Ocean Challenge Aims to Keep Its Readers up to Date Formerly Open University with What Is Happening in Oceanography in the UK and the Rest of Europe

Volume 24, No.2, 2018 (published 2020)

editor scope and aims Angela Colling Ocean Challenge aims to keep its readers up to date formerly Open University with what is happening in oceanography in the UK and the rest of Europe. By covering the whole range editorial board of marine-related sciences in an accessible style it should be valuable both to specialist oceanographers Chair who wish to broaden their knowledge of marine Stephen Dye sciences, and to informed lay persons who are Cefas and University of East Anglia concerned about the oceanic environment.

Barbara Berx NB Ocean Challenge can be downloaded from the Marine Scotland Science Challenger Society website free of charge, but members can opt to receive printed copies. Emma Cavan Imperial College London For more information about the Society, or Philip Goodwin for queries concerning individual or library National Oceanography Centre, Southampton subscriptions to Ocean Challenge, please see the Laura Grange Challenger Society website (www.challenger- University of Bangor society.org.uk) Katrien Van Landeghem University of Bangor industrial corporate membership For information about corporate membership, please contact Terry Sloane [email protected] The views expressed in Ocean Challenge are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those advertising of the Challenger Society or the Editor. For information about advertising, please contact the Editor (see inside back cover).

availability of back issues of ocean challenge For information about back issues, please contact the Editor (see inside back cover).

DATA PROTECTION ACT, 1984 (UK) © Challenger Society for Marine Science, 2020 Under the terms of this Act, you are informed that this magazine is sent to you through the use of a ISSN 0959-0161 Printed by Halstan Printing Group computer-based mailing list. The Magazine of the Challenger Society for Marine Science

some information about council for the challenger society the challenger society President The Society’s objectives are: Rosalind Rickaby Oxford University To advance the study of marine science through research and education Past President Rob Upstill-Goddard To encourage two-way collaboration between Newcastle University the marine science research base and industry/ commerce Honorary Secretary Mattias Green To disseminate knowledge of marine science with Bangor University a view to encouraging a wider interest in the Honorary Treasurer study of the seas and an awareness of the need Edward Mawji for their proper management National Oceanography Centre, Southampton To contribute to public debate and government policy on the development of marine science Stephanie Allen John Bacon The Society aims to achieve these objectives Chelsey Baker through a range of activities: Lidia Carracedo Holding regular scientific meetings covering all Rob Hall aspects of marine science Rachel Mills Setting up specialist groups in different disci- Terry Sloane plines to provide a forum for discussion Katie St John Glew Publishing news of the activities of the Society and Alessandro Tagliabue of the world of marine science David Thomas Membership provides the following benefits: Sophie Wilmes An opportunity to attend, at reduced rates, the Judith Wolf biennial UK Marine Science Conference and a range of other scientific meetings supported by Editor, Challenger Wave the Society (funding support may be available) John Allen Receipt of our electronic newsletter Challenger Wave which carries topical marine science news, For information about Council members and information about jobs, conferences, meet- see the Challenger Society website ings, courses and seminars advice to authors The Challenger Society website is Articles for Ocean Challenge can be on any aspect of www.challenger-society.org.uk oceanography. They should be written in an accessible style with a minimum of jargon and avoiding the use of references. membership subscriptions For further information (including our ‘Information for Authors’) please contact the Editor: The annual subscription is £40 (£20.00 for Angela Colling, Aurora Lodge, The Level, Dittisham, students in the UK only). If you would like to join Dartmouth, Devon, TQ6 0ES, UK. the Society or obtain further information, see the website (given above). Tel. +44-(0)1803-722513 [email protected] ° ° ° ° ° ° 0° ° ° °

60° CONTENTS

Message from the Editor 2 The Ocean Modelling Special Interest Group Dave Munday 3 48°N Gaining experience through CLASS Discoveries on Discovery: Joining the PAP-SO benthic science team Clara Douglas Using a CLASS Fellowship40°N to make measurements of the surface carbonate system Hannelore Theetaert 4 Five stepped forward John Phillips 7

Covid-19 and climate change: What energy-use changes during ‘Lockdown’ might tell us Editor 8 60° 40° 20°W Predicting the severity of the 2020 iceberg season off Newfoundland Jennifer Ross and Grant Bigg 10

An interview with an adventurous polar scientist Laura Grange interviews ice-core expert Liz Thomas 12

A tour of RRS Sir David Attenborough Mike Gloistein 14

Trends in marine science publishing: Changes in publication rates and collaborative

publishing over the past 80 years Neil Mitchell 16 Equity at sea: Gender and inclusivity in UK sea-going science Katharine R. Hendry, Amber Annett, Rehemat Bhatia, Gillian M. Damerell, Sophie Fielding, Yvonne L. Firing, Eleanor Frajka-Williams, Sue Hartman, Sian F. Henley, Karen J. Heywood, Penny Holliday, Veerle A.I. Huvenne, Rachel A. Mills, Berit Rabe, Carol Robinson, Alejandra Sanchez-Franks, Denise Smythe-Wright, Michelle L. Taylor and Margaret Yelland 19

Particle size matters! To really understand the ocean’s iron cycle, biogeochemists need to do more filtering Koko Kunde 31 Most of the maps and diagrams were drawn by A ‘cranky little vessel’: The story of HM steam The ArtWorks. vessel Lightning. Part 6: A digression into The cover and heading Portuguese politics and geology Tony Rice 38 graphics were designed by Ann Aldred. Book Reviews 42 Cover photo: Matt Gubbins, Marine Scotland Science. © Crown Copyright.

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.1 (publ. 2020) Message from the Editor

Welcome to Ocean Challenge! I’d like to begin by thanking all the contributors for helping get this issue together, despite the difcult circumstances over past months, and I look forward to receiving articles from the unfortunate authors who were locked out of their ofces for months on end, were grappling with teaching online, or simply found themselves stuck in the wrong place. Women in marine science feature prominently in this issue. An article by Katharine Hendry and co-authors considers successes in improved gender equality in sea-going science, and asks whether initiatives similar to those which have helped women can be used to improve diversity at sea in general. We have an interview with Liz Thomas who leads the British Antarctic Survey’s ice-core group, and a piece celebrating the fve women who, 50 years ago, lived in, and undertook research from, an underwater ‘habitat’ of the US Virgin Islands. Also in this issue, Koko Kunde explores why colloidal iron plays such a signifcant role in ocean biogeochemistry. This article is based on Koko’s prize-winning talk at the last meeting of Challenger’s AMBIO (Advances in Marine Biogeochemistry) Special interest Group (SIG). Joining a SIG is a great way to expand your knowledge of your discipline and make new contacts. Information about the other Challenger SIGs can be found on the Society’s website; if you would like to know more about ocean modelling, see the next page!

Challenger Society Conference 2020 is happening on 6–10 September 2021 hosted by the Scottish Association for Marine Science See http://www.challenger2021.co.uk

The new RRS Sir David Attenborough departing Cammell Laird See pp.14–15 shipyard for photos of (Photo: Michael the inside of Glostein) the vessel.

2 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.1 (publ. 2020) The Ocean Modelling Special Interest Group Dave Munday

It would be difcult to overestimate the strive to make these meetings open, friendly contributions of the late Peter Killworth to and inclusive. Personally, it has become the theoretical oceanography and numerical highlight of the conference season and my modelling of the ocean. As well as writing favourite way to meet new and old friends. over 120 oceanography papers, Peter also The quality of our student speakers is now so wrote over 50 papers on social network high that the prize for best student talk is hotly research and some of the frst commer- contested, with many worthy winners being cial computer games. As the person in pipped at the post. charge of developing one of the UK’s frst The annual meetings are movable feasts ocean models (FRAM, the Fine Resolu- without a fxed date or venue. In years that tion Antarctic Model), he made important the Challenger Society holds its conference advances in modelling and understanding we hold a one-day meeting on the Friday. the Southern Ocean. Peter also played a In other years we split the meeting across signifcant role in the founding of the Chal- two days, to allow time to travel to/from the lenger Society’s Special Interest Group for venue, and squeeze in that oh-so-important Ocean Modelling. conference dinner. In these years the location Commonly known as OMG – which at is chosen by whoever volunteers to organise times has made for some panicked sound- Peter Killworth (Photo: Tony Barnes) it, although we do try to visit locations that ing email subjects – the SIG tries, in some the Challenger Conference itself doesn’t small way, to live up to Peter’s enthusiasm The SIG’s annual meeting reach. If you’re interested in helping organise for science and his support of students At OMG’s annual science meeting, this and host a future OMG meeting please get and early-career researchers. In its pres- philosophy leads to a fascinating mix of in touch (see below). Previous venues have ent incarnation, the Ocean Modelling SIG presentations on topics as diverse as eddy included the University of Reading, Imperial exists to connect UK ocean modellers of parameterisation, global ocean biogeochem- College, and the University of Edinburgh. all favours, from those running coupled istry and the circulation and aquaculture in The 2020 annual meeting General Circulation Models to conceptual Scottish lochs. modellers, from geophysical fuid dynami- This year’s meeting had to be a little diferent The annual meeting is usually held in Sep- cists to biologists, from students to senior from normal. Due to ongoing global issues, tember. This is an opportunity to meet other professors. Our goal is to promote inter- the Challenger Society made the difcult SIG members and hear about their latest action, especially among early-career decision to postpone its 2020 conference work. The format is one of short talks (~8–10 ocean modellers, and to showcase the until next year. However, we decided to grab minutes) in order to pack in as many talks as breadth and brilliance of UK ocean model- the bull by the horns and have our frst vir- possible. Typically each meeting has around ling. We take a very broad and ecumenical tual SIG meeting! Thanks to the magic of the 40 speakers and perhaps twice as many view of what constitutes an ocean model. internet, this took place on 10–11 September. attendees. Anyone is welcome to speak, If someone, somewhere, thinks it’s an We had 30 speakers with a great mix from all although we prioritise Ph.D students and ocean model, then they are more than wel- levels of academia. At some points we had early-career researchers in the schedule. We come to be involved with the SIG. over 70 people in one Zoom call. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the meeting The frst issue of the and helped make it a success, especially Ocean Modelling newsletter, when it came to microphone discipline. published in October 1976. The newsletter was produced by How to get involved Adrian Gill, assisted by The SIG recently setup a JiscMail list to help Peter Killworth, David Anderson, Jeff Blundell and Mike Davey, promote and organise our activities. To join initially at the Dept of Maths search for OCEANMODELLINGSIG-CHAL- and Theoretical Physics LENGERSOC at www.jiscmail.ac.uk. For (DAMTP), Cambridge, and then a more personal touch, contact one of the the Oxford Hooke Institute, current conveners, Helen Johnson (helen. and together with associated [email protected]) or Dave Munday meetings it helped bring the ([email protected]), directly by email. modelling community Please contact us if you’re interested in together. hosting an OMG meeting or have ideas for The newletter was other activities the SIG could promote. eventually replaced by the Elsevier journal of the same name, and Many thanks to all those who provided the meetings evolved information about the origin of the SIG, and into meetings of the a special ‘thank you’ to Sarah Killworth for Challenger Society organising the photograph, and to Peter Ocean Modelling Martin for the scan of the frst issue of SIG. Ocean Modelling.

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.1 (publ. 2020) 3 Gaining experience through CLASS

CLASS – Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science – is a fve-year research programme, begun in April 2018, which is investigating the impacts of climate change and human activities on the Atlantic Ocean, from the surface to the sea bed. Its aim is to deliver knowledge and understanding of the Atlantic Ocean system to assist stakeholders in making evidence-based decisions relating to climate change. Research cruises contributing to CLASS have space on them for early-career researchers who wish to acquire training in making observations at sea, by being actively involved in collecting samples and data. Below, two early- career scientists who have benefitted from going on a cruise contributing to CLASS descibe their experiences. If you would like to know more about CLASS, including how to apply for berths, see p.6.

Discoveries on Discovery: Joining the PAP-SO benthic science team Clara Douglas

I have always been fascinated by the Bathysnap showed that the deep seas a depth of ~4850 m. Many areas of sea, and a career in marine science experience seasonality, much like the research would be utilising the sedi- has always seemed the natural surface ocean: increased fuxes of ment cores – from biology to biogeo- choice for me. I stepped foot on my organic material reaching the sea foor chemistry as well as work on environ- frst research vessel when I was 10 after spring phytoplankton blooms mental DNA (eDNA) and microplastics. years old – the original RRS Discov- allow bursts of benthic activity. The cores were carefully sliced at spe- ery in Dundee. It’s ftting that my frst Since then, long-term research has cifc depths, at intervals varying from research cruise was aboard the most continued to examine how environ- 1 to 5 cm for investigating the fauna in recent incarnation of this historic ship, mental changes far above the ocean the sediment, to 0.5 cm increments for the fourth to be named RRS Discovery. depths impact fauna in the abyss. some of the biogeochemistry samples. One notable example is the three- During the summer of 2019, I had the Video footage and still photographs of fold increase in population density amazing opportunity to join a research the sea foor were taken using HyBIS of the sea cucumber Amperima cruise to the Porcupine Abyssal Plain – a camera system lowered to the sea rosea – a phenomenon referred to as Sustained Observatory (PAP-SO) as foor beneath the ship. Line transects the ‘Amperima Event’ (doi: 10.1016/j. part of the scientifc team. PAP-SO were undertaken very slowly to allow dsr2.2009.02.001). monitors long-term change in the HyBIS to get photos of the sea bed North Atlantic Ocean, south-west Sampling the sea floor and the animals living there for quan- of Ireland. It records atmospheric titative analysis by the benthic team at It took a couple of days to reach the conditions, surface ocean physics, the National Oceanography Centre. It PAP-SO site, during which I staved of chemistry and biology, conditions in was great being able to watch the live minor seasickness by prepping sample the deep ocean interior and deep- camera footage, seeing what creatures bottles and labels during the day and sea ecosystems, all important for dwell in the depths. It was also valua- teaching Mah-Jong to the science observing and analysing the efects of ble preparation for the trawls that were team and crew in the evenings. I was climate change. yet to come … volunteering as part of the benthic The PAP-SO is the site of one of the team, which meant adapting to working Collecting creatures from the deep longest running ocean time series. the night shift during sampling. Despite the fact that the benthic team Indeed, 2019 was the 30th year of the did most of their work at night, some particle fux time series obtained from The frst sampling we carried out was samples were recovered during the day. sediment traps which collect organic using the megacorer, taking sediment During these times, whales and dolphins debris and other particles as they core samples from the sea bed at make their way from the surface to the depths of the ocean, and so measure the fux of carbon to the sea bed.

Some research at this site dates from before the PAP-SO was established, and the Porcupine Abyssal Plain has been the source of many important discoveries. In particular, time-lapse photographs collected in 1982 using Left The megacorer being deployed at the PAP-SO site. In one deployment it can collect eight large cores and two small ones. (Photo: Andy Gates) Right Some of the benthic team retrieving the sediment samples from the megacorer. (Photo: Clara Douglas)

4 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020) were seen both close to the ship and Right Clara merrily sorting in the distance, and we had several through deep-sea sea cucumbers visits from common dolphins and (Psychropotes) in the chill room, pilot whales playing nearby – frst with the help of Dr Andy Gates. time sightings for me! (Photo: Emmy McGarry) Below Amphipods of varying Amphipod trap recovery and trawl species and sizes sorting brought the benthic team caught in anti-slip material; back to the day shift. Amphipods amphipod individual are small crustaceans, benthic ~ 6 cm long. species of which can be caught by (Photo: Clara Douglas) sending traps baited with mackerel to the sea bed. This work monitors long-term changes in the scavenging fauna on the abyssal plain and dates back to 1986. A shift in the amphipod community over the past 30+ years has been linked to environmental changes in the upper ocean. Despite the length of the study, new species continue to be identifed from the PAP-SO (doi: 10.1016/j. pocean.2020.102292).

The method was highly efective, with Unfortunately, the deep ocean hasn’t Water column science entire mackerel consumed within escaped the impact of humans, and Benthic research wasn’t the only work just 48 hours in some traps, while the trawl brought up litter of various taking place at PAP-SO. The pelagic other traps attracted slightly less kinds, particularly clinker. Clinker team sent down CTD rosettes, which voracious amphipods, meaning we is burnt coal, which was produced collect water samples at various depths, had to search through the fsh to fnd extensively on steam ships, and then while recording conductivity (salinity), any sneaky amphipods hiding in the thrown overboard. The sharpness temperature and density through the fesh … Many species of amphipods of the clinker, litter and the nature of water column. The water samples were were caught, with sizes of individuals trawling itself meant that some of our used to measure nutrients, carbon and ranging from <1 cm to over 6 cm. specimens were damaged, enhancing chlorophyll, among other things. Some the production of the pungent smell of Finally, the trawl was an entirely dif- visiting scientists from Plymouth were deep sea fauna. ferent barrel of fsh (literally). Nothing interested in seeing if any marine fungi were present in the water column. could prepare us for the ‘distinctive’ We spent nearly 10 hours per trawl smell of deep-sea cucumbers. We cleaning the specimens, photograph- Technicians were on the ship to run our watched from a safe distance as ing the best ones, and sorting them all sampling equipment, retrieve the PAP the trawl net was brought on board into pots, bags, buckets and barrels moorings and make sure the new ones and the contents were spilled into for later analysis. It was really inter- being deployed were in working order numerous crates for us to clean and esting being able to see in real life the – vital for ensuring that information is sort through. types of animals that we had previously being recorded by the sensors on and watched on HyBIS. below the surface, and that it can be sent back from the buoys to scientists on land throughout the year.

Final thanks I am very grateful for the opportunity to take part in this cruise while undertaking my Masters degree, as it reinforced and expanded my knowledge and experience. Meeting all the people – scientists, technicians, crew – who are needed to work together to achieve the science that I had previously only read about was eye-opening and inspirational. I am as eager as ever to get back on the water to carry out Sediment and trawl research. This has been a valuable experi- samples unloaded ence, and I look forward to what the next from the ship and stage in my career brings. ready for storage with the rest of the Clara has now begun a Ph.D at the National Discovery Collections in Oceanography Centre, Southampton, Southampton. studying the carbon cycle in the Southern (Photo: Clara Douglas) Ocean. [email protected]

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020) 5 The main feature of the CAMEL is its unmanned surface vessel (USV) that carries three easily exchangeable scientifc marine sensor payloads: (i) A hydrographic payload with a high resolution multibeam echo sounder and speed of sound sensor; (ii) A geophysical payload which with a high grade side scan sonar and sub-bottom profler system; (iii) An oceanographic payload which comprises a sensors including ADCP, CTD, pH, fuorometer, dissolved oxygen, partial CO2. Each payload is lowered remotely through the hull of the USV after launch and other sensors can be added to the payload according to the needs of the deployment, subject to space and power requirements.

