Diana M. Davies

Australian Antarctic Partnership Program

Changes in Southern Ocean biogeochemistry: observations from moored observatory, remote access sampling, sensor arrays.

Long-chain unsaturated alkenones produced by haptophyte algae are widely used as paleotemperature indicators. The unsaturation relationship to temperature is linear at mid-latitudes, however, non-linear responses detected in subpolar regions of both hemispheres have suggested complicating factors in these environments. To assess the influence of bi...

The Southern Ocean absorbs a great deal of heat and carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, helping to shape the global climate. This oceanic service comes at a cost: the Southern Ocean is becoming warmer, fresher, less oxygenated, and more acidic—in effect heating up, losing breath, and becoming corrosive. The consequences of these changes are d...

Particle fluxes at the Southern Ocean time series (SOTS) site in the Subantarctic Zone (SAZ) south of Australia (∼47°S, ∼142°E, 4600 m water depth) were collected from 1997 – 2017 using moored sediment traps at nominal depths of 1000, 2000, and 3800 m. Annually integrated mass fluxes showed moderate variability of 14 ± 6 g m–2 yr–1 at 1000 m, 20 ±...

This report details the quality assessment and control procedures applied to the particle flux data collected by the Subantarctic Zone (SAZ) sediment trap moorings. The datasets are publicly available via the AODN Data Portal https://portal.aodn.org.au/search.

Ocean acidification is expected to have detrimental consequences for the most abundant calcifying phytoplankton species Emiliania huxleyi. However, this assumption is mainly based on laboratory manipulations that are unable to reproduce the complexity of natural ecosystems. Here, E. huxleyi coccolith assemblages collected over a year by an autonomo...

Southern Ocean waters are projected to undergo profound changes in their physical and chemical properties in the coming decades. Coccolithophore blooms in the Southern Ocean are thought to account for a major fraction of the global marine calcium carbonate (CaCO3) production and export to the deep sea. Therefore, changes in the composition and abun...

This work presents insights from 6 years of chlorophyll-a (Chl) fluorescence and backscatter (700 nm) data at the Southern Ocean Time Series (SOTS) moorings, located in the Subantarctic Zone (SAZ) southwest of Tasmania. Using local calibrations from available voyage data, the fluorescence and backscatter records were related to Chl and particulate...

Southern Ocean waters are projected to undergo profound changes in their physical and chemical properties in the coming decades. Coccolithophore blooms in the Southern Ocean are thought to account for a major fraction of the global marine calcium carbonate (CaCO3) production and export to the deep sea. Therefore, changes in the composition and abun...

The Kerguelen Plateau is one of the regions in the Southern Ocean where spatially large algal blooms occur annually due to natural iron fertilization. The analysis of ocean color data as well as in situ samples collected during the Heard Earth-Ocean-Biosphere Interactions (HEOBI) voyage in January and February 2016, surprisingly revealed that chlor...

The timing of pelagic spring blooms has received attention to understand controls on open ocean productivity and its potential responses to climate change. Many studies have relied on surface chlorophyll (Chl) to define bloom initiation because of its availability from satellite observations, but this has limited utility because it ignores the full...

pteropod trophic levels and stable isotopes

Although the supply of iron generally limits phytoplankton productivity in the Southern Ocean, substantial seasonal blooms are observed over and downstream of the Kerguelen plateau in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean. Surprisingly, of the oceanic blooms, those associated with the deeper southern plateau last much longer (~3 months) than the...

Limited knowledge of phytoplankton community structure in the Southern Ocean hampers our understanding of ecosystem function and its response to changes expected this century from anthropogenic CO2 emissions and associated climate warming. To address this gap, we obtained records of phytoplankton community composition and nutrient concentrations, c...

The Southern Ocean provides a vital service by absorbing about one-sixth of humankind's annual emissions of CO2. This comes with a cost – an increase in ocean acidity that is expected to have negative impacts on ocean ecosystems. The reduced ability of phytoplankton and zooplankton to precipitate carbonate shells is a clearly identified risk. The i...

The Southern Ocean provides a vital service by absorbing about one sixth of humankind's annual emissions of CO2. This comes with a cost – an increase in ocean acidity that is expected to have negative impacts on ocean ecosystems. The reduced ability of phytoplankton and zooplankton to precipitate carbonate shells is a clearly identified risk. The i...

There have been many individual phytoplankton datasets collected across Australia since the mid 1900s, but most are unavailable to the research community. We have searched archives, contacted researchers,and scanned the primary and grey literature to collate 3,621,847 records of marine phytoplankton species from Australian waters from 1844 to the p...

Scientific Data 3:160043 doi: 10.1038/sdata.2016.43 (2016); Published 21 Jun 2016; Updated 6 Dec 2016 A series of errors in our database were brought to our attention by readers, and have been corrected in an updated version of this database, which is accessible via the AODN at the following link: https://portal.aodn.

