Scotia Sea open-ocean biological laboratories

SCOOBIES

Start date
1 October, 2006

SCOOBIES (the Scotia Sea open-ocean observatory) makes sustained observations focussed on crucial Earth System indicators in Antarctica that are vital to UK and global science.

National Capability Science

The open ocean observatories are situated in the northern Scotia Sea to investigate the biological and biogeochemical influence of the largest persistent phytoplankton bloom in the Southern Ocean. Relative to its size, Southern Ocean sequesters a disproportionate amount of anthropogenic carbon to the deep ocean. Moorings are equipped to measure the amount of carbon reaching the deep ocean. This is the end-point to a long chain of events which starts with carbon entering the surface layers and being fixed by photosynthetic plankton. These organisms die or are eaten and some of the carbon they contain eventually sinks into the deeper layers, leading to its removal from the biosphere.

 

Infographic to show the important science outputs of the SCOOBIES site: Plastics, zooplankton dynamics, ocean acidification; seasonal cycles; carbon flux
The SCOOBIES site provides a platform for a wealth of interdisciplinary science

Understanding the carbon pump

This process is known as the carbon pump and is a key process in the regulation of atmospheric CO2. Much of what we know about the carbon pump has been obtained through moored sediment traps deployed over annual cycles. Such moorings have given us some of the only measurements of biological activity at certain times of year in the Southern Ocean when seasonal sea-ice covers large areas.  Over the last decades, these instruments have helped resolve spatial and temporal variability in the carbon pump in the Southern Ocean and its sensitivity to regional climate change. The bulk of this sequestration is likely to occur in highly productive zones such as at the South Georgia bloom. Our understanding of the fate of carbon in such sites is nevertheless limited by lack of in situ observations. SCOOBIES is making strategically important measurements on the fate of carbon within the site of the bloom (site P3). It is also one of very small number of observatories making continuous measurements of carbonate chemistry parameters (pH and CO2 sensors) with which to document ocean acidification, which is increasing rapidly in polar regions. The WCB mooring provides a shelf-region comparison to the open-ocean measurements of the P3 site, and historically measurements were also taken from a mooring at a lower productivity region in the Scotia Sea (site P2).

SCOOBIES sustained observation stations

Enhance understanding of Southern Ocean environmental variation and response

SCOOBIES is making decadal scale measurements of environmental variation and responses to that variation, which are of major importance in the functioning of Southern Ocean systems. Many of the datasets have already been used by a number of UK and international science teams, and other stakeholders (UK govt., fisheries management bodies, conservation NGOs). Leading roles in national and international science programmes have been facilitated as a result of undertaking this programme.

Capture and analyse long term carbon data

The sustained observations undertaken by SCOOBIES presently provides the only long-term measurements of carbon flux and sequestration in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. The observatories (2 currently, previously 3) are strategically placed around the South Georgia bloom, the largest hotspot of primary productivity in the Southern Ocean, and a major region of atmospheric carbon drawdown. The observatories are maintained in association with the bioacoustic systems deployed as part of the POETS funded programme.   POETS supports the major hardware for the observatories, such as weights, rope and recovery buoys.  SCOOBIES encompasses the augmentation of these moorings with devices that measure parameters relevant to biogeochemical cycles, vertical flux, ocean acidification and microplastic monitoring.  It also involves zooplankton net sampling in the vicinity of the moorings. Moored instrumentation generates year-round measurements to examine the role of the planktonic food web in biogeochemical processes and vertical flux of carbon and silica, and the influence of environmental variables on these processes, including eddy activity, variability in the location of water masses, upwelling, and ocean acidification.

Build expertise that influences other research programmes

SCOOBIES was a major driver to the COMICS NERC Large Grant proposal, which was successfully funded in 2015 to determine the major drivers in mechanisms controlling the attenuation of carbon flux with depth. This £3.7M proposal will carry out a major multi-institute, multi-disciplinary cruise around the SCOOBIES sites in November and December 2017, bringing together expertise in physics, biogeochemistry and marine robotics to augment the sustained observations being made in this region by the SCOOBIES team.  The expertise built up by SCOOBIES was also integral part of PICCOLO NERC Thematic grant, which recently bid successfully to examine carbon flux and other biogeochemical processes in the lower limb of Antarctic overturning circulation as part of the ROSES programme in support of the NERC LTSM project, ORCHESTRA. SCOOBIES scientists will measure sinking particulate carbon and pelagic biomass in the Weddell Sea, using techniques developed at the SCOOBIES site and, in so doing, providing a high latitude comparison to SCOOBIES.

A close up of a man smiling for the camera

Geraint Tarling

Science Leader IMP 3

BAS Science Management Team, BAS-Arctic Working Group, BAS Science Strategy Executive Group, Ecosystems team

A woman talking on a cell phone.

