The third session within the Marine and Antarctic Research Strategy research theme: Oceans and marine ecosystems under global change chaired by Suzanne Fietz of Stellenbosch University. The presentations resort under the title ‘Southern Ocean productivity: drivers and consequences. The session was introduced by Susanne Fietz and the alignment to MARS. (Above: group photo – Photo credit Suzanne Fietz)
Above (l-r): Liam Quinlan, Emtia Wium, Johan Viljoen, Asmita Singh, Jared Walsh (Stellenbosch University)
Liam Quinlan: Characterising phytoplankton communities: A Southern Ocean case study of environmental coupling. (Abstract)
Amelia Deary: Early community development at the Southern Ocean Marginal Ice Zone. (Abstract)
Sadiyah Rawat: The role of the island mass effect in enhancing productivity and carbon export in the Subantarctic Ocean. (Abstract)
Emtia Wium: Impact of metals in aerosols and dust on marine phytoplankton: South Africa. (Abstract)
Sina Wallschuss: The seasonality and origins of nitrous oxide in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. (Abstract)
Faith February: Observations of Southern Ocean marine aerosols in Simon’s Town, False Bay. (Abstract)
Susanne Fietz: General discussion
Mhlangabezi Mdutyana: Nitrification in the Southern Ocean: controls, kinetics, and biogeochemical implications. (Abstract)
Susanne Fietz: Trace metals and phytoplankton. (Abstract)
Sarah Fawcett(left) could not attend, but her and Dr Katye Altieri (right)students gave presentations during this session. Sarah Fawcett (abstract): Nanoplankton: the dominant vector for carbon export across the Atlantic Southern Ocean in spring.
Suzanne Fietz and the Stellenbosch University Earth Sciences team submitted an excellent e-poster Asmita Singh(e-poster) and Johan Viljoen (abstract) and Jared Walsh(abstract) were not able to attend the symposium in person.
Research team on the recent Gough Island takeover expedition.
Phytoplankton are microscopic plants that live in the ocean, and just like plants on land they need to have enough food to grow and be happy. However, some places in the ocean don’t have enough food for them whereas some places do. The Southern Ocean Carbon & Climate Observatory (SOCCO) team based at CSIR, Trace Metals team based at Stellenbosch University (TracEx) and the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment: Oceans and Coasts team are trying to figure out where those places are (in the Southern Ocean).
During the Gough Island takeover expedition:
The Trace Metal Biogeochemistry research teams sampled upstream and downstream of Gough Island to look at how the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) interacts with the island to resuspend sediments from the seafloor. This resuspended sediments acts as a source of trace metals to the surface mixed layer in support of phytoplankton blooms. The team used a 12 bottle mini-CTD rosette system (see image below, right) to sample for dissolved trace metals, particulate trace metals and organic trace metal chemistry.
TEAM
Trace Metal Biogeochemistry
Projects Name
Seasonal Iron speciation in the Southern Ocean, from open ocean environments to naturally fertilized sub-Antarctic Islands (Marion and Gough Island)
Principal Investigator
Dr Thomas Ryan-Keogh
Senior Researcher at the Southern Ocean Carbon-Climate Observatory (SOCCO), CSIR South Africa
Co-Principal Investigator (On board DFFE team leader)
Dr TN Mtshali
Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE)
Including all ship-based scientists sampling for trace metals
The project in more detail:
The Southern Ocean (SO) is one of the largest high-nutrient low-chlorophyll regions in the World’s Ocean, where primary productivity is limited by iron bioavailability, thereby impacting the strength and efficiency of biological carbon pump. There are, however, exceptions with large phytoplankton blooms persistently observed downstream of the sub-Antarctic Islands. While extensive research has focussed on iron-biogeochemistry around Kerguelen and Crozet islands, no such studies have been conducted at Marion and Gough islands.
Furthermore, whilst our previous studies have made substantial advances toward addressing the gaps in seasonal data coverage through the Southern oCean seAsonaL Experiment (SCALE) 2019 winter and spring expeditions, there is still a paucity of dissolved iron data in the SO, especially from autumn to late spring. This is severely hampering our understanding of the full seasonal biogeochemical iron cycle and its impact on primary production. This project aims to continue its focus on seasonality by expanding seasonal coverage of iron measurements to include autumn (Marion) and late-spring (Gough) expeditions for more comprehensive coverage of the SO seasonal cycle, with a particular focus on quantifying biogeochemical cycling of iron-pool around these understudied islands.
