Scholarship to fund research on currents
But for Natalie-Jane Reid, it is something she has wanted for ages.
The 40-year-old has won a $10,000 Antarctica New Zealand Ella Yelich-O'Connor Antarctic Doctoral Scholarship, which will allow her to do experimental work using sediments, and explore how ocean currents have changed around Antarctica.
"I returned to the University of Otago after having children, when my dream PhD project became available.
"I'm really excited and grateful to receive this scholarship. This will help advance my research."
She said Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) was a key driver of global ocean circulation and climate.
Despite its importance, its long-term variability was poorly understood because of limited observational records.
Models suggested AABW formation was vulnerable to climate change, but there were still large uncertainties with all model predictions.
She said palaeoceanographic records could reveal past AABW dynamics, but a reliable proxy for present speed was lacking.
"Anisotropy of Magnetic Susceptibility (AMS), measured on sediments, offers a potential new technique which could be used to determine ancient sea-floor current speeds, as it records the alignment of magnetic minerals shaped by bottom currents.
"Though widely accessible and easy to measure, AMS has not yet been calibrated to current velocity."
Her PhD project aimed to develop a new paleocurrent proxy using AMS and apply it to reconstruct deep ocean current velocities in the Ross Sea.
As part of her research, she is developing a sediment flume in which she will simulate different deep ocean current speeds, to see how these affect the AMS.
In the second part of the study, she will measure AMS in sediment cores, to determine current strength since the last ice age.
"This scholarship gives me the freedom to take a new and ambitious approach to palaeoceanography."
While she would not get to go down to the Antarctic to do her research, she was still delighted about spending long hours in a large chiller in the basement of the geology department.
"I'm keeping my water very cold and salty, just like Antarctic bottom water."
Ella Yelich-O'Connor (also known as New Zealand singer/songwriter Lorde) spent a week at Scott Base in 2019, which inspired her to create a memoir and photo-book titled Going South .
Proceeds from the sale of the book now fund the scholarship.
john.lewis@odt.co.nz
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