Carbon in the twilight zone
COMICS studied how carbon moves through the ocean’s ‘twilight zone’, the area between 100m and 1000m below the surface. This zone plays a key role in regulating atmospheric CO2 levels.
Anna Belcher
Ecological Biogeochemist
Previous Appointments:
2021 – present: Postdoctoral researcher: Ecological biogeochemist, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge
2017-2020: Postdoctoral researcher: Biogeochemical marine ecologist, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge
2011-2013: Oceanographic Surveyor, Titan Environmental Surveys, Wales
Post-school Education:
2013 – 2017: PhD: Controls on the attenuation of sinking particulate organic carbon in the mesopelagic. National Oceanography Centre and University of Southampton
2008-2009: Study Abroad Year, University of Washington, Seattle
2006-2010: MSci Oceanography, University of Southampton
2004-2006: International Baccalaureate, United World College of the Atlantic
Scientific committees:
2018 – present: UK Polar Network co-president
2018 – present: APECS early career representative on Antarctic Science Ltd board
2017 – 2018: UK Polar Network Head of Education and outreach
Recent Conferences:
Cook, K. and Belcher, A. et al. (2021) Carbon budgets of the South Atlantic mesopelagic zooplankton and nekton communities. ICES ASC, online (poster)
Belcher, A. et al. (2021). Measuring respiration of mesopelagic fish ICES ASC, online (invited discussion speaker)
Belcher et al (2021) Determining krill biomass: Can we see krill swarms from space?, PolarECC, Online (talk)
Belcher et al. (2020) Krill swarms: the carbon export highway, Atmospheric and Marine Biogeochemistry Seminars, University of East Anglia, delivered remotely (invited seminar speaker)
Belcher et al. (2019) A day in the life of Southern Ocean mesozooplankton and micronekton: Measuring respiration, IMBER Future Oceans 2, Brest, France and AMBIO IX, Norwich, UK (talk and session convenor)
Belcher A. (2019) The UK Polar Network: A successful ECR network, Royal Society Future Earth Meeting, Royal Society, London (invited speaker), and Polar Educators International, Cambridge (poster and panel member)
Belcher et al. (2019) Finding the diatoms amongst the cloud: can satellites help us understand copepod fitness?, Changing Arctic Ocean ASM 2019, Birmingham, UK (talk and poster)
Belcher et al. (2018) Acantharian cysts: the soluble contributors to deep particulate organic carbon fluxes, UK Challenger Society, Newcastle, UK (talk)
Belcher et al. (2017) Deep transfer of faecal pellets: role of deep zooplankton communities, AMBIO VIII, Oban, UK (talk)
Belcher et al. (2016) The mesopelagic carbon budget: What are we missing?, EuroMarine Foresight Symposium: The Biological Carbon Pump in a Changing World, Bremen (invited poster, and session chair)
Belcher et al. (2016) Controls on the attenuation of sinking particulate organic carbon in the mesopelagic, POETS Seminar Series, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK (seminar)
Belcher et al. (2016) The mesopelagic carbon budget: processes controlling particulate carbon flux attenuation, Dissertations Symposium in Chemical Oceanography XXV (DISCO), Hawaii (talk)
Belcher et al. (2016) Particle associated microbial respiration: The missing carbon sink?, UK Challenger Conference, Liverpool, UK (poster)
Belcher et al. (2016) Antarctic krill faecal pellets as an agent of POC flux transfer in the Southern Ocean, UK Antarctic Conference, Norwich, UK (talk)
Belcher et al. (2016) Depth-resolved particle associated microbial respiration in the NE Atlantic, Gordon Research Conference in Biogeochemistry, Hong Kong (poster)
Belcher et al. (2016) The role of particle associated microbes in remineralisation of faecal pellets in the upper mesopelagic, Scotia Sea, Antarctica, POETS Seminar Series, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK (seminar)
Belcher et al. (2016) Particle Associated Microbial Respiration – Role in POC flux attenuation, NE Atlantic, Ocean Sciences, New Orleans (talk)
Belcher et al. (2016) Microbial versus zooplankton driven POC attenuation in the upper mesopelagic of the Scotia Sea, Antarctica, Ecosystems Seminar Series, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK (seminar)
Belcher et al. (2016) Microbial versus zooplankton remineralisation – Scotia Sea, Antarctica, AMBIO VII, Oxford, UK (talk)
Research interests
My research interests are marine biogeochemistry and ecosystems; I enjoy taking an interdisciplinary approach to understand the complexities of ocean environments. I am particularly interested in the oceanography of Polar Regions due to the vital role they play in the changing global climate.
Currently I am working with the SCOOBIES project (https://www.bas.ac.uk/project/scoobies/) looking at the biogeochemical fluxes near South Georgia and supporting the long term mooring.
