The third BIOPOLE Annual Science Meeting took place online from 13–14 May 2025. The event brought together BIOPOLE Project Members, Early Career Researchers (ECRs), and Programme Advisory Board (PAB) Members. In total, around 10 participants attended in person at BAS, with 46 joining virtually.
Over the two days, the meeting featured interesting discussions, insightful scientific talks, engaging presentations, and a compelling keynote address.
Day 1 Highlights
The meeting began with a project overview and updates from all four BIOPOLE Work Packages (WPs):
WP1 – Inputs
WP2 – Processes
WP3 – Impacts
WP4 – Management
This was followed by a session on data management and mapping fieldwork, as well as updates from the BIOPOLE Early Career Researcher Network.
A lively quick-fire talk session with Q&A led into the day’s keynote address by Suzanne Tank, titled: “The Arctic Great Rivers Observatory: Long-Term Trends in River Chemistry Diagnose Multi-Faceted Northern Change.” The keynote was followed by an open Q&A and discussion session.
The day concluded with a general wrap-up, followed by closed-door meetings—first with PAB and EB members, and then with the PAB alone.
Day 2 Highlights
The second day opened with a summary of Day 1 and a preview of objectives for Day 2. The morning was dedicated to breakout sessions, covering the following topics:
BIOPOLE participation in AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting (Glasgow, Feb 2026)
Copepod lipid pump/diapause observations, modelling, and data sets
Isotope observations, modelling, and data integration (e.g. freshwater to marine)
Reconciling nutrient pathways into and out of the Arctic
Participation in future partner-led campaigns
Planning for key synthesis papers
In the afternoon, rapporteurs reported back from each session. This was followed by a poster session, where presenters shared their work through 5-minute lightning presentations.
The meeting then welcomed valuable feedback from the PAB on the programme’s progress.
The final segment focused on next steps for BIOPOLE, with group discussions centred on:
What are the BIOPOLE narratives?
Plans in the case of a 1-year extension
Looking beyond BIOPOLE – NC-LTSM3
The meeting closed with a summary and final reflections on the two-day event.
A heartfelt thank you to all who contributed to the success of the BIOPOLE ASM 2025, and to everyone involved in the ongoing work of the BIOPOLE programme.
Antarctic glaciers strongly influence the ocean, providing freshwater and nutrients to the sea when they melt, and pushing up sea levels globally. They are also vulnerable to ocean warming, becoming more unstable and calving more frequently. To understand better how these key processes work, and what are their implications for climate, sea level rise and ocean ecosystems, we ventured to the Antarctic on the UK polar research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough. This was a rare wintertime expedition, during which we surveyed a number of glaciers and measured the ocean adjacent to them, often in darkness and in frigid temperatures. The photo was taken during this wintertime campaign, in a key location called Börgen Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula. The glaciers here are retreating rapidly, linked to strong warming in the ocean and atmosphere. Our measurement campaign involved manoeuvring the ship close to these glaciers, so that oceanographic instruments could be deployed at the same time as determining the glacier characteristics. The photo shows the ship’s searchlights picking out features of the William Glacier in Börgen Bay, while scientists and field staff observe. A dramatic calving of this glacier was observed later the same night. Photo taken in May 2025 with an iPhone 16 Pro Max on standard Photo setting. No post-processing applied.
SD049 In May this year, BIOPOLE teams members Gabi Stowasser, Nadine Johnston, and Sammie Buzzard, together with BAS’s Tracey Dornan and Siobhán Foden (Fig 1) set sail from Punta Arenas on the RRS Sir David Attenborough (SDA) on its most late-season cruise to date. Bound for Rothera Research station on the West Antarctic Peninsula, they spent three dark and icy weeks investigating the concentration and flows of key nutrients (PIC, POC, POM, Phosphorous), oxygen, and salts, and the community dynamics of phytoplankton and zooplankton during the early winter as part of Southern Ocean BIOPOLE Cruise III. Data from this cruise complements work carried out on SD033 (Southern Ocean BIOPOLE Cruise I) during spring (as the zooplankton community, in particular the copepod Calanoides acutus develops in tandem with the spring phytoplankton bloom) and SD046 (Southern Ocean BIOPOLE Cruise II) during the autumn (as C. acutus descend to depth for their winter diapause). We mostly relied on the ships underway systems but also had the opportunity to sample zooplankton (and the environment) using pint sized science onboard Erebus and the SDA. The zooplankton community was examined through a combination of in situ mini bongo net deployments from Terror (Fig 2) and the SDA (Fig 3), underway water sampling (Fig 4) passed through a mini bongo net and a Planktoscope along the cruise transect (from waters the beginning of the Falkland Islands EEZ, down to Rothera Base, within the Ryder Bay environs, and back to the Falklands EEZ, Fig 5).
Figure 1: Southern Ocean BIOPOLE III SD049 members (L-R) Siobhán Foden (BAS), Nadine Johnston (BAS), Sammie Buzzard (CPOM), Gabi Stowasser (BAS) and Tracey Dornan (BAS)
Figure 2:In situ mini Bongo net (+Niskin and CTD) deployments in Ryder Bay onboard the SDA’s Terror during SD049 to collect zooplankton, nutrient and oceanographic samples.
Figure 3: In situ mini Bongo net (+Niskin and CTD) deployments in Ryder Bay and Le Mer Channel onboard the SDA during SD049 to collect zooplankton samples and oceanographic variables.
Figure 4: Underway sampling using mini bongo and planktoscope: onboard the SDA during SD049 to collect zooplankton samples the Main Lab for collecting zooplankton samples via a Mini Bongo net (left) and from the Uncontaminated Sea Water Laboratory for passing through a planktoscope (right).
Fig. 5: Map of the cruise track undertaken on voyage SD049.
SD050 Rapidly Followed SD049, After a Turn Round in Punta Arenas…
The science party consisted of Hugh Venables, Mike Meredith and Rhiannon Jones from Cambridge, with Sean McLoughlin and Gráinne Keogh borrowed from the Bonner (along with their SBE 19+ CTD used for the Rothera Time Series) and help from Sophia and Tom, transiting doctors. We also had Martin Stew and Mike Field from ITN News telling the story of the ship, science, Rothera and the Peninsula.
The route was south out of Punta to Rothera, via the first stop by the SDA at the American Palmer station. The first period alongside at Rothera was 2nd-4th June, then we had ten days close to Rothera before the very final call from 15th-17th June, with Rothera “Winter” finally starting as we left, just before Mid-winter! It was full polar night when we left Rothera, with the sun not rising above the horizon, though there was still sunlight on the highest peaks, above about 2000m. For the solstice we were around Elephant Island, still south of 60S, which was a first for a BAS vessel, with underway sampling exactly on the solstice, at 02:42 UTC on the 21st June.
Working on deck in the depth of winter was facilitated with largely mild weather conditions and very little sea ice. Being down there so late in the season, the team were treated to a number of spectacular skies (Fig 1) (neither sunrises nor sunsets!), with low light from ~10:30 to 14:30. Using a single Niskin with messenger on the hydro wire, samples were collected overboard to support the RaTS sampling program: salinity, oxygen isotopes, dissolved nutrients, chlorophyll; as well as for dissolved silicon isotopes, particulate metals, and particulate Si, to support the SiCLING program. Particulate samples were processed in a laminar flow hood to mitigate contamination. Also as part of SiCLING, Rhi led sediment sampling from the single UWITEC corer, which was successfully deployed repeatedly off the side of the ship for the first time. Pore water samples were collected by rhizon filtration for nutrients (N, P, Si), metals (Fe, Mn) and silicon isotopes analysis (Fig 2), and solid sediment samples were collected for porosity and sediment extraction experiments.
A total of 125 over the side events were logged between the two Rothera visits. This number was swelled by water sampling requiring multiple Niskin deployments for each site, as well as a separate CTD cast. Some deployments were concurrent, with surface Niskins done by rope while the Hydro wire went to depth, with either the CTD or a deeper bottle. We had great help as ever from Dave Peck and the rest of the ship’s deck crew, and it was interesting (and sometimes amusing) to see how the ship could deploy the small instruments normally used on small boats at Rothera (Fig 3).