The Kerguelen Plateau is characterized by a naturally Fe-fertilized phytoplankton bloom that extends more than 1000 km downstream in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. During the KEOPS2 study, in austral spring, we measured particulate nitrogen (PN), biogenic silica (BSi) and particulate iron (PFe) export fluxes in order to investigate how the natu...

There have been many individual phytoplankton datasets collected across Australia since the mid 1900s, but most are unavailable to the research community. We have searched archives, contacted researchers, and scanned the primary and grey literature to collate 3,621,847 records of marine phytoplankton species from Australian waters from 1844 to the...

There have been many individual phytoplankton datasets collected across Australia since the mid 1900s, but most are unavailable to the research community. We have searched archives, contacted researchers, and scanned the primary and grey literature to collate 3,621,847 records of marine phytoplankton species from Australian waters from 1844 to the...

This study examined upper-ocean particulate organic carbon (POC) export using the 234Th approach as part of the second KErguelen Ocean and Plateau compared Study expedition (KEOPS2). Our aim was to characterize the spatial and the temporal variability of POC export during austral spring (October–November 2011) in the Fe-fertilized area of the Kergu...

The Silences of the Archives, the Reknown of the Story. The Martin Guerre affair has been told many times since Jean de Coras and Guillaume Lesueur published their stories in 1561. It is in many ways a perfect intrigue with uncanny resemblance, persuasive deception and a surprizing end when the two Martin stood face to face, memory to memory, befor...

This paper presents whole water column data for nitrate N, O isotopic composition for the Kerguelen Plateau area and the basin extending east of Heard Island, aiming at understanding the N-cycling in this naturally iron fertilized area that is characterized by large recurrent phy-toplankton blooms. The KEOPS 2 expedition (October– November 2011) to...

Surface ocean productivity mediates the transfer of carbon to the deep ocean and in the process regulates atmospheric CO2 levels. A common axiom in oceanography is that large phytoplankton contribute disproportionally to the transfer of carbon to the deep ocean because of their greater ability to escape grazing pressure,build biomass and sink. In t...

We examined phytoplankton community responses to natural iron fertilisation at 32 sites over and downstream from the Kerguelen Plateau in the Southern Ocean during the austral spring bloom in October–November 2011. The community structure was estimated from chemical and isotopic measurements (particulate organic carbon – POC; 13C-POC; particulate n...

The first KErguelen Ocean and Plateau compared Study (KEOPS1), conducted in the naturally iron-fertilised Kerguelen bloom, demonstrated that fecal material was the main pathway for exporting carbon to the deep ocean during summer (January-February 2005), suggesting a limited role of direct export via phytodetrital aggregates. The KEOPS2 project rei...

During the second KErguelen Ocean and Plateau compared Study (KEOPS2) in October-November 2011, marine snow was formed in roller tanks by physical aggregation of phytoplankton assemblages sampled at 6 stations over and downstream of the Kerguelen Plateau. Sinking velocities, morphology, bulk composition (transparent exopolymer particles, biogenic s...

The KEOPS2 project aims to elucidate the role of natural Fe fertilisation on biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem functioning, including quantifying the sources and processes by which iron is delivered in the vicinity of the Kerguelen Archipelago, Southern Ocean. The KEOPS2 process study used an upstream high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll (HNLC), deep w...

The Kerguelen Plateau region in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean supports annually a large-scale phytoplankton bloom which is naturally fertilized with iron. As part of the second KErguelen Ocean and Plateau compared Study expedition (KEOPS2) in austral spring (October–November 2011), we examined upper-ocean Particulate Organic Carbon (POC)...

Iron (Fe) uptake by the microbial community and the contribution of three different size-fractions was determined during spring phytoplankton blooms in the naturally Fe fertilized area off Kerguelen Islands (KEOPS2). Total Fe uptake in surface waters was on average 34 ± 6 pmol Fe L−1 d−1, and microplankton (>25 μm size-fraction; 40–69%) and pico-na...

We examined phytoplankton community responses to natural iron fertilisation at 32 sites over and downstream from the Kerguelen Plateau in the Southern Ocean during the austral spring bloom in October–November 2011. Community structure was estimated from chemical and isotopic measurements (particulate organic carbon POC, 13C-POC, particulate nitroge...

This paper presents whole water column data for nitrate N, O isotopic composition for the Kerguelen Plateau area and the basin extending east of the island, aiming at understanding the N-cycling in this naturally iron fertilized area that is characterized by large re-current phytoplankton blooms. The KEOPS 2 expedition (October–November 2011) took...

