TEAM | FE | |
Project name | Seasonal iron speciation in the Southern Ocean | |
Principal Investigator 1 | Tommy Ryan-Keogh | Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) |
Principal Investigator 2 and onboard team leader | Thato Mtshali | Department of Forestry, Fisheries & the Environment (DFFE) |
Onboard FE team members:
Team Member | Role | Affiliation |
---|---|---|
Thato Mtshali | Onboard Team Leader | DFFE |
Natasha van Horsten | Postdoc | CSIR/UCT |
Gareth Kiviets | Technician | DFFE |
Gemma Portlock | PhD | University of Liverpool |
The project description as per the sailing orders for the SCALE Winter Cruise of 2022:
The overarching goal of the project is to improve our understanding of the natural complex biogeochemistry of iron in terms of sources, sinks and internal cycling on a seasonal scale in the Southern Ocean, in both the open ocean and naturally fertilised regions downstream of sub-Antarctic islands.
This morning, in the hangar of the RV S.A. Agulhas II, the South African Polar Research Infrastructure (SAPRI) trainees and the Mercury team got the opportunity to learn more about the sampling process used for all projects requiring extremely pure sampling conditions, such as the Fe-project. The experienced Dr Thato Mtshali explained how the CTD rosette is loaded with sampling bottles. The SAPRI trainees had the opportunity to assist in this process.
Images supplied by Susanne Fietz, PI and onboard team leader of the MERCURY team – to be introduced next.
Anche Louw, Antarctic Legacy of South Africa, 15 July 2022