Page 46 - Research & Innovation Report 2020

SCIENCE

from 30 million to 120 million. We are looking at
widespread starvation in the WIO by 2035.

“It is the duty of the Chair to shock people and
governments into facing the reality of this very 2020 Newton Prize and SARChI
serious situation, backed by considerable research.
The models we use are instructive of the direction Chair renewed
that needs to be taken. They are showing that by The 2020 Newton Prize worth R4-million was awarded to
2035 the tropical WIO’s marine heatwaves, which Professor Mike Roberts. It recognises “teams of people making
would normally last from a few days up to about an essential contribution”, in this regard for the SARChI Chair
ten days will extend to anything from two weeks to in Ocean Science and Marine Food Security research in the
12 months, with devastating consequences for the Western Indian Ocean (WIO).
ocean.”
The Chair, renewed for another five years from 2021, is jointly
These marine heatwaves create a partition, or hosted by Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth, the
thermocline, between the warm upper and cold University of Southampton and the Southampton-based
lower layers of the ocean. This suppresses the National Oceanography Centre in the United Kingdom; all
process by which nutrients that come up from the leading marine science research and technology institutions. It
deep levels of the ocean infuse with the upper layers is jointly funded by South Africa’s Department of Science and
to produce phytoplankton – a process that is vital for Innovation’s National Research Foundation (DSI/NRF) and the
food production across the entire food chain. United Kingdom’s Newton Fund, administered by the British
Council.
Another consequence of extreme ocean warming is “Finding solutions to address the WIO’s problems requires
coral bleaching, which is increasing so much in the intensive transdisciplinary research. This encompasses research
WIO that the coral reefs will be destroyed and all in physical oceanography, biogeochemistry, plankton, trophic
the ecosystems that depend on coral. This directly ecology, fisheries and food resources, quantified by end-to-end
impacts the livelihoods and food security of artisanal ecosystem and socio-economic modelling,” says Prof Roberts.
fishers in the WIO region, who depend on the To take this forward, the Chair has established the ‘Innovation
shallow coral reefs for their food source.
Bridge and Regional Hub’ to build partnerships between
institutions in Africa and the Global North to tackle ocean
“With part of the Newton Prize money we are science challenges in the southern hemisphere.
developing a policy brief to put on the 2021 agenda
of the UN World Food Security Committee in order Another of the Chair’s key roles is to increase the number of
to catalyse planning and action. We probably have master’s and PhD students in ocean sciences throughout Africa.
about 15 years before things get very serious. It is As Prof Roberts says: “Without top researchers you cannot build
not a lot of time if you think how slowly things move the research capacity required to innovate Africa’s solutions on
in terms of politics,” says Prof Roberts. food security and other ocean challenges and opportunities.”
The Chair’s research on marine ecosystems in the WIO includes:
Also with Newton Prize funding, the Chair is
currently researching how the oceans are changing Two sites in South Africa:
off the coast of Mozambique, and the impact of this • The Agulhas Bank chokka/squid fishery. Research will be
on the ecosystems and coastal communities. “One featured in 23 papers published in a special issue of the
of the work packages for this project is to retrieve international journal Deep Sea Research in 2022.
seven underwater temperature recorders that I • The eddies and turbulences in the Agulhas current and the
deployed here 20 years ago. We have retrieved impact this has on the Transkei/KZN ecosystems.
five; they are still working and have recorded • Research off the coast of Madagascar, Kenya, Tanzania and
hourly water temperatures. We are busy analysing the latest work in Mozambique, investigating ocean changes
the data from the recorders but the satellite data in the area, and the impact of this on the ecosystems and
already clearly shows the resource-rich Mozambique coastal communities.
channel is warming as rapidly as the rest of the WIO.
WIO governments and the international community Regrettably, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK
urgently need to collaborate on mitigation has curtailed its current international development assistance
measures. Time is running out.” funding. This has worrying implications for the Chair’s work
in the WIO and for the ‘one ocean’ approach on which the
partnership was founded.

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