Southern Ocean Observing System Research Articles

Quantifying potential marine debris sources and potential threats to penguins on the West Antarctic Peninsula

Marine pollution is becoming ubiquitous in the environment. Observations of pollution on beaches, in the coastal ocean, and in organisms in the Antarctic are becoming distressingly common. Increasing human activity, growing tourism, and an expanding krill fishing industry along the West Antarctic Peninsula all represent potential sources of plastic pollution and other debris (collectively referred to as debris) to the region. However, the sources of these pollutants from point (pollutants released from discrete sources) versus non-point (pollutants from a large area rather than a specific source) sources are poorly understood. We used buoyant simulated particles released in a high-resolution physical ocean model to quantify pollutant loads throughout the region. We considered non-point sources of debris from the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, Bellingshausen Sea, Weddell Sea, and point source pollution from human activities including tourism, research, and fishing. We also determined possible origins for observed debris based on data from the Southern Ocean Observing System and Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research program. Our results indicate that point source pollution released in the coastal Antarctic is more likely to serve as a source for observed debris than non-point sources, and that the dominant source of pollution is region-specific. Penguin colonies in the South Shetland and Elephant Islands had the greatest debris load from point sources whereas loads from non-point sources were greatest around the southernmost colonies. Penguin colonies at Cornwallis Island and Fort Point were exposed to the highest theoretical debris loads. While these results do not include physical processes such as windage and Stokes Drift that are known to impact debris distributions and transport in the coastal ocean, these results provide critical insights to building an effective stratified sampling and monitoring effort to better understand debris distributions, concentrations, and origins throughout the West Antarctic Peninsula.

Optimizing Mooring Placement to Constrain Southern Ocean Air–Sea Fluxes

AbstractProposals from multiple nations to deploy air–sea flux moorings in the Southern Ocean have raised the question of how to optimize the placement of these moorings in order to maximize their utility, both as contributors to the network of observations assimilated in numerical weather prediction and also as a means to study a broad range of processes driving air–sea fluxes. This study, developed as a contribution to the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS), proposes criteria that can be used to determine mooring siting to obtain best estimates of net air–sea heat flux (Qnet). Flux moorings are envisioned as one component of a multiplatform observing system, providing valuable in situ point time series measurements to be used alongside satellite data and observations from autonomous platforms and ships. Assimilating models (e.g., numerical weather prediction and reanalysis products) then offer the ability to synthesize the observing system and map properties between observations. This paper develops a framework for designing mooring array configurations to maximize the independence and utility of observations. As a test case, within the meridional band from 35° to 65°S we select eight mooring sites optimized to explain the largest fraction of the total variance (and thus to ensure the least variance of residual components) in the area south of 20°S. Results yield different optimal mooring sites for low-frequency interannual heat fluxes compared with higher-frequency subseasonal fluxes. With eight moorings, we could explain a maximum of 24.6% of high-frequency Qnet variability or 44.7% of low-frequency Qnet variability.

Delivering Sustained, Coordinated, and Integrated Observations of the Southern Ocean for Global Impact

The Southern Ocean is disproportionately important in its effect on the Earth system, impacting climatic, biogeochemical and ecological systems, which makes recent observed changes to this system cause for global concern. The enhanced understanding and improvements in predictive skill needed for understanding and projecting future states of the Southern Ocean require sustained observations. Over the last decade, the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) has established networks for enhancing regional coordination and research community groups to advance development of observing system capabilities. These networks support delivery of the SOOS 20-year vision, which is to develop a circumpolar system that ensures time series of key variables, and deliver the greatest impact from data to all key end-users. Although the Southern Ocean remains one of the least-observed ocean regions, enhanced international coordination and advances in autonomous platforms have resulted in progress towards addressing the need for sustained observations of this region. Since 2009, the Southern Ocean community has deployed over 5700 observational platforms south of 40°S. Large-scale, multi-year or sustained, multidisciplinary efforts have been supported and are now delivering observations of essential variables at space and time scales that enable assessment of changes being observed in Southern Ocean systems. The improved observational coverage, however, is predominantly for the open ocean, encompasses the summer, consists of primarily physical oceanographic variables and covers surface to 2000 m. Significant gaps remain in observations of the ice-impacted ocean, the sea ice, depths more than 2000 m, the air-sea-ice interface, biogeochemical and biological variables, and for seasons other than summer. Addressing these data gaps in a sustained way requires parallel advances in coordination networks, cyberinfrastructure and data management tools, observational platform and sensor technology, platform interrogation and data-transmission technologies, modeling frameworks, and internationally agreed sampling requirements of key variables. This paper presents a community statement on the major scientific and observational progress of the last decade, and importantly, an assessment of key priorities for the coming decade, towards achieving the SOOS vision and delivering essential data to all end users.

The marine system of the West Antarctic Peninsula: status and strategy for progress.

