Polar research ships, such as the RRS Sir David Attenborough, allow scientists to study the Southern Ocean’s unique ecosystems and biodiversity, which have an important impact on global climatic and ecological processes.
RRS Sir David Attenborough has Bongo nets for collecting macro-zooplankton.
The bespoke motion-compensated Bongo net corrects for the pitching and rolling of the ship using a spring mechanism that helps maintain a constant upward velocity of the net through the water. This avoids damage to equipment or samples from sudden acceleration; as a result, the zooplankton is in much better condition and scientists can identify the sampled animals more easily.
The same net can also be configured as a towed Bongo net to sample specific water depths or strata.
The Southern Ocean is the world’s least explored ocean due to its remoteness and inhospitable nature. But, despite the cold waters and harsh conditions, it is teeming with life.
The Biodiversity, Evolution and Adaptation and Ecosystems teams at British Antarctic Survey study how life adapts to extreme polar conditions and how these unique ecosystems are being impacted by global climate-driven change and commercial fishing. Their research provides insights into the impact of environmental change on the natural world and informs policies that regulate fisheries, conservation and ecosystem-based management strategies.
Bryozoans are tiny filter-feeders that live on the relatively shallow seafloor of the continental shelf and depend on food sinking down from the surface. Like many benthic organisms, bryozoans grow their exoskeletons using carbon they extract from the ocean and convert to calcium carbonate – a process known as carbon immobilisation. When the organism dies, its exoskeleton may be buried by sediment, removing the carbon fixed in it from the global carbon cycle for millions of years.
Because bryozoans depend on food dropping down from above, they can only grow when the sea surface is ice-free. This allows phytoplankton blooms to grow, providing food for the seafloor community. Over the past thirty years, the duration of sea ice cover has shortened by an average of 80 days on 1 million square km of ocean – that’s roughly four times the size of the UK. This huge area can now support phytoplankton – and bryozoan growth – for much longer every year. Where permanent ice shelves collapse, plankton and benthos can also colonise entire new areas previously uninhabitable to them. As a result, Antarctic benthos can immobilise and fix far more carbon than before as the region’s climate changes. This so-called ‘blueing’ of the polar regions is a rare example of a negative feedback loop where the effects are increasing temperatures help offset the impact of greenhouse gases.
A recent study by researchers at BAS and the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton found that carbon immobilisation is particularly pronounced around the remote South Orkney Islands, 300 miles off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. In 2010, this area became the first marine protected area located entirely in the high seas.
To map the carbon immobilisation effect of benthic communities around the Antarctic, scientists are completed several more research cruises around the entire Antarctic continent, visiting rarely studied areas and adding to our understanding of the complex relationships between Antarctic ecosystems and climate change.
Marine Biogeographer
BAS-Arctic Working Group, Biodiversity, Evolution and Adaptation team
Senior Biodiversity Biologist
BAS-Arctic Working Group, Biodiversity, Evolution and Adaptation team
21 March, 2023 by Huw Griffiths
We are marine biologists that study seafloor creatures, Jamie is doing a PhD investigating Antarctic sea spiders in the University of Galway and Huw works at BAS. Both of us …
CONSEC is addressing the challenge to understand the links between the biodiversity, structure and function of Southern Ocean ecosystems and the impacts of rapid environmental changes to improve scientific knowledge …