Using a CLASS Fellowship to make measurements of the surface carbonate system Hannelore Theetaert I am a marine chemistry lab technician I’m now processing and correcting the working in the Flanders Marine data, using relationships between the Institute (VLIZ) in Ostend, Belgium. I underway sensor data and manually have a BSc. in chemistry and my job collected descrete samples taken involves working in ICOS (Integrated from the water bottles sent down with Carbon Observation System). I look the CTD casts or from the underway after two ICOS stations used to system. I intend to submit the data to the

measure carbon parameters in the international Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas. coastal environment of the North Sea, one on the RV Simon Stevin and one 6789 #

on the VLIZ Thornton buoy. ) ! − Back in November 2019 I applied for 6779 a CLASS Fellowship to install and

operate underway systems – systems (µ 4/0#15 6769 that use seawater pumped onboard as the ship is in motion – to measure 6799

pCO2 (efectively the concentration 6:;9 of dissolved CO2) and total alkalinity from the RRS James Cook during the The end of a successful day! ./.%0#%01%02&2.3# !"#$%&##################!##'()#################!"#'()#############!#*%+,-# CLASS GO-SHIP expedition from Florida to Tenerife (JC191). The setup Two systems were used to measure pCO , a VLIZ custom-made system on the vessel and the capacity to 2 .// and another system based on

compare the underway systems with ) conventional analytical methodologies, detection of non-dispersive infrared light (NDIR). For more details of 01/ allowed their performance to be (µ %67 these systems, and of the system 5

optimised. At the same time, the work 34 allowed me to improve my personal used to measure total alkalinity, see ! 02/ understanding of the biogeochemical the blogpost published during the processes around carbonate expedition (https://projects.noc.ac.uk/ !"#$%&##################!##'()###################!"#'()#################!#*%+,-# chemistry and carbon fuxes (air–sea, class-project/blog/nightshift-jc191). surface water–deeper water) in the The graphs (right) show preliminary total alkalinity and pCO data from the Preliminary data collected during the cruise. area, and in the open ocean in general. 2 cruise. Upper Total alkalinity measurements. Lower pCO measurements; turquoise Successful 2 = VLIZ system; red = NDIR system. retrieval of the deepest CTD Measuring underway pCO2 and total cast deployed by alkalinity were not the only things I did the night shift while on board the RRS James Cook. (6455 m) During the nightshifts, I was part of the oxygen and nutrients team led by Dr Edward Mawji. Being part of this team was a very interesting, educational and fun activity, and it was rewarding to share knowledge and learn new things. Thank you VLIZ and CLASS!

Hannelore is now doing her ‘normal’ job involving lab work and looking (Photos: after the ICOS stations on the RV Simon Hannelore Stevin and the VLIZ Thornton buoy. Theetaert) [email protected]

How to gain research experience through CLASS CLASS is supporting the UK science community by providing opportunities for early-career researchers (ECRs), i.e. graduate students and postdocs, to work with us. CLASS also ofers funded ECR Fellowships to support extended visits to the National Oceanography Centre and the Scottish Association for Marine Science, which could include joining a cruise. Find out how to apply for berths on cruises and CLASS ECR Fellowships, by signing up to our email bulletins on the website: proj.noc.ac.uk/class. You can also contact us by email ([email protected]) or Twitter (@CLASS_URI). As well as delivering world-leading research, datasets, facilities and advice, CLASS activities will form the basis of new research projects. We encourage you to get in touch if you have ideas you would like to develop into proposals with CLASS researchers. Stop Press: Although schemes are suspended due to Covid-19 restrictions, please keep an eye on the website and email bulletins for news about when they will be back up and running. Penny Holliday

6 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020) Five stepped forward John Phillips With hindsight, the two decades between 1960 and 1980 were an era of ‘underwater habitats’, when saturation diving seemed to ofer a highway to the investigation and exploitation of the continental shelf. Today most of the few that remain are used for diver training or tourism, their former role usurped by minisubs and robots. The fve female The Tektite project of 1969–1970 was volunteers in the based on one such underwater habitat Tektite II programme installed at the modest depth of 15 m in ffty years ago: left to Great Lameshur Bay, US Virgin Islands. right, Ann Hartline, It was an experiment partly funded by Sylvia Earle, Alina NASA and designed to study, among Szmant, Renate True other things, the behaviour of a group of and Peggy Lucas individuals isolated within an alien environment, whether beyond the atmosphere or letins from the Natural History Museum of Two waving legs in black socks follow a beneath the sea. In 1969 (Tektite I) a crew Los Angeles County. crumpled white shirt through the open of four men occupied the habitat for two hatchway. The second shot, taken through All these observations beneftted from the months. Tektite II, in 1970, was a series of a window of the decompression chamber ability to remain at depth indefnitely with ten two-week residencies, including the back on land after the mission, shows the virtually unlimited access to the under- frst by an all-woman crew (Mission 6), led whole team killing time in their swimsuits. water environment, night or day. The avail- by Sylvia Earle. Peggy Lucas is sitting nearest the window ability of a newly developed ‘rebreathing’ and rightly objects to such intrusive scuba system provided a further advan- At that time Earle was a postdoctoral behaviour by sticking out her tongue at tage, making possible dives of up to four research fellow at Harvard, specialising in the photographer. It would be pleasing to hours’ duration in which the near silence marine algae. The other members of the think that this salute was her revenge for of their almost bubble-free operation team were Renate True, Alina Szmant, Ann the unfattering shot taken in the training minimised disturbance to the behaviour of Hartline, and Margaret Ann (Peggy) Lucas. pool several weeks earlier. Sylvia Earle the sea’s natural inhabitants. The value of All were volunteers and, with the exception sits facing her, keeping a straight face. of Peggy Lucas, marine biologists – she an underwater feld station and laboratory was an electrical engineer from the Univer- was amply proven. The author has to admit to being a little in sity of Delaware. love with his impression of Peggy Lucas! There is another reason why Peggy Lucas The real Peggy followed a varied career was vital to the successful completion of For reasons of safety, it was essential that as ocean engineer, Professor of Computer Mission 6: she averted a diving accident every Tektite crew included an engineer, Sciences at the American University of that could have had serious, perhaps fatal, but female engineers with suitable aquatic Paris and journalist for Financial Times consequences for Sylvia Earle. Returning experience were scarce (and mixed crews business publications covering technical together from a normal dive using con- unthinkable) in 1970. So the proposal for subjects. She is now Peggy Lucas Bond, ventional scuba equipment, Earle was left an ‘all-woman’ crew lay in jeopardy until an environmental activist living on Maui without an air supply through the combi- Peggy Lucas seized this opportunity. On in the Hawaiian Islands. Ann Hartline nation of a sand-clogged regulator and Mission 6 her principal duties were to changed direction in 1980 and joined the a faulty valve on her reserve tank. Taking monitor life-support systems, in particular Department of Justice, becoming a trial turns to breathe from Lucas’s mouthpiece the pressure (~2·4 bar) and composition attorney in the Environmental Enforce- they reached the habitat without further (9% oxygen, 91% nitrogen) of the habitat’s ment Section. Alina Szmant remained problems. Of course this was a ‘routine’ internal atmosphere, and to manage com- a coral-reef ecologist throughout a long emergency, a situation for which divers munications with the outside world. She academic career and is now CEO of Cisme train, but all emergencies have a tendency became Assistant Scientifc Coordinator Instruments, a company manufacturing to escalate – the reason this one didn’t for the Tektite II programme as a whole. underwater respirometers. Renate True was that nobody panicked and Peggy taught anatomy and physiology at the Research by members of the team covered Lucas calmly did the right thing. a wide range of ecological studies: the College of the Mainland in Texas for thirty colonisation of an artifcial seagrass bed Needless to say, the all-woman crew years. She died in 2017, a respected and and its role as a shelter for fsh (True), the attracted a lot of media attention. Peggy much loved teacher and friend to her escape response of a species of damsel- Lucas always looks relaxed in the photo- students. Sylvia Earle, who celebrated fsh to visual dangers (Hartline and Szmant) graphs that appeared in the press, with her 85th birthday in August, became the and the infuence of grazing fshes on only two exceptions which, taken together, outstanding champion of the marine envi- marine plants (Earle). In addition Earle seem to illustrate a self-confdent person- ronment that she remains today. catalogued the algal fora of the area, ality with a mischievous streak. The frst identifying 153 species, including 26 never shows her in the training pool making an John Phillips is a marine bibliophile. before recorded in the Virgin Islands. Their inevitably awkward underwater entry head- [email protected] results were published in a series of bul- frst into the submersible transfer capsule.

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020) 7 Covid-19 and climate change What energy-use changes during ‘Lockdown’ might tell us

Covid-19 was frst identifed on 30 Decem- 100 seasonal amplitude in emissions, which ber 2019, and was declared a global >85% results primarily from higher energy use in pandemic on 11 March 2020. As various 80 winter in the Northern Hemisphere. states began to introduce measures to combat the virus, many of us concerned Perhaps unsurprisingly, the reduction in

emissions 60

# about climate change wondered what 2 global emissions from surface transport " made the largest contribution to the total efect these changes would have on CO2 40 emissions, and how many researchers emissions decrease (36%) (Figure 2). ! Emissions fell by 7.4% in the power sector, might be planning a paper on the topic! 20 The frst paper to appear, in Nature Cli- by 19% in the industry sector, and by % of global CO 21% in the public sector. Because of the mate Change, was by Corinne Le Quéré 0 and colleagues, and makes use of data up Jan #$% &'( )*( disproportionate efect on air travel, the to the end of April 2020 (diagrams here are !"!" aviation sector showed the largest relative decrease (60%), but nevertheless contrib- taken from that paper). Figure 1 CO emissions from countries, 2 uted only 10% of the decrease in global states and provinces experiencing each Given the lack of reliable data on emis- CO emissions. As many people were confnement level (Table 1) as a percentage 2 sions the authors devised an alternative ‘locked down’ at home, globally there was of global CO2 emissions. (CO2 emissions are approach. They identifed three levels from the Global Carbon Project; see Further a small increase (2.8%) in emissions from of restriction intended to reduce the Reading) the residential sector. spread of the virus (‘confnement indices’, see Table 1) and investigated how they data from Europe, the USA and India. The total decrease in emissions up until the end of April is estimated to be 1048 MtCO , afected the six main types of economic Changes in industry were inferred mainly 2 from industrial activity in China and steel equivalent to 8.6% of the emissions during activity that result in emission of CO2. production in the USA. Changes in emis- January–April 2019. The decrease was The analysis was done for 69 countries, sions from surface transport and aviation largest in China (242 MtCO2), followed by

50 US states and 30 Chinese provinces, were deduced using indicators of trafc the USA (207 MtCO2) then Europe (123 which together represent 85% of the from a range of countries. UK smart meter MtCO2) and India (98 MtCO2). world population and 97% of global CO 2 data were used to estimate changes in The Le Quéré et al. paper was published emissions. During the early confnement emissions from the residential sector, and before there were any ‘second waves’ of phase, beginning on 25 January 2020, changes for the public sector were esti- Covid-19, but it is probably safe to say that around 30% of global emissions were mated using assumptions based on levels the overall decrease for 2020 will be lower, from areas under some confnement of confnement. All the activity changes but comparable with the rates of decrease (Figure 1). By mid March, when Europe, were calculated relative to typical activity needed year-on-year over coming decades India and the USA began to implement levels prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. if we are to limit global warming to 1.5 °C. confnement measures, and China began to relax them, this had increased to over The greatest estimated daily decrease in What do these changes tell us? global CO emissions between 1 Jan- 85%; a peak of 89% was reached in early 2 It is tempting to feel slightly cheered by uary and 30 April 2020, relative to the April. these fgures, but of course a decrease mean level of emissions in 2019, was in CO emissions does not immediately Using available data and information 17 MtCO day−1 (or 17%) on 7 April; the 2 2 afect the concentration of the gas in the on levels of confnement (Table 1) the values in MtCO day−1 are close to the 2 atmosphere, as the efective atmospheric authors made estimates of the changes corresponding percentages because residence time of CO is of the order of in CO emission from the six economic global emissions are currently about 100 2 2 centuries. In any case, as the authors sectors. They collected time-series data MtCO day−1. The average maximum daily 2 observe, most changes that occurred in (mainly daily) relating to proxies, rather decrease for individual countries was 2020 are likely to be temporary as they do than changes in CO emissions per se higher, averaging 26%, but occurred at 2 not refect structural changes in the eco- (Figure 2). Changes in power-sector diferent times in diferent countries. Inter- nomic, transport or energy systems. (And emissions were deduced from electricity estingly, 17 MtCO day−1 equates to the 2 then there is methane ... .)

Table 1 Defnitions of the confnement indices (CI) abbreviated from Le Quéré et al. (2020)

CI Characteristics Policy examples

1 Policies targeted at long-distance travel or small Isolation of sick/symptomatic individuals; banning of mass gatherings groups of individuals suspected of carrying infection >5000; restricted international travel

2 Regional policies that stop a city, region or ~ 50% of Closure of national borders; closure of schools, universities, public build- society undertaking normal daily routines ings, religious or cultural buildings, restaurants and other non-essential businesses within a city or region; banning of public gatherings >100 3 National policies that greatly restrict the daily routine Mandatory national ‘Lockdown’: household confnement, with the excep- of all but key workers tion of key workers; banning of public gatherings, social distancing.

8 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020) Figure 2 Changes in estimated daily 0 CO2 emissions for the six sectors relative to annual mean daily emissions from those

) −;<= sectors in 2019. Shaded areas represent 1 − the full range of the estimates. Note the +'&% − different ranges on the y axes in the upper -.%7 =<> ; − −$%% and lower panels. The red numbers show (26"& +/.)14&7 1)&8%,"- the percentage of global fossil fuel emissions −@<= 4&%/1(2&4 caused by the sector concerned. Also shown ( $4-9: &&'!% ##'&% −!"% #*'"% is the decrease in the sector at 7 April. −?><> Jan !"# $%& '(& Jan !"# $%& '(& Jan !"# $%& '(& International bodies, industries and countries report CO emissions as annual ><= #'(% 2 values, but these may not be reliable )

1 0.0 and are often released months or even − years after the end of the calendar year.

day −><= ; Observations of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere are available in near real −?<> −#$% time, but over a short period the large (Mt 9: −?<= ()#*+,-#)+*.+/01 natural variability of the carbon cycle and %/.-,233"&," &"1+."/4+%* %5+%4+2/ −"*% of the atmospheric circulation masks −;<> &'#% )'"% #'(% the variability in human-generated CO2.

Jan !"# $%& '(& Jan !"# $%& '(& Jan !"# $%& '(& Satellite measurements of the CO2 in a column of atmosphere have large uncer- tainties and also refect the variability of Nevertheless, we now have opportunities widespread use of electric cars might be a natural CO fuxes. to make some fundamental changes to good example. 21% 2 encourage low-carbon pathways. For What hope for the future? The changes in CO emissions during the example, the study reveals how respon- 2 confnements, due to forced changes in The authors state that ‘the extent to sive the surface transportation sector human behaviour, highlight how much – or which world leaders consider the net- can be to policy changes and economic rather how little – it is possible to reduce zero emissions targets and the impera- shifts. Areas of cities were made car-free CO emissions with the current energy mix: tives of climate change when planning and people did more walking and cycling 2 societal responses alone will not drive the their economic responses to Covid-19 (including on e-bikes) and appreciated large sustained changes needed. Le Quéré is likely to infuence the pathway of CO the decrease in air pollution. But there 2 et al. note that some of the energy scenar- emissions for decades to come.’ The view are always unexpected side-efects; for ios being explored are encouraging. For of this worried non-specialist is that the example, in the UK at least, many people example, some researchers believe that PV motivations for world leaders will have now shunning public transport turned to solar panels could provide 30–50% of the to be economic – possibly including the driving, and some are opting for cheaper, energy market. prospect of having to move coastal cities older, less efcient second-hand cars. inland as sea-level rises. What’s more, On the positive side, follow-up research Lack of real-time data on emissions there may have to be fnancial incentives from the rest of the world to sway leaders could explore further the potential for Keeping track of evolving CO2 emissions reductions in emissions in the surface could help governments make sensible who refuse to believe in climate change, transport sector that could be delivered decisions about their future energy policies or don’t care. in the wake of Covid-19, but the authors had quickly, perhaps even with a positive Meanwhile, we have forest wildfres in to make their estimates based on proxies impact on societal wellbeing. Bringing California and, more worryingly, around because there are no systems to monitor forward the infrastructure to support the Arctic, and a Brazilian Minister for global emissions in real time. the Environment who, as the Amazonian Figure 3 (a) Annual mean daily emissions during 1970–2019 (blue line), updated from the rainforest burns, is recorded advising the Global Carbon Project, with uncertainty (shading) of ±5%. The red line shows estimated daily Brazilian Cabinet to push through further environmental deregulation while the emissions in 2020 up to the end of April. (b) Estimated daily CO2 emissions in 2020 and the uncertainty (red shading). NB: The decrease in daily emissions by 7 April only took them back to public is distracted by the Covid crisis ... 2006 levels. Ed.

!$$ !$$ Further Reading Le Quéré, C. and 12 others (2020) Tem-

Λορεμ ιπσυμ Λορεμ ιπσυμ ) ) porary reduction in daily global CO2 ! ! − − %$ %$ emissions during the COVID-19 forced confnement. Nature Climate Change 25-6 25-6 & & doi:10.1038/s41558-020-0797-x '$ '$ https://www.globalcarbonproject.org/ ,1234 ,1234 ( ( carbonbudget/ ($ ($ https://www.unenvironment.org/news- and-stories/press-release/united- science-report-climate-change-has- &$ &$ not-stopped-covid19 !"#$ !"%$ !""$ &$$$ &$!$ &$&$ Jan )*+ ,-. /0. &$&$

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020) 9 Predicting the severity of the 2020 iceberg season off Newfoundland Jennifer Ross and Grant Bigg

Icebergs originating mainly from These daily reviews of iceberg risk help relating to the Greenland ice sheet – its western Greenland have long been a a ship’s captain to alter course whilst surface mass balance, ocean temper- hazard to shipping in the north-west underway. This greatly reduces the risk ature (as given by the mean surface Atlantic (Figure 1), with collisions having of serious collisions, but for shipping temperature of the Labrador Sea) and been reported since the 17th century. operators it would be more efcient to the state of the atmosphere (given by the However, it was the sinking of the have advance warning of iceberg sever- phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation, Titanic in 1912 that brought iceberg ity. Then a ship’s departure time or route NAO) – are used to produce a prediction risk to the attention of the public. To could be altered to avoid regions with of the monthly evolution of iceberg num- reduce the risk of further collisions, the large numbers of icebergs, or in ‘low’ bers of Newfoundland for the following International Ice Patrol (IIP) has been years take a more direct route south of ice season. This longer term forecast of monitoring iceberg activity off Labrador Newfoundland (red lines in Figure 1(b)). iceberg abundance 6–9 months ahead, and Newfoundland, Canada, since 1913. For several years, therefore, we have is made possible by the lag in the system This area, and some major shipping trialled seasonal forecasts and commu- which results from icebergs taking up to routes across the North Atlantic, can be nicated these to the IIP. In January of a few years to reach Newfoundland from seen in Figure 1(b). Monitoring is done this year we released the frst ever public their calving sites. through air surveillance, ship reports, forecast of iceberg numbers in the north- satellite analysis and modelled iceberg west Atlantic, for the 2020 ice season. trajectories, and results in daily maps of The forecast model *The control systems approach is a new way iceberg numbers and locations which of modelling time variation in systems. It The research team developed an inno- are distributed through the North Ameri- monitors the model structure through time vative control system model* where can Ice Service. and makes it possible to observe the con- measures of the changing properties of tribution of variables and lags, along with the three key environmental parameters the behaviour of the model terms.

#$"W 100 80 60 40 20 0 20 &#"' &"" !" (" %" #" 0 #"$ %" ("

(& !"##$%&$' !"##$%&$'

#() '%" $%#& 2&3$ !"# ) 2&4 %"#( #&' "#$% ! 60 ()#%&$' +,#%&$' !" 2 5&678 & 3 " 19"&79 & ' + "

( & ) (&)"&'*" "& 48°N ' * " 1#&

' 40N %& -#./*0$'%&$' *+",-

*" !" %") .,%&$,/)0 (a) 1)#&$

Figure 1 (a) The main currents that determine iceberg movement into the North Atlantic. (b) The area patrolled by the IIP (green) with 60 40 20W some northerly shipping routes in red; the black line is along 48°N. (b) The white triangles show where icebergs are most likely to be reported.

