Thirty eight scientists and crew will set sail today for Antarctica on NIWA’s research vessel Tangaroa, with the aim of going as far south as the Ross Ice Shelf - a first for the ship.
The ship, with a multinational group of scientists, led by NIWA oceanographers Prof. Craig Stevens and Dr Denise Fernandez, will travel more than 3,500 kilometres south of New Zealand, right up to the Ross Ice Shelf and further south than Tangaroa has ever sailed.
Prof. Stevens says the science carried out on the voyage will help to better understand the impacts of climate change on Antarctica’s Ross Sea, and the impacts of a changing Ross Sea on the rest of the globe.
"One of the key aims is to maintain instruments fixed to the seafloor that are monitoring changes in ocean heat, salt and oxygen in the area. We have been monitoring what we believe to be the critical heat and salt corridor for the Ross Ice Shelf. If we can pin this down, we will be able to focus the next steps on the critical melt region – and from which so much else is impacted."
Prof. Craig Stevens
He says the expedition is sailing into waters that are feeling the effects on continual record-breaking low sea ice conditions.
“This lack of ice is having knock-on effects for not only the regional ocean but the whole planet. This work is very sweet and sour. It is amazing to get the opportunity to advance the science, but at the same time, we are catching glimpses of a future for the planet that we really want to avoid. It brings home in a very tangible way the need to limit emissions of climate-affecting gasses.”
Co-voyage lead, Dr Denise Fernandez says the voyage has a packed science programme.
"The voyage has been designed to quantify critical signals in the rapidly changing polar ocean and components of its unique biodiversity – all things that are felt globally. While satellites can provide valuable data from afar and models can simulate ocean processes and circulation, it's essential to also take physical measurements directly within the environment."
Dr Denise Fernandez
She is a specialist in Argo floats, ocean-monitoring robots that will be deployed along the route to measure ocean characteristics such as temperature and salinity.
“This year, we are excited to deploy two Biogeochemical Argo floats, funded by the New Zealand Antarctic Science Platform, with additional technical support from our Australian partners at CSIRO”. These are souped-up floats that capture lots more data.
“They are the first of their type to be deployed for New Zealand and are equipped with extra sensors allowing us to examine oxygen and chlorophyll levels. This will help fill an observational gap and provide a better picture of the wider changes in the state of the ocean and the marine food web,” said Dr Fernandez.
Life in our frozen world
A vital part of the work is assessing marine life and change in the Ross Sea Marine Protected Area (MPA), which is the world’s largest MPA at five times the size of New Zealand.
The expedition will explore seafloor habitats and biological communities to provide fundamental data to determine how the changing ocean is impacting marine life. University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka Professor of Marine Sciences Miles Lamare sailed with the 2023 Tangaroa expedition and is leading this work.
"Mapping and sampling the biodiversity of marine communities along the Ross Sea coastline is critical for understanding how processes, such as sea ice and productivity, shape the nearshore ecosystems."
Prof. Miles Lamare
“With this information we can better forecast how these communities will respond to future warming. This will include observing regions likely never sampled before, and which contain many species uniquely adapted to these regions.
“An important part of this research is applying modern approaches to understanding biodiversity, such as environmental DNA (eDNA). The DNA shed from plants and animals in the ocean can be collected, sequenced, and can provide information such as the range of species that occur at a location, their abundances and genetic structure,” said Prof. Lamare.
A final major component will be making samples to try and link the ocean structure with the distribution of marine life at a very fine scale through the use of eDNA techniques. This is a critical aspect of linking changing climate-driven ocean behaviour with fish species.
About the voyage
This voyage marks RV Tangaroa’s 16th to Antarctica. NIWA sends the vessel to the Ross Sea every two years, with each mission contributing to our growing understanding of the region.
The multidisciplinary team onboard includes participants from Australia, Europe, India and the UK. RV Tangaroa will be in Antarctica waters alongside the Italian icebreaker Laura Bassi, following from the just-returned South Korean Araon, and with the Chinese icebreaker Xue Long 2 scheduled for a few months later – all with New Zealand science aboard. The combined activities demonstrate how nations are working together, through science, for this critical work. Tangaroa is scheduled to return to Wellington in late February.
The voyage is supported by funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE), the Antarctic Science Platform, NIWA Strategic Science Investment Funds, University of Auckland, University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, University of Canterbury, and overseas funding agencies.
For updates - see the voyage page