Collaborations
PICCOLO: Processes Influencing Carbon Cycling: Observations of the Lower limb of the Antarctic Overturning
https://roses.ac.uk/piccolo/
COMICS Controls over Ocean Mesopelagic Interior Carbon Storage: 2016-2020
PI Prof R Sanders (NOC), CO-Is Drs T Anderson, R Bernardello, S Geiring, S Hartmann, S Henson, R Lampitt, A Martin, D Mayor, S Painter, A Poulton, K Saw, S Torres-Valdes, A Yool, M Zubkov (NOC), S Khatiwala (Uni of Oxford), M Trimmer (Queen Mary), G Wolff (Uni of Liverpool), G Tarling, S Fielding, E Murphy, G Stowasser (BAS), P Lam, M Moore (Uni of Southampton)
DIAPOD : Mechanistic understanding of the role of diatoms in the success of the Arctic Calanus complex and implications for a warmer Arctic
PI Prof David Pond (University of Stirling)
Publications not on NORA
2018
Baker, C. A., Belcher, A., Buzzard, S., Mayers, K., Dayal, A. (2018) Polar science communication: From north to south, Open access government, February 2018
2017
Fassbender, A. J. et al. (2017) Perspectives on Chemical Oceanography in a changing environment: Participants of the COME ABOARD Meeting examine the field in the context of 40 years of DISCO, Marine Chemistry, 196, 181-190
Baker, C. A., S. A. Henson, E. Cavan, S. Giering, A. Yool, M. Gehlen, A. Belcher, J. Riley, H.E.K. Smith, R. Sanders (2017) Slow Sinking Particulate Organic Carbon in the Atlantic Ocean: magnitude, flux and potential controls, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 31(7), 1051-1065
Cavan, E., S. A. Henson, A. Belcher, R. Sanders (2017) Role of zooplankton in determining the efficiency of the biological carbon pump, Biogeosciences , 14, 177-186
2016
Belcher, Anna, Iversen, Morten, Giering, Sarah, Riou, Virginie, Henson, Stephanie A., Berline, Leo, Guilloux, Lioc, Sanders, Richard. (2016) Depth-resolved particle-associated microbial respiration in the northeast Atlantic. Biogeosciences, 13. 4927-4943.
Publications from NERC Open Research Archive
Tarling, G., Mayor, D., Atherden, F., Jenkins, H., Castellani, C., Belcher, A., Freer, J., Grigor, J., Stowasser, G., Hunter, A., Conway, D., & Pond, D. (2026). Epi- and mesopelagic mesozooplankton depth-discrete distribution and abundance between Greenland and Svalbard (2018 and 2019) (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/69eb8320-9d2b-4cc1-818a-83d14c15c491
Belcher, A., Wootton, M., & Manno, C. (2023). Sediment trap plankton community composition from the Scotia Sea in 2018 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/6a5a80f9-4c30-4ad6-a5be-ccba53f8a464
Belcher, A., Henley, S., Hendry, K., Friberg, L., Dallman, U., Wang, T., & Manno, C. (2023). Sediment trap fluxes and stable isotopes of particulate carbon, nitrogen and biogenic silica from the Scotia Sea in 2018 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/32629396-bafc-40bd-ab6f-3dea5f3e51c1
Belcher, A. (2021). Antarctic krill reflectance measurements – Spectroradiometer data (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/54643342-f2ed-43f4-ada2-87e81181ff88
Stowasser, G., Fielding, S., Belcher, A., Mayor, D., Cook, K., Hubot, N., Saunders, R., & Tarling, G. (2020). Macrozooplankton and nekton vertical distribution and abundance in the Benguela Current region, May-June 2018 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. UK Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation. https://doi.org/10.5285/bfd7eb53-d07a-46e0-a185-54d7c4a829e2
Stowasser, G., Fielding, S., Belcher, A., Mayor, D., Cook, K., & Tarling, G. (2020). Macrozooplankton and nekton vertical distribution and abundance at the sustained observation location P3 in the northern Scotia Sea (Southern Ocean) during November and December 2017 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. UK Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation. https://doi.org/10.5285/e184e81a-e43c-424e-abec-122036ee2cfd
Belcher, A., Saunders, R., & Tarling, G. (2019). Length, weight and abundance data of fish species captured in RMT-25 net surveys in the Scotia Sea, Southern Ocean in 2006, 2008, and 2009 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. UK Polar Data Centre, British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation. https://doi.org/10.5285/5798742d-dd5f-480b-8298-2c2b449cbab3
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Read more of: Carbon in the twilight zone
COMICS: Controls over Ocean Mesopelagic Interior Carbon Storage
http://www.comics.ac.uk/
SCOOBIES: Scotia Sea open-ocean biological laboratories
Processes Influencing Carbon Cycling: Observations of the Lower limb of the Antarctic Overturning (PICCOLO) https://roses.ac.uk/piccolo/
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Krill swarms responsible for ‘hidden’ carbon storage
Read more of: Krill swarms responsible for ‘hidden’ carbon storageLarge krill swarms in the Southern Ocean could help remove additional carbon from the atmosphere, in a way that is currently ‘hidden’ in global models. The new study is published […]