Underway sampling, following on from SD049, was continued on SD050, with assistance gratefully received from Sophia de Maria, a doctor in transit to Rothera and back. Leaving Punta Arenas to the south was extremely scenic, but meant Chilean EEZ waters extended almost to 60°S.
Whale surveys were carried out when we were in transit along the peninsula. This was limited by the light, roughly two hours of dawn immediately followed by two hours of dusk. Highlights were 115 Humpbacks and a single Orca in under three hours as we transited through the Lemaire Channel southbound on June 1st. Humpbacks were seen throughout, including two in Ryder Bay on the 17th June, in full polar night. There are, understandably, very few winter Humpback sightings from the area, though tracking data shows animals lingering into July. Birds and seals were also logged in 30 minute counts, with 14 species of bird and five species of seal recorded south of 60° S. Overall it was very special to be near Rothera into the polar night, and we were very grateful to many people on and off the ship who made plans work at short notice and provided remote help. Hopefully this is the first of a series of winter cruises the SDA undertakes. It was never lost on us that the conditions really should have been colder and icier, though we, and the ship, would have managed if the conditions had been a little harsher.
Figure 1: Ryder bay, 10:30am during the ship’s final call to Rothera in June 2025 (Photo credit: Rhiannon Jones)
Figure 2: Sediment core pore water extraction. A core sampled close to the glacier is filtered for dissolved nutrients and metals using rhizon filters (cred. Rhiannon Jones)
Fig. 3: Deploying the Rothera CTD from the SDA, with as much sea ice as we saw in the bay
Figure 4: Rhi show’s Martin Stew (ITV correspondent) how to filter for POC and PIC. Martin and Mike Field (cameraman) joined the SD050 team, broadcasting live for 10 days, interviewing folk and documenting life on ship and at Rothera. Cred: ITV news
Fig 5 Swathing close to a glacier front on Pourquoi Pas Island, while Martin does his first live broadcast.
Like many major research programmes, BIOPOLE integrates a number of scientific aims and methodological approaches. These require some deal of explanation which can potentially take up quite a bit of space in the various manuscripts and reports that will be written about specific BIOPOLE outputs. For this reason, we submitted to Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO) an article providing a high-level overview of the objectives of BIOPOLE and how they will be addressed. This was accepted and published on 3rd Sept 2025. The article generally follows the structure of the original BIOPOLE proposal, with certain updates such as to the implementation schematic (below). The article covers key aspects of BIOPOLE, such as the three overarching questions (i.e. Inputs, Processes and Implications), the Workplan, Programme Tools, Impacts, Programme & Data Management, and Engagement. We trust you will all find this both a useful aide-memoire of the BIOPOLE plan and an efficient way of citing it in your subsequent BIOPOLE outputs.
Tarling, Geraint A., et al. “BIOPOLE-Biogeochemical processes and ecosystem functioning in changing polar systems and their global impacts.” Research Ideas and Outcomes 11 (2025): e163757.
Scientists from the University of Copenhagen, in collaboration with BIOPOLE researchers at NOC, have uncovered an important but previously overlooked process occurring beneath the Arctic sea ice. Atmospheric nitrogen transformation into bioavailable nutrients is actively taking place under sea ice in the central Arctic, driven by microbial groups not typically associated with this role. These bacteria are able to convert dissolved nitrogen gas into ammonium—a nutrient essential for supporting algal growth—right in an environment long assumed to be too cold, dark, and inhospitable for such activity. Their presence and activity, especially near melting ice edges, suggest that the retreat of sea ice may actually increase the supply of bioavailable nitrogen in Arctic waters.
This matters because nitrogen is often the limiting nutrient for algae, which underpin the entire marine food web. If more nitrogen becomes available as ice diminishes, the Arctic Ocean could experience enhanced primary production, influencing everything from plankton communities to higher trophic levels. Since algae also absorb CO₂ as they grow, this process might subtly affect the region’s carbon uptake as well.