10 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020) The team behind the forecast originally 699 worked independently, having been

inspired by a meeting of the Second 7 89;: International Glacial Hazard Workshop :99 89;< in St Johns, Newfoundland, in 2017. The 89;6 89;= importance of the project, and its wider 8989 links to the impact of a melting Green- 599 land Ice Sheet on the North Atlantic more generally, has led to it being funded by the insurance frm AXA XL’s Ocean Risk 899 Scholarships programme. +,-.,/.($010#23.'"34.56 The control systems model has been used 9 to provide iceberg season forecasts to the February !"#$% &'#() !"* IIP for three years. The seasonal forecasts of the total number of icebergs found south Figure 2 Plot of the number of icebergs observed south of 48°N (i.e. the I48N number) between of 48°N have a 70% level of confdence on February and the start of June, since 2016. The 2020 season is shown by the dashed red line. the basis of a ‘sliding window’ 20-year ver- ifcation study, while the cruder estimate of While late surges can occur in iceberg As iceberg risk increases, having an early whether the seasonal iceberg risk will be numbers in the region, in most years seasonal forecast of iceberg severity high or low has an accuracy level of 80%. April and May are the peak months. In could prove an important asset to the The IIP currently use the forecast to inform the last 10 years, the average cumulative shipping industry. Trans-Atlantic routes their advance planning of the balance of number of icebergs past 48°N by the could be refned for each year’s ice con- aerial and satellite reconnaissance for the start of June is 576, which is significantly ditions, reducing both the need for costly forthcoming ice year. higher than the number seen this year; diversions and the overall voyage length. last year 1515 icebergs passed 48°N. While this has clear safety benefts for This year we have expanded the range the crew, marine emissions may also be of forecasts that we provide. In what Figure 2 shows the number of icebergs reduced, which is a primary concern of should currently be regarded as exper- reported south of 48°N daily since 1 Feb- the International Maritime Organisation. imental analysis, we have used a range ruary 2016. The dashed red line shows We therefore plan to continue to release of machine learning tools to produce data for 2020. While some ice years an annual forecast of iceberg severity to forecasts of both the number of icebergs record two peaks, usually associated the IIP at the beginning of each year. which travel south of 48°N (known as with sea ice trapping icebergs further the annual I48N number) and the rate of north, then releasing them as the ice Further reading change of the seasonal increase. This is melts, this year’s plot has only one peak Bigg, G.R., Y. Zhao, and E. Hanna (2019) a useful measure of iceberg severity, as in mid April. Numbers of icebergs south Forecasting the severity of the New- the number of icebergs which travel south of 48°N are also very low in May, which foundland iceberg season using a of 48°N is generally accepted to refect Figure 2 shows is often a high iceberg control systems model. Journal of the number found in the Labrador Sea, month. While icebergs are sometimes Operational Oceanography, 1–13. and 48°N is the latitude at which icebergs reported past 48°N in late summer, doi: 10.1080/1755876X.2019.1632128 enter the trans-Atlantic shipping routes very few made it this far south in 2020, Zhao, Y., E. Hanna, G.R. Bigg and Y. Zhao (Figure 1(b)). keeping the season in the low/moderate (2017) Tracking nonlinear correlation for range. complex dynamic systems using a Win- The machine learning tools we used dowed Error Reduction Ratio method. are linear discriminant analysis, a linear Looking forward Complexity. doi: 10.1155/2017/8570720 Support Vector Machine algorithm and https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/geography/ While this year’s forecast and obser- a quadratic Support Vector Machine iceberg vational results refect a low ice year, algorithm. These have an accuracy range https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pa- iceberg numbers crossing 48° N have, on of 43–52% for predicting yearly severity, geName=IcebergLocations the whole, been increasing over the last and 39–49% for the rate of change. hundred years. Between 1920 and 1990, Jennifer Ross is a Ph.D student at the around 350 icebergs were recorded annu- The expanded forecasts for 2020 University of Shefeld, and is funded ally on average, compared with nearly The IIP defines a year with 230 or fewer by AXA XL’s Ocean Risk Scholarships 600 in the last 30 years. Iceberg warnings icebergs travelling south of 48°N as a programme. Her research focusses on are more accurate than at the start of the how a shrinking Greenland Ice Sheet ‘low’ year. A ‘moderate’ year has between 20th century due to signifcantly better afects the ocean, in terms of meltwater 231 and 1036 such icebergs, and in a monitoring of the ocean, but accidents do input and iceberg calving. jbross1@ ‘high/extreme’ year there are 1037 or still occur on a regular basis. As global shefeld.ac.uk more. Across all measures of the 2020 ice temperatures rise, and sea-ice extent Grant Bigg is Professor of Earth Systems season the forecast was for a low to mod- decreases, more vessels are venturing Science in the Department of Geography erate number of icebergs. Observational into iceberg-prone regions, either to of the University of Shefeld and leads data from the IIP now show that iceberg reduce journey time or for tourism, and the iceberg risk component of AXA XL’s numbers do refect a low iceberg year for this can only increase future risk, espe- programme. Also on the team are Dr 2020, with 203 icebergs sighted south of cially when combined with increased Yifan Zhao at Cranfeld University and 48°N between January 2020 and the start Professor Bob Marsh at the University of calving from the Greenland Ice Sheet. of June. Southampton. [email protected]

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020) 11 An interview with an adventurous polar scientist

Liz Thomas leads the British Antarctic Survey’s ice-core group, which investigates climate variability in the polar regions using high-resolution chemical and stable isotope records. Liz, who has recently been recognised as a National Geographic Explorer, chatted to Laura Grange from the School of Ocean Sciences at Bangor about her career so far.

How did your interest in the polar Do you think undertaking your regions begin? Ph.D alongside paid work was By accident! During my degree I beneficial? intended to study oceanography or I think it was beneficial in some ways. climate-related science in the tropics, For example, even before finishing but I accepted a short-term research my Ph.D I was offered an open-ended which is an amazing thing to be able position at BAS to gain some lab position. In science, I think that is to say you have done. experience. That was 17 years ago quite unusual. That being said, there and I am still here! have been drawbacks. For example, In addition to being one of the most being in the same place for most exciting things I have done, it is So what has sustained your interest of my career has meant I have not also one of the scariest in that we in the poles? necessarily had the opportunity to were being deployed from a ship by Back in 2004 I was invited to go to work in a variety of different ways, helicopter and once we had been Antarctica for the first time. That first which might have been possible had I dropped off there was no way of season was amazing. I spent three worked in different places in different getting off the island. If the weather months working in a remote field labs. had come in we would have been camp as part of my first ice-core stranded there for a long time as Working in one place also initially drilling expedition, and after that I the helicopters cannot fly in poor- limits your chances of building was hooked. I was fortunate to spend contrast conditions or cloud. As it networks and the research time on the research station and was, we were lucky. We got a good collaborations that might otherwise witnessed the amazing landscape of weather window and when the clouds be possible by moving around doing the Antarctic Peninsula as we flew to started to descend we called for an different postdocs. I have since our field camp. My scientific interests emergency uplift. By the time we developed networks through working have continued to grow, sustained had loaded everything, got on the relationships but it has meant that by the stunning scenery and unique helicopters, left the island and looked I have had to work a bit harder at wildlife which keep drawing me back. back, the island was completely reaching out and connecting with covered in cloud. Has your pathway into a scientific other researchers. career been a traditional one? Having said that, I have gone up the What is it like participating in No, not that traditional. I studied career ladder quite quickly. By being fieldwork in remote places? chemistry and oceanography at in one place and having a permanent It is funny actually. Because it is university after which I took a position position relatively early on, I have very remote you expect to feel very at BAS as a laboratory-based research been able to fast-track my career isolated, but actually there is usually assistant, as a chemist. It was only development and build a lab group. a small community and you are after I started working at BAS that surrounded by people. I used to try I decided I wanted to do a Ph.D, What’s been your most memorable and visualise Google Earth, to zoom which I completed whilst working as work-related experience? out and remind myself where I am a research assistant. I never felt like It’s hard not to think about the most and that I am so remote. So you may a student, and most people didn’t recent experiences. However, the be a long way from anywhere in this realise I was studying for a Ph.D at the most excited I have been in my career huge open space, but you are actually time. I had a lot of flexibility and was was when I visited Bouvet Island. It is living in a tent in a space smaller than able to develop my own project and the most remote island in the world a double bed with another person for ideas, rather than choosing a topic – the nearest landmass is Antarctica. weeks at a time – it can actually feel that somebody else had devised. Then The island is located in the South very cramped as you have nowhere I was fortunate enough to be offered Atlantic, it is covered by ice and is an else to go – so it is quite a strange a postdoc position at BAS and since active volcano. I am one of the few feeling, but a good strange feeling. then have been offered permanent people in the world to have set foot on Many people probably think it should positions, so I didn’t travel around it. In fact, I spent a whole day there feel like isolation but it definitely and do postdocs in different places as and drilled the very first ice core, doesn’t! many people do.

12 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020) What is the most challenging aspect with the wider community, from and govern changes in the uptake of the feld science that you do? children and teachers to politicians of carbon dioxide and heat in the The cold is a challenge – I am not and policy-makers. Southern Ocean. South Georgia therefore provides an opportunity designed to work in cold places! You have recently been recognised I get really cold fingers which is a to investigate how these westerly and funded as a National winds have changed over hundreds to problem when handling metal drills Geographic Explorer.* What with small fiddly screws. thousands of years and how they have research will that support? influenced regional climate. However, In addition to the cold the biggest The funding was originally awarded the thicker ice that we really need to adjustment is living and working as for collecting ice cores in northern drill is above 1500 m, which means part of a small, intimate community. Greenland. However, that research is using helicopters to get there. That is You get to know people very well. on hold due to Covid-19. A second a key challenge, but I am still working So it’s the human element I find the National Geographic project, led on it! Watch this space. hardest – being away from the ones by my student Dieter Tetzner, was you love but very close to people you successful in drilling an ice core from What will your next adventure be? might have only just met. the Southern Patagonian Ice Field in In 2019 I hosted a laboratory February. We have additional National exchange and workshop with the Another side to your job is that as Geographic funding for retrieving a ice-core team from India and have a BAS senior scientist you have to deeper ice core, in collaboration with since been fortunate to have a return manage a team of people. colleagues in Chile, next spring. visit with their team in Goa. These What is it like managing a team? visits highlighted our common goals Management is one of those things If you could drill an ice core and research interests so we are now that also happened by accident. anywhere in the world, where collaborating on a joint UK–Indian What I wanted to be was a scientist would it be and why? ice-core drilling project. The team will – I enjoy collecting the data, For years I have been trying to get be supported from the Indian Station interpreting those data, answering to the South Atlantic island of South of Maitri, in Queen Maud Land, East a science question and hopefully Georgia. I managed it two years Antarctica. The new ice core will be publishing my work. However, not ago, but was not able to get to the used to reconstruct past climate, only am I now managing a team but sites I really wanted to drill. We sea ice and snow accumulation over that team is expanding. There are were able to collect samples from the past ~ 5000 years. We would be currently twelve researchers in the ice a number of low elevation glaciers. working in a part of Antarctica we core team: seven science staf – post- The ice at these glacial terminus sites would not normally have access to, docs and research fellows – two lab is approximately 10 000 year old, which is very exciting. staf and three Ph.D students. It is suggesting that a deeper ice core nice having people around to work from this island could extend into the What advice would you give to with, especially enthusiastic early- last glacial period. South Georgia is aspiring scientists? career researchers, but aspects of it important due to its position within Work with people you like. Find are mundane – for example, budgets the Southern Hemisphere westerly people among your peer group who and paperwork – but it is all part of wind belt. These winds are important share your interests and who you the job. drivers of the global oceanic circulation enjoy working with.

You have also engaged quite a lot in outreach activities and being a Liz meeting STEM ambassador. Do you enjoy King Penguins in that aspect of your work? South Georgia I began doing outreach – going into (Photo: Amy King) schools and participating in events like science festivals – as soon as I started at BAS. I like the interactions that type of engagement brings. As a scientist I think it is easy to get lost in your own little world and you forget how important it is to communicate what we do to the wider community – science is not useful science unless you can pass that knowledge on. We do that in the science community by *For more see publishing our results but there is https://www.nation- algeographic.co.uk/ a whole other community out there family/2020/08/ – the general public need to know natgeo-explorers- why we do what we do. I think it is live-ice-stories- important we share our knowledge with-liz-thomas-august-6th-7pm

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020) 13 A tour of RRS Sir David Attenborough Michael Gloistein

In 2017, Ocean Challenge published an The acoustic sensors article on the new polar ship RRS Sir within the bottom of the vessel David Attenborough. Since then much has happened although sadly, at the time of writing, the Coronavirus pandemic is having an effect on the build.* The photographs show the vessel as she was in October 2020.

The first thing that strikes you when you The main laboratory see the RRS Sir David Attenborough is on Deck 3 that it she is huge. With a length of 129 m, breadth of 24m, 12 decks and a proposed draft of 7 m, she will be the largest British research vessel ever built; she will also be the first to have a ‘moon pool’ (see below). She has a range of 19 000 nauti- cal miles at 13 knots (24 km hr-1) cruising The helicopter hangar speed – more than enough for a return trip from England to Rothera Research Station in Antarctica, or to circle the entire Antarctic continent twice! The vessel’s endurance is 60 days and she is capable of breaking ice up to 1 m thick.

Decks 1 and 2 of RRS Sir David Atten- borough make up the machinery spaces, below which are the ‘tank top’ (above the ballast tanks) and double bottom (where all the acoustic sensors are located). The engineers have their stores and work- shops here too. To the aft end of the ship will be found the three cargo holds, the Accommodation is to a very high standard. vice, meaning the scientists and crew can science hold and chemical stores as well For the scientists and passengers there are watch live UK TV and radio on most cruises. as the special fridges and freezers for a mixture of spacious single- and twin- When TV and radio are not available, the scientific samples. berth cabins, all with en suite bathrooms. latest flms and TV series can be accessed There are 17 twin-berth cabins on Deck via an ofine system. The Principal Scien- Deck 3, which is the main working deck, 3, and seven single- and eight twin-berth tist’s cabin, on Deck 6, is very spacious, is where scientists will deploy equipment, cabins on Deck 4. Every cabin will have with a separate bedroom and a large day over the side or from the aft end of the WiFi, a telephone and a TV. The TV will room to work from. ship, or via the moon pool† – a 4 m x 4 m utilise the British Forces Broadcasting Ser- vertical shaft open to the sea. The ship’s The conference room and open-plan sci- main thoroughfare runs forward from the ence ofce are located on Deck 4, along moon pool giving access to the numerous with the data suite, IT and electronics work- labs and spaces. The main thoroughfare shops and two large changing rooms. is nice and wide, which will make moving instruments and samples easier; it will be possible to move a standard pallet along Scientists’ cabins: Two-berth cabin (left); its length. A lift is also located along here, The Principal Scientist’s cabin (below) and will take you as far as Deck 7, should the stairs be too much trouble! Also on this deck are the scientists’ laundry and a well-equipped gym, with sauna.

*For the latest news on UK research vessels go to @gm0hcq on Twitter.

†The term ‘moon pool’ arose because on calm nights the water under a drilling platform could refect the moonlight and give the impression of a calm swimming pool.

14 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020) There are a number of ‘coffee shops’ The superbly A tour of RRS Sir David Attenborough dotted around the ship, which will allow equipped galley those in working clothes to get a hot drink and snack without needing to get changed. The galley, dining mess, bar and day room are located on Deck 5. The mess, bar and day rooms all have large windows, which will give fantastic panoramic views and make the spaces light and airy. Towards the aft end of Deck 5 is where all the scientific winches and The dining mess cables are located, along with the winch control room. Up forward, starboard, is the atmospheric science lab and store.

The helideck and hangar, along with the helicopter workshop and reception room, are accessed on Deck 6, which also houses accommodation for the crew. The hospital is also located on this deck, along with crew accommodation, and the Princi- The spacious bar/lounge pal Scientist’s cabin.

Deck 7 is home to the Captain and Officers of the ship. There is a ship’s office and a small laundry. Deck 8 is a technical area, housing much of the electronics and instrumentation on board, as well as some of the heating and ventila- tion equipment.

Deck 9 is the bridge. It’s a large space with big windows all around, ofering clear views in all directions. There is a lot of equipment installed here, ranging from the dynamic positioning system, used to keep With the exception of the winch and also carries a workboat (Erebus), which the Sir David Attenborough on station acoustic equipment, the RRS Sir David can be ftted with a shallow-water swath during science work, to the helideck moni- Attenborough comes with little in the way bathymetry system, a cargo tender (Terror) toring system, where all fying will be man- of scientifc equipment. She has been for logistical work at the small bases that aged from. The bridge is the only space designed as a scientifc platform that can the ship can’t access directly, and several on board that has opening windows, albeit easily adapt to the many ways in which infatables, used to support boating and just two! There are no opening ports/win- scientifc experiments are carried out. logistics activities. dows anywhere else, which should help Having worked on the RRS James Clark keep the temperature throughout the ship Ross since the early ’90s, I have seen the Michael Gloistein has worked on the at a comfortable level. changes in the way science work is con- ships of the British Antarctic Survey since ducted, and in particular the way equip- 1990 and has been involved with the Deck 10 may well be the most popular ment changes over time. Some equip- build of the Sir David Attenborough from deck on board, certainly if the weather ment, such as the Continuous Plankton December 2018. He was awarded the is not too rough. Here you will find the Recorder, has not changed since it was Polar Medal in In 2004. [email protected] aerosol met lab and a lounge, with tea- frst used, while other equipment changes and coffee-making facilities. It’s possible from year to year. In order to provide to access the outside deck from here and the best possible service, the Sir David I suspect it will be in demand for enjoying Attenborough is designed to interface with wildlife and taking in the stunning views. anything that is brought on board.

Deck 11 is the crow’s nest. The Captain In addition to her scientifc role, the RRS may navigate the ship from here when Sir David Attenborough will also support working in pack ice as the extra height the resupply of the fve Antarctic research will give a much better view of what is stations operated by the British Antarctic ahead, making it easier to spot leads and Survey. This is where the holds come into ‘watersky’ (the dark underside of a cloud their own. The size and fexible design of layer above open water) and determine the ship’s cargo hold allows for efcient the easiest route. stowage of containers and other cargo. This doesn’t just include food and supplies, Deck 12 is for access to the main mast but also scientifc equipment used on the and assorted antennae and sensors, such stations. The RRS Sir David Attenborough as the radar, GPS and anenometers.

