A team of researchers, led by Senior Research Scientist Emeritus Barney Balch, has published new research helping illuminate some of the mysteries of the remote and cold Southern Ocean.
The new study in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles finds multiple pieces of evidence suggesting that diatoms, with silica-rich cell walls, are dominating the cold, remote waters south of the Polar Front.
Even more surprising? The team also found coccolithophores living in these frigid waters farther south than scientists expected. This discovery reshapes our understanding of how microscopic marine life drives the Southern Ocean’s critical role in storing atmospheric carbon, and it could inform how satellites detect and track ocean ecosystems.
Balch was joined by Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences affiliates Dave Drapeau, Bruce Bowler, and Sunny Pinkham, and an interdisciplinary team of researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Arizona State University, Texas A&M University, and BIOS Arizona State University.
Photo 1: Researchers, including study co-authors Bruce Bowler (left) and Sunny Pinkham (with the clipboard), take samples from a CTD rosette that collects water at each station for several variables at multiple depths.
Photo 2: An iceberg spotted near the most southern point of the research cruise’s transect highlights some of the challenges and dangers of gathering data from this part of the ocean (Credit: Sunny Pinkham).
Photo 3: Researchers, including the study’s lead author Barney Balch (right), deploy a probe off the ship to collect optical data down to 100m depth (Credit: Sunny Pinkham).
