"Phytoplankton abundance and composition in the Southern Ocean: Bio-optical research during the recent Antarctic Circumpolar Expedition (ACE)."
From December 2016 to March 2017, members of RSSRG circumnavigated Antarctica onboard the Russian research vessel Akademik Treshnikov. The Antarctic Circumpolar Expedition (ACE) was the first scientific expedition carried out under the auspices of the Swiss Polar Institute, supported by funding from the ACE Foundation and Ferring Pharmaceuticals.
During the expedition, the bio-optics team, led by David Antoine (RSSRG) and Sandy Thomalla (CSIR), collected a dataset of radiometric, optical and biogeochemical variables of unprecedented size and consistency for the Southern Ocean. The unique data set in combination with historical and other contemporaneous data will allow RSSRG members and collaborators to describe regionally-specific bio-optical relationships, and to identify the origin of the biases in current satellite OCR observations. The data collected during the ACE expedition will allow the development of new algorithms for robust studies of seasonal to decadal changes of phytoplankton abundance and species composition in the SO using satellite observations.
ACE travel map, from Cape Town to Hobart to Punta Arenas and back to Cape Town
Videos of the 3 legs:
LEG1
LEG2
LEG3
Project partners:
Project supervision:
David Antoine, RSSRG, Curtin University, Perth, Australia
Sandy Thomalla, CSIR, Cape Town, South Africa
Expedition participants:
All 3 legs:
Nina Schuback, RSSRG, Curtin University, Perth, Australia
William Moutier UCT, CSIR, Cape Town, South Africa
David Berliner UCT, CSIR, Cape Town, South Africa
Leg1: Hazel Little UCT, CSIR, Cape Town, South Africa
Leg1: Thomas Ryan-Keogh UCT, CSIR, Cape Town, South Africa
Leg2: Alexandra Oliver Biospherical Instruments, San Diego, USA
Leg3: Charlotte Robinson, RSSRG, Curtin University, Perth,
Australia
Collaborators:
Nicolas Metzl, LOCEAN, France
Yannick Huot, Sherbrooke University, Canada
Stanford Hooker, NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, USA
John Morrow, Biospherical Instruments, USA
Peter Strutton, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia
Nick Hardman-Mountford, CSIRO, Perth, Australia
Emmanuel Boss, University of Maine, Orono, USA
Séverine Alvain CNRS-LOG, France
Julia Uitz, CNRS-LOV, France
Joséphine Ras, CNRS-LOV, France
A few links related to ACE in general:
http://spi-ace-expedition.ch/
https://www.facebook.com/ACEexpedition/
… and to our participation more specifically:
http://spi-ace-expedition.ch/selected-projects/measuring-phytoplankton-abundance-and-composition/
http://spi-ace-expedition.ch/learning-about-our-climate-from-the-color-of-microalgae/
http://theconversation.com/why-im-spending-three-months-sailing-right-around-antarctica-for-science-67782
Data and analyses:
To come later