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020) 15 Trends in marine science publishing Changes in publication rates and collaborative publishing over the past 80 years Neil Mitchell

There is broad interest in how the marine sciences have developed and in the UK’s global oceanography role in that development. Although imper- fect as a measure of performance, the most straightforward metric of a subject’s output is article publication rate. Follow-

ing a request from the British Council for − an article on UK–German collaborations −

in marine sciences, I carried out a broader bibliometric study of both oceanography and marine geoscience. This article sum- marises the results; for full details of the paper, see p.18. Examining the trends that emerged can help us to appreciate how influences such as the Cold War, and a growing interest in resources and the environment, may have affected the (a)

development of the subjects. On a per- L 2 o sonal note, I was a doctoral student with the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences in the 1980s and knew many of the key researchers in marine geoscience at that 1 time, so it was interesting to see arti-

cles representing their efforts alongside – the major trends in their subject, and in oceanography. 0 (b) Sources of information

Locating articles in oceanography from reference databases turned out to be complicated, as the oceanography classifications used by the database compilers do not encompass all of the subject; furthermore, some databases suffer from incomplete- ness and even the term ‘article’ has been interpreted variably. After some experi- / mentation, I settled on a search based on the names of journals, as the bulk of oceanography articles tend to be published (c) in journals with ‘marine’ or ‘ocean’ in their name or are otherwise recognised as spe- Figure 1 (a) Variation in global and UK oceanography and marine geoscience article cialising in oceanography. publishing rates using journal titles in Scopus and Georef. Values in brackets are total counts for the oceanography searches. The global exponential rate of scientific publishing (dashed The oceanography results presented in line) is from Bornmann and Mutz (2015). (b) Global rates of geophysical surveying (Wessel Figure 1(a) were derived from the Scopus and Chandler, 2011) and sea-bed samplings (major archives, data from GeoMapApp). database. Note that this graph has a (c) Rates of collection of ocean casts by various methods obtained from the World Ocean logarithmic vertical axis so exponential Database 2018 (Boyer et al., 2018). For ocean stations, plankton casts and CTD casts, values on the axis need to be divided by 3, 10 and 3, respectively. increases in publication rates appear as straight lines. International collaborative articles in oceanography represented in For the marine geoscience data shown in Marine science publishing trends Figure 2 (opposite) were mostly derived Figure 1(a), I found that searching Georef Oceanography from Web of Science in a similar manner. using a combination of subject area classifi- After a sharp recovery following World War II, Further graphs in Figure 3 (opposite) show cations to be the most effective method. global oceanographic publishing rose with how the number of authors on UK ocean- However, although that was accurate a moderate exponential rate, then acceler- ography articles has changed since 1972. before 1990, after that date 44% of the UK ated in the 1970s, during which the article articles were outside the subject (they were publishing rate doubled in 6.5 years. This mostly oceanographic articles and articles was followed by a more gradual expo- * For the purposes of this study, a ‘UK ocean- on island geology). This means that the rate nential rise, similar to that in the 1950s, ography article’ is defined as any article with of decline in publishing in UK marine geo- up until the present day. UK publishing in UK authors or co-author(s). science after 1990 was greater than shown. oceanography also increased, though more

16 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020) +89(7+8;(."*&(<$-.": dramatic and the percentage of co-authored 9=<&#-.>-(79=: articles has doubled from 2014 to 2018. 62 ?-%-@-(7?-: F" Also refecting the increasing preference 10 ?A>%-(7?A: or necessity to work collaboratively, the B"%C-#D(7B: 9= numbers of single-author and two-author !"#$"%&'"()*(+,(&)&-.( E#-%$"(7E#: 8! oceanography articles have steadily F"#C-%G(7F": E# declined, while multi-author articles have H&-.G(7H&: +8 ?A increased. The annual maximum of author numbers has a shorter doubling time (t ) I"&A"#.-%@<(7I": 2 of 12.7 years than the mean number of 10 Norway (No) 5 ?- I" authors (23.8 years) (Figure 3(b)). Inter- J)#&='-.(7J): I) B" estingly, whereas author maxima in the 8!->%(78!: H& J) similarly expensive subject of physics have increased in a series of stepped plateaux, !"#$"%&-'"()*(+,(&)&-.((7+89: this has not been the case in oceanography. In particle physics, for example, initial publications arising from work using par- 2 0 ticle accelerators tend to be co-authored /012 /032 /042 /052 /002 6222 62/2 by people from a wide range of locations, Figure 2 Percentage of UK-authored oceanography articles co-authored with researchers of refecting the efort expended in raising the countries shown. Note that the right-hand axis is expanded compared with the left-hand the funding. In oceanography, the most side. A 5-year running average has been applied to reduce variability. (The gap in the 1970s expensive instruments used are satellites, is due to a change in the database used, from Scopus to Web of Science.) and articles using satellite-derived data may tend not to require such broad-based gradually. UK authors published 28% of all researchers is almost exponential and has co-authorship. There have been many large oceanography articles in the 1950s, but by a doubling time of 19 years. Many of the research programmes which have led to 2018 that had decreased to 8%. countries shown are either European or articles with long authorship lists, but they English-speaking. When population sizes For UK publishing, the number of collabo- have overlapped with one another so the are taken into account, the fgures show rative articles in oceanography expressed maximum number of authors shows more of that there is a preference for collaboration as a percentage of the total number of an exponential rise than ‘stepped plateaux’. with researchers in countries with sea areas oceanography articles increased progres- adjacent to that of the UK. The rise of UK– Marine geoscience sively with time (Figure 2). The increase in China collaboration has been especially The rate of global marine geoscience the percentage of articles with USA-based publishing also rose strongly after World Figure 3 Change in the numbers of authors of UK-authored oceanography articles between War II, with a particularly strong exponen- 1970 and 2018, derived using information in the Web of Science Oceanography category. tial rise in the 1960s. The exponential rate (a) Black circles and crosses: the percentage of articles with only one or two authors (left- subsequently decreased, and after the late hand axis). Coloured plots: Mean, median and maximum numbers of authors (right-hand 1980s there was a gradual decline in pub- axes). (b) The coloured data as in (a) but plotted with a logarithmic vertical axis. According lication rate (upper red plot in Figure (a)). to the dashed regression lines, the doubling time (t2) for the maximum number of authors is UK marine geoscience publishing followed approximately half that of the mean number of authors. those trends in a broad sense, though rapidly increased in the early 1980s (lower 9-1, )! one author maximum "%! 91><929.,+=.+6.12/3+45 red plot in Figure 1(a)). The continued rise (! "! "#! in the 1970s was due to the UK joining the . : .

9-;<1,.,+=.+6.12/3+45 international sea-foor drilling programmes, '! two authors mean ) "!! &! initially the Deep-Sea Drilling Project in median )! the 1970s. As shown in the original paper, %! ' '! the impact of scientifc drilling on the feld $! % %! can also be seen in international collab- #! orations, and in the mean and maximum # #! % .+6.78 /0+.12/3+45.15.1.

. "! numbers of authors of these articles, which / . ! ! ! both peaked around 1990 at the time of

+,- "*(! "*)! "**! #!!! #!"! most intensive engagement with scientifc (a) drilling.

Interpreting these changes !"" !"" maximum Ocean Challenge readers may have their own thoughts on the origins of these publishing trends. Although fnding explana- !%+=+!%6$+75 tions is problematic as they have social as !" mean 10 well as other origins, the rapid rise in ocean- !%+=+%869+75 ography publishing until the 1980s can be

)01+02+(/34051 attributed to the Cold War (which arguably median lasted until he Glastnost era of the late 1 ! 1980s), interest in the oceans as a source of &'()*+&',-()+(),+&(.-&/& !#$" 1980 1990 2000 %"!" resources – notably fsheries – and interest (b) in environmental change.

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020) 17 For marine geoscience, the Cold War also ment cores were further sampled and ana- rates falling below the global trend. We provided an impetus as knowledge was lysed for oceanographic, climatic, volcanic can speculate that changes such as the needed about sea-bed conditions, acoustic and other signals. Instrumentation on UK leaving the European Union could be transmission, low-frequency noise and research ships has progressively become disruptive. On the other hand, communi- safety of navigation. Interest in potential more sophisticated so that more informa- cations are becoming more efective, as we sea-bed resources was probably also a tion can now be collected during each are now fnding out, so international collab- strong infuence. There is evidence that cruise. Marine geoscience has benefted oration may continue to increase. Although the importance of North Sea oil to the from computer-based modelling and from interpreting these trends is difcult, UK economy afected the UK decision satellite-derived data, such as the marine hopefully readers will fnd them interesting, to join the Ocean Drilling Program; now, gravity feld from satellite altimetry, which and that they will provoke thoughts about though, a major part of marine geoscience has allowed global sea-bed topography to how the subject has changed over the past research is environmental work. be mapped to ~10 km resolution. 80 years, which is roughly equal to two 40-year generations of working careers. There have been great shifts in the way As oceanography is such a diverse sub- both oceanography and marine geo- ject, it is difcult to fnd data to represent This article is a greatly shortened version of: science have been carried out and it global shipboard activity, but tempera- Mitchell, N.C. (2020) Comparing the post- is interesting to look at how the overall ture and salinity profles are commonly WWII publication histories of oceanography efciency of research at sea has changed collected. The sum of the ocean station and marine geoscience. Scientometrics 124, 843–66. https://doi.org/10.1007/ over time. In marine geoscience, geo- and CTD cast numbers in Figure 1(c) rose s11192-020-03498-2 physical data are routinely collected while along with global oceanographic publish- vessels are transiting to areas of study ing until about 1990, but then declined Further Reading as more efcient ways of collecting data, and while carrying out surveys within Bornmann L. and R. Mutz (2015) Growth those areas, so ‘trackline’ distances such as Argo profling foats, were devel- rates of modern science: a bibliometric provide a reasonable way of assessing oped. Global publishing rates continued analysis based on the number of publi- activity. Those distances and the number to rise, though the exponential rate of cations and cited references. J. Assoc. of sea-bed samplings (Figure 1(b)) rose increase declined from 1990 onwards, Inform. Science Technol. 66, 2215-22. rapidly through the 1960s and into the nevertheless remaining greater than Boyer, T.P., O.K. Baranova, C. Coleman, 1970s, before declining. Up until 1972, global scientifc publishing indicated by H.E. Garcia, A. Grodsky and 8 others. (2018) World Ocean Database 2018. In: roughly 1000–2000 km of research vessel the straight dashed line in Figure 1(a). A.V. Mishonov (Technical Editor) NOAA surveying was required to collect the data The data discussed in this article of Atlas NESDIS 87, p.207. for each geoscience article. For context, a course reveal nothing about the quality of Huang, D.-W. (2015) Temporal evolution of research ship at sea travelling at 10 knots marine geoscientifc and oceanographic multi-author papers in basic sciences covers 444 km in 24 hours, so at that time research. The fact that UK publishing has from 1960 to 2010. Scientometrics 105, each article refected a few days of sea been falling behind global publishing is 2137–47. time. The decline in ship activity after the not necessarily a concern. Indeed, it could Smith, W.H.F. and D.T. Sandwell (1997) mid 1970s was accompanied by the 1970s be viewed as a positive sign of developing Global sea foor topography from satellite altimetry and ship soundings. Science reduction in the exponential increase in nations taking on our disciplines. It would 277, 1956–962. articles globally, but this was followed by also be risky to extrapolate trends into the a second wave of increasing publishing future – at the time of my doctorate in the Wessel, P. and M.T Chandler (2011) The spatial and temporal distribution of mar- rates in the 1980s. Evidently, geoscience late 1980s it was not at all obvious that research became progressively more ef- ine geophysical surveys. Acta Geophys- my own feld of marine geoscience would ica 59, 55–71. cient, so that by 1995, on average an arti- soon begin a long period of decline. cle represented only 323 km of trackline. How did the UK’s various assessments There are many possible explanations of research performance, and changing Neil Mitchell is a marine geoscientist based at the University of Manchester. He for the decrease in trackline distance per policies of research councils, affect these is interested in interdisciplinary research, article. The development of the sea-foor subjects? It is difficult to say of course, particularly how oceanography can help spreading hypothesis and plate tectonics though greater focussing of funding explain sedimentary features. He says led to work re-analysing geophysical data resources, starting with the first Research that he undertook bibliometric research collected previously, i.e. new data were Assessment Exercise in the late 1980s, to satisfy his curiosity, expecting it would not needed for those papers to be written. may have led to greater concentration on be straightforward, but it turned out to be (My own work to a large extent involves quality and less on quantity, so contrib- more like sailing into strong wind! re-analysis of datasets.) Similarly, sedi- uting to UK oceanography publication [email protected]

The changing Arctic Ocean: consequences for biological communities, biogeochemical processes and ecosystem functioning a themed issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A compiled and edited by Martin Solan, Philippe Archambault, Paul E. Renaud and Christian März Access content online at bit.ly/TransA2181. Purchase the print issue for £35 (usual price £60) by visiting bit.ly/TA-print (promotional code TA 2181); or contact Photo: Martin Solan Turpin Distribution (+44(0)1767 604951) or [email protected]

18 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020) Today, we can celebrate a strong representation of women in sea-going science in the United Kingdom, providing positive role models for early-career female marine scientists. However, women continue to face challenges to their progression in their marine science careers, especially those who are also members of other under-represented groups. In this article we consider gender equity and equality in participation and leadership in sea-going marine science in the UK, discussing successes and lessons learned for the future. After a brief history of UK women in ocean science, and a summary of some recent advances in gender equality, we look at further areas in need of improvement, and ask whether successes in improved gender equality can be transferred to tackling other forms of under-representation in sea-going science.

Women in UK sea-going marine science: the historical context Box 1 Under-represented groups in science In the majority of countries undertaking marine research, women were largely excluded from Within the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and sea-going expeditions until the mid-20th century, Medicine (STEMM) disciplines, women and minority groups have with the exception of those formidable few who faced signifcant challenges in gaining employment and attaining dressed as men, stowed away, or controversially leadership roles, and so are under-represented within their chosen felds. Under-represented groups include: individuals who identify joined expeditions with their husbands. The exclu- as Black, Asian or as a member of another ethnic minority group, sion of women from ships afected not only areas women, and individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, of science and technology, but also participation transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, or as having other gender/ and leadership in areas such as marine govern- sexual identities (collectively referred to as LGBTQIA+), those from ance, policy-making and sustainable development. low-income backgrounds, and those who have a form of disability. The historical explanation was that this marginal- The infuence of gender (see Box 2) in STEMM disciplines isation was largely a result of an ‘ancient taboo’, has been discussed widely, probably more so than barriers which considered allowing women on ships to be experienced by other under-represented groups. In many STEMM bad luck – a taboo that has lasted until surprisingly areas, women, and those who identify as non-binary, are still recently. More recent barriers to women working in under-represented in more senior positions, and statistics show marine subjects – especially on sea-going expedi- that they are also more likely than their male counterparts to lose tions – included perceived limitations associated out on earnings. Furthermore, gender-based discrimination often with traditional family roles (including parental operates in tandem with other forms of discrimination, including responsibilities), health and safety (including unequal treatment on the basis of, for example, socioeconomic background, race, sexuality, disability and/or mobility impairment; suitability for physically challenging activities), those who belong to intersectional groups (e.g. a woman of and what were often considered insurmountable colour, a transgender person, or a disabled woman) may be challenges in supplying facilities and provisions for disadvantaged in multiple ways. In the geosciences, only 3.8% women (including separate cabins, bathrooms and of tenured or tenure-track individuals in the top one hundred supply of sanitary products). That these barriers departments in the US are people of colour, and over the past 40 actually existed is highly questionable – they could years in the US there has been no improvement in diversity within well have been a convenient pretext for a more geosciences as a whole. complicated narrative involving discrimination.

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No. 2 (publ. 2020) 19 Box 2 Defnitions of gender, gender identity, gender equality and gender equity

Our frst aim here is to provide a brief history of UK women in sea-going ocean science, but we have to acknowledge that historically, gender was viewed as binary, so we have not been able to capture the situation across the full gender identity spectrum. So what are the diferences between gender and gender identity, and what do we mean by gender equality and equity?

Gender and gender identity Gender is defned as an individual’s sense of self, i.e. male, female, both or neither of these, and is developed socially and culturally. Gender identity can be expressed in many ways, including the way someone might dress, their name, the pronouns they use, and behaviours. Individuals can also identify as agender – this is when an individual identifes as gender neutral. If an individual identifes as transgender, this is described as having a gender identity and/or gender expression which is diferent from what is typically associated with the sex they were assigned (based on genitalia) at birth. Identifying as non-binary is defned as having an identity, or expressing an identity, which doesn’t ft with man or woman. From Stonewall (2020), GLAAD (2020), Gender Minorities Aotearoa, New Zealand (2020)

Gender equality is the ‘equal valuing by society of both the similarities and the diferences between women and men and the diferent roles they play’. Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (2017)

Gender equity is the ‘process of being fair to women and men. To ensure fairness, strategies and measures must often be available to compensate for women’s historical and social disadvantages that prevent women and men from otherwise operating on a level playing feld. Equity leads to equality.’ United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA (2020)

Indeed, women’s traditional role in the family waters, and is recognised as the frst woman to home as ‘stewards of natural and household complete a circumnavigation of the globe. It was resources’ could have been considered an advan- not until the last century, however, that women tage for working in ocean governance and natural were included in leadership roles in marine sci- resources (e.g. fsheries). Thankfully, there are now ence itself. Maria Klenova (1889–1976), a Soviet few proponents of the idea that supplying provi- researcher who, in 1929, worked as a marine sions for women in a ship’s bond is problematic, geologist on the RV Perseus, was the frst woman and few who believe that women are not capable to lead a scientifc expedition. of carrying out physically challenging roles in any occupation. The UK story of professional female marine scientists can be said to have started with Rosa Lee The history of sea-going women in research (1884–1976), who was the frst woman to graduate begins in 1766, when Jeanne Baret (1740–1807), in Mathematics from Bangor University and the dressed as a teenage boy, joined expeditions as assistant to the naturalist Philibert Commerçon onboard the ships La Boudeuse and L’Étoile. This French botanist became the frst known sea-going woman scientist, was the frst to reach Antarctic

Sea-going botanist, Jeanne Baret, disguised as a boy

Rosa Lee in a group of staff at the Marine Biological Association’s Lowestoft laboratory in 1907 (Photo courtesy of Cefas)

frst woman to be employed by the Marine Bio- logical Association (MBA). Rosa was a statisti- cian, and initially worked at the MBA’s Lowestoft Laboratory.* In 1910 the staf were transferred *This later to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, which became the main lab of what is ‘did not employ women scientists’; following now the Centre protests by the MBA, Rosa was allowed to con- for Environment, tinue her work as a civil servant. Rosa’s achieve- Fisheries and Aquaculture ments include realising that growth rings on Science (Cefas). fsh scales could be used to assess changes in

20 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No. 2 (publ. 2020) fsh growth rate with age. Rosa’s discovery (later Sheina Marshall. known as the Rosa Lee Phenomenon) was pub- This photograph is on display lished in a 1920 issue of Nature and is still relevant at the Scottish Association for in fsheries science today. Rosa’s achievements Marine Science (SAMS, Oban) which evolved out of the Marine are all the more impressive given that she was not Biological Station at Millport. allowed on research vessels, and her employment Text accompanying the as a civil service scientist came to an end in 1919 photograph describes Sheina as simply because she married. ‘among the founders of biological oceanography’. Marine biologist Marie Lebour (1876–1971) (By courtesy of SAMS) published a paper on molluscs in 1900, but her professional research career began in 1915 when she joined the MBA in Plymouth. Marie was well known for her work on life cycles of marine animals, notably molluscs and their parasites, and fsh. She was also interested in microplankton and discovered at least 28 new species. Marie published extensively, and many of her publications are still referred to today. Despite these pioneers, largely in the fsheries sector, in the mid 20th century there were very In 1922, Sheina Marshall (1896–1977), an expert few women working in UK marine science – in in copepods, was appointed to the staf of the any role. Women faced considerable obstacles to Marine Biological Station at Millport, where she participation in UK marine science; notably, the later became Deputy Director. During 1928–29 she Challenger Society only allowed women to join went on an expedition to the Great Barrier Reef, after the Second World War. By the 1950s, the led by Maurice Yonge. Uniquely for the time, this National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) had been expedition involved women in active roles both on established in Wormley, but less than a ffth of the the boats and in the shore party, and Sheina had scientists who worked there were women, and key responsibilities in both science and logistics. they represented a much smaller proportion of the She received many accolades throughout her sea-going staf. The vast majority of female staf career, breaking considerable ground for a woman were researchers in computer science and mathe- in science in the mid-20th century, including being matics; they developed a number of key theoreti- one of the frst women to be elected as a Fellow cal ideas, but very few carried out observational or of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1949 (winning sea-going research. their Neill Prize in 1971), becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1961, and being honoured with No women were allowed to sail on the RRS an OBE in 1966. Discovery II, and it wasn’t until 1963 that marine microbiologist Betty Kirtley sailed on the frst The frst woman to go to sea as a scientifc Discovery III cruise, becoming the frst woman researcher in UK waters was Dorothy Elizabeth from the NIO to sail on an expedition. This notable Thursby-Pelham (1884–1972). Dorothy worked event was described as ‘breaking new ground’ on North Sea plaice populations from the 1930s by Anthony Laughton (Director at Wormley, onwards, gaining great respect in the feld both 1978–1988) in an interview with the British Library nationally and internationally and becoming an in 2010. Three years after Betty Kirtley worked at active member of the International Council for the sea, Carol Williams, from the Department of Geod- Exploration of the Sea (ICES). esy and Geophysics at Cambridge University’s Madingley Rise site, became the frst woman to go to sea as a geophysicist. Carol went on to have a long career in Cambridge and as an international scientifc leader, including having a coordinating role on the scientifc committee of the Deep Sea Drilling Project.

