Professor Alessandro Tagliabue, from the University of Liverpool’s School of Environmental Sciences, will lead a new £4 million research project that will help to better predict the effects of climate change on the Southern Ocean.
Funded by NERC, and bringing together five UK Universities and eight international partner organisations, the IronMan project will explore the role of micronutrients, specifically iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn), in regulating the Southern Ocean, an issue that has been overlooked by current models.
Fieldwork focusing on different Antarctic regions will exploit state-of-the-art observational, experimental and modelling tools to produce improved models for calculating the effects of climate change on the Southern Ocean.
The project will specifically explore regional variations in Fe and Mn supply, how photosynthetic phytoplankton and zooplankton respond to changes in Fe and Mn and whether integrating Mn and regional ecology alters future climate change projections.
Liverpool ocean biogeochemist Professor Tagliabue said: “Currently, the best models used by IPCC scientists cannot correctly reproduce the direction of ongoing climate change and we urgently need accurate climate-model projections to assess the response of Southern Ocean ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles to climate change.
“This project brings together an interdisciplinary team of scientists to address this issue. It will improve our efforts to protect and conserve these important ecosystems and increase our understanding of how carbon and nutrient cycling responds in the future and in the geological past.”
The Southern Ocean plays an important role in the Earth system. It drives ocean circulation and climate, where it plays a critical role in carbon sequestration and supplies nutrients to lower latitudes where they support global productivity.
Professor Tagliabue co-leads the international GEOTRACES programme and was a lead author on the IPCC Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate.