UVic-led Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) has launched a new ocean monitoring observatory in Antarctica, in conjunction with the Spanish National Research Council (SNRC). 

Data is now flowing out of the observatory, located 23 metres below sea level near a Spanish-operated Antarctic research station, where it tracks temperature, water depth, and oxygen and chlorophyll levels. 

The station sends this information every 30 minutes via satellite to researchers, ensuring there’s constant monitoring in the region throughout the year—something that previously was unavailable to climate scientists observing the Southern Ocean. This allows researchers to continue their work beyond the Spanish station’s usual staffed summer months.

ONC brings specialized knowledge in polar research, having worked on similar projects in the Arctic since 2012, Kate Moran, CEO of ONC, said in a statement.

Moran says Antarctica is extremely important to the planet’s climate regulation because it currently is undergoing “consequential changes that we need to understand.” 

News of rapidly disappearing sea ice and heat waves in the famously frigid region have dominated recent headlines, an effect that has devastated species in the area. But the consequences of the changes to Antarctica’s landscape have far-reaching climate implications—and could serve as a canary in the coal mine in observing the outcomes of climate change.

A joint statement from 300 international scientists released this summer called for more research in Antarctica because “the chronic lack of observations for the Southern Ocean challenges our ability to detect and assess the consequences of change.”

“To a large extent, the Southern Ocean controls the uptake of human-generated heat and carbon into the ocean and keeps our planet liveable,” Sian Henley, co-chair of the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS), said in the release.

SOOS is a coordinating body involved in delivering the data.

ONC has plans to expand its deep-sea monitoring in the Southern Ocean, adding Argo floats, a monitoring tool currently being used by researchers in the Pacific Ocean.

ONC also operates the NEPTUNE system off the BC coast, where important events such as rising deep-sea temperatures and low oxygen levels near the Island have been observed.

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