Awards - Round 11

The AFI Moderating Panel met on 25th March 2010 to evaluate the 29 full applications that were submitted to Round 11 of AFI. Based on the Panel’s recommendations, NERC was able to award funding for five of the proposals; details are as given below. The Panel also approved (retrospectively) the support of six applications submitted under the Collaborative Gearing Scheme.

Awards are listed in alphabetical order of Principal Investigator’s surname.

Awarded under the Collaborative Gearing Scheme (CGS)


Abstracts of awarded AFI Round 11 proposals

(Descriptions as supplied by the proposers, in response to a request by NERC for a summary ‘in a style that could be publicised to a general audience’)

Professor Dan Charman, University of Exeter
Dr Pete Convey, British Antarctic Survey
Professor Howard Griffiths, University of Cambridge
Dr Dominic Hodgson, British Antarctic Survey

“Terrestrial Holocene climate variability on the Antarctic Peninsula” [AFI11/05]

The Antarctic continent is an important part of the Earth system, both influencing and responding to global ocean and atmospheric circulation. The ice sheet plays a major role in sea-level change and currently holds the equivalent of 70m of global sea-level rise. Monitoring change in the climate, cryosphere and biosphere of Antarctica is therefore a critical element in understanding and predicting future global change. Over the past 50 years, the climate over most of Antarctica has remained relatively stable, but the Antarctic Peninsula has experienced one of the highest rates of warming anywhere on Earth, with increases of 3°C since the 1950s, and even higher rates for winter in some locations. The rapid increase in temperature has been associated with decreased sea-ice extent, ice-shelf collapse, glacier retreat and increased ice flow rates, and changes in ecosystems on land and sea. However, the causes and context of the recent temperature changes are unclear, although it is thought that stratospheric ozone depletion and increasing greenhouse gases are both important. Current global climate models do not capture the observed changes adequately at present.

A key question in understanding and attribution of Antarctic climate change is whether the recorded changes on the Peninsula are unusual compared with past natural climate variability. However, this question cannot be addressed because the instrumental records are too short and existing proxy-climate records are not suitably located to be able to trace the spatial signature of change over time. The project proposed here will exploit moss banks as a new proxy-climate archive to test three key hypotheses:

  1. The recent temperature rise on the Antarctic Peninsula is unprecedented in the late Holocene.
  2. The spatial pattern of variability is similar to that which occurred during previous periods of climate change.
  3. Plant communities are responding to recent climate change by increases in growth rates and altered seasonal growth patterns.

Moss banks are ideal deposits for reconstructing climate change over the land surface of the Antarctic Peninsula because of their location in relation to recorded temperature changes, their age, and their attributes as archives. The moss banks have accumulated peat over the past 5–6000 years at locations throughout the western Antarctic Peninsula. They are formed of only one or two species, annual growth can be traced in the surface peats and preservation of moss remains is good. We will use multi-proxy indicators of past climate (stable isotopes, measures of decay, testate amoebae and moss morphology) to reconstruct climate variability from critical locations across the observed gradient in rate of temperature change between 69° and 61° S. Although these techniques are tried and tested in more temperate regions of the world, they have not been employed in the Antarctic. We carried out pilot studies on Signy Island which show that these proxies work well for the moss banks in the Antarctic so we know that our approach will produce valuable results. Our work will also involve improving our understanding of proxy-climate relationships by a programme of surface sampling and measurement. The records will be calibrated using annually resolved records covering the period of instrumental observations.

Together with records from Signy Island being produced as part of a current BAS PhD project supervised by members of the research team, emerging results from the BAS ice core at James Ross Island and some of the higher resolution ocean sediment records, our data will also provide the basis for a more complete understanding of late Holocene climate variability in the broader region, building on the BAS Past climate and Chemistry programme directed at reconstructing and understanding Holocene climate variability in the Antarctic Peninsula.

