Protecting oceans from risky engineering wins top prize

FRIDAY 16TH DECEMBER, 2011

Protecting oceans from risky engineering wins top prize

Research that is helping to guide international decisions on how the world can respond to climate change has won the 2011 Prime Minister’s Science Prize.

The $500,000 award has gone to a joint NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research) /University of Otago team of scientists which has carried out some of the largest experiments ever undertaken on the planet to better understand the role the ocean plays in influencing climate.

Seven of the nine-member team are in Dunedin and two at NIWA in Wellington. They come under the umbrella of the Centre for Chemical & Physical Oceanography based at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Otago.

Led by Professor Philip Boyd, researchers have investigated how the ocean has acted as a sponge to soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over the past million years.

The work has positioned New Zealand as a leader in the debate about whether manipulating the oceans to remove carbon dioxide emissions from the air – a form of geo-engineering – could mitigate or help solve global warming.

Boyd says ice core records of past climatic conditions show periods where dust blowing off the land into the sea resulted in higher iron levels in the ocean. This fertilised the tiny plants called phytoplankton that grow in the sea and led them to take up and remove more CO2.

The prize-winning team carried out two ambitious experiments in the Southern Ocean and the Gulf of Alaska where they added an iron solution to large tracts of the sea, in the same way fertiliser is added to garden plants, to determine if more iron would alter concentrations of atmospheric CO2.

Scientists taking part in the SOIREE (Southern Ocean Iron Enrichment Experiment) and SERIES (Subarctic Ecosystem Response to Iron Enrichment Study) faced harsh conditions, spending weeks at sea in the stormy Southern Ocean on NIWA’s deepwater research vessel Tangaroa, in waves of up to 10 metres. The fertilised swathes of ocean, equal in area to around one million swimming pools, were large enough to be seen from space by satellites.

Boyd says the findings have commanded considerable international attention.
“Although we proved that increasing iron supply does increase the ocean’s ability to remove CO2, the increase was not as much as we thought, would be very costly, and is fraught with complex side effects including the release of other more potent greenhouse gases.

“Around the world, there is a growing lobby, which includes influential people like Bill Gates, for using geo-engineering to claw back some of the carbon dioxide humans are emitting. Our research has shown that adding iron to the ocean is not going to be an effective way to do that.”

This is particularly relevant for New Zealand, says Boyd, given its proximity to the Southern Ocean, one of the prime areas of “real estate” that has been considered for ocean-based engineering.

Sallie Chisholm, a leading international oceanographer and a Professor of Environmental Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says Dr Boyd’s team has played a critical role in bringing balanced international debate to the topic of geo-engineering.

“It is an extraordinary group that has had an enormous impact on our understanding of the relationship between oceans and climate and the promise and pitfalls of geo-engineering.”

Another prestigious international environment scientist, Andrew Watson, Royal Society Research Professor at the University of East Anglia, pays tribute to the spectacular success of marine experiments carried out by the team. “Oceanographers around the world are envious of the New Zealanders’ ability to perform these experiments.”

The team’s findings have been published in numerous international peer-reviewed journals and its work has fed into international conferences on geo-engineering and government decision making.

Boyd says having ocean scientists win the Prime Minister’s Science Prize is a particular milestone.

“New Zealanders have a strong cultural bond to the ocean and we are very proud of our marine heritage. But we are also increasingly aware that careful stewardship is needed. If we are going to pass on a pristine environment to future generations, we have to understand why the climate is changing and what effects it will have on the ocean.”

Members of the winning team are: Dr Evelyn Armstrong (NIWA Research Unit), Professor Philip Boyd (Director, Centre of Chemical and Physical Oceanography, NIWA), Dr Kim Currie (NIWA Research Unit), Associate Professor Russell Frew (Department of Chemistry, University of Otago), Professor Keith Hunter (Pro-Vice Chancellor Sciences, University of Otago), Dr Cliff Law (Principal Scientist, NIWA), Dr Rob Murdoch (General Manager, Research, NIWA), Dr Sylvia Sander (Department of Chemistry, University of Otago), Dr Robert Strzepek (postdoctoral fellow, Department of Chemistry, University of Otago).

Professor Keith Hunter says a key reason for the success of the NIWA/Otago Centre is the outstanding cooperation between the two institutions which has enabled the Centre to achieve much more than it otherwise could.

NIWA’s General Manager, Research, and a member of the winning team, Dr Rob Murdoch, says the team plans to use the $400,000 of prize money tagged for ongoing research to help establish a state-of-the-art culture facility at the NIWA/Otago Centre where New Zealand scientists and international collaborators can study Southern Ocean phytoplankton.

The 2011 Prime Minister’s Science Prizes are being presented to winners on Friday, 16th December, from 10.15am at The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron Clubrooms,101 Curran Street, Herne Bay, Auckland.

To find out more about the Prime Minister’s Science Prizes visit:
www.pmscienceprizes.org.nz

About the Prime Minister’s Science Prizes

The Prime Minister’s Science Prizes combine recognition and reward, with total prize money of $1 million. Presented annually, they are New Zealand’s most valuable science awards and were introduced to raise the profile and prestige of science. The prizes celebrate scientific achievement, highlight the impact science has on New Zealanders’ lives and aim to attract more young people into science careers. There are five prizes with the top award, valued at $500,000, recognising a transformational science discovery or achievement which has had a significant impact on New Zealand or internationally. The prizes are:
• The Prime Minister’s Science Prize: $500,000
• The Prime Minister’s MacDiarmid Emerging Scientist Prize: $200,000
• The Prime Minister’s Science Teacher Prize: $150,000
• The Prime Minister’s Future Scientist Prize: $50,000
• The Prime Minister’s Science Media Communication Prize: $100,000

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