ASM 2024 Participants

BIOPOLE Annual Science Meeting 2024

The 2nd BIOPOLE Annual Science Meeting took place from the 6th to the 8th of March 2024 at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge and online. BIOPOLE Project Members, Early Career Researchers (ECRs), Members of the Programme Advisory Board (PAB), Science and Strategic Partners were invited to participate. Around 50 in-person and 13 virtual participants attended the hybrid BIOPOLE Annual Science Meeting.

The meeting spanned through three days and was filled with fruitful discussions, great scientific talks, exciting presentations, interesting keynotes and much more. All sessions were chaired by BIOPOLE Early Career Researchers (ECRs).

The first day kicked off with the project overview and work package presentations, where all four BIOPOLE work packages (WPs) (WP1 – Inputs, WP2 – Processes, WP3 – Impacts, WP4 – Management) presented the progress of work.

The poster session followed. After the poster session, quick-fire talks took place, after which we had a discussion.

The second day started with the ECRs’ breakfast. After the breakfast, Guang Yang delivered a keynote on ‘Zooplankton mediated carbon pumps’.

Next, we learned about the major BIOPOLE fieldwork efforts in Arctic (Arctic ships), Ny Alesund, and Southern Ocean (BIOPOLE Cruise I).

Presentations on data management, the Decade Collaborative Centre for the Southern Ocean Region (DCC-SOR), and Arctic policy were delivered, along with updates from the ECRs.

We then had four breakout sessions before lunch and four afterward. After the breakout session, Katrin Linse delivered a keynote on ‘Benthic elements of BIOPOLE’. We closed the day with the Executive Board and Programme Advisory Board meeting.

The third and the last day of the meeting started with the ECR-led session on the ‘Imposter syndrome: taming your inner critic’. Following that, we heard the rapporteurs’ reports from the breakout sessions and engaged in a discussion. Further, the PAB delivered an insightful report for the project. Before we concluded the meeting, we had a couple of discussion sessions on ‘Interaction with partners and within the project to achieve key BIOPOLE objectives in Arctic and Antarctic’ as well as ‘BIOPOLE into the future and lessons learned’.  

We would like to express our gratitude to every single individual for their work in BIOPOLE and for their participation in the meeting be it in-person or virtual.

Draft infographic illustrating the range of modelling and observational activities being undertaken through BIOPOLE.

BIOPOLE Sets up Modelling-Observations Working Group

The Modelling-Observations Working Group (WG) was established following the first BIOPOLE annual meeting to enhance the links between the modelling work and observational campaigns. Regular meetings between modellers at NOC and BAS had been taking place since the start of the project to ensure a synergy in modelling effort across the institutes. However, there was a clear need for an equivalent forum for the exchange of ideas and information between modellers and observationalists in the BIOPOLE community, hence the Modelling-Observations WG was formed. The WG now involves 19 members from all four work packages with representatives from NOC, BAS, CEH, and Exeter University. Meetings of the full WG currently take place approximately every 6 months, with more focussed monthly meetings targeting specific work packages or work streams.

The main aims of the WG are as follows:

  • Identify links between modelling efforts and encourage collaboration.
  • Discuss data needs of modelling efforts and identify sources (databases or field campaigns).
  • Identify data gaps to inform targeted data collection and fieldwork planning.
  • Identify opportunities for integrating modelling efforts with observational data to inform interpretation of key processes.

Contributing to the last of these aims, collaborative work involving NOC modellers and biological oceanographers is ongoing to understand the processes involved in generating regions of de-oxygenation in the Chukchi Sea, which were identified in the recent Chukchi Sea cruise. Such regions may impact the regional ecosystem and dependent fisheries and it is important to understand the underlying physical and biogeochemical processes.

One of the key outputs of the WG so far has been the development of new BIOPOLE infographics that capture the range of modelling activities being undertaken and how they link to the observational campaigns. Drawing on Jen Freer’s creativity and mastery of PowerPoint, two draft designs have been developed; the first is targeted at a general audience (Figure 1) whilst the second provides a more detailed picture of the modelling work and is suitable for a more specialist audience. The draft designs may be found on the BIOPOLE shared drive in the Modelling-Observations WG directory, and we would welcome feedback from the BIOPOLE community. The intention is to produce infographics that broadly follow the design of the BIOPOLE concept graphic. The designs will be professionally produced and will be available for use in posters, talks, and other promotional activities.

Figure 1: Draft infographic illustrating the range of modelling and observational activities being undertaken through BIOPOLE.

The author of the article – Emma Young (British Antarctic Survey)

Meet the Team

Stefanie Rynders

  • Please introduce yourself.

I’m a physical oceanographer working in the Marine Systems Modeling group at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton. I develop models, mainly of the Arctic Ocean across different components of the system. Projects I have worked on so far range from fundamental physics to practical applications and climate scales. BIOPOLE has got me more involved in biogeochemistry and the connection between land and ocean.

  • What do you do within BIOPOLE?

I am part of WP1 and WP3. In work package 1 we look at nutrient inputs and I have calculated nutrient inputs from coastal erosion specifically. We made a model based erosion rate estimate, which should serve both for the historical period and future projections. I also check our existing biogeochemistry models against observational data, including from the BIOPOLE cruises. This has already highlighted some areas where improvements can be made. For work package 3 I’ll be investigating the connectivity of nutrient fluxes from the Arctic into the North Atlantic. The North Atlantic is expected to become more stratified in the future, hindering access to nutrients. So, a nutrient boost from the Arctic could be good for the ecosystem and support future fisheries.

