Research

The primary input pathway for Persistent Organic Pollutants to the South Polar Region is long range atmospheric transport. However, increasingly alternate pathways such as ocean currents, migratory biota and in-situ chemical usage must be considered.

Quantification of chemical levels and profiles in standardised media over time will facilitate evaluation of temporal contamination trends and hereby the effectiveness of the aims of the Stockholm Convention in reducing or eliminating these chemicals from the global environment.

Susan Bengtson Nash is the Development Lead of the Antarctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AnMAP), a joint initiative between the the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR), UNESCO, the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), and Griffith University. SOPOPP's research activity in support of the goals of AnMAP include Susan Bengtson Nash’s ARC Discovery Project (DP220101462) “Uncovering Antarctica’s Secret Chemical Voyagers” (2023-2027). Dr. Michaela Lerch is the Post-doctoral Research Fellow appointed to this project.

This project aims to strengthen global chemical policy by rapidly identifying chemicals that demonstrate environmental persistence and mobility, two requisite risk criteria for practice and regulatory action. It will take the novel approach of applying powerful non-target chemical screening approaches to Antarctic environmental media, leveraging the remoteness of Antarctica to derive unambiguous evidence against the key risk criteria.

Research will uncover a new catalogue of proven persistent and mobile chemicals, and further assess their ubiquity and biomagnification potential in the Antarctic system. Project findings will be directly disseminated to policymakers, facilitating expedited regulatory decision-making for improved Planetary Health outcomes.

Ice and snow form major components of the Polar landscape and represent a unique array of physical processes governing the transport and fate of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). Similarly, Polar biota have evolved ecologies dictated by the annual extremes in solar irradiance which lend further complexity to the biogeochemical cycles of POPs in high latitude environments.

Chemicals distribute between different environmental phases such as ice, water and phytoplankton, according to their physico-chemical properties and ambient conditions. This research theme conducts strategic measurement to better understand the partitioning of POPs in these systems, their key drivers, as well as their likely behaviour under changing climatic conditions.

This theme has been supported by ARC Discovery Project (DP140100018) with logistical support provided by a number of Australian Antarctic Science Grants. The theme has supported the PhD research of Marie Bigot and Andreas Zimbelli and has entailed close collaboration with Aarhus University , Environment Canada and the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) at the University of Tasmania.

Vessel strike is one of the fastest growing direct threats posed to whales worldwide. The threat has escalated in line with rapid growth of the global maritime industry, combined with advances in ship engineering which have facilitated greater vessel speeds. Mortalities in cetacean species with long gestation periods and low fecundity are problematic.

Australia’s incidence of vessel strike involving large whales constitutes ~7% of reported incidences worldwide. In line with the International Whaling Commission (IWC) efforts, Australia’s Federal Government published the National Strategy for Mitigating Vessel Strike of Marine Mega-fauna. The Strategy flags Moreton Bay as an area ‘of concern’ owing to the co-occurrence of a high level of commercial shipping activity, and high cetacean biodiversity, including seasonally high whale numbers.

Studies into the interactions between migrating humpback whales and marine vessels such as passenger ferries, recreational boats and cargo ships off the South East Queensland coast has strengthened the bonds between research, government, and stakeholders in a proactive approach to understand the behaviour of whales in Moreton Bay.

Since 2017, SOPOPP have worked in partnership with industry, including the Port of Brisbane Pty. Ltd., to quantify inter-annual distribution and abundance of humpback whales utilising Moreton Bay.

In 2022, this partnership received support via Professor Susan Bengtson Nash Australian Research Council Linkage project (2023-2026) “Life in The Shipping Lane” which represented an expanded partnership including Healthy Land and Water, DHI, Stradbroke Flyer, the University of the Sunshine Coast, and CSIRO.

This project will identify potential mitigation measures, including new technologies, enabling industry to minimise and prevent harm to humpback whales.

The escalating environmental threat of plastic pollution is expected to impact Antarctica via oceanic pathways over coming decades as transport timescales are reached. Further, the contribution of local human activities to the Antarctic plastic pollution problem have yet to be quantified.

Research under this Program component aims to investigate: the current distribution of microplastic pollution within the Southern Ocean; Quantify uptake kinetics in keystone species, as well as; develop biomarkers of plastic ingestion in Antarctic megafauna.

This theme supported the PhD research of SOPOPP alumni, Amanda Dawson, which resulted in a Nature Communications publication.

SOPOPP are proud Partner Investigators of the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition project “Baseline Assessment of the Impact of Microplastic Pollution on the Southern Ocean Food Web”.

The extreme life-history adaptations of Polar biota may lead to an elevated sensitivity to the toxicological effects of chemicals. Measuring the toxicological exposure and effect of known and emerging Chemicals of Antarctic Concern (CACs) is an integral component of our work within SOPOPP. From field surveys of chemical levels and profiles at the base of the Antarctic food web, and consumers i.e. sea-bird and whale populations; to controlled, laboratory, dose-response assessments using Antarctic krill-based bioassays and humpback whale cell lines developed within our team.

This research theme has been supported by Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP0666891) and is conducted in close collaboration with industry and research partners at the Australian Antarctic Division, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, the University of Queensland and internal collaborators at Griffith University. The work contributes to a very small body of data regarding the toxicological sensitivity of Antarctic biota and facilitates species-specific risk assessment and regulatory decision making.

This theme supported the PhD research of SOPOPP alumni Anita Poulsen, Hafiz al Hosen, Valeria Casa as well as active SOPOPP students, Lara Omomo and Erika Oteri.

The Humpback Whale Sentinel Program (HWSP) is an ongoing primary surveillance action of AnMAP. It is a long-term, circum-Polar biomonitoring program for surveillance of the Antarctic sea-ice ecosystem, using whale health data, collected annually since 2008 (and still ongoing throughout 2024) from migrating whale populations across the Southern Hemisphere, to provide important clues about the status of the Antarctic sea ice ecosystem. It is designed to complement existing sentinel programs under the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCMLR) Ecosystem Monitoring Program (CEMP), and produce open source data for Antarctic and cetacean research communities that ultimately seeks to enable marine industry to minimise and prevent damage and harm to fragile Polar – aquatic – ecosystems. It is supported by the Southern Ocean Research Partnership (SORP), endorsed by the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS), and is the culmination of 13 years of biomarker and ecological tracer research and development within SOPOPP.

The HWSP targets the sentinel parameters of adiposity, diet and fecundity in 5 distinct breeding stocks of southern hemisphere humpback whales on an annual basis on their respective breeding grounds. The HWSP relies on strong international partnerships with our Breeding Stock Representatives at Projeto Baleia Jubarte, Brazil; Institute for Research and development, New Caledonia; Cetacean Research Centre WA and the Pacific Whale Foundation, Ecuador.

Research in support of the HWSP has been conducted by SOPOPP alumni Pascale Eisenmann, Juliana Castrillon, Jasmin Gross, and is the focus of current SOPOPP PhD student, Alexandre Bernier-Graveline.