Dr Mark Clilverd, British Antarctic Survey
Mick Denton, Lancaster University

“Autonomous observations of energetic particle effects on the Antarctic atmosphere” [AFI11/22]

Recent research has suggested that energetic particles entering the Earth’s atmosphere at the poles can lead to 5–10 K changes in the surface temperatures in polar regions during the wintertime. This is thought to be as a result of chemical changes driven by energetic particles entering the Earth’s atmosphere at high altitudes (50–90 km) affecting the radiation balance of the atmosphere as a whole. However the exact nature of the particles is unknown, and further analysis/confirmation of the effect on surface temperature variability is limited by this knowledge gap. We propose to fill this knowledge gap by deploying low-powered narrow band radio receivers south of the Antarctic Peninsula in order to monitor energetic particle precipitation coming from the radiation belts that surround the Earth. Only then will the study of the impact of the particles in driving atmospheric chemical changes be possible with any degree of certainty.

Being able to site our experiments in the Antarctic is critical because:

  1. the geomagnetic latitudes of the sites chosen for this project are associated with processes occurring at the heart of the outer radiation belt — allowing us to determine the maximum radiation belt particle influence on the atmosphere;
  2. the effect of energetic particle precipitation on the experimental radiowave observations that we will make is enhanced over thick ice-sheet regions — this condition only occurs south of the Antarctic Peninsula at the geomagnetic latitudes that are needed to make the best observations;
  3. the region south of the Antarctic Peninsula is where most of the particle precipitation from the outer radiation belt will occur, because of the influence of the nearby South Atlantic Magnetic Anomaly in knocking the energetic particles out of their orbits and into the atmosphere.

The data collected, analysed and interpreted by the project partners brought together by this proposal, will allow us to model the chemical changes in the Antarctic atmosphere due to energetic particle precipitation. As a result we will be able to determine the impact of complex radiation belt processes on the global atmosphere. Our Investigation of the effects on polar surface temperatures is part of international efforts to understand climate variability and the links to the upper atmosphere (e.g. the NERC Science Themes, the Climate and Weather of the Sun-Earth System programme, phase II, and the International Living with a Star programme — ILWS) . Our proposal is also timely in that there will be extensive supporting measurements made during the lifetime of our proposal by x-ray balloons funded by NASA, and by new NASA and CSA radiation belt satellites, all supported by the ILWS programme. Extensive collaboration between this proposal and the balloon/satellite mission scientific teams has been initiated and will continue throughout the project lifetime.

Professor Karen Heywood, University of East Anglia
Professor Gwyn Griffiths, NOC, University of Southampton
Dr Sophie Fielding, British Antarctic Survey
Dr Stuart Dalziel, University of Cambridge
Professor Eugene Murphy, British Antarctic Survey
Dr Andrew Thompson, University of Cambridge

“Gliders: Excellent New Tools for Observing the Ocean (GENTOO)” [AFI11/06]

We all love the idea of having a robot to do our bidding. Scientists are realising that robot technology now offers exciting possibilities to observe our environment in ways we have only dreamt of. We will use a fleet of three robots roaming the ocean near Antarctica to answer science questions that are critical to our ability to predict and manage the ocean and its living resources in an era of unprecedented change.

The robots we will use are called ocean gliders. Much like the familiar airborne gliders, they do not have a propeller. Batteries drive a pump to move fluid between one area within the glider and another outside its hull, thus changing whether the glider is denser than seawater, so it sinks, or less dense than seawater, so it rises to the sea surface. It glides up and down, communicating via mobile phone with the scientists controlling it each time it comes to the surface. Oil prices have risen sharply in recent years, and ships use a great deal of oil. Using gliders as part of our future ocean and climate observing systems will save tax-payers’ money since some ocean observations can be done much more efficiently by remotely controlled gliders. Gliders can also observe the ocean when we’d really rather not be there with ships, such as in winter or in strong winds and heavy seas. This project plans to show that these possibilities are within our grasp.

We have assembled a multidisciplinary team of scientists who together are grappling with puzzles about how the ocean system works around Antarctica.