This project is funded by: The National Research Foundation, South African National Antarctic Programme funding (NRF-SANAP).
The Biogeochemistry Research Infrastructure Platform (BIOGRIP) was established in 2019 in terms of the South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap, a high-level research strategy of the national government Department of Science and Innovation.
BIOGRIP comprises four research ‘nodes’ based at the Universities of Cape Town (focusing on isotope biogeochemistry), Stellenbosch (water and soil biogeochemistry), Free State (mineral biogeochemistry) and North-West University (atmospheric biogeochemistry), with the administrative ‘hub’ located at UCT. The Director will be based at UCT and will report directly to the DVC Research. The Director will (1) provide strong leadership and scientific guidance to the BIOGRIP platform as a whole, ensuring that it delivers on its mandate (2) liaise with stakeholders, the management steering committee and scientific and technical advisory committees (3) hold overall financial responsibility for BIOGRIP and (4) contribute to the research output of BIOGRIP.
“Biogeochemistry” is the study of how biological, geological, chemical, and physical processes interact to shape natural environments over time and space. It covers a range of interdisciplinary research foci, from the origin and diversification of life, to how anthropogenic drivers alter modern environments, to the response of natural systems to environmental change. Biogeochemistry was identified by the 2016 South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap (SARIR) document as an emerging interdisciplinary field of strategic importance. SARIR recommends that the central objective of biogeochemical research in South Africa should be to gain “further insight into the interactions of human activity and the environment over the past several hundred millennia and to determine how the environmental impact of anthropogenic activity has contributed to the change in Earth system dynamics (chemical, physical and biological). This includes the search for an understanding of the behavior of well characterized and emerging pollutants and their current impact on the environment”. There are a number of strong research groups in South Africa already investigating various aspects of this broad research objective, but their efforts to-date have been isolated and/or fragmented. Moreover, biogeochemistry requires high precision data and measurements of a vast range of inorganic and organic chemical components, including isotope ratios and trace elements, some of which cannot currently be made in South Africa and many of which cannot be run at the volume and quality required. The investment in BIOGRIP will provide the platform to drive biogeochemical knowledge creation through investment in (1) technical capacity, training and scientific leadership in biogeochemical research, (2) world-class analytical facilities, and (3) improved monitoring of biogeochemical environmental variables through the generation and compilation of statistically meaningful datasets.
BIOGRIP will provide significant opportunities to advance South Africa’s research infrastructure and technical capacity in the field of biogeochemistry, while also facilitating a high level of scientific impact on a range of temporal and spatial scales. BIOGRIP will extend the practical research questions that address specific South African problems to include those that are purely curiosity-driven, creative, and/or risky, while also deepening the extent to which ongoing research themes can be probed. An additional impact of developing analytical capacity in-country is the potential for creative methods development, particularly South African-specific applications (e.g., for research questions relevant to the Cape floristic kingdom, hominin evolution, water availability and quality, Antarctic ecosystems, etc.). This will allow the South African research community to push the frontiers of knowledge in a variety of fields where biogeochemical techniques have yet to be applied (or have yet to be applied at the resolution offered by BIOGRIP).
Click here for advertisement. Closing date: 1st February 2021
Photo Credit: Sarah Fawcett, Alakendra Roychoudhury, Susanne Fietz
Alakendra N Roychoudhury (Roy) grew up in India where he completed his post-graduate degree, Master of Science and Technology, in the field of Applied Geology from the Indian School of Mines. My career in Geology started because of my intense love for the outdoors and travelling to places where mainstream people don’t go. Believe it or not, one of the reasons going into geology was also to avoid Mathematics at college. I wouldn’t recommend it though, as I had to learn all the mathematics while pursuing my PhD in Marine Biogeochemistry at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA. You cannot be a good scientist without having a good grasp of mathematical principals. After finishing my doctoral degree, I joined as a lecturer at Northwestern University, Chicago, USA and eventually moved to University of Cape Town, South Africa as a senior lecturer. At present I am a Professor of Marine and Environmental Biogeochemistry at Stellenbosch University where I also acted as the Head of the Department of Earth Sciences in the past. As for Southern Ocean research, I developed and expanded the research program and research facilities in South Africa in open ocean trace metal biogeochemistry and currently head the TracEx research group at Stellenbosch University.