Women also went to sea on NIO cruises in the 1960s in technical and computational roles. In Scotland, the Fisheries Research Services (FRS; now Marine Scotland Science) tried to involve more female scientists in its cruises in the late 1960s and early ’70s but FRS’s Explorer and Scotia 2, and their smaller vessels, were perceived to lack suitable accommodation/provisions as they only had shared facilities. Scotia 3, launched Dorothy Thursby-Pelham, photographed at the Fisheries Laboratory in Lowestoft in the 1930s. in 1971, fnally had one en suite cabin for potential (Photo courtesy of Cefas) female scientists.

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No. 2 (publ. 2020) 21 In the mid 1950s, marine biologist Eve South- months before a fve-week expedition to the North ward began to investigate benthic fauna in the Atlantic in August 1991; she was nicknamed Bay of Biscay, in collaboration with her husband ‘Mum’ by the crew. Aenea Reid from Scotland’s Alan Southward, who was on the staf of the MBA FRS’s gear section was the frst woman to lead a at Plymouth. This work involved a long series cruise onboard FRS Explorer in the 1970s, despite of cruises on RVs Sarsia and Frederick Russell; there being no adequate facilities on board. Eve also worked on RVs Sonne, Challenger and Opportunities for women at sea began to grad- Shackleton. In the 1970s, she was invited to join ually change in the UK during 1979–1980, when US cruises to the newly discovered hydrothermal the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences (IOS, vent sites in the Pacifc, on RV Atlantis; she also previously the NIO) hired thirteen new staf to went down in the submersible Alvin. Despite being work on radioactive waste in the oceans. Four highly respected for her expertise, Eve remained of the new scientists were women: three chem- an unpaid independent researcher; she was often ists (including Denise Smythe-Wright and Sarah accompanied by female assistants. Colley) and a geophysicist. Sarah Colley went on Eve Southward to be a PSO (Principal Scientifc Ofcer) on ships sorting mud in the 1980s, and in 1988 Penny Barton was the on RV Sarsia, in the Bay of Biscay frst female PSO of Discovery III. Denise was the in 1974 only woman on a committee that was responsible (Photo: Alan Southward) for the banning of radioactive waste dumping at sea in 1985, and was the Scientifc Secretary to the International Scientifc Steering Committee of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) for fve years in the 1980s and subsequently the UK WOCE Project Manager.

There was also a greater representation of women in active support roles at sea. From the 1970s there were a number of women who regularly supported cruises as computer scientists for typically three to four months each year on the UK research vessels and charter vessels (RRS Discovery, RRS Shackleton, RRS Challenger, MV Starella, MV Farnella plus others). These women included Ruth Sherwood (née Howarth), Theresa Cooper (née Colvin), Doriel Jones, Daphne Heather- shaw and Kay Batten (née Potter) (see below). Denise Smythe-Wright was, we believe, in 1975 Initially, their involvement was via IOS Wormley, aboard the RRS Shackleton, the frst woman scientist in the UK to go to sea as a Ph.D stu- Sea-going women computer scientists from the dent. She was required to take a fnal-year female RVS Shipborne Computer Group undergraduate with her as a companion, and they Left Doriel Jones and Kay Batten on board RRS Charles had to use the Captain’s bathroom as there was Darwin in February 1985 on their way into Falmouth following instrument trials prior to the vessel’s frst no other provision. Denise was also – to the best scientifc cruise. Others in the photo are (from left to of our knowledge – the frst UK oceanographic right) John Sherwood, Martin Beney and Chris Jackson. mother-at-sea having given birth to her son three (Photo: Ted Lawson) Below Theresa Cooper (née Colvin), RVS Shipborne Computer Group, c. 1980 alongside the S1 PDP11/34 System in Barry; the system was portable and frst installed in the on-board clean room during the RRS Discovery cruise D94. (Photo: Edward Cooper)

22 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No. 2 (publ. 2020) The RRS Discovery CTD rosette then and now Left Discovery III cruise D200 in 1993. (Photo: John Gould) Right Discovery IV cruise DY078 in 2017. (Photo: Penny Holliday) before they were transferred to the IOS (then RVS, WOCE highlighted some excellent role models Research Vessel Services) Shipborne Computer active in observational oceanography – senior Group at Barry. All were at least degree qualifed. women who were leading cruises and producing Daphne Heathershaw sailed on RRS Discovery in outstanding research – particularly in the US, but 1974 whilst a postgraduate at Bangor (University also including Denise Smythe-Wright and Karen College North Wales) prior to joining IOS Barry. Heywood in the UK. In 2005, after several years Doriel worked on UK- and US-based cruises for of expeditions at sea, as well as involvement in over twenty years, including on the RRS Discov- WOCE, Karen became the frst female Professor of ery in 1984, with physical oceanographer Karen Physical Oceanography in the UK. In 1990, Carol Heywood and a female radio ofcer, and on the Pudsey was the frst PSO on an Antarctic cruise; HMS Farnella in 1985, with US Geological Survey many cruises later in 2003 she was awarded the scientist Kathy Scanlon. Polar Medal for services to Antarctic science. In Scotland more female scientists joined cruises on By the 1990s, the cohort of physical and chemical the converted MV Clupea, MRV Alba-Na-Mara and oceanographers at IOS (now IOS Deacon Lab- MRV Scotia 4, including sporadically as PSOs on oratory, IOSDL) expanded for UK WOCE, which those vessels and charters (from the 2000s). included a signifcant number of cruises. Both men and women from IOSDL, and its Southamp- ton-based James Rennell Centre, were encour- The Valkyries – sometimes known as the Physics Team – aged to go to sea once a year, whatever their during a cruise led by Margaret Yelland on the RRS James Clark Ross in December 2011. All bar the engineer, Robin, position in the organisations. At the time, there were women – a far cry from Margaret’s frst cruise in were a number of women employed – mainly in 1989 when she was the only woman on the ship. junior grades – as James Rennell Centre science From left to right: Helen Snaith, Vikki Frith, Robin Pascal, and technical staf. These cruises, in addition to Sarah Norris (now Sarah Dennis), Mairi Fenton, Margaret expeditions led by UK universities (notably Bangor Yelland and Penny Holliday. University), presented sea-going opportunities for the growing number of oceanography Ph.D students and post-docs from the UK and overseas.

Support for women scientists at sea was, however, often lacking. Even basic amenities such as waste disposal bins for sanitary products were not always provided, and some younger women were told by older women to throw them over the side, secretly, at night. Furthermore, the culture on board could be very confrontational and challenging, perhaps even more so than in the 1970s and ’80s. Women also described persistent unwanted attention, sexual harassment, and bullying; with no guidelines about behavioural standards, and no reporting procedures in place, women (and indeed anyone who was targeted) were efectively unprotected. On the more positive side,

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No. 2 (publ. 2020) 23 Women working in UK institutions have been (and are largely still) under-represented in leadership positions within Higher Education Institutes and national organisations, and on scientifc steering committees of international marine programmes. It wasn’t until 2009, when Lisa McNeill co-led Expedition 319 to the Nankai Margin, south-west Japan, that there was a woman Co-PSO from a UK institution in the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). Lisa also went on to be the frst person to be a Co-PSO on all three International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) drilling plat- forms in 2017. Other international organisations have also only recently promoted women to leading positions. Denise Smythe-Wright was elected as President of IAPSO* (2015–2019), sat on the SCOR† executive, and is now the Interna- tional Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) liaison ofcer to the International Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO. Carol Robinson was elected Chair of the Integrated Marine Biosphere *IAPSO is the Research project (IMBeR) in 2016. International Marine technician Ella Richards, here shown during an Association for the RRS James Cook cruise in 2015. (Photo: Veerle Huvenne) Carol was also the frst female President of the Physical Sciences of Challenger Society (2008–2010); since then, the the Oceans, which is to leadership roles in technical and ship’s crew part of the IUGG. Society has had two further female Presidents positions. To illustrate this progress we present a † (Hilary Kennedy, 2012–2014, and Rachel Mills, SCOR is the few case studies; we cannot use aggregated infor- 2016–2018), with Ros Rickaby taking on the role Scientifc Committee mation on cruise participation by gender, as data on Oceanic for 2020–2022. There has however been severe on self-verifed gender identity, acknowledging the Research. under-representation in recognition and awards, IMBeR is one of full gender spectrum, are not available. SCOR’s Large Scale especially for senior female scientists (e.g. cel- Ocean Research ebratory conferences or ‘lifetime achievement’ In summer 2017, for the frst time the three main Projects. awards). UK research vessels had concurrent expeditions led by female PSOs: the RRS James Clark Ross Present-day situation and recent successes was in the Barents Sea as part of the UK NERC Gender balance in UK marine science has Changing Arctic Ocean programme (PSO Joanne improved greatly in recent years, and there Hopkins); the RRS Discovery IV was in the Iceland has been a growing appreciation of the bene- Basin and in the vicinity of Rockall, traversing fts of gender diversity in feld-based research. the NERC Extended Ellett Line and servicing Advances and achievements have also come in UK OSNAP moorings (p.23, above right) (PSO marine governance and science policy, in addition Penny Holliday, Captain Jo Cox); and later in the Labrador Sea as part of the EU-funded ICY-LAB Sue Hartman and Hannelore Theetaert (Flanders project (PSO Katharine Hendry, Captain Jo Cox, Marine Institute, VLIZ) during the June 2019 RRS and two female technicians, including Ella Rich- Discovery cruise to exchange the moorings and ards (above)); and the RRS James Cook was in instrumentation on the PAP-SO buoys (one can seen the tropical Atlantic as part of the NERC-funded close up on the left). (Photo: Jon Campbell) ZIPLOC project (PSO Claire Mahafey).

Expeditions serving longer time-series studies are useful for assessing improvements in gender equality through time. For example, the Porcupine Abyssal Plain Sustained Observatory (PAP-SO) cruise programme has been running since 1985. Previous PAP expeditions have had a good representation of women, including crew. However, to date there have been very few women PSOs on the PAP programme. Sarah Colley was the frst woman to lead a PAP expedition, in 1991 on board the RRS Charles Darwin. Most recently, Sue Hartman from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) was PSO in 2019 (left), and Jennifer Durden was due to take the position in 2020 (the cruise was cancelled because of the Covid-19 crisis).

24 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No. 2 (publ. 2020) Women have been less represented in scientifc What has driven these successes? leadership in the Atlantic Meridional Transect Many of the women who now occupy leadership (AMT) programme, with only one woman PSO positions in UK institutions were trained in the (Carol Robinson) in 2003; whilst there is good rep- period 1980–2000: the era of signifcant growth resentation of women in the AMT programme, the in the UK science base when there was a signif- majority of these scientists have been early-career icant rise in the number of individuals studying researchers. Long-term observations of the for Ph.Ds. With this growth came a new gener- hydrography in the Faroe–Shetland Channel have ation of Ph.D supervisors who recognised that been conducted by Marine Scotland Science (and talent and hard work are found across all parts predecessors) since the late 19th century, with of society. Pioneers in this area included key the frst female PSO (Berit Rabe) in 2014, onboard members of the Challenger Society community MRV Scotia; since then, at least one out of three such as Paul Tyler, Harry Elderfeld, Peter Liss Marine Science Scotland’s regular cruises in the and Tim Jickells, who supervised many female Faroe–Shetland Channel has been conducted by Ph.D students who went on to hold positions in a female PSO. leading institutes and universities, supervising When using such time-series programmes as their own students and researchers. This combi- case studies of progress in gender equality in nation of mentorship, championing of new talent leadership roles it is important to bear in mind and providing opportunity for interaction with that they are often institution-based, and so there the wider science community was a key driver of may be various reasons behind PSO designation this change. (e.g. a small ‘pool’ of available researchers, or Assessments of gender diversity in marine established PSOs who hold their positions until science have focussed on the importance of retirement, etc.). Larger international programmes two aspects: improved mentoring schemes and – which are becoming increasingly important for addressing broad ocean–climate interactions – consistently supportive work environments. provide further insight into the leadership roles Mentoring Mentoring is critical during all stages played by UK women in marine science. For of a researcher’s life, and is key to retaining example, the Overturning in the Subpolar North under-represented groups in STEMM. An exam- Atlantic Programme (OSNAP) is a large (£50M) ple from the marine sciences is the US-based and successful international observations-based Mentoring Physical Oceanography Women to research project that has UK women in strong Increase Retention (MPOWIR) organisation, leadership positions, including PSOs Penny which since 2007 has funded mentoring activ- Holliday and Helen Johnson. Similarly, IODP ities for women in their early career stages expeditions on the RV JOIDES Resolution have (postgraduate research and onwards). A survey become more balanced in terms of participant of MPOWIR participants revealed that the gender. scheme has had a positive impact on retention In addition to leading scientifc research, women of early-career female researchers in the feld, scientists in marine science are also keen innova- with 80% of participants with Ph.Ds completed tors: for example, in recent years they have been prior to 2012 being employed in ‘university/gov- the driving force behind the use of some of the ernment/nonproft research positions’. A few of latest robotic technology for marine observations, the scientists who benefted from this mentoring including the use of Autosub Long Range, ocean scheme are now working in the UK and have led gliders and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). UK-based research expeditions. UK researcher Since 2013, most of the expeditions using the Heather Ford (Lecturer at Queen Mary University National Marine Facility ROV Isis were coordi- of London and NERC Independent Research nated by women, and in 2015 Veerle Huvenne Fellow) together with Jennifer Hertzberg (post- was the frst PSO to use three diferent robotic doctoral researcher at Old Dominion University vehicles (Autosub6000, the ROV Isis and a Sea- in the US) established the AGU Paleocean- glider) in a simultaneous, combined operation ography/Paleoclimatology Section mentoring during an expedition on the RRS James Cook. scheme in December 2018. This scheme showed that participant feedback is a useful means for As well as gender equality amongst scientists and assessing success of mentoring schemes and technicians, there is also the question of gender identifying pathways for improvement. equality for other essential roles at sea, which – again – cannot be assessed without the collection The above examples of mentoring programmes of relevant data on participation. However, there all take place on land, but there are also val- are some examples of continued improvement uable opportunities for mentoring at sea. For in gender balance, including the appointment of example, Marine Scotland Science have a pio- Alexis Lee as the frst female Ofcer in Charge of neering new scheme for training PSOs, involving a Marine Scotland Compliance expedition – an appointing a Co-PSO for each expedition. Whilst acheivement that was celebrated in a blog for this programme is open to everyone, there was Merchant Navy Day in 2019. an expedition in 2019 on the MRV Scotia where

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No. 2 (publ. 2020) 25 the PSO and Co-PSO, Berit Rabe and Helen and address other problems they might face. Smith, were both women (photo below). A DiMS event was held at the Challenger 2016 Conference in Liverpool, and another, for early- career researchers, was organised (with the UK Polar Network) at the Challenger 2018 Conference in Newcastle; this covered diversity at sea/in the feld, alternative career paths, unconscious bias, mental health in academia, and digital media.

Continuing challenges for under-represented groups in sea-going research A good cruise can help a scientist embrace a career in sea-going marine science, but a bad experience for themselves or a friend or colleague could make someone change their career plans, Berit Rabe (right) and Helen Smith (PSO and Co-PSO, and this does happen. This problem disproportion- respectively) along with Matthew Gray, during a 2019 ately afects under-represented groups, given that Scotia cruise. (Photo: Matthew Gray) they are more likely to be targeted by harassment or unwanted attention. Unacceptable behaviour is Improved work environments Work environ- likely to impact those in early-career stages more ments have been improved through fexible strongly, but it is experienced by under-represen- schemes for carers, more high visibility roles ted groups at all career stages. for women (including those belonging to other under-represented groups), emphasis on collabo- PSOs generally receive little or no training in how ration rather than competition, and the perception to support team members who feel they are being unfairly treated, although videos covering har- of reduced gender bias and overt sexism. assment are now mandatory at the beginning of There have been a number of specifc schemes expeditions on the main NERC research vessels. and scholarships to promote women and other The burden of tackling unacceptable behaviour under-represented groups in marine science within often still lies with the victim. It can be extremely the EU and US. In the UK, the most prominent difcult to fnd the courage to report unacceptable scheme for improving the workplace environment behaviour at sea if the culture and expectations of for women is the Athena SWAN Charter, launched behaviour standards are not explicitly set out by in 2005. This aims to promote and advance the those in charge. A consistent change in culture to careers of women across all STEMM disciplines. prevent such behaviour is needed. One example of a positive policy change, which There are still shortcomings in the availability of arose from an Athena SWAN award submission health and safety provision specifc to women. by Marine Scotland Science, is the creation of a Many ships are still stocked with personal pro- gender-balanced pool of trained PSOs, an action tective equipment (PPE) that is not suitable or endorsed by its Board in July 2020. However, sufcient for use by the women on board: a poten- actions that have been implemented as a result of tially dangerous example of equipment etc. being Athena SWAN accreditation (such as mentoring designed with the average man – not woman – in programmes) are generally limited to within insti- mind (as written about recently in Invisible Women: tutions or informal arrangements, and nation-wide Exposing data bias in a world designed for men (or UK-led international) schemes for particu- by Caroline Criado Perez). For example, safety or lar areas of marine science are still few and far survival suits are often provided predominantly in between. larger sizes that are both cumbersome and danger- Networking Assistance with networking can also ous for smaller people, who are disproportionately, help women, and other under-represented groups, though not exclusively, women. make connections and build collaborations. One Menstruation at sea is still often a taboo subject. good example of this, albeit from a broader sub- It was not until the 1990s that the issue of sanitary ject base, is the Earth Science Women’s Network bins on research ships was raised. When the RRS (ESWN), a non-proft international organisation Discovery was revamped in 1991, the ship was that started from informal beginnings in 2002 ftted with an incinerator and women were asked and is sponsored in part by the University of East to put used sanitary products directly in bins ready Anglia. In addition to providing networking support for burning as it was not fair to ask the stewards to for women in the geosciences, members of the empty cabin bins. Provision of sanitary bins in the ESWN leadership board have also been instru- shared toilets on ships has been an ongoing battle, mental in securing funding for projects aimed at and women have had to raise the matter at cruise improving the work environment for women. planning meetings, or request crew members to The Challenger Society now has a Diversity in buy bins in port before agreeing to sail. Paper bags Marine Science (DiMS) network which aims to were sometimes provided, but were often not ft for improve networking for under-represented groups, purpose, especially for anyone experiencing heavy