The researchers emphasise, however, that the Arctic is undergoing rapid change, and increased productivity may come with ecological shifts that are difficult to predict. They argue that this newly documented under-ice nitrogen fixation must be included in future models of Arctic biogeochemical and climate processes, as it appears to be a more significant component of the system than previously recognised.
Kate Hendry (BAS) worked with ScienceVega to produce an online article aimed at secondary school students on a recent paper, partnered with BIOPOLE: “Dynamic ice–ocean pathways along the Transpolar Drift amplify the dispersal of Siberian matter”, led by Georgi Laukert at the University of Bristol and published in Nature Communications. The paper was part of the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) project, and investigated the use of chemical tracers for understanding the provenance of freshwater in the ocean and sea-ice in the Arctic.
As the ScienceVega reporter says: “The findings raise fresh concerns about the increasing spread of pollutants and the potential consequences for fragile polar ecosystems as climate change accelerates. The international research provides the clearest ever picture of how the underlying transport system, known as the Transpolar Drift, operates.”
ScienceVega (https://sciencevega.com/) is an organisation that tells stories from scientists to inspire the next generation of scientists, especially encouraging the take-up of STEM subject by girls and a love of science to promote positive mental health in young people.
ScienceVega: What is the Transpolar Drift?
The Transpolar Drift is a big ocean current that cuts right across the middle of the Arctic Ocean, past Greenland and Iceland, and into the North Atlantic. We’re interested in it for lots of reasons, but importantly because it takes a lot of the freshwater from the big Arctic rivers from the Arctic into the Atlantic, where it plays an important role in controlling how the rest of the global ocean moves around (and, so, how the ocean moves heat and carbon around the planet).
Cover Image: Scientists retrieving seawater from different depths using a carousel water sampler deployed through a hole in the sea ice, sciencevega pg.07
Reference: Laukert, G., Bauch, D., Rabe, B.,… Hendry K.R. & Kienast, S.S. 2025. Dynamic ice–ocean pathways along the Transpolar Drift amplify the dispersal of Siberian matter. Nature Communications, 16(1), p.3172.
In June this year, the Marine Biogeochemistry Forum joined forces with the Challenger Society to host Advances in Marine Biogeochemistry (AMBIO)conference. AMBIO is a Challenger Society the special interest group, and provides a technical forum for students, educators, researchers and governmental and industrial partners with shared interests in marine biogeochemistry. Hosted by the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute, the conference was a great two days covering all things biogeochemistry, with a range of talks and posters focussing on the inorganic carbon pump, primary productivity, nutrient cycling and new approaches. Excellent keynote talks were given by Dr Ruth Parker from CEFAS, Dr Emma Cavan from Imperial College London, Prof. Alessandro Tagliabue from University of Liverpool, Prof. Alex Poulton from Herit-Watt University.
BIOPOLE was represented through a talk by Anna Belcher, presenting on the BIOPOLE broadcast station campaign in Chile in January 2025, ‘Fresh to marine gradients and cycling of major nutrients in Almirantazgo Sound and, Parry and Marinelli fjords, Southern Patagonia, Chile’. The talk was well received and it was great to engage with nutrient biogeochemists for their insights.
It was fantastic to see many PhD students and Post-docs presenting their latest work. To support this group, AMBIO hosted an excellent panel event for early career researchers; ‘Career Discussions: Next Steps after PhD or Post-Doc’ which was really well attended and a great opportunity to ask questions to a diverse panel who’d taken different paths on their scientific journey. Overall a fantastic two days, engaging in the latest science, forming new networks and catching up with friends and colleagues from this great community. Do look out for the next AMBIO meeting (hosted every 2 years) to present your BIOPOLE work.
In June, I was invited to give an illustrated presentation at a ‘Dinner and Talk’ evening hosted by the Mid Devon Green Party. They were keen to hear about the climate research happening at the University of Exeter – especially our recent expedition aboard the RRS Sir David Attenborough, still affectionately known to many as ‘Boaty McBoatface’.