Why you love your career in science
Choosing a career in Science is not easy. There is always a pressure to go into fields where there are prospects of high paying jobs. One can survive in science only if they love what they are doing. My love developed from the sense of adventure that came with scientific research and travelling for fieldwork in remote places. Thanks to Science, I have been fortunate enough to touch all of the seven continents and the seven seas. Science constantly provides you with new opportunities and challenges that keeps the monotony at bay, which I think was the most critical for me. I will never survive in a suit and tie doing a 9 to 5 job. What excites me most is the realization that the deeper you investigate the more questions emerge and at some point, different fields of science seem to merge in developing a better understanding of the natural processes. A big part of my love for science is also teaching it because I like to see the same excitement in the eyes of my student for a research field that has consumed the better part of my life.
Message to future scientists and researchers:
(Above: Images of Science Cruises in the Southern Ocean on the S.A. Agulhas II with Susan Fietz colleague and students) If you don’t ask the question “Why?” all the time until you run out of answers, you cannot be a scientist. Science thrives on curiosity and there is a lot to be curious about when it comes to the oceans. Oceans are truly the last frontier because we know more about space than oceans. Large parts of the oceans are unexplored and there are huge opportunities for one to make their mark. Marine chemistry or biogeochemistry in South Africa is highly underdeveloped, but this is a field that can answer the most critical questions such as climate change and anthropogenic influences on ocean processes, on which survival of the living planet depends. To be a good researcher in ocean sciences, you will have to have a good understanding of the principles and advanced knowledge of chemistry, physics, biology and mathematics and you will need an open mind to take on the teaching of these different fields while pursuing your focused research.
This SANAP project is part of a fantastic international collaborative effort Biogeoscapes, a follow up programme of GEOTRACES . (Left – During Winter Cruise 2017: Susanne Fietz, Ismael Kangueehi, Johan Viljoen, Ian Weir, Ryan Cloete)
Susanne Fietz at the department of Earth Sciences at the Stellenbosch University is the principal investigator. GEOTRACES and the follow up programme Biogeoscapes are programmes which aim to improve the understanding of biogeochemical cycles and large-scale distribution of trace elements and their isotopes in the marine environment. Scientists from approximately 35 nations have been involved in the programme, which is designed to study all major ocean basins over the next decade. In this project we work together with marine biogeochemists at University of Cape Town and CSIR (SOCCO), biotechnologists and genomicists at Stellenbosch University and University of Pretoria, as well as with colleagues at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
The global changes affecting the terrestrial ecosystems are matched by threats on the marine ecosystems, such as the warming of the ocean and concomitant changes in ocean structure, or marine pollution. The extent of the ecosystem alteration is still a matter of heated debates, especially when including stakeholders from industry in the discussion. Science is still far away from having all answers policy makers need. Furthermore, the notion that the oceans provide unlimited resources is still widely spread in society, despite a growing perception of rather straightforward threats such as overfishing.
Oceans are changing under pressure of global changes, be it for increase in temperature, sea-ice melt, stratification, acidification or pollutants. The tiny ocean’s inhabitants, the microorganisms, will mostly adapt to it, however, it will most likely result in shifts in community composition and thus in biogeochemical fluxes, including the export of carbon, essential for an efficient drawdown of atmospheric CO2. This project focus on the link between microorganisms and the chemistry of the seawater. Two major concerns drive our focus on the microorganisms:
We know surprisingly little about the abundance and community structure of our tiniest organisms in the ocean.
Microorganisms do significantly affect the marine biogeochemical cycles and ultimately our climate.