26 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No. 2 (publ. 2020) periods. The situation has mostly improved in the of evidence to suggest that under-represented last two years or so, with the introduction of small, groups face more discrimination and harassment sealable bags and appropriate bins in both cabins in their workplaces, fewer opportunities to speak and toilets in public areas. at conferences, have fewer collaboration and leadership opportunities, and will be less likely to The increased participation of women in sea-going apply for promotion. They might also face hostile research has not led to equality in leadership posi- attitudes if they speak up about these issues. tions. This may be a result of the lack of women in Although numbers for UK marine science have not other high profle roles, the fact that (as mentioned been published, anecdotally more women, individ- earlier) the appointment of PSOs often lacks open uals identifying as Black, Asian or as a member of and fair access to training, and because there are another ethnic minority group and/or as LGBTQIA+ few opportunities for women to engage with the and/or with disabilities, are participating in sea-go- early planning stages of a cruise: if women are ing research during early career stages, but are still not involved from the start, it is unlikely that they under-represented. will be able to take a leadership role in the fnal expedition. Furthermore, there may be a reluctance Critically, under-represented groups do not see for women to propose sea-going research because individuals with whom they identify in leadership of the long time-scales involved in the planning roles. For many years, NOC Southampton proudly processes (it can take many years from the initial displayed on the wall outside the National Ocean- proposal to completion of a scientifc expedition). ographic Library an array of male, white leaders Being away for weeks at a time is still challeng- whose legacy was the UK oceanography disci- ing for many women due to caring commitments pline. These images were moved this year to a and other personal circumstances; women might more ftting range of locations, where of course decide to leave oceanography if they feel that the important contributions of these pioneers of caring duties and career progression do not go science will be recognised individually and with together. appropriate respect. However, it is clearly now time to enhance the diversity of those celebrated and Improved attitudes towards, and accommodation on display, and to raise the profle of under-repre- of, women at sea are probably a result of the sented groups within ocean sciences, not only to gradually increasing number of women on ships, inspire the next generation of marine scientists, but rather than the other way around, and there is still also to retain those currently in the feld. Here are a a stark imbalance among technicians and crew. few key recommendations for making it happen. Our research has revealed that there have been very few ‘top-down’ schemes that were designed 1. Introduction of UK-based schemes for to support women in sea-going marine sciences under-represented groups in marine science within the UK. For example, there are no UK-wide The establishment of funded nationwide schemes mentoring or networking schemes specifcally for that target under-represented groups in marine female marine scientists. Success has largely been science, specifcally sea-going science, would driven at the level of institutions, or by individuals – drive increased availability of opportunities through often, but not only, by women, including scientists, ‘top-down’ schemes, as well as peer-to-peer crew and technicians. These individuals have been engagement. Schemes such as MPOWIR and instrumental in driving forward informal mentoring STEMSEAS (a US initiative aimed at facilitating schemes, being role models at diferent career undergraduates from diverse backgrounds taking stages, and repeatedly raising concerns about part in short marine expeditions) could act as conditions at sea (harassment, PPE, sanitary templates for such ventures, by providing support provision etc.) until they are successful in forcing and opportunities for sea-going experience and change. mentoring. However, such schemes don’t support some of the earlier career stages, so need to be How can we extend successes in gender equality expanded to encompass all career levels. The to other under-represented groups? point at which undergraduate, Masters and Ph.D In addition to improving inclusivity, bringing in students are recruited is critical, especially for the views of women and other under-represented people from under-represented groups who could individuals results in better collaboration and otherwise miss out on opportunities. Scholarships greater scientifc impact. Can we, on a national or fellowships could be designed specifcally to and international level, transfer the mechanisms support these very-early-career researchers. of success in improving gender balance in marine The Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science science to tackling other forms of under-rep- (CLASS) programme already provides opportunities resentation? for early-career researchers from all backgrounds Whilst there have been improvements in gender to take part in sea-going expeditions and learn equality, women working in science still face new skill sets (see pp.4–6). However, salary and discrimination and inequality, especially if they some other costs are not provided, and this could also belong to another under-represented group, present a barrier to those who already face more even one protected by equal rights law (e.g. relat- hurdles in acquiring funding than their white male ing to ethnicity or disability). There is a plethora peers. Such programmes could be extended to

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No. 2 (publ. 2020) 27 encourage participation from women and other Increasing the visibility of women and under-rep- under-represented groups, and to build in specifc resented groups at sea is key: funding agencies, skills, and be supported by ring-fenced funding research organisations, charities and universities (such as exists within the STEMSEAS programme). need to ensure diversity in the images on their Waiting for equality to trickle up to marine sci- websites, and in promotional or teaching mate- ence leadership roles will take too long, and rials. Care also needs to be taken to combat more afrmative action at high levels is needed to unconscious bias in terms of the written or stimulate diversity initiatives. Within the UK, there spoken language used to describe science leads are schemes at Marine Scotland Science and the in these websites and documents. For example, National Oceanography Centre to partner early- cruise or programme websites should ensure that career researchers with senior staf, who could women and other under-represented groups are help them ‘learn the ropes’ and gain the experience given prominent positions, and described using they need to write their own research proposals the same words and terminology as their male and apply for cruises. Mentoring and networking colleagues. Depiction of minority groups in marine schemes that bring together participants from aca- science in the media needs to be improved in all demia, funding agencies and other stakeholders spheres, from inclusion in news and documentary would be greatly benefcial and could go some way interviews to representation in fction. to help improve the diversity of successful grant holders. 3. Better training for sea-going scientists There are clear benefts in improving and broaden- 2. Visibility of role models ing training for participants in sea-going science One factor that has been shown to be greatly at all career levels – PSOs, scientists, technicians benefcial for widening participation is the visibility and crew. Barriers that hinder under-represented of role models from under-represented groups. groups must be recognised in the frst instance, We all need to tell more stories celebrating marine in order to be broken down. Researchers and scientists, technicians and crew who have had funders (especially those with senior oversight of achievements in the feld of sea-going science, cruise activities) need to be fully aware of chal- despite facing barriers, real and perceived, as lenges faced on board cruises, and build and a result of their backgrounds. However, greater implement necessary protocols and codes of con- improvements in this area can come from deliber- duct. Training for all participants in mental health, ate policies within individual groups and organisa- avoiding unconscious bias and bystander behav- tions, such as taking decisions to name awards, or iour should be essential – rather than recom- rooms, or buildings after women or representatives mended – additions to pre-cruise preparation. This of minorities. The Centre for Environment, Fisheries training, which is the responsibility of research and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) and the Scottish institutes, funding agencies and universities, will Association for Marine Science (SAMS) both took help sea-going researchers understand how to steps in the right direction by naming a room and manage the expectations of other participants and a teaching building after Rosa Lee and Sheina colleagues, and help improve the experience of Marshall respectively. The majority of major awards everyone on board. in marine sciences are named after men, although a notable exception is the Challenger Society’s 4. An inclusive environment on ships biennial meeting poster prize, which is named after Every expedition needs to have an inclusive oceanographer Cath Allen. environment that is comfortable for everyone, which can be achieved by the reasonable accom- Another new initiative, led by Rehemat Bhatia and modation of requirements, in addition to suitable the Micropalaeontological Society, is promoting training in diversity issues. Provision of health and under-represented groups through new awards, safety equipment that refects the range of people and through naming existing unnamed society on board should be standard. Although there are awards after micropalaeontologists from under-rep- fnancial and logistical implications, shorter expe- resented groups. The AGU Earth and Planetary ditions (e.g. 2 x three weeks rather than six weeks) Surface Processes committee also recently (May and provision of additional expenses (e.g. for extra 2020) announced the Marguerite T. Williams Award, child-care provisions) could facilitate involvement named after the frst Black person in the US to be by those with caring responsibilities which, for a awarded a geology Ph.D. Further deliberate poli- range of socioeconomic reasons, disproportion- cies could be introduced – and promoted via tar- ately includes under-represented groups. A well geted and open advertising – to enhance diversity. advertised, easy-to-access system for supporting For example, the Challenger Society has a goal to additional caring costs that arise when people are alternate the position of President between men and away at sea would make a big diference. Cruises women. Conference organisers could promote visi- could also be made more inclusive through bility of under-represented groups – especially those schemes that allow more fexible approaches, in their earlier career stages – as session chairs and such as the schemes to split tasks between a keynote speakers, using inclusive activities of the PSO and Co-PSO, currently being implemented European Geosciences Union as exemplars. by Marine Scotland Science.

28 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No. 2 (publ. 2020) The way forward cruise, where either PSO or Co-PSO is an early or We urgently need to diversify our discipline through mid-career researcher, and to monitor and record proactive mentorship, and by promoting and imple- the diversity of people in those positions, and their menting positive change. Leading UK organisations, career progression in the longer term. This pro- such as the Challenger Society for Marine Science, cedure has recently started on Marine Scotland should show the way by implementing actions that Science cruises with very positive feedback. will make a genuine diference, converting our ideas • Lobby for NERC to provide resources for extra into a practical reality. The following proposals childcare and other additional costs incurred by can be summarised as a call for a strong vision for sea-going staf. equality and diversity in marine science, led by the • Lobby for the adequate provision of PPE for membership of the Challenger Society. In develop- sea-going women. ing each of these ideas we need to consider which • Lobby for the collection and analysis of diversity initiatives that have helped women might also be and inclusivity data for all sea-going scientists, efective in supporting other under-represented technicians and crew. groups, and for which groups, and under what circumstances, the approaches might need to be • Refocus the Society’s Diversity in Marine Sci- diferent. ence (DiMS) initiative to form a Special Interest Group that includes scientists at all career levels. We should: This group could formulate an efective training • Lead initiatives (websites, award-naming, guest programme suitable for all, identify existing and seminars etc.) to increase visibility of past and pres- new resources and formalise the Society’s com- ent under-represented groups in sea-going marine mitment to accelerating progress towards equity. science, for example: women, people identifying • Create a Society award to recognise those as Black, Asian or as from another ethnic minority, working towards improving diversity in UK marine people identifying as LGBTQIA+, and people identi- science. fying as having a disability. Acknowledgements • Champion and ensure diversity in the Challenger Society (e.g. in the composition of Council, and The authors would like to thank Bee Berx, Brian with respect to those who receive awards) as well Bett, Theresa and Edward Cooper and John Gould, John Dunn, Natalie Powney, Carol Pudsey, Candice as in UK oceanography in general (e.g. in academic Snelling, and everyone named in the article, for their appointments, acceptance of Ph.D candidates, and kind contributions. We would also like to acknowledge during promotion processes). and thank all of the women in UK marine science • Fund and promote bursaries for under-repre- throughout the years: without your pioneering sented groups to go to sea, particularly in leader- accomplishments we would not be here, looking ship positions. forward to a brighter future for all sea-going scientists.

• Ensure that articles in Challenger Society pub- Katharine Hendry is an Associate Professor lications are authored by – and feature – a diverse at the University of Bristol. She, and all of the range of individuals. co-authors, are UK-based researchers active in • Lobby to encourage the community to take marine science. [email protected] up opportunities to appoint a Co-PSO for every Further Reading overleaf ➢

Heading in the right direction! A happy group of researchers in coastal waters off Greenland in 2018 – the team is predominantly female and has representatives from a wide variety of backgrounds and four different countries. (Photo: Ellen Pedersen)

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No. 2 (publ. 2020) 29 Further reading and websites of interest Kisakürek Ibsen, B., S. Braun, A.S. Heiskanen, T. AlShebli, B.K., T. Rahwan and W.L. Woon (2018) The Kutser, J. Stadmark, and four others (2017, April). preeminence of ethnic diversity in scientifc collabo- Baltic Consortium on Promoting Gender Equality ration. Nature Communications 9 (1), 1–10. in Marine Research Organisations (Baltic Gender). In EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts Bernard, R.E. and E.H. Cooperdock (2018) No progress (Vol.19, p.6885). on diversity in 40 years. Nature Geoscience 11 (5), 292–5. Lerback, J. and B. Hanson (2017) Journals invite too few women to referee. Nature 541(7638), 455–7. Bonatti, E. and K. Crane (2012) Oceanography and women: Early challenges. Oceanography 25 (4), Lewandowski, K. (2018) Taboos, stowaways, and 32–9. chief scientists: a brief history of women in oceanography? in Johnson, B.A. (Ed) Women and geology: Boyle, P.J., L.K Smith, N.J. Cooper, K.S. Williams, Who are we, where have we come from, and where and H. O’Connor (2015) Gender balance: Women are we going? Geological Society of America Memoir are funded more fairly in social science. Nature 525 214, 23–35. doi: 10.1130/MEM214 (7568), 181–3. Marine Scotland. Scotia 1919S. https://blogs.gov. British Library Archives https://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-his- scot/marine-scotland/2019/12/18/scotia-1919s-lat- tory/Science/021M-C1379X0029XX-0010V0 ; est-news/ (Accessed July 2020) https://www.bl.uk/voices-of-science/interviewees/ carol-williams# (Accessed April 2020) Marine Scotland. Celebrating Merchant Navy Day. https://blogs.gov.scot/marine-scot- Challenger Wave. Newsletter December 2016. https:// land/2019/09/03/celebrating-merchant-navy-day-2/ www.challenger-society.org.uk/fles/pagefles/Doc- (Accessed July 2020) uments/C%20wave/CWave_201611.pdf (Accessed July 2020) Michalena, E., T.R. Straza, P. Singh, C.W. Morris and J.M. Hills (2020) Promoting sustainable and inclusive Clancy, K.B.H., R.G. Nelson, J.N. Rutherford and K. oceans management in Pacifc islands through Hinde (2014) Survey of Academic Field Experiences women and science. Marine Pollution Bulletin 150, (SAFE): Trainees report harassment and assault. 11071. PLoS ONE 9 (7): e102172 Mouw, C.B., S. Clem, S. Legg and J. Stockard (2018) Creado Perez, C. (2019) Invisible Women: Exposing Meeting mentoring needs in physical oceanography: data bias in a world designed for men, Penguin An evaluation of the impact of MPOWIR. Oceanogra- Books. phy 31 (4),171–9. Damerell, G. (2019) Does my bum look big in this? Orcutt, B.N., and I. Cetinić (2014) Women in oceanog- Gender bias in Personal Protective Equiment (PPE). raphy: Continuing challenges. Oceanography 27 (4), Ocean Challenge 23 (2). 5–13. Deacon, M. (2004) The origins of the Challenger Soci- Ridley, G. (2016) Pioneer botanist. http://danger- ety, Ocean Challenge 13 (1), 25–31. ouswomenproject.org/2016/07/27/jeanne-baret/ Dutt, K. (2020) Race and racism in the geosciences. (Accessed April 2020) Nature Geoscience 13(1), 2–3. Russell, F. (1978) Sheina Macalister Marshall. 20 April Gender Minorities Aotearoa (2020) https://gender- 1896 – 7 April 1977. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows minorities.com/database/glossary-transgender of the Royal Society 24, 368–89. (Accessed July 2020) Shen, H. (2013) Mind the gender gap. Nature 495 Giles, S., C. Jackson and N. Stephen (2020) Barriers (7439), 22. to feldwork in undergraduate geoscience degrees. Stonewall Youth. Gender Identity (2015) https://www. Nature Reviews Earth and Environment 1 (2), 77–8. youngstonewall.org.uk/lgbtq-info/gender-identity Gissi, E.L.E.N.A., M.E. Portman and A.K. Hornidge (Accessed June 2020) (2018) Un-gendering the ocean: Why women matter See also https://www.stonewall.org.uk/help-advice/ in ocean governance for sustainability. Marine Policy faqs-and-glossary/glossary-terms 94, 215–19. Vila-Concejo, A., S.L. Gallop, S.M. Hamylton, L.S. GLAAD Media Reference Guide (2020) https://www. Esteves, K.R. Bryan and nine others (2018) Steps glaad.org/reference/transgender (Accessed July to improve gender diversity in coastal geoscience 2020) and engineering. Palgrave Communications 4 (1), 1–9. Guitard, M. (2020) Amplifed voices: How identity shapes our scientifc experience. Geoscientist 30 (1), Williams, L. and T. Dalton (2020) Understanding 10–15. doi: 10.1144/geosci2020-065 Experiences of Women in Marine Science: Results of an initial pilot study. In Ocean Sciences Meeting Fielding, T. (2018) Expedition to the Great Barrier 2020. AGU. Reef 1928–1929. Part 5. https://jculibrarynews. blogspot.com/2018/09/expedition-to-great-barri- https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/womens-data- er-reef-1928_12.html (Accessed April 2020) book/2017/home.htm (Accessed April 2020) Ford, H.L., C. Brick, M. Azmitia, K. Blaufuss and P.S. UNESCO–IOC (2017) Initiative for Women Marine Dekens (2019) Women from some under-represented Scientists. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natu- minorities are given too few talks at world’s largest ral-sciences/ioc-oceans/focus-areas/gender-equal- Earth-science conference, Nature 576, 32–5. ity/ (Accessed April 2020) Kappel, E.S. (Ed.) (2014) Women in oceanography: A UNFPA (2020) Frequently asked questions about decade later. Oceanography 27 (4), Supplement, gender equality. https://www.unfpa.org/resources/ 1–4. doi: 10.5670/oceanog.2014.105 frequently-asked-questions-about-gender-equality (Accessed June 2020) Karatekin, Ö. (2019) Equality of opportunities in geosciences: The EGU Awards Committee experience. US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2017) Women in the In Geophysical Research Abstracts (Vol. 21) labor force: a databook. Report No. 1071, 1–105.

30 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No. 2 (publ. 2020) IIII

‘Give me half a tanker of iron, and I will give you an ice age.’ Many of us have come across John Martin’s proposal, made in the late 1980s, to seed the ocean with iron to stimulate the growth of phytoplankton where the natural iron supply is insufcient. This would draw down

CO2 from the atmosphere, triggering the cooling of our planet Earth. With the global climate crisis in full swing, natural iron fertilisation is a hot topic, and research into the oceanic iron cycle is accelerating. Iron biogeochemistry has come a long way in the last thirty years, but major unknowns persist regarding the bioavailability, supply and removal of iron, and its internal cycling, which together shape its distribution in the ocean. One of the main advances is the recognition that it is the form the iron is in, rather than its concentration, that is important for addressing these questions. Recent research from the North Atlantic has shown that of all the iron in the water column, ‘colloidal iron’ – a variety of iron-bearing compounds in the size range 0.02 – 0.2 µm – is key to the iron distribution at large. I will explore what makes this colloidal iron so special, and why simply emptying a large amount of iron into the ocean will not achieve the desired efect.

Iron’s irony The primary source of iron to the sunlit surface From a marine biogeochemist’s perspective there ocean, where phytoplankton fourish, is iron-rich are a few essential nutrients that regulate the crustal material from the continents. In the case growth of phytoplankton, those tiny photosynthetic of the North Atlantic Ocean, a large proportion of organisms which use light energy to make carbo- this takes the form of Saharan desert dust that

hydrates from CO2 and water. Since CO2 is a pow- is picked up by wind, transported seaward and erful greenhouse gas, phytoplankton growth may deposited far ofshore. Dust deposition occurs impact our climate by altering the balance of carbon throughout large regions of the tropical and stored between our ocean and the atmosphere. subtropical Atlantic, all the way to the American Three of the nutrients essential for this process, continents, subject to strong seasonality in wind and other vital cellular functions, are nitrogen and and precipitation patterns. In other oceanic basins phosphorus (key building blocks of large molecular or nearer to the continental margins, iron-rich soil cell structures like wall membranes, and of smaller material transported by rivers, glaciers or icebergs, biomolecules like proteins or DNA) and iron. Individ- or release of iron from marine sediments, can ual iron atoms fulfl roles of structural or functional represent more signifcant sources. More recently, centres of certain proteins that are involved in the role of upwelled, hydrothermally derived iron photosynthesis or that help phytoplankton acquire has also been under investigation. nitrogen and phosphorus. Of the three nutrients, iron behaves in the most complicated and seem- In the Southern Ocean, iron sources are too far ingly paradoxical way: despite it being necessary away or too weak to meet the iron demands of for life-maintaining cellular processes, it is a ‘trace biological activity in the surface ocean. But even metal’, present at vanishingly low concentrations in in the North Atlantic with its enormous supply of the ocean. While nitrogen and phosphorus are typi- Saharan dust, phytoplankton growth can become cally present at micromolar concentrations (equiv- limited by low iron availability. How is this possi- alent to 1 ml of tonic in 1000 litres of gin), iron is at ble? Various factors come into play here, such as least a thousand times less abundant, so phyto- variability in dust supply in time and space, and plankton often struggle to obtain sufcient amounts. small mismatches in iron supply and its demand When they are unsuccessful, their growth is limited by the photosynthetic community. Most impor- by the availability of iron, i.e. the rate at which iron tantly, however: Not all iron is the same. Instead, is recycled or added to the surface ocean. So, what the natural oceanic iron pool consists of a whole controls the delivery of iron to the ocean? continuum of diferent forms of iron.

