About the Project
The Southern Ocean influences climate, sea level, biogeochemical cycles and marine productivity on global scales. Observations suggest that rapid change is already underway in the Southern Ocean, but the measurements are sparse and hence the nature, causes and implications of Southern Ocean change are not yet understood. This exciting PhD project will contribute to a multi-disciplinary observational program measuring a comprehensive suite of physical and biogeochemical variables along a full‐depth repeat hydrographic section extending from Australia to the Antarctic sea ice edge.
The candidate will join a research team on a 42 day oceanographic voyage of the Marine National Facility’s Research Vessel ‘Investigator’ in the Southern Ocean in early 2018, that will study the marine biogeochemistry of trace elements and their isotopes (TEIs) along the SR3 section (~140oE), a signature field program of the ACE CRC. Following the fieldwork, the candidate will participate in laboratory analyses and experiments using state-of-the-art facilities and instrumentation to determine the distributions, physico-chemical form and sufficiency of micronutrient trace elements in the Southern Ocean, and their relationships to changing environmental conditions. In the latter stages, this project will feed vital information on the prevalence and flux of trace elements into biogeochemical and ecosystem models of the region.
References
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