ICSHMO 2025 – SANAP community participation

ICSHMO 2025 – SANAP community participation

ICSHMO 2025 – International Conference on Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography (ICSHMO) 2025 – Participation from the SANAP research community. Below a few presentations by researchers as well as session chairs etc. Visit the ICSHMO website for the full and final program.

  • Wayne de Jager – Increased Rotational Coupling Between Antarctic Sea Ice and the Atmosphere Over the Last 30 Years
  • Sebastiaan Swart – The oceans imprint on air sea fluxes: Drivers of turbulent heat flux over the Agulhas Current
  • Tarron Lamont – Monitoring Western Boundary Current System variability with satellite altimetry
  • Riesna R. Audh – Rafting of Growing Antarctic Sea Ice Enhances In-Ice Biogeochemical Activity in Winter
  • Robyn Verrinder – Antarctic MIZ observation platforms: Interdisciplinary approaches to resolve seasonal sea ice variability
  • Tamaryn Morris – 1. Sustained ocean observations for the Agulhas Current: Realizing the Benefits of Ocean Knowledge through Co-Design. 2. Capturing a cyclonic eddy, and cross-shelf dynamics, in the Agulhas Bight during an early retroflection of the Agulhas Current.
  • Magata Mangatane – Intercomparison of Antarctic sea-ice thickness estimates from satellite altimetry and assessment over the 2019 data-rich year.
  • Sharon Nicholson – The seasonal cycle in Southern Hemisphere Africa
  • Rutger Marquart – Coupled dynamics and thermodynamics modelling of heterogeneous sea ice and ocean waves
  • Janine Schoombie – Mapping within-island-scale wind variation on Marion Island
  • Christopher Reason – Multiyear La Niña events, the Mozambique Channel, and rainfall over eastern Africa
  • Thulwaneng Mashifane – Trait–Based Adjustments: Key to Improving Bloom Seasonal Cycle in the Subantarctic Zone
  • Sandy Thomalla – VeGAS-pCO2: Versatile glider, atmospheric and ship high precision pCO2 gas flux analyser
  • Amber Sneddon – Atmospheric River climatology for the South Atlantic Basin based on modern image-processing-based tracking.
  • Marcel Du Plessis – Storms regulate Southern Ocean summer warming
  • Sandy Thomalla -Southern Ocean Observing System for sustained and coordinated observations in a changing world
  • Thomas Ryan-Keogh – How can we effectively manage the impact of climate change on Antarctic ecosystems?
  • Sandy Thomalla – Climate-driven change to phytoplankton blooms across the global ocean
  • Nicolette Chang – Investigating Heat and Carbon Exchange in the Southern Ocean: Insights from a Mesoscale-Resolving
  • Sarah Du Preez – Environmental influence on zooplankton variability around sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands
  • Sarah-Anne Nicholson – The impact of storms on CO2 and heat exchange across the Southern Ocean
  • Thato Mtshali – Wintertime distribution and mixed layer dissolved iron budget in the south Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean
  • Miranda Sitofile – The seasonal iron supply in the Southern Ocean
  • Chris Reason – Interannual and intraseasonal variability in the Southern Hemisphere

Session chairs, speakers and MC

  • Plenary Session – MC: Warren Joubert
  • Invited Speaker: Issufo Halo
  • Session: Southern Hemisphere Boundary Currents. Chair: Tamaryn Morris
  • Session: Polar. Chair: Wayne de Jager. Co-Chair: Magata Mangatane
  • Session: Emerging Technologies in Ocean Observing. Chair: Dr Tamaryn Morris
  • Session: Southern Ocean BGC. Chair: Thato Mtshali. Co-Chair: Sarah-Anne Nicholson
  • Session: Southern Ocean – BGC. Chair: Sandy Thomalla. Co-Chair: Thato Mtshali
DFFE Press Release: H5n1confirmed on Subantarctic Marion Island

