About the project
Calving glaciers generate internal tsunamis in the surface ocean mixed layer, a phenomenon accelerating with climate change. However, the impacts on biogeochemistry are completely unknown. This project will measure how internal tsunamis impact the biogeochemistry of coastal Antarctic ecosystems relative to other aspects of our changing climate.
As the coastal Antarctic warms, numerous aspects of biogeochemical cycling are changing, from nutrient upwelling and shelf heat content, to glacial meltwater inputs and ice dynamics. Iceberg calving is increasing as glacier retreat accelerates, and it has recently been discovered that this generates internal tsunamis which strongly impact surface ocean mixing. However, how this mixing might impact biogeochemical cycling is completely unknown. Such impact needs to be quantified in the context of other changing environmental conditions (e.g. glacial meltwater input, warming), if we are to predict the response of biogeochemical cycling to internal tsunamis on a background of warming climate. This project will use laboratory methods to quantify changes in nutrient biogeochemistry in coastal Antarctica, where long-term monitoring via the Rothera Oceanographic Time Series dataset provides insight into changing environmental conditions in terms of temperatures, sea ice, etc.
The project involves an anticipated opportunity (through a supervisor's funded NERC project) for up to 2 seasons, of 4 months each, at a remote marine station. You will quantify nutrient dynamics and particulate stoichiometry to understand the implications of ocean change on the cycling of essential bioactive elements through analytical approaches such as mass spectrometry. Depending on your interests, you may also investigate aspects such as silicon stable isotopes in the water column, trace metal mineralogy and bioavailability of glacial particles, or using optical approaches to differentiate biological and glacial material (subject to student interest). Through this project, you will advance our understanding of how polar marine systems are responding to ongoing climate change.
You will also be supervised by organisations other than the University of Southampton, including:
- Filipa Carvalho from the National Oceanography Centre
- Kate Hendry from the British Antarctic Survey