Marine primary production in the world’s oceans is generally limited by the availability of nutrients in the upper, sunlit waters. Nitrogen availability tends to limit productivity throughout much of the low-latitude oceans. The primary productivity in the Southern Ocean, in contrast, is primarily limited by constraints in bioavailability of trace metals such as iron that are vital for various biochemical processes, such as chlorophyll synthesis and nitrate utilization. Phytoplankton blooms in the Southern Ocean usually occur near the few islands scattered in the Southern Ocean, such as South Georgia or Kerguelen, and close to retrieving ice around Antarctica. In addition, changes in productivity are linked to times or areas of increased dust input. Increased primary productivity leads to two major consequences: a) food-web stimulation, and thus impact on biodiversity and fisheries and b) enhanced biological pump, and thus atmospheric CO2 sequestration.
Phytoplankton and microbial communities are normally studied separately, even though it is important to assess their tight interactions. Marine microbes compete for macro- and micronutrients with phytoplankton and largely control micronutrients bioavailability at the ocean surface, but they also control an efficient recycling system below the subsurface. This tight interplay between the microorganisms and the ocean’s chemistry has thus important implications for fisheries and for the global climate. The role(s) of microbial communities in the Southern Ocean are understudied, to the extent that it is often not known what species are present. The development of fast and cheap DNA sequencing technologies allows for their identification, and we will help fill this knowledge gap. The improved understanding of the functioning of the Southern Ocean ecosystem will then allow improving models projecting future global changes.
The project is involved in science awareness (left Susanne Fietz during an interview at the East Pier, Presentattion to Sun Valley School, Presenatition to Antarctic Season 2019). For more information visit their page. The educational video is available on the ALSA archive
Johannes Jacobus Viljoen grew up in the small town of Wolseley in the upper Breede River Valley and started his tertiary education at Stellenbosch University after graduating high school in Ceres. He completed a BSc in Earth Science in 2015 and became the first member in his family with a university qualification. In 2016, he completed a BSc (Hons) Earth Science degree in Environmental Geochemistry where he gained a keen interest in marine biogeochemistry and research. He continued his studies as a graduate research student on phytoplankton distribution in the Southern Ocean at Stellenbosch University within the Centre for Trace and Experimental Biogeochemistry (TracEx ), earning a MSc degree (cum laude) in 2018.
Johan is currently a PhD candidate in Earth Science at Stellenbosch University (SU). His research focus is part of a larger project within the South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP) of which the main aim is to understand the biological and biogeochemical processes occurring in the Southern Ocean, how this is linked and will affect our global climate. His PhD research within TracEx revolves around marine biogeochemistry and aims to better understand phytoplankton dynamics in the Southern Ocean and their links to macro- and micronutrients distributions across various seasons and within poorly sampled regions. He specifically strives to specialize in the use of phytoplankton pigments to identifying and quantifying phytoplankton groups essential to the marine carbon cycle and assess their photoprotective abilities and adaptability within the current changing ocean environment. To date, Johan has participated in three research cruises on board South Africa’s flagship research vessel, the S.A. Agulhas II . For his first research cruise, a summer resupply cruise to Antarctica (SANAE 56: Nov 16 – Feb 17), he skipped his BSc (Hons) graduation in December 2016 to join this cruise and collect samples for multiple projects on his own. He wrote a blog tabout his experiences during this cruise and what it was like on the Antarctic ice shelf during the SANAE 56 take-over . He participated in two further research specific cruises to the Southern Ocean during winter as a member of the TracEx team, one to the Indian sector in July 2017 (for which he had to postpone his honeymoon ) and another to the Atlantic sector during the SCALE winter cruise (July/Aug 2019).
He attended his first SANAP symposium in 2016. He attended the Polar 2018 conference in Davos, Switzerland in 2018 where he presented an oral presentation on his research. He later joined the South African branch of the Association for Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS-SA) as a committee member during his second SANAP symposium in 2018. He currently serves on the APECS-SA national committee as one of the co-chairs. From 2018 – 2019, he also served as the postgraduate representative of the Department of Earth Sciences at SU on the postgraduate committee of the Faculty of Science.
