by Fishgate@sanap | Aug 1, 2019 | Antarctica, Current Event, News, Research, SA Agulhas II, SANAP, Science, Southern Ocean
Jean Loock and Johan Viljoen, Stellenbosch University doctoral candidates currently onboard the S.A. Agulhas II, gave some insight on why the TracEx -group is so interested in studying the Southern Ocean during winter and the particular interest in the seasonal sea-ice.
“Phytoplankton are microorganisms that help regulate global climate through carbon dioxide uptake as they photosynthesise. To do this they require nutrients but in the remote oceans food is scarce, resulting in fierce competition and poor growth of these plankton. However, within the seasonal sea-ice that grows during winter and extends northwards from Antarctica, a thriving little community of microorganisms exist.
Our team is looking to analyze the snow layer on the ice, the ice itself and the water below the ice in an attempt to understand how these nutrients are concentrating within the ice. It may be that during the summer melting phase, these nutrients are expelled from the ice and provide the food required for large scale blooms of phytoplankton and thereby improved carbon dioxide uptake. These curious cases are crucial to improving our understanding of the climate system in a changing environment”.
Follow the TracEx Group on Facebook and Twitter.
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TracEx team member Johan Viljoen busy subsampling water from a Niskin CTD sampling bottle to filter for phytoplankton cells to create a depth profile of how the phytoplankton changes with depth in the winter Southern Ocean. Photo Credit: Dr Susanne Fietz.
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The trace metal sampling bottles (GoFlo Bottles) and trace clean rosette being launched by the very skillfull SA Agulhas II crew for water sampling up to 4000m. Photo Credit: Johan Viljoen.
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The UCT ice team busy preparing to drill ice cores from more consolidated pancake ice. The drilling is done for the multiple teams onboard. Credit: Jean Loock.
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TracEx onboard team leader, Dr Susanne Fietz, on site at coring of pancake ice to ensure trace clean coring as far as possible. Very skillfully done by UCT students, Benjamin Hall and Riesna Audh. Photo Credit: Johan Viljoen.
Preparing the Mini Geotraces CTD Rosette before the cruise:
On the day of the first launch, during the #SCALExperiment #WinterCruise2019 .
Team TracEx getting ready to deploy their new mini CTD rosette in ice conditions to collect water samples to study the trace metals in the water column below ice. Photo Credit: Johan Viljoen
For more information on #SCALExperiment #WinterCruise2019 – click here.
Anché Louw, Antarctic Legacy of South Africa, 01 August 2019
by Fishgate@sanap | Jul 30, 2019 | Announcement, Antarctica, News, Newsletters, SANAE, Team member
In this edition:
- Meet the Team Medical Doctor, Salomé Odendaal
- Learn more about the medical facilities at the base
- The ins and outs about waste management here at SANAE IV
- What you want to know about cooking and a typical SANAE braai
- Weather summary for the month and more…
Click here to download/view the SANAE IV Newsletter, June 2019 Edition
Most recent news from the team:
#Antarctica #SANAEIV The 58th overwintering team at the South African National Antarctic Expedition Station had a…
Posted by Antarctic Legacy of South Africa on Sunday, 28 July 2019
Click here to view all the SANAE newsletters available on the Antarctic Legacy of South Africa Archive.
Anché Louw, Antarctic Legacy of South Africa, 30 July 2019
by Fishgate@sanap | Jul 24, 2019 | Current Event, Research, Science, Southern Ocean
Cruise Date: 18 July 2019 until 12 August 2019.
Do you want to know more about this year’s SCALE (Southern oCean seAsonal Experiment) Winter Cruise, which is multi-disciplinary, multi-institution, multi-national research conducted in the Southern Ocean?
Click on the media brief below for more information:
For more information on this year’s scientific programme and to meet the national and international partners part the cruise – click here.
Check out the following hashtags on social media:
#SCALExperiment and #WinterCruise2019
#SCALExperiment#saagulhas2.More science – glider deployments on the SCALE Winter Cruise of 2019. Follow Southern…
Posted by Antarctic Legacy of South Africa on Wednesday, 24 July 2019
by Fishgate@sanap | Jul 11, 2019 | Antarctica, Current Event, Meetings, News, SANAP
South Africa’s permanent presence on the Antarctic continent commenced shortly after the Norwegians announced the evacuation of their Antarctic base, which was established for the International Geophysics Year (IGY), in the Dronning Maud Land region (approximately 4000 km south of Cape Town). This base was taken over by South Africa in 1959, during the first South African National Antarctic Expedition (SANAE), under the leadership of J.J. ‘Hannes’ la Grange (also Senior Meteorologist of the team).
1st SANAE Overwintering Team of 1960 (L-R: André van der Merwe, Dick Bonnema, Hannes la Grange, Marten du Preez, Blackie de Swardt).
Antarctic Treaty counties: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States and USSR.
In the same year, South Africa, along with eleven other countries signed the Antarctic Treaty, hence SA is one of the founding members of the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), and however South Africa never made a territorial claim in Antarctica, is seen as a “consultative party” within the Antarctic Treaty, due to its legitimate interest in Antarctica (Viall 1991).