DFFE Press Release: H5n1confirmed on Subantarctic Marion Island

High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (H5n1) confirmed on Subantarctic Marion Island

Press Release by the Department of Forestry Fisheries and the Environment: 23 March 2025

The presence of high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus on Marion Island has been confirmed. Samples collected between September and December 2024 were all shipped back to mainland South Africa, via the SA Agulhas II, in February 2025. In March, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing confirmed infection in six bird species, comprising Wandering Albatross (Diomedea exulans), King Penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus), Brown (Subantarctic) Skua (Stercorarius antarcticus), Southern Giant Petrel (Macronectes giganteus), Northern Giant Petrel (M. halli) and Sooty Albatross (Phoebetria fusca).

Following an initial suspected HPAI case in a Brown Skua at Marion Island (a bird showing clinical signs of HPAI infection including twitching and tremors) in mid-September 2024, more similar cases were reported in early November and mortalities in multiple species have continued into March 2025, though the overall death rate slowed significantly in January. The reduced mortality rate is promising, but 31 bird species breed on Marion Island and the bird species and age composition varies throughout the year, therefore it is difficult to predict how the outbreak will progress. The potential effects on marine mammals are also of concern but no increased mortality has been reported in any mammal species so far.

Among Wandering Albatrosses, chicks were mostly affected, with at least 150 of approximately 1900 chicks from the 2024 cohort having died. However, adults have been affected worst in other species: at least 80 adult Brown Skuas, and approximately 120 adult King Penguins. Much smaller numbers of affected giant petrels (at least 20 Southern and four Northern) and Sooty Albatrosses (five) have been observed. The deaths of adult seabirds are of greater concern than chicks, because most species only start to breed at 3 to 10 years of age, and most affected species raise at most one chick per year. There are also a multitude of other threats to seabirds, including fisheries bycatch, climate change, plastic pollution and predation by introduced house mice on Marion Island.

Marion Island, along with neighbouring Prince Edward Island, provides critical breeding and moulting grounds for millions of seabirds and marine mammals, including nearly half of the worlds Wandering Albatrosses, hundreds of thousands of penguins, and large numbers of Southern Elephant Seals and Subantarctic and Antarctic Fur Seals. The Archipelago is located in the south western Indian Ocean, about 2000km southeast of Cape Town and halfway between Africa and Antarctica.

Observations of and laboratory test results for HPAI (H5N1) on Marion Island can assist in inferring the potential risk to animals on Prince Edward Island, since they share various ecological characteristics. Visits to Prince Edward Island are limited to one visit every four years, to limit human impacts on the island and preserve its pristine state, and the last survey was undertaken in November 2023.

Having spread around the globe since 2021, HPAI (H5N1) was detected in seabirds and marine mammals in South Georgia, southeast of South America, in October 2023. It reached the Antarctic Peninsula in February 2024 and was detected at the French archipelagos of Crozet and Kerguelen (950 and 2300 km east of Marion respectively) in October and November 2024. The virus can be transported long distances by migrating birds, and the virus moved from South Georgia to the French islands.

The situation on Marion Island is being closely monitored by the field personnel overwintering on the island, who have been trained to recognise possible HPAI signs in birds and seals, and in the necessary monitoring and mitigation methods. They will continue to take all precautions to ensure they do not spread the virus. There are few other disease mitigation tools available in this type of situation.

The HPAI protocol [SANAP Protocol for the Management of Avian Influenza (20 April 2024) PDF – 960.4 KB] that has been implemented on Marion Island was developed by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, the management authority for the Prince Edward Islands, together with Western Cape Veterinary Services, marine ornithologists, marine mammal biologists, disease experts and colleagues overseas with similar experience. Efforts to monitor and hopefully limit the spread of the virus on the island will continue.