Johan is driven to learn more about marine science and sharing his research and experiences with others. To date, he has published two scientific articles from his MSc research and aims to follow an academic career. In August 2017, he was awarded the opportunity by the SU International office to attend a summer school at the University of Helsinki: Introduction to modern atmospheric science. In September 2019, he was awarded a SCOR travel bursary to attend the 2nd International Geotraces Summer School in Spain to further his knowledge about trace metals and their role in the marine environment.
He is also active on Twitter (@JohanSOV ), utilising social media to promote his and other marine science research. He also has a vested interest in science communication and attended a master class in science communication offered by CREST at SU in December 2019 to advance his skills in science communication. He has volunteered at the retirement home in his hometown, talking to those less mobile about his experiences onboard the SA Agulhas II and the history of SA in Antarctica. He and other members of TracEx have participated in multiple outreach visits of primary and high schools to their department and have been volunteer guides for first year BSc student onboard the S.A. Agulhas II.
In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family and friends, watching documentaries and movies based on true events, reading, hiking and travelling. He considers himself to be a bit of a coffee connoisseur, a budding gardener and an experimental cook.
With determination, hard work and by accepting help when needed you can reach any goal. “Alone we can do so little; Together we can do so much.” Helen Keller
Above (l-r): Liam Quinlan, Emtia Wium, Johan Viljoen, Asmita Singh, Jared Walsh (Stellenbosch University)
Above (l-r): Amelia Deary, Sadiyah Rawat, Sina Wallschuss, Faith February, Mhlangabezi Mdutyana (UCT)
Sarah Fawcett(left) could not attend, but her and Dr Katye Altieri (right)students gave presentations during this session. Sarah Fawcett (abstract): Nanoplankton: the dominant vector for carbon export across the Atlantic Southern Ocean in spring.
Suzanne Fietz and the Stellenbosch University Earth Sciences team submitted an excellent e-poster Asmita Singh(e-poster) and Johan Viljoen (abstract) and Jared Walsh(abstract) were not able to attend the symposium in person.
BIOGRIP comprises four research ‘nodes’ based at the Universities of Cape Town (focusing on isotope biogeochemistry), Stellenbosch (water and soil biogeochemistry), Free State (mineral biogeochemistry) and North-West University (atmospheric biogeochemistry), with the administrative ‘hub’ located at UCT. The 
“Biogeochemistry” is the study of how biological, geological, chemical, and physical processes interact to shape natural environments over time and space. It covers a range of interdisciplinary research foci, from the origin and diversification of life, to how anthropogenic drivers alter modern environments, to the response of natural systems to environmental change. Biogeochemistry was identified by the 2016 South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap (SARIR) document as an emerging interdisciplinary field of strategic importance. SARIR recommends that the central objective of biogeochemical research in South Africa should be to gain “further insight into the interactions of human activity and the environment over the past several hundred millennia and to determine how the environmental impact of anthropogenic activity has contributed to the change in Earth system dynamics (chemical, physical and biological). This includes the search for an understanding of the behavior of well characterized and emerging pollutants and their current impact on the environment”. There are a number of strong research groups in South Africa already investigating various aspects of this broad research objective, but their efforts to-date have been isolated and/or fragmented. Moreover, biogeochemistry requires high precision data and measurements of a vast range of inorganic and organic chemical components, including isotope ratios and trace elements, some of which cannot currently be made in South Africa and many of which cannot be run at the volume and quality required. The investment in BIOGRIP will provide the platform to drive biogeochemical knowledge creation through investment in (1) technical capacity, training and scientific leadership in biogeochemical research, (2) world-class analytical facilities, and (3) improved monitoring of biogeochemical environmental variables through the generation and compilation of statistically meaningful datasets.
BIOGRIP will provide significant opportunities to advance South Africa’s research infrastructure and technical capacity in the field of biogeochemistry, while also facilitating a high level of scientific impact on a range of temporal and spatial scales. BIOGRIP will extend the practical research questions that address specific South African problems to include those that are purely curiosity-driven, creative, and/or risky, while also deepening the extent to which ongoing research themes can be probed. An additional impact of developing analytical capacity in-country is the potential for creative methods development, particularly South African-specific applications (e.g., for research questions relevant to the Cape floristic kingdom, hominin evolution, water availability and quality, Antarctic ecosystems, etc.). This will allow the South African research community to push the frontiers of knowledge in a variety of fields where biogeochemical techniques have yet to be applied (or have yet to be applied at the resolution offered by BIOGRIP).
