based RSr MPA research, which includes fisheries-focused science conducted by the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI), Adélie penguin surveys conducted by Antarctica New Zealand, and Ross-RAMP research. Ross-RAMP, a Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment Endeavour-funded research programme that began before the Platform started and concluded in 2024, has been a key partner. It focussed on establishing ecosystem baselines and development of model approaches to evaluate the effects of the RSr MPA. From the outset, Platform coordinated activities with Ross-RAMP to optimise science benefits, which has been facilitated by sharing of staff.
Antarctica New Zealand does an Adélie Penguin Census every year.
Advancements in monitoring MPA effectiveness
Contribution to New Zealand’s RSr MPA science activities
Countries report to CCAMLR every five years listing science activities. Of the 23 projects added to the New Zealand list in 2023, more than 60% were supported by the Platform.
Joint internship
To enhance the connection between the Platform and this important policy pathway to CCAMLR, a joint 2-year science-policy postdoctoral internship was created, co-funded by the Platform and the Ministry for Primary Industries, which helped facilitate collaboration between the Platform, relevant staff to New Zealand delegations and interested parties within MPI, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Department of Conservation, and the Antarctica New Zealand’s environmental policy team.
SCAR and the ACCE report
The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) presented the decadal Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment (ACCE) report at the CCAMLR annual meeting. The findings of the report catalysed CCAMLR attention to climate change challenges and to schedule a dedicated climate change workshop held in 2024. The Platform was an important contributor to the ACCE report, which laid out the current understanding of risks facing Antarctic ecosystems from changing climate.
CCAMLR workshops on climate change
CCAMLR responded to the ACCE report by initiating a series of workshops on climate change. New Zealand submitted eight papers to these workshops (see Table 2), seven of which were in part or whole supported by the Platform. These papers cover a wide range of issues, and the extent to which Platform research permeates through them all attests to the collaborative network that has been established with the New Zealand marine science that mirrors the interconnectivity within the ecosystem itself.
Coordination of international research and monitoring efforts
The Platform jointly funded an New Zealand-Italy voyage January -February 2024 that deployed, recovered and maintained monitoring stations in the Ross Sea region, critical to the aims of the RSr MPA. This included contributions from Australia, UK, USA, France and Canada and allowed the team to more than triple monitoring capability, and to develop new collaboration linkages. Philanthropic funding supported participation of a dozen early career researchers (most with a berth on the ship) from New Zealand and Italy, engaging and training the next generation of researchers and providing opportunities for engagement with policymakers.
The Strategic Science Investment Fund’s long-term support for the Antarctic Science Platform has enhanced Aotearoa’s ability to provide international leadership in the collaborative and ecologically- and politically-important Ross Sea region Marine Protected Area.
Table 1. RSr MPA research and monitoring priorities and related Platform science activities
RSrMPA Research and Monitoring Priorities |
Platform contributions |
Ecosystems |
|
Directed studies to address biological and ecological questions related to species demography and life history |
Long term observational sites for benthic organisms established in key locations in McMurdo Sound and planned for Northern Victoria Land. |
Monitoring and research on pinnipeds and seabirds, including studies of reproductive biology and success as well as diets and foraging dynamics |
Population and Dietary studies of penguin and seals using a range of remote sensing tools and eDNA extracted from scats is underway and nearing publication |
At-sea surveys or censuses to estimate the distribution and abundance of marine mammals, seabirds, fishes and invertebrates |
At sea studies undertaken from Laura Bassi (zooplankton, mesopelagics, seabirds, whales, seals), Tangaroa (zooplankton, mesopelagics, phytoplankton, using acoustic, eDNA and classical net-based sampling methods |
Acoustic surveys to map distribution and abundance of Antarctic silverfish and krill, including dedicated research on silverfish in Terra Nova Bay |
Acoustic techniques for quantification and identification of mesopelagic communities developed |
Radio and archival tagging, remote sensing and shore-based population censuses of marine mammals and seabirds |
Development of very high-resolution satellite-based approaches for enumeration of marine mammals and penguins, supplements ongoing Antarctica New Zealand aerial census |
Ecosystem modelling, informed by diet and stable isotope sampling of key trophic components |
Impacts of changing sea ice dynamics on trophic interaction in benthic fish and invertebrate communities competed and nearing publication |
Investigate oceanographic drivers of phaeocystis- vs. diatom dominated production and consequences for higher-level trophic ecosystem function |
On-board experiments carried out on interactions of temperature and nutrient stressors on phytoplankton dynamics. |
Climate change and oceanography |
|
Meteorological and oceanographic research, including satellite remote sensing, to characterise physical properties and dynamics of phytoplankton and zooplankton |
Ongoing data collection and collation of remote sensing data on phytoplankton and incorporation into forward projection models |
Sea-ice remote sensing (type, concentration and extent) |
Intense investigations of the dynamics of sea ice using satellite, aircraft and sea ice buoys. |
Long-term monitoring of benthic ecosystem function |
Long term surveillance sites established to address benthic ecosystem function, variability and change within McMurdo Sound, and planned of Northern Victoria Land |
Development and validation of high-resolution circulation model of the Ross Sea shelf and slope (e.g. ROMS), including resolving effects of sea-ice (especially polynyas), ice-shelf cavity, cross-shelf exchange and deep bottom-water formation in the Ross Sea. Addition of biological model |
Coupled high resolution ocean-atmosphere model of the Ross Sea shelf area developed at the Modelling Hub, incorporating and reproducing polynya dynamics. Sea ice modelling supported to better understand margin dynamics and loss of cover. CMIP-based biogeochemical models developed that reproduce phytoplankton dynamics. |
Investigate deep bottom water formation (relevant to global oceanic circulation), slope water intrusion and cross-shelf nutrient exchange |
Platform has advanced the "Ross Sea Ocean Observatory" by continuing to support existing moorings, adding new moorings specifically to address polynya/ice cavity interactions at the front of the ice shelf, addition of multiple Standard Argo floats to the Ross Sea network and provision of the first two NZ Bio-Argos to be deployed in 2024-25. |
Table 2. New Zealand papers presented at the CCAMLR Climate Change workshop in 2023 that were supported by Platform research.
NZ Paper Title |
Authors |
Changing Climate Impacts in the Ross Sea Region |
Nancy Bertler, Ian Hawes |
Anticipating environmental and biogeochemical changes in the Southern Ocean using Earth System Models: the importance of evaluation |
Graham Rickard, Erik Behrens, Angela Bahamondes Dominguez, Matt Pinkerton |
Environmental change in the Southern Ocean: observations, trends, bioregions and species-distribution models |
Matt Pinkerton, Svenja Halfter |
Taking climate change effects on benthos into account in CCAMLR |
Vonda Cummings, Drew Lohrer |
Management of bycatch of Antarctic skates: potential effects of climate variability and change |
Brittany Finucci, Matt Pinkerton |
Effects of climate variability and change on the recruitment of Antarctic toothfish in the Ross Sea region: the impact of sea-ice drift, ocean circulation, and prey resources |
Erik Behrens, Matt Pinkerton, Graham Rickard, Arnaud Grüss, Charine Collins, Ian Blixt |
Monitoring and managing the effects of climate change on toothfish assessments |
Matt Pinkerton, Alistair Dunn, Sophie Mormede |
This case study was prepared as part of the Platform’s annual reporting to the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE) for 2023-2024 .