The Southern Ocean is a key regulator of the global climate system, driving air–sea exchanges, deep water upwelling, and the absorption of heat and carbon. It has slowed global surface warming and supports a major share of the biological carbon pump. Yet, rapid environmental changes and model uncertainties raise questions about whether these critical services will persist.
Key scientific questions include:
- Heat: Has global warming reached Antarctica and the Southern Ocean? How much heat is exchanged among the ocean, ice, and atmosphere, and how is it transported?
- Freshwater: Is the polar water cycle intensifying? How do precipitation, evaporation, sea-ice and ice-sheet melt alter salinity, stratification, and circulation?
- Carbon: Is the Southern Ocean a source or sink for CO₂, especially in winter? How are the biological carbon pump and seasonal fluxes changing?
- Other elements: What are the budgets and trends of trace gases, isotopes, and nutrients such as iron and manganese?
Scientific challenges:
- Southern Ocean surface waters have resisted global warming trends, though recent record heat events and deeper ocean warming highlight urgent knowledge gaps.
- The freshwater cycle remains poorly constrained but strongly influences ice sheet mass balance and ocean circulation.
- The carbon cycle’s response to increased upwelling and its role in mitigating global warming is uncertain, with recent evidence suggesting larger-than-expected winter CO₂ release.
Approach:
Antarctica InSync will tackle these challenges through year-round, circumpolar, interdisciplinary observations, focusing on heat, freshwater, carbon, and elemental budgets across the ocean, atmosphere, and cryosphere—especially in underexplored regions and during austral winter.
Find out more in the Science Plan on Theme 1.
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