Why you love your career in science 
Choosing a career in Science is not easy. There is always a pressure to go into fields where there are prospects of high paying jobs. One can survive in science only if they love what they are doing. My love developed from the sense of adventure that came with scientific research and travelling for fieldwork in remote places. 
Thanks to Science, I have been fortunate enough to touch all of the 
(Above: Images of Science Cruises in the Southern Ocean on the S.A. Agulhas II with Susan Fietz colleague and students) If you don’t ask the question “Why?” all the time until you run out of answers, you cannot be a scientist. Science thrives on curiosity and there is a lot to be curious about when it comes to the oceans. Oceans are truly the last frontier because we know more about space than oceans. Large parts of the oceans are unexplored and there are huge opportunities for one to make their mark. Marine chemistry or biogeochemistry in South Africa is highly underdeveloped, but this is a field that can answer the most critical questions such as climate change and anthropogenic influences on ocean processes, on which survival of the living planet depends. To be a good researcher in ocean sciences, you will have to have a good understanding of the principles and advanced knowledge of chemistry, physics, biology and mathematics and you will need an open mind to take on the teaching of these different fields while pursuing your focused research.
The global changes affecting the terrestrial ecosystems are matched by threats on the marine ecosystems, such as the warming of the ocean and concomitant changes in ocean structure, or marine pollution. The extent of the ecosystem alteration is still a matter of heated debates, especially when including stakeholders from industry in the discussion. Science is still far away from having all answers policy makers need. Furthermore, the notion that the oceans provide unlimited resources is still widely spread in society, despite a growing perception of rather straightforward threats such as overfishing.
Marine primary production in the world’s oceans is generally limited by the availability of nutrients in the upper, sunlit waters. Nitrogen availability tends to limit productivity throughout much of the low-latitude oceans. The primary productivity in the Southern Ocean, in contrast, is primarily limited by constraints in bioavailability of trace metals such as iron that are vital for various biochemical processes, such as chlorophyll synthesis and nitrate utilization. Phytoplankton blooms in the Southern Ocean usually occur near the few islands scattered in the Southern Ocean, such as South Georgia or Kerguelen, and close to retrieving ice around Antarctica. In addition, changes in productivity are linked to times or areas of increased dust input. Increased primary productivity leads to two major consequences: a) food-web stimulation, and thus impact on biodiversity and fisheries and b) enhanced biological pump, and thus atmospheric CO2 sequestration.
The project is involved in science awareness (left Susanne Fietz during an interview at the East Pier, Presentattion to Sun Valley School, Presenatition to Antarctic Season 2019). For more information visit their 
Johannes Jacobus Viljoen grew up in the small town of Wolseley in the upper Breede River Valley and started his tertiary education at Stellenbosch University after graduating high school in Ceres. He completed a BSc in Earth Science in 2015 and became the first member in his family with a university qualification. In 2016, he completed a BSc (Hons) Earth Science degree in Environmental Geochemistry where he gained a keen interest in marine biogeochemistry and research. He continued his studies as a graduate research student on phytoplankton distribution in the Southern Ocean at Stellenbosch University within the 
Johan is currently a 
He attended his first SANAP symposium in 2016. He attended the Polar 2018 conference in Davos, Switzerland in 2018 where he presented an oral presentation on his research. He later joined the South African branch of the Association for Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS-SA) as a committee member during his second SANAP symposium in 2018. He currently serves on the APECS-SA national committee as one of the co-chairs. From 2018 – 2019, he also served as the postgraduate representative of the Department of Earth Sciences at SU on the postgraduate committee of the Faculty of Science.
Johan is driven to learn more about marine science and sharing his research and experiences with others. To date, he has published two scientific articles from his MSc research and aims to follow an academic career. In August 2017, he was awarded the opportunity by the 
In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family and friends, watching documentaries and movies based on true events, reading, hiking and travelling. He considers himself to be a bit of a coffee connoisseur, a budding gardener and an experimental cook.
