SOBUMS

The Southern Ocean (oceans south of 30°S) plays a key role in global biogeochemical cycles. But large environmental changes are ongoing in the Southern Ocean physical and biogeochemical properties. These changes reflect widespread environmental changes that are occurring throughout the southern hemisphere and over the Southern Ocean (changes in surface winds, solar radiation, sea ice cover and glacial melt from Antarctica). How the Southern Ocean primary production and carbon cycle will respond to these changing climate stressors is a matter of concern in the climate science community.

A changing Southern Ocean.

Figure 1 : (a) A schematic representation of the current systems in the Southern Ocean. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) flows around Antarctica in two major branches, the Polar Front and Subantarctic Front (from Rintoul et al., 2011) ; (b) Schematic showing the impact of climate forcing in CMIP5 models in the Southern Ocean by the end of the twenty-first century. Arrows indicate changes in transport within CMIP5 model ensemble (from Meijers et al. 2014).

“SOBUMS : Southern Ocean Biogeochemistry Under Multiple Stressors” project has just been accepted for funding by ANR for 2017-2020. SOBUMS project team involves researchers and engineers from LOCEAN, LSCE, Mercator-Ocean and LGGE. With this project, we will undertake modelling work with NEMO and PISCES in order to :

  • Quantify how changes in each climate stressors will affect Southern Ocean primary production, CO2 uptake and carbonate chemistry (pH).
  • Quantify the integrated response of Southern Ocean biogeochemistry and carbon cycle to future changes in climate stressors.
  • Assess the ability of NEMO model configuration to be used in CMIP6 ESMs to quantitatively capture the response of Southern Ocean biogeochemistry to changing climatic stressors.
  • Quantify the uncertainties in the representation of the processes involved in the Southern Ocean biogeochemical response to changing climate stressors in NEMO model configurations.

Over the next 4 years, the project will fund :

  • a research engineeer at LOCEAN (Paris) for 18 months.
  • a research engineer at LSCE (Saclay) for 36 months.
  • a postdoc at LGGE (Grenoble) for 24 months.
  • a postdoc at LOCEAN (Paris) for 24 months

Do not hesitate to contact us for more information about these future positions.