The KEOPS2 project aims to elucidate the role of natural Fe fertilisation on biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem functioning, including quantifying the sources and processes by which iron is delivered in the vicinity of the Kerguelen Archipelago, Southern Ocean. The KEOPS2 process study used an upstream HNLC, deep water (2500 m), reference station...

The first KErguelen Ocean and Plateau compared Study (KEOPS1), conducted in the naturally iron-fertilised Kerguelen bloom, demonstrated that fecal material was the main pathway for exporting carbon to the deep ocean during summer (January–February~2005), suggesting a~limited role of direct export via phytodetrital aggregates. The KEOPS2 project re-...

The Tasman Sea and the adjacent subantarctic zone (SAZ) are economically important regions, where the parameters controlling the phytoplankton community composition and carbon fixation are not yet fully resolved. Contrasting nutrient distributions, as well as phytoplankton biomass, biodiversity and productivity were observed between the North Tasma...

Methanesulphonate was investigated as a potential contributor to the sulphur budget and to the acidity of Antarctic ice from Law Dome (66°30'S, 113°00'E). The anion was found to be present at a mean concentration of 0.08 μq/l and ranged between 0.006 and 0.28 μeq/l. Although methanesulphonate was only a minor anion in comparison with chloride and s...

Bamboo corals (Family Isididae) are an important component of seamount benthos south of Tasmania. Besides having lifespans of up to 400 yr, little is known about their basic ecology, nor how to decode potential climate signals encoded in their skeletons. We explored the stable nitrogen isotope and radiocarbon compositions of the skeletal organic fr...

Nitrogen supply to surface waters can play an important role in the productivity and ecology of subtropical ecosystems. As part of the Vertical Transport in the Global Ocean (VERTIGO) program, we examined the fluxes of nitrogen into and out of the euphotic zone at station ALOHA in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre using natural abundance stable is...

The KErguelen Ocean and Plateau compared Study (KEOPS) documented enhanced iron input and phytoplankton biomass over the deep Kerguelen plateau in comparison to surrounding high-nutrient low-chlorophyll (HNLC) waters in late summer 2005. We examined the influence of this iron on nitrogen and carbon metabolism by the microbial food-web, by comparing...

An ice core, drilled near the margin of the Law Dome ice cap at Cape Folger, has been analysed for trace chemical content. The concentration of the major anions and cations has been measured on samples selected from the ice core to give information on the major environmental changes which have occurred in the period 6–26 ka B.P. The chemical specie...

An ice core, drilled near the margin of the Law Dome ice cap at Cape Folger, has been analysed for trace chemical content. The concentration of the major anions and cations has been measured on samples selected from the ice core to give information on the major environmental changes which have occurred in the period 6–26 ka B.P. The chemical specie...

Sulphur(IV) is quantified as the α-hydroxysulphonic acid, hydroxymethanesulphonate, which is stabilized in samples and standards by a stoichiometric excess of formaldehyde. The addition of 0.2% (v/v) formaldehyde to the very dilute eluent protects against oxidation of the adduct, which is eluted as a single symmetrical peak, completely resolved fro...

Ion chromatography is used to measure the concentrations of chloride, nitrate, sulphate, ammonium and sodium ions at the μg l−1 level in Antarctic ice and to investigate the occurrence of methanesulphonate, fluoride, formate, acetate and nitrite. Of the latter group of ions, only methanesulphonate was found in measurable concentrations.

Methanesulphonate was investigated as a potential contributor to the sulphur budget and to the acidity of Antarctic ice from Law Dome (66°30'S, 113°00'E). The anion was found to be present at a mean concentration of 0.08 μeq/l and ranged between 0.006 and 0.28 μeq/l. Although methanesulphonate was only a minor anion in comparison with chloride and...

Growth of brewer's yeast in the presence of Cr3+ led to increased yields of substances with GTF activity in assays performed with isolated adipocytes. The formation of these substances may be a means of diminishing the toxic effects of Cr on yeast. During fractionation of extracts of brewer's yeast the Cr was easily dissociated from any complexes t...

The chlorophylls and carotenoids present in preparations from chloroplasts of marine algae can be extracted and separated by high pressure liquid chromatography (H.P.L.C.). The reverse-phase columns; Partisil 10 ODS (Whatman), μ Bondapak C18 and μ Bondapak CN (Waters Associates) gave good separation of the different pigments. Addition of the ion-pa...

Different electrolytic potentials exist between weld metal and parent metal, and between different microstructures in the weld deposit and the heat affected zones of the parent metal. An investigation has been carried out to determine the feasibility of using a surface potentiometric scanning technique to measure potentials across welded joints.

The many photometric methods of protein estimation give unsatisfactory results with highly colored solutions. Some plant pigment-protein complexes are not precipitable with trichloracetic acid; therefore the dye binding methods are not applicable. A rapid procedure has been devised where the protein is complexed with excess copper, the noncomplexed...