For media enquiries please contact:

Thobile Zulu-Molobi 
Mobile: +27 82 513 7154  
E-mail: tmolobi@dffe.gov.za

or

Peter Mbelengwa:  
Mobile: +27 82 611 8197 
E-mail: pmbelengwa@dffe.gov.za

JOB Alert: Marion Island 2025 to 2026

JOB Alert: Marion Island 2025 to 2026

Marion Island Research Station_Julius Klette

The following positions are available on the sub-Antarctic, Marion Island for the overwintering period (April 2025 to May 2026)

Environmental Officer   Assistant Environmental Officer

Communications Engineer  Diesel Mechanic  Electrical Engineer    Medical Orderly  

Senior Meteorological Technician  Assistant Meteorological Technician  

2 X Field Assistants – Sea Birds

Closing Date: 28 OCTOBER

Click here: View all positions

 

 

Jobs Alert: Marion Island

Jobs Alert: Marion Island

Applications open for:

  • Overwintering Birder 
  • Overwintering Killer Whaler 
  • Overwintering Sealer (2x positions) 

The National Research Foundation (NRF) supports and promotes research and human capital development through funding, the provision of National Research Facilities and science outreach platforms and programmes to the broader community in all fields of science and technology, including natural sciences, engineering, social sciences and humanities.

The South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) is a research platform funded by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and managed by the National Research Foundation (NRF) since 2002. SAEON is mandated to observe and research ecosystems on land, in coastal regions and the oceans to understand how those systems function and might change over time and space when influenced by socio-economic driving forces including climate change. We deliver our data online and offer tools, services and advice for informed environmental policy-making.

SAEON Egagasini Node, based in Cape Town, Western Cape, requires the services of suitably qualified individuals to be responsible for collecting field data on birds and mammals, to be used for conservation and academic purposes as part of the South African Polar Research Infrastructure (SAPRI). The birder will be contributing to the project ‘On-island impacts of climate change on the Southern Ocean’s iconic seabirds’ run by the FitzPatrick Institute (University of Cape Town). 

The Marion Island research station is managed and administered by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE). 

Apply before: 07 December 2023

Click here!

 

Anche Louw, South African Polar Research Infrastructure, 27 November 2023

Gough Island Expedition 2023: Trace Metal Biogeochemistry Research

Gough Island Expedition 2023: Trace Metal Biogeochemistry Research

Research team on the recent Gough Island takeover expedition. 

Gough Island Expedition_2023_Trace Metals (2)

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 InvestigatorDr Thomas Ryan-KeoghSenior Researcher at the Southern Ocean Carbon-Climate Observatory (SOCCO), CSIR South Africa
Co-Principal Investigator (On board DFFE team leader) Dr TN MtshaliDepartment of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE)
Co-Principal InvestigatorProf AN RoychoudhuryStellenbosch University (TracEx)
SOCCO/TracEx on board team leaderOlie ValkTracEx
On board team member (PhD Student)
Thapelo RamalepeSOCCO-TracEx
On board team member (MSc Student)
Miranda SitofileSOCCO-TracEx
On board DFFE team memberMutshutshu TsanwaniDFFE
On board DFFE team memberKanyisile VenaDFFE
On board DFFE team memberHassan IsmaelDFFE
On board DFFE team memberMbulelo MakhethaDFFE
On board team membersIncluding 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). 

Current NRF-SANAP funded projects

Visit SOCCO here!  Visit TracEx here!  

Featured Image: L-R (Back): Kanyisile Vena (DFFE), Ole Valk (TracEx), Hassan Ismael (DFFE), Mbulelo Makhetha (DFFE); (front) Miranda Sitofile (SOCCO-TracEx), Thato Mtshali (DFFE), Thapelo Ramalepe (SOCCO- TracEx), Mutshutshu Tsanwani (DFFE). 

Project information supplied by Dr Thomas Ryan-Keogh. Images supplied by Thapelo Ramalepe. 

Anche Louw, South African Polar Research Infrastructure, 30 October 2023. 

© South African National Antarctic Programme • Managed and administered by Antarctic Legacy of South Africa • Photo Credits