Dense cold water sinks around the continent of Antarctica when cold wind blows over the water and helps sea ice to form. We’ve known for nearly 100 years that this happens in the southern Weddell Sea. We think that this might now be happening in a new region, because of the recent collapse of the Larsen Ice Shelf. Our gliders will measure the amount of dense water spilling off the continental shelf. This is important because climate models suggest that the amount and properties of this dense water are likely to impact on the global ocean overturning circulation that controls our climate; we need to know if these are changing. This dense water spilling over the continental slope probably also affects where the ocean currents are. So these currents might be moving further onshore or offshore, as the dense water changes. We’ll try to measure and understand this.

These changes in the ocean currents also affect the animals living in the waters near Antarctica. Krill are shrimp-like creatures that form the prey for animals such as whales, seals and penguins, not to mention underpinning a multi-million pound krill fishing industry (ever had a krill pizza?). Krill lay their eggs around the Antarctic Peninsula, and are then carried across the Scotia Sea to South Georgia by the ocean currents. Whilst the west Antarctic Peninsula is well surveyed, we don’t know how many krill are in the Weddell Sea, on the eastern side of the Peninsula, possibly spending the winter under sea ice. Might the changes in ocean current affect whether these krill reach South Georgia? If we can establish that the krill are surviving under the ice and could travel to South Georgia, it may be that marine mammals and the krill fishing industry will be less vulnerable to climate change than we have feared. In which case, krill may become a more important food resource for us humans too in an uncertain future; you never know, the krill pizza may find its way to your local supermarket before long!

Dr Andy Hodson, University of Sheffield
Dr David Pearce, British Antarctic Survey
Dr Pete Convey, British Antarctic Survey

“Productivity and biogeochemistry of terrestrial, ice-bound ecosystems of the maritime Antarctic” [AFI11/07]

The most poorly understood terrestrial habitat in Antarctica is its ice: a significant microbial resource that collectively constitutes the largest single freshwater reservoir of bacteria on the Earth’s surface. The total bacterial cell biomass in the Antarctic ice sheet is thought to amount to - 2.44 Tg (Priscu and Christner, 2004) and so mass losses from West Antarctic and the Peninsula (~180 Gt ice a-1;: Ringnot et al, in press: Nature Letters) mean major biomass and organic carbon fluxes (~16 Gg C a-1) are taking place whose ecological implications have been completely overlooked. Furthermore, these are viable microorganisms that are so active when melting takes place that they sequester between 50% and 75% of the inorganic snowpack nutrient reservoir (Hodson, 2006) and fix ~10mg C m-2d-1 from the atmosphere by photosynthesis (Fogg, 1968). Thus snow and ice-bound microorganisms transform enormous quantities of inorganic nutrients and CO2 from the atmosphere into organic biomass while they are in transit to the coast. Here, there is now evidence that glacial and snowmelt runoff can increase marine plankton blooms up to 100 km offshore (Dierssen et al., 2002). A systematic study of the internal biological production and biogeochemistry of snow and ice habitats in the maritime Antarctic is therefore long overdue. Further, since extreme responses to climate change are already being observed here in its soil, lake and coastal ecosystems, we believe that an investigation of the relationship between these changes and those occurring in snow and ice habitats is urgently required.

Measurements of the nutrient content of snow and ice prior to melt cannot be used to predict enhanced production in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems at the ice margin because this neglects the internal nutrient demands imposed by its own biological production. It also offers no insights into the biological CO2 pump in icy habitats, which will dominate the terrestrial ecosystem CO2 budget, yet has never been measured. The net impact of biological production within snow and ice is most likely a significant regional CO2 source, but this flux will become far greater if other parts of coastal Antarctica begin to melt to the same extent as the northern Peninsula and Scotia arc. This project will therefore quantify the microbiology, nutrient economy and productivity of snow and ice surface habitats as they melt in the maritime Antarctic. Our approach will be to establish transects upon Signy lsland (South Orkney Islands) that are representative of the broad range of melting and nutrient gradients found along much of the Antarctic Peninsula's west coast and associated archipelagos. These sites will encompass nutrient-rich, high melt rate coastal snowpacks and nutrient impoverished, cold snowpacks at altitudes where melting is sporadic and typically restricted to the surface. We will also follow the retreat of the snowpack up our transects and examine the glacier surface habitats exposed as a consequence. At each site we will establish the microbial community structure and biomass throughout the summer and track the fate of microorganisms as melting removes them from the snow and ice. We will also track nutrients at the same time and measure the melt energy fluxes that drive the whole system. This tight integration of physical, chemical and biological process measurements and also the range of sites being considered are important because they will then enable us to assess other parts of the Antarctic Peninsula not subject to detailed monitoring. For these areas, we will use existing meteorological data and estimates of melt extent to calculate the westward flux of melt, nutrients and microbial biomass that might be expected under current and future melt scenarios. At the same time we will establish the CO2 fluxes as a result of biological activity within Antarctic snow and ice habitats for the first time.