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No. 2 (publ. 2020) 31 The iron continuum termed ‘dissolved iron’ (<0.2 µm) and ‘particu- It would be simply false, and fatal for our under- late iron’ (>0.2 µm). After another twenty years of standing, to imagine oceanic iron as free foating insights, from the early 2000s researchers have iron atoms in the water column. While a minute used ultra-fltration, which further separates the part of the iron pool (< 1%) does exist in this form, dissolved pool into what are termed ‘colloidal iron’ modern seawater conditions (temperature, pH, (0.02 µm to 0.2 µm) and ‘soluble iron’ (<0.02 µm). The current view is therefore that – from a O2 concentration) and biological processes push most, though not all, individual iron atoms into size-partitioned perspective – total iron is the sum molecular structures. These diferent iron ‘species’ of particulate iron, colloidal iron and soluble iron. are distinguished on the basis of their physical characteristics (e.g. size) and chemical characteris- So from a physical (fltration-based) perspective: tics (e.g. how weakly or strongly the iron is bound, In the 1920s we measured total iron or whether a species is organic or inorganic; Since the 1980s, Figure 1). Such distinctions are key because they total iron = particulate iron + dissolved iron let us investigate diferences in species’ chemical Since the 2000s, reactivities (which determine their residence times) total iron = particulate iron + colloidal iron and the bioavailability of the iron within them (the + soluble iron ease with which organisms can access the iron). Box 1 While only a handful of these species are identifed and characterised in detail, some tools exist Although the size cut-ofs are operationally to distinguish overarching classes of iron. One of defned, and naming conventions are arguable, these is by means of fltration, targeting a physical signifcant progress has been made over the last characteristic, namely size. century of iron biogeochemical research. This has been rooted in the traditional understanding When in the 1920s pioneers of trace metal bio- that the smaller dissolved iron species are more geochemistry set out to measure iron distributions readily bioavailable than the larger particulate iron in the ocean, concentrations were measured in species, the latter being considered to consist unfiltered samples, determining the ‘total iron’ largely of iron trapped in mineral phases. This pool. With greater understanding of the iron cycle was a crucial frst distinction for investigating and the recognition that distinctions by size may oceanic iron, but it soon became clear that even be important, a crucial first filtration step was within ‘dissolved’ or ‘particulate’ iron there are a introduced in the 1980s. Using a membrane with range of diferent physicochemical characteristics a pore size of 0.2 µm (occasionally 0.45 µm), the (Figure 1). total iron pool was now separated into what was

Figure 1 Iron in seawater can broadly be categorised into inorganic (top) and organic (bottom) as well as into different size fractions: soluble, colloidal and particulate (along the x-axis). The fltrations used to distinguish between the size fractions are indicated by the vertical dashed lines. By a plethora of processes, iron can cycle between the different compartments (horizontal and vertical arrows), and also within compartments (curved arrows).

Iron in seawater is an ever-changing ,+)--%./,*%'# mixture of ,$.&+$(* -)#3$%./,*%'# different physical 0)#*&1-$, ,$.&+$(*%0)#*&1-$, and chemical "#$$%&#'(% forms )*'+,

&('#3)(&1 ,+)--%0)#*&1-$, "'#+$.%&( -)#3$%0)#*&1-$, ,$)2)*$# "'#+$.%&(%,$)2)*$# ( ('%:&'-'35%&(4'-4$.7 !"#$%!$ &'()(*'" ,+)--%'#3)(&1 -&4&(3% +'-$1/-$, 085*'0-)(9*'( 4$#5%,+)-- (e.g. proteins) )(.%:)1*$#&) '#3)(&1%+'-$1/-$, 6$!3!%,0$1&)-&,$.

'#3)(&1 &#'(%*#)(,0'#*$#,7 4&#/,$, .$*#&*/, (e.g. dead cells or 6:&'-'35%&(4'-4$.7 excretions)

&'+#$,%-.*"(*!#$ -"&*%-.*"(*!#$ /0102%%μ34 /012%%μ34

!!! ;<%(+

&#.56.' +#..#!,(. 8("*!+5.(*'

,!&&#.7',

32 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No. 2 (publ. 2020) Particulate iron (> 0.2 µm) each other or with other third-party species in As you might expect, some particulate iron is the ocean, continuously cycling individual iron structurally locked into ‘chunky’ mineral particles, atoms between them. For example, what is at one but other kinds of particles (Figure 1) contain moment a free-floating iron atom – classified as iron which behaves very diferently. For example, ‘soluble’ by our filtration method – may be incor- iron is largely insoluble under modern seawater porated into a phytoplankton cell the next – and conditions, so that free iron atoms rapidly form hence it would have shifted into the particulate (oxy)hydroxide complexes by binding to OH or class. Or, iron that is bound to the surface of a O2 groups in the surrounding seawater. These dust particle could be released, allowing it to float complexes aggregate over time until they reach freely in the ocean, and then rapidly re-adsorbed a size that means they can be separated by a by a second, perhaps smaller, dust particle, so flter. In comparison with a dust particle which is passing through a whole cycle from the particulate more crystalline, such a particle is more easily to the soluble, and back to the particulate (or per- degradable, especially during its freshly formed, haps colloidal) class. For phytoplankton in need of amorphous stage. Yet other species of particulate bioavailable iron, the system resembles a game of iron are not inorganic at all, for example if iron is Tetris but with the pieces constantly reshaping. present in the cell of an organism (green area in Exploration of the oceanic iron continuum is Figure 1). In this case, iron is readily released back picking up. In 2001 there were only three sites into the seawater when the organic matter decom- for which profiles of soluble and colloidal iron poses. Just these few examples of types of par- could be shown separately, but now there are at ticulate iron demonstrate how levels of reactivity least a few measurements in every ocean basin within one size fraction can be extremely variable. (Figure 2). Nevertheless, data are still scarce, Dissolved iron (< 0.2 µm) not least because the extra filtration step is Long gone is the idea that dissolved iron in the time-consuming and adds a high risk of sample ocean is a uniformly highly bioavailable pool. contamination to the already contamination-prone traditional iron sampling. To minimise this risk, at Soluble iron (< 0.02 µm) The current, tentative sea and on land, iron biogeochemists work in des- working hypothesis posits that it is the soluble ignated trace-metal laboratories where clean air is iron that represents the truly bioavailable fraction, continuously streaming in and where white plastic because it comprises the miniscule pool of free, overalls, hair nets, rubber shoes, and a double layer unbound iron atoms and a particular iron species Between in which iron is bound to very small organic mole- 2001 and 2019 measurements cules known as siderophores. Siderophores have Figure 2 World map of oceanic iron measurements where both fltration steps were applied to separate distinguishing a strong afnity for iron atoms and are actively the dissolved iron pool into a soluble and a colloidal colloidal iron synthesised and excreted by certain organisms fraction, in 2001 (top) and 2019 (bottom). increased by more to capture limited iron resources and prevent than 30-fold them being transformed into less accessible iron species. #!"% !""# Colloidal iron (0.02 – 0.2 µm) In contrast, colloidal iron is generally understood to be less bioavailable &!" and at best a back-up option for phytoplankton, as getting access to the iron in colloidal species !" may be energetically and metabolically costly. One possible reason for this is that colloidal iron can take the form of mineral phases that are not dense &!" enough to be afected by gravitational settling. Imagine them as tiny versions of inorganic particulate iron, which – as discussed above – structurally #!"$ lock in iron atoms. Alternatively, iron may be bound ()!"* '!" !" '!" ()!"+ to small biological compounds in the water column that fall within the colloidal size range – e.g. viruses #!"% !"#$ or extracellular proteins – and is thus protected from chemical and biological processing. It is &!" important to note that the approach to bioavailability of soluble versus colloidal iron presented here is fairly crude and this topic is an active feld !" of research. The specifcs depend, amongst other factors, on the type of organism in need of iron. &!" Having introduced a variety of physicochemical species within the total iron pool, it is critical to recognise that this is by no means a static contin- #!"$ uum. Instead, the different species interact with ()!"* '!" !" '!" ()!"+

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No. 2 (publ. 2020) 33 Sampling, fltering and measuring iron come with a high risk of contamination

Figure 3 Left A typical sampling set-up at sea, inside the trace metal clean lab. The sampling team consisted of the author, Neil Wyatt and David González-Santana (left to right). Right A second clean area onboard, where iron measurements were conducted with a portable fow injection system. (Photos: Right: Maeve Lohan; Left: the author)

of gloves are worn to isolate potential metal con- an increase in the dissolved iron concentration taminants from the samples (Figure 3). Since the (indicating a source), it is predominantly the colloi- results from this extra fltration step are promising, dal iron concentration, not the soluble iron concen- it is probably worth the hassle and the fashion look tration, that has increased. Similarly, whenever we is not so bad either! detect a decrease in the dissolved iron concentration (indicating a sink), it is the colloidal iron con- But what are these results? With all the diferent centration that has decreased. Since the soluble characteristics between and within the subclasses fraction is much less variable, a useful metric for of dissolved iron, it is unsurprising that soluble the strength of such sources and sinks is the rela- and colloidal iron exhibit distinct distributions in tive contribution of the colloidal iron concentration the ocean. Thus, they contribute diferently to the to the dissolved iron concentration (Box 2). dissolved iron profle, the shape of which is still the most common way of studying the iron cycle. relative colloidal contribution (%) colloidal iron The colloidal hourglass x 100 = dissolved iron There is no point in keeping the secret from you where: any longer: colloidal iron and soluble iron behave dissolved iron = colloidal iron + soluble iron diferently and it is colloidal iron that most afects Box 2 the dissolved iron distribution. Whenever we detect The further the ratio of colloidal iron to total Figure 4 The distribution with depth of the dissolved iron is from 50%, the stronger the sink contribution to the dissolved iron pool of colloidal or source of dissolved iron. In the top and bottom iron, expressed as a percentage, forms the shape of sections of the water column the relative contri- an hourglass. The data come from iron profles in the subtropical Atlantic between 60° W and 30°W; butions are far from equal, whereas in between the four data points outside the hourglass are from a they are close to 50 : 50. Taken together, this hydrothermal source. (Data from Kunde et al. 2019) results in the hourglass shape (Figure 4).

What are the processes behind this distinct hour- In the upper ocean colloidal iron (%) glass shape? Let us take a journey down through and near the sea bed 0 20 40 60 80 100 dynamic processes the water column and see how colloidal and result in a wide soluble iron behave diferently at diferent depths 0 range in the % of (Figure 5). Note that the focus here is on the colloidal iron, while North Atlantic water column, which in terms of 1000 in the less dynamic iron cycling is arguably the best resolved oceanic ocean interior colloidal iron is region, but also carries the bias of very high dust at around 50% 2000 deposition. At the ocean’s surface, therefore, dust is the major external source of iron and driver

3000 of the system. The arrival of dust goes hand in hand with increased concentrations of colloidal depth (m) iron near the surface (second plot in Figure 5), 4000 while the efect on soluble iron is less (frst plot in Figure 5). This means that the relative contri- 5000 bution of colloidal iron to the dissolved iron pool increases as more dust is deposited (up to 90%). The strong colloidal signature of dust is due to two 6000 processes that start with iron in the particulate

34 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No. 2 (publ. 2020) class and end up with iron in the colloidal class. particles together sink to deeper layers – an The frst process is the erosion of dust particles example of a complex process known as scav- into smaller, colloidal-sized fragments during enging (see Box on p.36) As a result, between the atmospheric transport or after deposition in the surface and the DCM, a very small depth range in ocean. The second process is the release from oceanographic terms, we have moved from a col- dust particles of free iron atoms (in the soluble loidal iron maximum to a colloidal iron minimum. size range) followed by their rapid transformation This demonstrates the highly dynamic nature of into more stable nano-sized oxyhydroxide miner- the iron cycle in the upper ocean. als or by their capture by small organic molecules. Both of these fall into the colloidal size range. As we go even deeper, to around 1500 m, it is dark and the phytoplankton population has disap- Continuing on our journey down through the peared. Now it is time for heterotrophic bacteria water column, we see that the colloidal maximum to shine, as unlike phytoplankton they are not does not persist, and that colloidal iron starts to light-dependent. They obtain carbohydrates by disappear. By around 120 m depth (cf. Figure 5) breaking down organic debris, and in doing so, it has reached a concentration minimum and the replenish the dissolved iron pool. This process can relative contribution of colloidal to dissolved iron be aided by siderophores, which draw some of has also diminished, sometimes down to 0%. The the iron being released into the soluble size class. green line in Figure 5 is a rough measure of phyto- At the same time, interactions betweeen sinking plankton biomass and it seems that the colloidal dust and surrounding seawater release some iron minimum is associated with a biomass maximum from these inorganic particles into the collidal – the deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM). At frst class (as in surface waters); meanwhile, iron that sight, there seems to be a simple explanation: has been released from dust or organic matter phytoplankton take up colloidal iron. But don’t is being re-scavenged back into the particulate phytoplankton prefer soluble iron (p.33)? Either class. These competing processes determine how we are getting things wrong here and colloidal much colloidal iron is eventually present at these iron is more bioavailable than we think, or removal intermediate depths. of colloidal iron is driven by another process. If iron were being taken up by phytoplankton cells, By now, many dynamic processes have acted on we would expect an increase in particulate iron, and shaped the dissolved iron distribution, but but instead there is a minimum of particulate iron we are just a quarter of the way down into the full alongside the minimum of colloidal iron (second water column. However, from here on downwards, and fourth plots in Figure 5). This minimum arises the processes that afect how iron is partitioned because a lot of colloidal iron becomes loosely between colloidal and soluble forms become attached to the surfaces of sinking particles rather uniform. At these depths we are too distant (mostly dust in our North Atlantic case, but also from any external sinks or sources for them to dead cells and faecal pellets), and colloids and have any direct efect, and biological activity

Figure 5 Representative upper ocean profles (down to approximately 600 m) of soluble, colloidal, dissolved and particulate iron concentrations against density from the central North Atlantic (23° N, 40° W) during summer 2017. Approximate corresponding depths are shown in blue on the right-hand axes. The green line shows the chlorophyll-a concentration (in arbitrary units), a rough measure of biomass, and its peak is the deep chlorophyll-a maximum (DCM). (Data from Kunde et al., 2019)

While soluble iron )#$12$+%(,#! colloidal iron '())#$*+'%(,#!% -.,/(01$./+%(,#! remains almost –1 –1 –1 –1 (!"#$%& ) (!"#$%& ) (!"#$%& ) %(!"#$%& ) constant through the water column, 0 0.5 1.0 0 0.5 1.0 0 0.5 1.0 0 0.5 1.0 1024.5 all other iron fractions have concentration 15%m &9%" maxima at the surface and minima in the 1025.0 40%m 40 m DCM ) – 6 1025.5 78%" 78%"

% ( 45%" + = 120%m 120%m 1026.0 '+!)(/3 soluble colloidal 200!m 200!m 1026.5 dissolved 350!m 350!m particulate

600!m 600 m 1027.0 chlorophyll-!

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No. 2 (publ. 2020) 35 , What is scavenging?

In virtually all iron-related scientifc internalised – either by active uptake the formation of colloidal aggregates publications, you will fnd a phrase like into a cell or by incorporation into the that can be separated out by fltration. ‘removal due to scavenging’. Scav- mineral phase. While biological uptake Hence, colloidal aggregation is the enging is an exceptionally important is not typically considered a scavenging other process by which iron gradually process in the oceanic iron cycle, mechanism, the preceding adsorption moves along the conveyor belt from the especially with regards to colloidal steps and absorption into the mineral dissolved to the particulate phase. iron, but what does it actually involve? matrix of inorganic particles are. These processes gradually move iron from the Therefore, when we speak about Imagine a free iron atom in the ocean. dissolved (left-hand side of the upper dissolved iron being removed from the Under modern seawater conditions ‘conveyor’ belt) to the particulate phase water column by scavenging, we are (temperature, pH and so on), it is (right-hand side). really referring to the combined efect unstable and seeks to rapidly bind of a variety of processes – adsorption, with components of the surrounding As discussed earlier, much of the iron absorption, and colloidal aggregation – seawater. The charged surfaces of in seawater is present in colloids, which transfer iron from the dissolved inorganic (e.g. dust) and organic for example as fragments of mineral pool to the particulate pool. particles (e.g. a phytoplankton cell) phases, oxyhydroxides formed in situ, These processes are generally make them ideal binding partners, or bound to colloidal-sized organic reversible, so transfer can occur from and they compete for iron. Over time, matter. These bump into each other the particulate pool back into the surface-adsorbed iron can become and colloid–colloid interactions lead to dissolved pool (lower conveyor belt). When organic matter is degraded, dust dissolves, surface-bound iron is desorbed or particle clusters disaggregate, seawater is replenished with dissolved iron, and the processes on the top conveyor can start again. As particle-bound iron is removed by gravitational settling through the water column, rates of scavenging and replen- ishment compete to set the residence time of free iron at a given depth. In the future, we are hoping to determine these rates for diferent environments.

Scavenging (upper conveyor belt) results in soluble and colloidal iron being converted to particulate iron, but the reverse process (lower free iron mineral!!! iron colloid colloidal iron bound to (say) a virus conveyor belt) also occurs. The distinctive depth profles of soluble, colloidal, dissolved colloidal aggregate iron"#$%!&'($#')*!"%+$!,&#+"-.)!/"%$#0&%"-!$#!$#0&%"-1 absorbed into particle (inorganic or organic) ! and particulate iron that we observe (e.g. "#$%!&*($#')*!+$!(2#3&-)!$3!,&#+"-.)!/"%$#0&%"-!$#!$#0&%"-1iron adsorbed to surface of particle (inorganic or organic)! Figure 5) are the net result. (Adapted from Honeyman and Santschi, 1989)

refects a more stable biogeochemical habitat. these mechanisms proceed via the intermediate In fact, at these depths lateral transport of water colloidal stage, and the competition between masses is probably a more infuential driver of release from, and scavenging by, sea-foor sedi- the relative abundances of colloidal and soluble ment can drive the relative contribution of colloidal iron. Within water masses of the ocean interior, iron away from the 50 : 50 equilibrium in either the iron cycle is subject predominantly to internal direction, to form the wide bottom of the hourglass. interactions, meaning continuous transformations Of course, there is always an exception to the rule from soluble to colloidal and back again until a and in the framework of the colloidal iron hour- steady-state equilibrium is reached. For much of glass, the exception is iron from hydrothermal the ocean interior, dissolved iron is 50% soluble venting (see the four data points outside the hour- and 50% colloidal, corresponding to the tight neck glass in Figure 4). During our sampling campaign, of the hourglass in Figure 4. we crossed the hydrothermally active Mid-Atlantic But the picture can change dramatically as we Ridge, a huge source of iron to the abyssal ocean. approach the sea foor. When fast deep-sea cur- To put it into perspective, on a global scale hydro- rents interact with sea-bed topography, benthic thermal venting dominates over dust deposition storms can be generated and sediment particles in setting the total water-column iron inventory. can be ejected up into the water column. The However, it is up for debate how far this iron can strength of these storms as well as the amount travel through the ocean, and whether it could ever

and mineralogy of the suspended material prob- get into the sunlit ocean to serve the CO2-fxing ably control whether the sea foor at any given phytoplankton. While evidence is steadily accumu- location acts as a source of iron through sediment lating, we need to ask what protects some of the dissolution, or a sink through scavenging onto hydrothermal iron against particle formation close mineral surfaces. As you may suspect by now, to the vent sites and so prevents it from sinking

