Research

Current projects

Antarctic Science Platform (since 2022) ASP supported sea ice and ship-based fieldwork in the past three seasons. Objectives are an improved understanding of the pelagic and sympagic ecosystem in the Ross Sea with a particular focus on changes in the zooplankton community with climate change.

Continuous Plankton Recorder project (since 2022) During the last voyages on the RV Tangaroa and RV Laura Bassi, I was responsible for the deployment of the Continuous Plankton Recorder. Together with Dr. Matt Pinkerton, I co-authored the final report to Fisheries New Zealand for the third phase of the CPR. We are currently awaiting confirmation of further funding to continue the time-series.

JETZON (since 2021) I’m part of the Joint Exploration of the Twilight Zone Ocean Network Steering Committee and ECR group. Previously, we published a short comment on five reasons to take the precautionary approach to deep-sea exploitation and incorporating the deep sea into the Ocean Decade. Currently, I lead a working group to benchmark the migratory flux component in the Biological Carbon Pump, with Dr. Deborah Steinberg (VIMS, USA) as a mentor, and work on a publication on the impact of mCDR methods on the mesopelagic zone with other ECRs.

SOOS leadership (since 2020) Since November 2020, I have been part of the leadership team of the Regional Working Group for the Indian Sector of the Southern Ocean (SOOS). We aim for coordination and implementation of the ocean observing system in the region and cumulating efforts in fieldwork planning up to data management. We recently submitted a review on the spatial and temporal coverage of ocean observations in the region.

Previous projects

Ross-RAMP (2022-2023) As part of Ross-RAMP, I participated in Antarctic fieldwork in 2022/23 on the metazoan distribution in the sympagic ecoysystem of McMurdo Sund and the variability of zooplankton communities in the northwestern Ross Sea. I also assisted a PhD project to improve the genetic database of Southern Ocean zooplankton.

SKEG and ICED Krill research (2021-2024) Following the ICED krill workshop in May 2021 (workshop report here), I contributed to a publication on working on modelling krill recruitment (in review). Additionally, I co-authored a publication on krill observation methods together with the SCAR Krill Expert Group (Link here).

SOLACE (2020-2022) I joined the SOLACE (Southern Ocean Large Area Carbon Export) voyage December 2020 - January 2021 as a zooplankton expert. My research on board focused on quantifying the seasonal lipid pump, the mesopelagic migrant pump, jelly falls, and amphipod-mediated carbon export. I’m currently working on publishing the results. I also supported research on Deep Chlorophyll Maxima and contributed to a review on the role of biota in the carbon pump of the Southern Ocean, published in Nature Reviews.

PhD project: Role of zooplankton in the Biological Carbon Pump of the subantarctic Southern Ocean (2017-2021) My PhD project explored how zooplankton impact carbon export and sequestration in the subantarctic Southern Ocean.

My chapters included:

• How zooplankton contribute to shaping the characteristic carbon export regimes in the Southern Ocean. Read about it here.
• Deep-sea zooplankton data at the Southern Ocean Time Series site at 47°S south of Australia, collected in long-term sediment traps. Check out my ECOmagazine article.
• The impact of zooplankton carcasses on subantarctic carbon flux, as carcasses have been traditionally overlooked when calculating the oceanic carbon budget. Find the published study here.
• Finding ways to measure in-situ respiration of zooplankton to test global estimates and models of plankton respiration. More information will be published soon.
• As a bonus, I found a new species, which I named and described here!

MEASO (2018-2021) I contributed to the first Marine Ecosystem Assessment of the Southern Ocean, which started with the MEASO conference in 2018. I was involved in several publications, including on zooplankton in the Southern Ocean, ecosystem services, data systems, and ECR perspectives.