Dr Clare Robinson, University of Manchester
Dr Kevin Newsham, British Antarctic Survey
Dr Roland Bol, North Wyke Research Station
Dr Jennifer Dungait, North Wyke Research Station

“Relating fungal functional diversity to C-cycling in sub- and maritime Antarctic soils” [AFI11/02]

The decomposition of organic matter is a critical process to the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. This process is largely driven by saprotrophic (decomposer) fungi in soil and plant litter. Saprotrophic fungi therefore have pivotal roles in the release of carbon (C) from terrestrial ecosystems, in the form of CO2 (a climate-forcing gas), to the atmosphere. Currently, little is known of the specific roles of individual fungal species, i.e. functional diversity, in the degradation of particular C components in the sub- and Maritime Antarctic. The first step in characterising functional diversity is to identify the soil C components (fractions, particle sizes and ages) with which decomposer fungi in soil are associated. Establishing baseline fungal taxonomic and functional diversity and characterizing the soil C components — central aims of this proposal — are fundamental to understand the impacts of environmental change on Antarctic ecosystems.

Why the sub- and Maritime Antarctic? Soils in these regions have relatively high stocks of C because of the slow decomposition of organic matter and the tundra vegetation present. For example, soils from South Georgia and Signy Island contain 30 to 40% C. The potential temperature responses of these soils and the C fractions they contain are also important to understand because the terrestrial Maritime Antarctic has been warming rapidly, at c. 0.2–0.4 °C per decade over the past 50–100 years, one of the fastest rates of warming recorded. The temperature sensitivity of young and older C fractions in releasing CO2 to the atmosphere is much debated, particularly for peatlands and permafrost soils, such as those that occur in the sub- and Maritime Antarctic.

We will determine the associations of specific fungal taxa with specific organic fractions in the field at three sites in the sub- and Maritime Antarctic, and characterise by age and organic geochemistry, the C components of these fractions. In the laboratory, the specific C fractions mineralised by ‘key’ species of fungi will be determined, together with responses to temperature increases and freeze-thaw cycles.

The outcomes of the project will be:

  1. a better understanding of the roles of particular groups of fungi in the C cycle,
  2. a benchmark for future studies (e.g. in arctic or temperate soils) of the functional roles of fungal mycelia in relation to C mineralization will have been obtained, and
  3. the effects of temperature increases / freeze-thaw on C mineralization will have been determined.

Further information on individual CGS Awards

Professor Peter Liss CBE, FRS (University of East Anglia)
Dr Claire Hughes (University of East Anglia)
Dr Suzanne Turner (University of East Anglia)
Dr Gill Malin (University of East Anglia)
Dr Roland von Glasow (University of East Anglia)
Professor Andrew Clarke (University of East Anglia/BAS Emeritus Fellow)

“Inter-annual variability in the production of ozone-depleting bromocarbon gases in near-shore Antarctic waters” [CGS11/55]

Sea-to-air bromine flux is known to contribute significantly to ozone depletion in the troposphere. Associated with the seasonal increase in chlorophyll a during the summer, we previously observed large increases in the seawater concentrations of CHBr3 and CH2Br2 at the RaTS site, which would drive high rates of bromine flux across the sea surface. Recent measurements showed that the seasonal phytoplankton bloom at RaTS was less pronounced in the last 2 years, possibly due to increased grazing by krill, and that this decline was associated with lower bromocarbon concentrations. This bid requests BAS support to return to Rothera during the 09/10 summer to further investigate this potentially important link between the Antarctic marine biosphere and atmospheric chemistry, and provide data to augment our models of sea-to-air bromocarbon flux and atmospheric chemistry.