The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP; figure 1) is one of the most climatically sensitive regions on Earth and one of the most variable. The strong climatic variability gives us the opportunity to study and understand how the ocean responds to—and gives feedback on—climate change, and hence to learn about the key mechanisms that are at work, which might apply around the Southern Ocean as a whole. Data coverage is still inadequate across the Southern Ocean (because of remoteness and harsh conditions) and, despite being better observed than many other regions around Antarctica, the nature of oceanographic and atmospheric change on the WAP is poorly constrained. This theme issue addresses some of the most important and pressing questions surrounding marine system variability at the WAP. How has the WAP changed and how will it change in future? What's driving these changes? And why is there such an extraordinary degree of spatial and temporal variability in the region? Figure 1. A map of the Antarctic Peninsula, showing the main islands and ice shelves (grey areas), with research locations mentioned in the text marked with triangles. The main map is an enlarged view of the blue box and was made using etopo1 bathymetry (for bedrock and ice surface files, see https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/docucomp/page?xml=NOAA/NESDIS/NGDC/MGG/DEM/iso/xml/316.xml&view=getDataView&header=none). These questions were addressed in two interlinked meetings held in 2017. A 2 day meeting was hosted in May at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in Cambridge, UK (co-sponsored by the Southern Ocean Observing System, the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research and the Scientific Committee for Ocean Research), aimed at gathering and critically assessing a broad view from the international community on the gaps and challenges in WAP oceanographic research. A second meeting was held at the Kavli International Centre at Chicheley Hall, UK (funded by the Royal Society), specifically to identify the key …

Understanding Terrestrial Ecosystem Response to Antarctic Climate Change

International observing platforms, such as the Arctic Observing Network (AON) and the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS), have become a primary method for detecting the long‐term effects of climate change on complex ecosystems. Based on the success of this model for research coordination, a workshop was held in Portland, Oregon, in July 2012, with support from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Polar Programs Antarctic Integrated Systems Science program, to develop criteria for the implementation of a McMurdo Dry Valleys Terrestrial Observation Network (TON).

Serving data from the SCAR Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) using the SeaDataNet infrastructure

Abstract. The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) jointly intend to build a Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS). This paper addresses the required data flow infrastructure. SOOS will use a system of systems approach, using existing observation programmes and projects. Data should be submitted to professional data centres. The problem arises how to link all these data centres and get a central overview of the SOOS data as well as direct access to the data. The Netherlands National Oceanographic Data Committee (NL-NODC) has successfully built a national distributed oceanographic data acccess infrastructure, adopting and implementing technology developed by the European SeaDataNet project. The Dutch system has been operational since early 2009. The conclusion is that the SeaDataNet technology can be used to build an operational, distributed data delivery infrastructure, featuring all elements required by the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS).

Zooplankton Atlas of the Southern Ocean: The SCAR SO-CPR Survey (1991–2008)

The SCAR Southern Ocean Continuous Plankton Recorder (SO-CPR) Survey produces one of the largest and most accessed zooplankton data sets in the world. These data serve as a reference for other Southern Ocean monitoring programmes such as those run by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) and the developing Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS). It has been instrumental in providing baseline data on zooplankton composition, communities, and distribution patterns on the ocean basin scale. The SO-CPR Survey is publishing the first detailed geographical atlas of the near-surface Southern Ocean zooplankton. This atlas is based on 22,553 CPR samples collected from 1991 to 2008 from voyages operated by Australia, Japan, Germany, New Zealand, USA and Russia. The Atlas documents the distribution and abundance of the 50 most abundant zooplankton taxa amongst the 200+ taxa sampled. The maps are printed in alphabetical order of the genera within each taxon and nomenclature is based on the Register of Antarctic Marine Species (RAMS) developed by the SCAR Marine Biodiversity Information Network (SCAR-MarBIN). The SO-CPR Atlas will operate as a ready reference to researchers interested in the distribution of zooplankton in the Southern Ocean, for example knowing the distribution of grazers in relation to phytoplankton production or the availability of prey for higher predators.

Antarctic Peninsula sea levels: a real-time system for monitoring Drake Passage transport

Sub-surface pressure (SSP) data from tide gauges at three bases on the Pacific coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, together with SSP information from a bottom pressure recorder deployed on the south side of the Drake Passage, have been used to study the relationships between SSP, Drake Passage transport, and the strength of Southern Ocean zonal winds as represented by the Southern Annular Mode. High correlations were obtained between all parameters, confirming results obtained previously with independent data sets, and demonstrating the value of information from the permanent Rothera base, the southern-most site considered. These are important findings with regard to the design, installation and maintenance of observation networks in Antarctica. In particular, they provide the necessary justification for Antarctic Peninsula tide gauge infrastructure investment in the lead up to International Polar Year. Data delivery from Rothera and Vernadsky is currently being improved and should soon enable the first near real-time system for monitoring Drake Passage transport variability on intraseasonal timescales, an essential component of a Southern Ocean Observing System.