Upcoming research opportunities

PhD position - Understanding Weddell Sea freshwater influence on water mass formation and climate change - University of Southampton

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This project will use a variety of hydrographic datasets to understand the water mass formation processes within the ice covered Weddell Sea, and how they are responding to climate change. These control the formation of climatically important water masses and the exchange of properties between the ocean and atmosphere.   

The Weddell Sea, the region of the Southern Ocean east of the Antarctic Peninsula, contains unique sea ice, ice shelf and water formation sites. The regional formation of dense water through the interaction of winds and sea ice has a global climate impact far beyond its size.     

The BAS and UoS teams have revealed dramatic changes in the volumes of Weddell Sea bottom water over the last several decades, potentially one of the largest shifts in ocean circulation on the planet, but because of the inaccessibility of the region it is difficult to assess the forcing and processes driving this change. This project will take new hydrographic data sets that bound the region and apply inverse mathematical approaches to ‘back out’ the change in recent decades. It will also apply innovative thermodynamic approaches to assess the processes contributing to this change, notably the contribution of sea ice vs ice sheet melt in suppressing dense water formation.    

This work will align with the analysis of the large Horizon Europe OCEAN:ICE and UK BIOPOLE programmes. It will provide valuable information on how freshwater and associated melt processes are influencing one of the most dramatic, and poorly observed and modelled, changes in ocean circulation on the planet. This is an active and important area of research, and the applicant will be placed within a vibrant and active set of research teams tackling related problems, with strong links to other UK and international researcher in the field.   

Requirements: A UK bachelor’s degree with upper second-class honours or higher in a relevant subject. See international equivalent qualifications on the University of Southampton website. English language: IELTS 6.5 overall, with a minimum of 6.0 in all components. Other English language tests are accepted.

Application deadline: 8th January 2025

PhD position - What are the physical controls on nutrients in the Southern Ocean - University of Southampton

Go to FindAPhD for full details of this opportunity and how to apply

Nutrients from the Southern Ocean are fundamental to global ocean ecosystems and carbon uptake. The project will use a combination of data from different ocean models to figure out the physical drivers of the amount of nutrients in the Southern Ocean and the paths they take to get there. 

Nutrients from the polar oceans are the foundation of global primary productivity and an important driver of the global carbon cycle. It is therefore vital to understand what controls the amount of nutrients residing in and leaving the polar oceans, in order to understand the impact of climate change on the ocean’s uptake of carbon emissions and the health of oceanic ecosystems. 

The student will use a combination of existing and new data they will produce themselves from simulations to answer questions such as: what are the physical and biological drivers that determine the amount of nutrients in the Southern Ocean? What are the sources of these nutrients? What is the impact of climate change on these processes?  

The student will be hosted by the Polar Oceans team at the British Antarctic Survey, where they will learn how to use adjoint modelling techniques to interrogate a realistic ocean model to find the sensitivity of Southern Ocean nutrients to physical drivers such as winds, heat, and freshwater. The student will use a dataset of Lagrangian trajectories and an idealised two-basin model of the global circulation and carbon cycle (designed and ran as part of BIOPOLE) to investigate the pathways that nutrients take to get to the Southern Ocean, and how their properties change on the way. 

The project will be associated with BIOPOLE and BIO-Carbon, large multi-institute projects examining biogeochemical processes and ecosystem function in polar ecosystems. The student will have the opportunity to attend project meetings and interact with project researchers. 

Requirements: A UK bachelor’s degree with upper second-class honours or higher in a relevant subject. See international equivalent qualifications on the University of Southampton website. English language: IELTS 6.5 overall, with a minimum of 6.0 in all components. Other English language tests are accepted.

Application deadline: 8th January 2025