Clara Manno

Pelagic Marine Ecologist

BAS-Arctic Working Group, Ecosystems team

A person wearing glasses and smiling at the camera

Gabriele Stowasser

Marine Ecologist

BAS-Arctic Working Group, Ecosystems team

A person posing for the camera

Tracey Dornan

Fisheries Acoustician

Ecosystems team

A person wearing sunglasses.

Ryan Saunders

Fish Ecologist

Ecosystems team

Avatar photo

Sophie Fielding

Zooplankton Ecologist

Ecosystems team

A woman smiling for the camera.

Petra Ten Hoopen

Marine Data Manager

Information Services team, UK Polar Data Centre team

PhD Students

  • Jessie Gardner- ENVEAST DTP University East Anglia, “Winners and losers in a more acidified ocean: impact on the physiology and life history of two pteropod species”
  • Kirstie Williams Jones-GW4plus DTP Exter University , The distribution and fate of microplastic pollution in polar environments: from the Canadian Arctic to the South Pole
  • Cecilia Liska-ENVEAST DTP, University East Anglia, “Determining the active flux of carbon within the Southern Ocean and its sensitivity to climate change”
  • Emily Rowlands-GW4plus DTP, University of Exter, Assessing levels of nanoplastic in-situ in the Southern Ocean
  • Vicky Flower ENVEAST, UEA, “Detecting zooplankton foray behaviour in polar marine environments”
  • Anna Mikis (University of Cardiff) The application of single specimen foraminiferal isotope analyses to investigate seasonality in the Southern Ocean
  • Anna Belcher , University of Southampton, “Controls on the attenuation of sinking particulate organic carbon in the mesopelagic”
  • Manon Duret (University of Southampton) Microbial communities in sinking and suspended particles and their influence on the oceanic biological carbon pump (2018)
  • Emma Lagan, NEXUSS DTP, UEA and Earlham Institute, Nanopore sequencing of polar microbes
  • Louise Cornwell GW4plus, (University of Exeter) Assessing the mechanisms driving marine organism responses to changes in climate using the globally important copepod Oithona similis
  • Frankie Perry (University of Southampton) Antarctic krill recruitment in the south-west Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean (2020)

International PhD Students

  • Roberta Johson International Collaboration, PhD University of Barcelona, Spain, Distribution of coccolithophore in the Southern Ocean
  • Elena Ceballos-Romero (University of Sevilla) Study of the key processes in the export and storage of carbon in the oceans through radioactive pairs: 234Th-238U and 210Po-210Pb (2019)
  • Angelika Slomska (University of Gdansk) The historical demography of Salpa thompsoni as a response for previous climate change episodes (2022)
  • Jose Seco (University of Coimbra) Trace metals in Antarctic Marine Food webs – influence of biological and environmental factors (2019)
  • Elisa Bergami (University of Siena) Impact of nanoplastics and ocean acidification on zooplankton (2019)
  • Rosie Oakes (Penn State University) Towards understanding the impact of ocean acidification on the shell condition of thecosome pteropods (2017)

Ongoing National

  • Laura Taylor C-Clear DTP, Cambridge University, Unrevealing the carbon export and recycling using silica isotopes
  • Alena Sakovich IAPETUS DTP, University of Durham, Microplastic flux in the Scotia Sea

Ongoing International

  • Joana Fragao, University of Coimbra, Microplastic in the Scotia Sea food web

REP

  • Kaen The role of zooplankton daily migration on microplastic export in the Scotia Sea
  • Parima Shah, Microplastic in situ degradation: data from OPIC deployment
  • Emma Robinson University of York, Driver of carbonate flux in the Scotia Sea
  • Harry Gunning University of St Andrew, Seasonal variability of pelagic amphipods in the Scotia Sea: a sediment trap approach
  • Laura Williams, University of St. Andrew, Microplastic in Krill and Salps in the Scotia Sea
  • Flo Atherden Seasonal variability on copepod abundance in the Scotis sea from sediment trap samples
  • Pip Birchenall Vertical Distribution of Microplastic along the water column

EDI

  • Meltem OK, TUBITAK project, Turkish internship, Pelagic Foraminifera in the Scotia Sea

Ongoing International Collaborations

  • University of Barcelona, Spain – Patrizia Ziveri
  • Institute of Polar Sciences of the Italian National Council of Research, Italy – Federico Giglio
  • MARUM, Centre for Marine Environmental Science, Bremen, Germany – Julie Meiland
  • Portugal, University of Coimbra, Portugal – Jose CG Xavier
  • University of Modena, Department of Life Sciences, Italy – Elisa Bergami

 

RRS Sir David Attenborough

The RRS Sir David Attenborough, commissioned by NERC, built by Cammell Laird for operation by British Antarctic Survey, is one of the most advanced polar research vessels in the world.