  • What have you enjoyed about BIOPOLE so far?

The best thing about BIOPOLE is that it is such a well-integrated project across the centres. It is fun to hear about other people’s research in completely different areas every month. I have learned a lot about hydrology just by joining the meetings, though the complexity of molecular analysis in the lab still blows my mind! We are working together with observationalists and modellers across the fields on climate variability and missing processes in our NOC model.

  • Tell us about a skill or trait unique to you that you would like to share?

I like swimming so I try to make use of the pool nearby NOC to go swimming over lunchtime with a colleague.

Stefanie Rynders from National Oceanography Centre

BIOPOLE in the Western Arctic Ocean

Polar oceans export nutrients to the lower latitudes where this export flux can be an important regulator of lower latitude productivity.  In the Arctic Ocean careful analysis of nutrient inputs and outputs suggests that the Arctic is a net exporter of phosphorous and silicate to the North Atlantic but intriguingly not nitrogen with nitrogen inputs to, and outputs from, the Arctic seemingly balanced. The result is a characteristic change to the nitrogen to phosphorous (N:P) ratio found in seawater which gradually increases as ocean waters flow from the Pacific through the Arctic and eventually out into the Atlantic Ocean. Despite considerable uncertainties and limitations of existing datasets nitrogen loss processes occurring in the Western Arctic, particularly within the sediments of the shallow Bering and Chukchi Seas, are known to contribute to the removal of nitrogen and enrichment of phosphorous reported in seawater nutrient measurements. However, the magnitude of this sedimentary nitrogen removal process is insufficient to account for the observed shift in seawater N:P ratios, with several competing explanations presented in the literature as to why this may be. One interesting possibility, and a target of BIOPOLE Work Package 2 (WP2) activities in the western Arctic, is the presence of an additional nitrogen sink operating within the water column.

To address this possibility BIOPOLE WP2 was tasked with measuring bacterial denitrification rates, collecting eDNA/eRNA samples to probe the makeup and function of bacterial communities present in seawater, and to deploy an automated water sampler to collect an annual cycle of seawater nutrient concentrations in water flowing across the remote and seasonally icebound northern Chukchi Shelf. These activities will contribute to wider programme efforts investigating how ecosystem processes can change elemental balances in the northern polar region and to project Milestones i and ii (new observations in polar environments and obtainment of seasonal measurements via autonomous technologies).

Access to the Western Arctic (from the UK at least) is non-trivial but through the supporting efforts of project partners based at the University of Maryland and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, a single berth was secured on the 2023 autumn Arctic ecosystem survey aboard the R.V. Sikuliaq, an ice-class research vessel operated by the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Demand for berths was high and the cruise itself was a consortium effort supporting NOAA’s EcoFOCI program (Ecosystems and Fisheries Oceanography) and the NOAA Marine Mammal Lab,  the Distributed Biological Observatory (DBO) programme run from the University of Maryland (project partner), and the Arctic Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (AMBON) and Chukchi Ecosystem Observatory (CEO) projects both run from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (project partner).

The result was an enjoyable cruise with diverse scientific activities ranging from benthic trawls, benthic landers, water sampling, mooring recoveries/deployments, sea-bird and marine mammal observations, and detailed chemical and physical observations across this key Arctic region. Results from BIOPOLE activities will be made available in due course once samples have returned to the UK and have been analysed, but which is expected to be within 6-12 months.

Map of the survey region and sampling locations


Stuart Painter from the National Oceanography Centre 

Meet the Team

Enma Elena García-Martín

I’m a biogeochemist working within the Ocean BioGeoscience group at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton. During the last decade I’ve been investigating the role of phytoplankton, zooplankton and bacteria on the marine carbon cycling, the coupling between oxygen production (primary production) and consumption (plankton respiration) processes and the influence of the community structure and environmental variables, such as temperature and dissolved organic matter, on the plankton metabolism. In BIOPOLE I wear two different hats:

a) I am part of the WP2 which focusses on the biological processes that modify the carbon to nutrient ratios in polar environments. Specifically, I run laboratory experiments with different cultured phytoplankton to determine the direct and indirect effects of warming and nutrient supply on microplankton cell size, metabolism (primary production and respiration) and biomass stoichiometry. Our results will allow to understand better the responses of polar phytoplankton to changing climatic conditions.

b) I am also the Strategic Lead for Arctic Fieldwork, and when I wear this hat, I serve as a point of contact between BIOPOLE researchers and BIOPOLE project partners, facilitating the interactions between them and coordinating the activities, to ensure that BIOPOLE maximize the resources available in the Arctic.

I was lucky to live a year in Tromsø (Norway) many many years ago, where I spent hours looking at polar plankton under the microscope. BIOPOLE has given me the opportunity to spend more time with these cold, beautiful creatures without the need of woolly hat and gloves. 

I have green fingers, not only for phytoplankton, and I like growing my own veggies. Ohh, I love how tasty they are!!!


Enma Elena García-Martín from the National Oceanography Centre

BIOPOLE Kick-Off Meeting

The Kick-Off meeting for BIOPOLE was held on the 27th – 28th April 2022, hosted by the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton.

We had a really productive hybrid meeting, with 54 project members and Programme Advisory Board members getting the chance to meet each other and build collaborations, but also allowing productive involvement to those who couldn’t attend in person. The meeting consisted of plenary presentations and breakout sessions for the work packages, and groups such as the Executive Board and the Early Career Members.