I gave a 45-minute talk titled ‘From Poles to Planet: How Plankton Shape the Global Climate’, offering an overview of the BIOPOLE programme. This included highlights from the 2025 BIOPOLE 2 cruise to the Southern Ocean, as well as the ARCWATCH 1 expedition to the central Arctic Ocean on board the FS Polarstern – together providing a broader picture of how polar plankton research informs our understanding of climate systems.
The audience was small but engaged, and we began the evening with a delicious home-cooked (not by me!) vegan curry. After the talk, a lively discussion followed. Questions ranged from ‘what it’s like to work in such remote regions’ to more philosophical reflections – such as whether plankton should be granted legal rights as part of nature’s protection. As a self-confessed plankton nerd, I found it a fascinating (if tricky!) question.
On 26th of June, Dr. Gabi Stowasser went to Buckingham Palace to receive a Polar Medal from HRH Princess Anne. The Polar Medal is awarded by the Sovereign of the United Kingdom to individuals who have outstanding achievements in the field of polar research, and particularly for those who have worked over extended periods in harsh climates. It was instituted in 1857 as the Arctic Medal, and renamed the Polar Medal in 1904.
Over her career in polar science, Gabi has worked on the trophic (feeding) relationships between living organisms in marine ecosystems of the polar regions and British Overseas Territories. She has provided new insights into the spatial and temporal functioning of marine food webs. Gabi applies a combination of biochemical and other analytical methods to identify key connections of energy and nutrient transfer between species in an ecosystem (known as trophic linkages).
For BIOPOLE, Gabi participated in all three of the Southern Ocean cruises, where she focussed on the deployment and processing of net-catch samples and the filtering of particulate matter from CTDs and surface waters sampled underway. She is presently carrying out analyses on the carbon content of these samples and the trophic relationships of net-caught pelagic organisms using stable isotope tracers.
On 1st October, Project AISIT (AI for Stable Isotope Tracers) got underway to help increase our understanding of Arctic freshwater inputs. What AISIT will undertake is the generation of a standardised, machine-readable database of Arctic freshwater tracers and related environmental data. It will bring together data on stable oxygen isotopes (e.g. δ18O), other freshwater tracers like barium, and key nutrient data. By harmonising these data, AISIT will make Arctic freshwater data easier to access, compare, and use. Furthermore, AISIT will engage with the AI community to bench-test the database for further AI research. The project will initially focus on the freshwater tracer and associated environmental data collected by BIOPOLE, before expanding to integrate datasets from the other data sources.
AISIT is funded by a combination of the EPSRC and NERC as part of an ‘AI for science’ call. PI for AISIT, Geraint Tarling, said “AISIT is a great opportunity to bring together key datasets generated by BIOPOLE researchers and combine them with other disparate data that are out there to consolidate what presently exists on Arctic freshwater tracers”. Lead AISIT researcher, Emily Rowlands, added “What is also exciting is the involvement of the AI research community to gain further insights into the relative importance of freshwater inputs to nutrient distributions across the Arctic and beyond”.
AISIT brings together researchers from BAS, NOC and UKCEH to work on this 6-month project. The first few months will mainly focus on data consolidation and quality control before wider interactions with AI researchers. AISIT data-manager, Charles Thorpe-Morgan said “There is a large amount of data out there, but it all needs careful processing to ensure the database meets the highest standards and is fit for purpose”. AISIT work-package leader, Petra ten Hoopen, said “We are writing to as many data holders as we can to emphasise the mutual benefit of sharing data to make the AISIT database as comprehensive as it can be. We assure all potential data providers that database will adhere to FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable), where the original sources will be clearly identified and all data contributors will be credited in the database DOI and further citations”
Image: AISIT scientists Emily Rowlands and Charles Thorpe-Morgan, based at the British Antarctic Survey
Image: AISIT scientists Emily Rowlands and Charles Thorpe-Morgan, based at the British Antarctic Survey