Dr Raja Ganeshram (University of Edinburgh)
Dr Michael Meredith (BAS)
Professor Andrew Clarke (University of East Anglia/BAS)
Dr Hugh Venables (BAS)

“Linking sea-ice variability with diatom assemblage changes and nutrient dynamics in the Antarctic sea-ice environment: A collaborative study with the RaTS LTMS programme.” [CGS11/56]

To augment findings from an earlier CGS proposal which investigated how variability in water column structure and sea ice dynamics influence phytoplankton assemblage composition, in the context of the timing and magnitude of the summer phytoplankton bloom and the production of biogenic detritus. The project will also investigate mechanisms by which sea ice affects primary production in the water column (specifically, density structure, nutrient dynamics and iron inputs). Data will be interpreted within the context of recent changes in seasonal productivity that may point to a regime shift. Furthermore, there is a degree of synergy and commonality with the CGS11/55 project led by Professor Peter Liss.

Dr William Purvis (Natural History Museum, London)
Dr Pete Convey (BAS)
Dr Helen Peat (BAS)
Dr Michael Flowerdew (BAS)
Dr Linda Davies (Imperial College, London)
Dr Heidi Döring (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

“Exploring Antarctic saxicolous crustose lichen biodiversity under global climate change.” [CGS11/57]

The fieldwork is to obtain fresh samples of saxicolous crustose lichens growing on different mineralized rocks, and establish base-line monitoring locations. New specimens, not currently represented in collections, will be obtained, giving the basis for inter-disciplinary studies which aim to address: (i) How do lichens respond in terms of mineralization under global climate change? (ii) What is the relationship between lichen species and photobionts under different mineralization scenarios — how many photobionts are specific for a mycobiont, and what factors influence mycobiont selection of photobionts? By understanding the vulnerability of different lichen species, they can be used as a ‘warning system’ for climate change across the planet.

Dr Phil Leat (BAS)
Dr Simon Day (University College, London)
Professor Mark Maslin (University College, London)

“New particles and aerosol in the sea ice zone” [CGS11/58]

The seafloor will be mapped using the ship’s EM120 multibeam system, and swath data processed. Sub-bottom profiling will be performed using the TOPAS system. These techniques allow determination of the 3D structure of seafloor features, from which the extent and internal structure of the collapse scars and debris avalanche deposits will be determined. The objective is to determine, in conjunction with models, the amplitude and run-out of tsunamis generated by those undersea events.

Professor Jane Francis (University of Leeds)
Dr Alistair Crame (BAS)

“Plant evolution and climate change in Antarctica during the Palaeogene” [CGS11/59]

This project will allow an investigation of the influence of climate on the diversity of forests and plant growth in Antarctica during the Palaeogene ~65–50 million years ago. The impact of climatic extremes at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary 65Ma and around the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (55 million years ago) will be examined, during which times global climates were profoundly disturbed by an impact/volcanic event (KT) and by rapid climate warming (PETM) respectively. The effect of these events on Antarctic ecosystems is not well known but excellent sections on Seymour Island will yield new information about the most southerly response to these extreme events.

Dr Rob Bingham (University of Aberdeen)
Dr Ed King (BAS)

“Investigating ice flow into Eltanin Bay, Bellingshausen Sea, Antarctica” [CGS11/60]

The objective is to quantify the mass imbalance of Ferrigno ice stream (84°W, 74°S), which is a good analogue for the larger (and less accessible) Pine Island glacier. Consequently, the study will complement and contribute to ongoing BAS research in the Amundsen Sea Embayment.