An underwater observatory keeping the pulse of the Southern Ocean for nearly 30 years yields fresh results
In a world affected by climate change, the Southern Ocean plays an outsized role. It absorbs up to 40% of the human-caused emissions taken up by the oceans while also being home to some of the world’s most vulnerable ecosystems.
Understanding these ecosystems and how they’re changing is crucial – but challenging. Patterns and trends in this remote, chaotic ocean are often obscured by short-term variation.
The only way to see through the noise is to make sustained measurements, year after year, for decades.
In the heart of the Southern Ocean there is a car-sized yellow and blue structure floating on the surface. It may not look like much, but this is the tip of a vast underwater observatory that has monitored the pulse of this region for nearly three decades.
Known as the Southern Ocean Time Series (SOTS), this observatory endures cyclone-strength winds and waves up to 18 metres high. The knowledge it provides has been collected in several recent studies, including one just published in Ocean Science.