The Antarctic Treaty can be described as “agreements and arrangements which regulate international relations and activities in Antarctica” (Viall 1991). The aim of the Antarctic Treaty was to ensure that Antarctica (the area south of 60° S latitude) would be used for no other than peaceful purposes. The Antarctic Treaty also stipulates that military activities, nuclear explosions and the disposal of radioactive waste are prohibited in Antarctica (The Antarctic Treaty, 1959). Read more here.
South Africa has certain obligations to the ATS regarding conservation on Antarctica and on its sub-Antarctic islands and form part of the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) and Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).
The Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) kicked off in 1961 and was held biennially, however since 1994 it became evident that this meeting should be held annually. As stipulated by the Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty, ‘the meeting is hosted by Consultative parties according to the alphabetical order of their English names’.
This year the meeting in held in Prague, France. South Africa’s delegation consists of:
- Chief Director: Specialist Monitoring Systems (Mr L. Fikizolo) – HoD
- Director: Earth Systems Strategies (Mr M. Dopolo),
- Acting Director: Integrated Projects and International Coordination (Mr Y. Mngxe),
- State Law Advisor: Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Ms R. Brammer).
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Mr L. Fikizolo, Mr M. Dopolo, Mr Y. Mngxe and Ms R. Brammer.
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Lize-Marié van der Watt and Richard Skinner.
Furthermore South Africans, Richard Skinner (previously with the South African Department of Environmental Affairs and a long-time participant within the South African National Antarctic Programme) and Lize-Marié van der Watt (Doctor of Philosophy at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden) are currently also at this meeting as part of the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat support staff.
References:
The Antarctic Treat (1959) http://blogs.sun.ac.za/antarcticlegacy/wp-content/blogs.dir/189/files/2015/10/The-Antarctic-Treaty1.pdf
Viall JD (1991) South Africa: The Road to the Antarctic Treaty. South African Journal of Antarctic Research, Volume 21:125-128.
Anché Louw, Antarctic Legacy of South Africa, 11 July 2019.
by Fishgate@sanap | Jul 9, 2019 | Current Event, News, Research, SA Agulhas II, SANAP, Science, Southern Ocean
On the 1st of July 2019, 41 students from various universities across South Africa have set sail from the Port of Cape Town, onboard the S.A. Aghulus II, as part of the annual SEAmester course run by Prof Isabelle Ansorge from the Department of Oceanography, University of Cape Town. Assisting her onboard is Tahlia Henry, programme coordinator; watch this interview with Tahlia just before departure. Students who are in the marine field of study and who make it through the hundreds of applications get the fantastic opportunity to participate in this 11-day South African class afloat. The cruise travels up the coast to Port Elizabeth where the vessel turns into the deeper oceans in order to travel along the ASCA line. The line plots its course at certain intervals, where CTD (conductivity, temperature and depth) tests are done.
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Crew member, Bradley, standing by during a science station.
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Student assembling her design during a workshop.
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Morning whale watching before breakfast.
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A slightly windy morning.
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Students hard at work on their projects.
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Charging forward in the rough conditions.
While students are onboard the days are filled with a selection of lectures and practicals, run by leaders in the field of marine science. The practicals give students some hands-on experience within their field of interest, for example students get to partake in CTD observations where the CTD is lowered to different depths at different points along the cruise to measure depth, salinity and temperature. These observations are done in order to gain a better understanding of the Aghulus current. The South African Weather Service also has a meteorological technician/forecaster onboard, demonstrating the release of a weather balloon, while informing students on the data gathered from the radiosonde (box attached to the balloon gather certain data) – view this video to learn more about weather observations from the S.A. Agulhas II. Other practicals onboard include; dissections on marine mammals, parasitology studies, seafloor sediments studies, mammal observations and micro plastic sampling.
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The mini boat being deployed – the miniboat has GPS tracking and it provides data on the movements of the currents.
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Working on their Aghulus bottle opener in the practical session.
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What happens to a polystyrene cup if it’s sent down to 4000m.
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Looking to see what was found after nets have been retrieved – the science continues at all hours of the day.
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Listening for mammal sounds.
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Dr Greg Hofmeyr, Port Elizabeth Museum working on Marine Mammals, illustrating a seal dissection.
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CTD returning.
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Dr Delphine Thibault – Associate Professor in Biological Oceanography, specialising in the study of gelatinous zooplankton for the past 20 years.
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Dr Fannie Shabangu – PhD in Bioacoustics. His research background is in the application of the acoustic technology to study marine organisms.
Surrounded by the blue ocean looking left, right, backwards and forwards reminds one of the vastness of the ocean. Sunrises and sunsets are most definitely a highlight for students as they are able to watch the sun break through the horizon from the monkey deck.
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Morning whale watching before breakfast.
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The cruise has thus far experienced some great weather in the first few days, but we did end up face to face with a cold front. It was a slightly bumpy ride to say the least as the vessel had to navigate its way through 9m swells and 40 knot winds.
The vessel is expected to back in the Port of Cape Town by morning, 11 July 2019.
S.A. Ahulhas II moving through calm waters. Photo Credit: Alex Oelofse.
All photo supplied by the photographer onboard the vessel: Alex Oelofse.
Author: Alex Oelofse, Photographer onboard the vessel. Edited by: Anché Louw, 09 July 2019.