36 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No. 2 (publ. 2020) back down to the sea foor. Again, the answer is Further reading colloids – or at least, that is one of the answers. Kunde, K., N.J. Wyatt, D. González-Santana, C. Our iron samples from the water column just above Mahafey, A. Tagliabue and M.C. Lohan (2019) Iron a hydrothermal vent called ‘Snakepit’ are made up distribution in the subtropical North Atlantic: The of almost 100% colloidal iron, and almost no sol- pivotal role of colloidal iron. Global Biogeochemical Cycles. doi: 10.1029/2019GB006326 uble iron (Figure 4). These hydrothermally derived colloids are suspected to be either inorganic Tagliabue, A., A.R. Bowie, W. Philip, K.N. Buck, K.S. Johnson and M.A. Saito (2017) The integral role of nano-particles, in the form of iron sulphides or iron in ocean biogeochemistry. Nature 543 (7643), iron oxyhydroxides, or iron bound to small organic 51–9. doi: org/10.1038/nature21058 molecules. Either way, they are so stable that their Wu, J., E. Boyle, W. Sunda and L.-S. Wen (2001) signature persists over large distances from the Soluble and colloidal Iron in the oligotrophic North hydrothermal source (~ 100 to 1000 km). Atlantic and North Pacifc. Science 293 (5531), 847–9. doi: 10.1126/science.1059251 The future is filtered Bergquist, B.A., J. Wu and E.A. Boyle (2007) Vari- Having identifed the difering behaviour of the ability in oceanic dissolved iron is dominated two fractions of the dissolved iron pool – soluble by the colloidal fraction. Geochimica et Cosmo- chimica Acta 71 (12), 2960–74. doi: 10.1016/j. and colloidal iron – we will now be able to better gca.2007.03.013 quantify the processes that supply and remove Fitzsimmons, J.N., G.G. Carrasco, J. Wu, S. Roshan, iron. Needless to say, this knowledge is of para- M. Hatta, C.I. Measures and three others (2015) mount importance as the fne balance between Partitioning of dissolved iron and iron isotopes iron supply and removal impacts on the success into soluble and colloidal phases along the GA03 of phytoplankton – not only in the North Atlantic GEOTRACES North Atlantic Transect. Deep-Sea but on a global scale: biological CO -fxation and Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 2 116, 130–51. doi: 10.1016/j.dsr2.2014.11.014 its efect on climate are intimately linked to the oceanic iron cycle. This is also why global biogeo- Birchill, A.J., A. Milne, E.M.S. Woodward, C. Harris, A. Annett, D. Rusiecka and six others (2017) Seasonal chemical models which aim to predict the future of iron depletion in temperate shelf seas. Geophysical the iron cycle under global change will be improved Research Letters 44 (3), 8987–96. by inclusion of feld observations of size-parti- doi: 10.1002/2017GL073881 tioned iron distributions. Until not long ago, global Hurst, M.P. and K.W. Bruland (2007) An investiga- biogeochemical models used only one combined tion into the exchange of iron and zinc between term, i.e. the concentration of the dissolved pool, soluble, colloidal and particulate size-fractions but it is now recognised that representing soluble in shelf waters using low-abundance isotopes as tracers in shipboard incubation experiments. and colloidal iron separately may lead to improved Marine Chemistry 103, 211–26. doi: 10.1016/j. representation of, and less uncertainty in, iron marchem.2006.07.001 distributions in the ocean, which are important for predictions of future climate. Acknowledgements The biggest ‘Thank you’ goes to my supervisor Like a conduit, colloidal iron sits at the intersection Maeve Lohan who has been an infnite source of of the bioavailable soluble fraction, which serves ideas, guidance, support, encouragement and phytoplankton growth, and the not-so-bioavailable patience. I would also like to thank her fantastic particulate fraction, which replenishes the dis- trace metal team, Neil Wyatt and David González- solved iron inventory in the ocean. We have seen Santana, who assisted in sample collection and that iron cycles rapidly through diferent versions analysis during RRS James Cook cruise JC150, of itself and thereby changes its reactivity and bio- and Claire Mahafey and Alessandro Tagliabue for mentorship. My fellow Southampton Ph.D students, availability continuously, producing an intricate and David Riley, Ben Chichester and Alexandre Tribolet, highly heterogeneous continuum. This complexity, have been a great help in making this article which we are only beginning to comprehend, is one accessible to a non-iron audience. The research that of the reasons that John Martin’s idea might not be provided the basis for this article was funded through as straightforward as initially thought. Regardless, the Graduate School of the National Oceanography studying the diferent distributions of colloidal and Centre Southampton (GSNOCS) and through the soluble iron promises to further our understanding UK Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) grants NE/N001125/1 and NE/N001079/1. of the oceanic iron cycle. Some of the important questions to target with future research are: How Korinna (Koko) Kunde is a Ph.D student in marine quickly does iron transform from one size fraction biogeochemistry at GSNOCS, researching the cycles to another? How bioavailable are diferent iron of bioactive trace metals in the ocean, particularly species, and how do diferent organisms access iron, zinc and cobalt. Combining chemical them? What is the exact composition of colloidal measurements with in situ bioassays and metallo- iron? And what secrets would be revealed by size proteomics (investigation of proteins that require fractionation of other biologically important trace metal co-factors), she aims to identify the potentially limiting role of trace metals in phytoplankton growth metals, such as zinc, cobalt and manganese? in the subtropical North Atlantic. Koko is submitting Ultimately, the most intriguing question of all is: her Ph.D thesis in late 2020 and is starting a postdoc What will we discover if we continue to flter into at the University of Washington in Seattle in the New even more size fractions? Year. [email protected]

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No. 2 (publ. 2020) 37 A ‘cranky little vessel’: The story of HM steam vessel Lightning Part 6: A digression into Portuguese politics and geology Tony Rice

In the previous episode of the Lightning The world’s longest continuous alliance, Then, as the bonanza was starting to dry saga (Ocean Challenge Vol.23(2)) we left that between England and Portugal ratifed up in mid century, Portugal was hit by a the vessel in early 1828, now carrying the at the Treaty of Windsor in 1386, has been most appalling natural disaster, the Lisbon proud title HMS and under the command of considerable beneft to both countries earthquake of All Saints Day, 1 November of her frst commissioned ofcer, Lieu- over the centuries, but the balance has 1755, which totally changed Portuguese tenant George Evans, involved in a bit of almost always been in favour of England. society. a fracas concerning whose orders took This was particularly so after the signing of The earthquake had its epicentre well out precedence in the strict hierarchy of the the Methuen Treaties of 1703 under which at sea, to the south-west of Lisbon (see late Georgian Navy. In late January Evans Portugal had a guaranteed British market map on p.40), where it disturbed a huge was told by his boss, the then Lord High for its wine on preferential terms compared quantity of mud from the sea foor on Admiral HRH the Duke of Clarence, that with France and Spain, while Britain was the upper part of the continental slope. important dispatches had arrived from able to export textiles and clothing to The resulting millions of tonnes of mud Portugal and that a naval squadron to Portugal. But the wine trade was never suspended in water then fowed down the go to Lisbon was being assembled at sufcient to balance the rising costs of continental slope into the deep ocean. Plymouth. That Portugal was favour of the Portuguese imports from Britain, so the Travelling at tens of kilometres an hour, month, so to speak, would have been no defcit was paid for from the exploitation of this turbidity current fanned out across surprise to Evans because, a month ear- gold from the Portuguese colony in Brazil, the abyssal plain at depths between 4000 lier, the Lightning had carried a servant of which had begun in the 1690s. In the frst and 5000 m, gradually slowing down and a senior Portuguese royal, Dom Miguel de half of the 18th century 25 million pounds’ dropping its sediment load as a thick layer Bragança, from Calais to Deptford while worth of bullion was shipped to Britain, of mud which is still recognisable in cores Miguel himself had travelled in the more much of it through a rich and powerful taken from the sea bed in the region today. luxurious Royal Yacht. Now the Lightning English merchant class, particularly in was to help man the Lisbon squadron Lisbon and Oporto. All this, of course, was completely by transporting men from HMS Ramilles, unknown to the people of Portugal, who During the same period, Brazilian gold anchored of the Kent coast, down to had much more pressing matters to deal also fnanced a golden age for Portugal, Plymouth, where he would receive further with. Lisbon itself was hit by a series of or at least for its ruling groups, the royal orders. Having delivered the men, Evans shocks which killed over thirty thousand family, the Braganças, the nobility and the insisted on staying to help tow the Lisbon people and virtually destroyed the city. Church. The result was a great fowering squadron out to sea against contrary Fortunately for Portugal, the King’s Chief of Portuguese art and culture unseen since winds, and against the direct orders of the Minister (appointed by José I when he had the early 16th century. But the wealth and C in C Plymouth to return to Portsmouth acceded to the throne in 1750), though power reached only the few, for the vast immediately. This in turn led to a shortfall ruthless and self-serving, was brilliant and majority of the Portuguese population lived of fuel and a row with the Plymouth innovative. Before his appointment, the as peasants in almost feudal conditions. Dockyard Commissioner about the supply of coal. Eventually, Evans’ behaviour was Figure 1 Contemporary hand-coloured copper engraving of the devastation caused by rewarded with promotion while his Plym- the Lisbon earthquake on the shipping in the Tagus and on the city beyond. Note the 16th outh adversaries were both replaced. century Belém Tower (to the left of the sinking ship), one of the few buildings in central Lisbon to survive the earthquake (see also Figure 3). (Wikimedia Commons) So the question is, why was Evans so certain that the departure of the Lisbon squadron was so urgent? The short answer is that Evans knew that both his boss, the Lord High Admiral and, perhaps even more signifcantly, Britain’s brand new Prime Minister the Duke of Welling- ton, were hell bent on getting Dom Miguel back to Lisbon where, they hoped, he could be controlled by Britain. The Lisbon squadron was a key part of this strategy, but to understand why, we have to delve a little into Portuguese history and, tan- gentially, into the infuence of earthquakes on the ocean. But it will take two of these episodes to tell the story adequately; this is the frst.

38 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020) Marquis of Pombal (Figure 2) had served a Figure 2 Sebastião José de long diplomatic apprenticeship in Vienna Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquis and London and had strong views on how of Pombal (1699–1782) Portuguese society needed to change. (Painter unknown; The more or less clean slate provided by Wikimedia Commons) the earthquake gave him the ideal opportunity to instigate his ideas.

After dealing with the immediate problem of the thousands of dead and injured, and the lawlessness and looting. Pombal’s frst and most pressing task was rebuilding Lisbon, ultimately resulting in the city we see today. When Pombal fell from power on the death of King José in 1777 the reconstruction was still in its early stages and large numbers of peasants were still living in squalid shanties distributed around the city. But he had made much greater, though less tangible, changes to Portuguese society. Some of his reforms, such as abolishing slavery within Portugal (though not in the colonies) and freeing Jews from Church persecution, look quite liberal at a distance, but were rather more teen years. Moves for Brazilian separation British military authority was established to do with economic pragmatism than from Portugal had already begun, partly over the seriously impoverished country. with humanity. Other policies were much inspired by the North American independ- During the next ten years, opposition to more obviously based on his despotism, ence movement, and were strengthened the British occupation became linked to for Pombal was determined to reduce the by the fight of the court, particularly a growing liberal revolutionary movement power of the nobility, the Church – and when, in 1810, the old Methuen Treaty was wishing, amongst other things, to restore Britain. He attacked all three targets ruth- superseded by a new Anglo-Portuguese the monarchy along with a parliamentary lessly and before his departure from ofce Treaty giving British traders direct access government and re-establish the Brazillian he had fragmented the nobility, greatly to Brazil. Brazilian independence even- trade. The revolution began in 1820 and limited the power of the Church, and had tually came in 1822, the year before the was to last in one form or another for more severely reduced the British domination of Lightning was launched. than 30 years; essentially the confict was Portuguese trade, encouraging home- between two polarised factions – the revo- In the meantime, back in Portugal, the grown industrialisation, particularly in lutionary radical one proposing a constitu- so-called Peninsula Wars included a series textiles, and bringing the wine trade under tional monarchy with rather liberal values of attempts by Napoleon to take posses- Portuguese control, especially his own! owing a good deal to the principles behind sion of the country which were repulsed the American and French revolutions, and Many of these ‘reforms’ had been by British forces eventually supported by the opposite, absolutist faction backed achieved with merciless determination Portuguese conscripts. The French were by Britain, essentially wishing to restrict and often appalling violence, so that by fnally driven out of Portugal in 1811 by a power to the monarchy and a small elite. the time José died, Pombal had many force commanded by Sir Arthur Welles- The controversy even split the royal family enemies, not least the very religious ley, the future Duke of Wellington, and a and became extremely messy. Queen Maria I who succeeded her father in 1777. There was no place for Pombal in the new regime and he fell from grace, Figure 3 The Belém Tower on the as did many of his ideas. Nevertheless, northern bank of the River although the Church and the aristocracy Tagus, instigated by King regained some of their lost powers under João II to defend Lisbon the devout Maria, the fnal two decades of from enemy ships, and the 18th century in Portugal were charac- completed in 1514. terised by continuity of what Pombal had Following the Lisbon started so that, by the end of the century, earthquake, the Marquis the indigenous trading class had grown to of Pombal used the Tower some 80 000. However, despite Pombal’s to control the movement wishes, the British infuence was still of ships along the Tagus and so prevent looters strong, particularly in milking the increas- carrying away goods ingly lucrative Brazilian empire, a situation from the ruined city. not unnoticed by Napoleon Bonaparte!

When Napoleon’s army marched into Por- tugal from Spain in 1807 the royal family and many members of the court were (Photo: Alvesgaspar / CC evacuated by the British navy and taken to BY-SA; https://creative- commons.org/licenses/ Brazil, where they were to remain for four- by-sa/3.0)

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020) 39 Maria I had died in exile in Brazil in1816, Further reading to be succeeded by her son, João VI. In Birmingham, D. (1993) A concise history 1821 João VI returned to Lisbon, leaving of Portugal. Cambridge University Press, the afairs of Brazil to his son, Pedro, who 209pp. became Emperor as Pedro I when Brazil Rice, A.L. (1997) The Lisbon earthquake of became independent in 1822. But when 1755 and the development of oceanog- João died in 1826 Pedro pushed the claim raphy. Pp.111–24 in Saldanha, L. and P. of his own 7 year-old daughter Maria to the Ré (Eds) One Hundred Years of Portu- Portuguese throne, supported by the radi- guese Oceanography. In the footsteps of cals, while Maria’s uncle, Pedro’s younger King Carlos de Bragança, Publicações brother Miguel (our very own Infante Dom Alvulsas, 2nd series, No. 2, Lisbon. Miguel; Figure 4), and Maria’s grand- Thomson, J. and P.P.E. Weaver (1994) An mother, João’s widow the Dowager Queen AMS radiocarbon method to determine Carlota, claimed the throne adopting the the emplacement time of recent deep- absolutist stance. But an already compli- sea turbidites. Sedimentary Geology. cated situation was to get even more so, 89,1–7. as we will discover in the next episode. Figure 4 Tony Rice Dom Miguel da Bragança, Alton, Hants painted by Johann Ender in [email protected] 1827 when Miguel was in exile in Vienna, shortly before his visit to England. (Wikimedia Commons)

Earthquakes and tsunamis: the Lisbon earthquake and Britain

Earthquakes are caused when the Epicentre of the 1755 Earth’s crust suddenly ruptures and earthquake (star) and the opposing sides move relative to calculated travel times (in one another along a fault. Part of the hours) for the resulting energy released radiates out from the tsunami waves: red within # focus in the form of seismic waves, of 2 hours, palest orange !# which seismologists recognise four within 5 hours categories: P (compressional) and S (National Geophysical Data # (shear) waves, which travel through Center (NGDC) NOAA) the body of the Earth, and the often more destructive Raleigh and Love # waves (named for their discoverers) which travel along the surface of the solid Earth. All of these waves travel # rapidly, up to several kilometres per second, the fastest being the P waves which are therefore the frst ones to arrive at seismographs. !" !" In addition, earthquakes beneath the $" sea, such as the Lisbon one, may generate tidal waves, or tsunamis, that !# can also travel at several hundreds of !# kilometres an hour. Over deep water, !# !# where they travel fastest, tsunamis have itself must have occurred just a couple felt over a very wide area around the a very long wavelength and small ampli- of minutes before this, also triggering the Atlantic and even into the Mediterra- tude, but as they encounter shallow tsunami and turbidity currents fowing nean. A Wikipedia article at https:// water and slow down, the wavelength north into the Tagus Abyssal Plain and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1755_Lisbon_ decreases and the amplitude increases south into the Horseshoe Abyssal Plain. earthquake# includes recent re-evalu- dramatically, potentially causing exten- The tsunami arrived at Lisbon about 40 ations of the efects of the earthquake sive coastal damage. minutes after the initial shocks, causing and the results of an attempt to model major waves in the River Tagus and the extent of the tsunami over the frst The epicentre of the Lisbon earth- adding to the general mayhem. 20 hours or so. This suggests that quake is estimated to have been at it reached as far north as southern about 36º N, 11º W, some 300 km to the The earthquake afected not only Lisbon, Greenland and large parts of the eastern south-west of Lisbon. Since the frst of but also many other localities in Portugal coasts of North and South America three major shocks to hit Lisbon struck and neighbouring countries, and the within 8–10 hours. at 9.40 a.m. local time, the earthquake efects, particularly of the tsunami, were

40 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020) The efects in Britain were partic- erratically sloshed about in ponds and the space of ten minutes, till fve and ularly well reported. Following the lakes ranging from southern England a half hours after it began.’ Borlase earthquake, the Royal Society invited to Lake Windermere, Loch Lomond also reported similar strange events its Fellows to send in accounts of (see above) and Loch Ness. One of in other localities in the Mount’s Bay any unusual phenomena noticed the most dramatic reports was from area, but, although he was clearly in their local areas, in both Britain Philip Carteret Webb, owner of the convinced that they were linked in and abroad, that might be asso- Busbridge estate near Godalming in some way with the Lisbon earth- ciated with it. The result was a Surrey, told to him by his gardeners quake, he could not believe that series of more than twenty letters who were working at the time beside a ‘... a shock, so far of the coast of from various parts of the British rectangular ‘canal’ lake in his grounds, Spain, could be so immense as to Isles published in the Philosophical orientated roughly east–west and propagate so violent a motion of the Transactions of the Royal Society in some 700 feet long by 58 feet wide. water quite home to the shores of 1775 and 1776 (available at https:// Between 10.00 and 11.00 in the morn- Britain in less than fve hours’. Actu- babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva. ing on that fateful Saturday the gar- ally, the efect was even faster than x001301614&view=1up&seq=401). deners were alarmed to see that the Borlase thought. At a longitude of They all describe disturbances in water on one side of the long canal c. 5.5ºW, the local time at St Michael’s water bodies ranging from relatively suddenly, and very noisily, ‘raised Mount is about 14 minutes ahead of small artifcial ponds to large natural itself in a heap or ridge, extending that at Lisbon and 22 minutes ahead lakes and the sea, but otherwise fall lengthwise about thirty yards ... and of the earthquake’s epicentre. So into two broad classes depending fowed about eight feet over the grass if Borlase’s ‘about two o’clock’ is on the local time they are reported walk on that side of the canal’. The correct, the tsunami had taken rather to have happened. This was more water having returned to the canal less than 4.5 hours to get there, in than a century before the establish- a few seconds later, the gardeners agreement with the model referred to ment of the universal time zones with were amazed to see the process earlier (see map). which we are familiar today. Conse- repeated, this time on the other side Rather surprisingly, Borlase makes quently, all the times quoted were of the canal. Having no knowledge of no mention of even more dramatic ‘real’ local times, based on the local the earthquake, they must have been events at Lamona Cove, just a few noon determined when the Sun, in terrifed. its apparent passage across the sky, miles away across the bay from St was due south and at its zenith. As The other letters published in Phil. Michael’s Mount. Here, contempo- a result, moving from east to west, Trans. are quite diferent. They all rary observers claimed that the sea the time got (and still gets) later by 4 refer to strange movements of the sea rushed in ‘with such impetuosity that minutes for each degree of longitude. and all took place in the afternoon, large rounded blocks of granite from With a longitude of c. 9 degrees west between about 2 p.m. and 6 or 7 in below low water mark were swept of Greenwich, Lisbon therefore has the evening. Clearly, these all refer along like pebbles, and many of them the same local time as south-west to efects of the tsunami. One of the deposited far beyond high water Ireland, but is 36 minutes behind most graphic is that of the antiquarian, mark’. Greenwich, about 32 minutes behind geologist and natural historian William Further reading Portsmouth and 20 minutes behind Borlase, rector of Ludgvan, Cornwall Plymouth. from 1722 to his death in 1772. Bor- Borlase, W. (1758) The Natural History lase was an FRS and his observations of Cornwall. Oxford, One group of letters describe events were published in Phil. Trans. along Edmonds, R. (1846) An account of an happening in the mid to late morn- with those of his fellow correspon- extraordinary movement of the sea in ing, ranging from about 9.30 a.m. dents. But he also included a very Cornwall, in July 1843, with notices to ‘just before noon’. The reported similar version in his History of Corn- of similar movements in previous timing of the rapid rise and fall of wall published in 1758 from which years, and also of earthquakes water in Loch Lomond every fve the following is taken: ‘On the 1st that have occurred in Cornwall. minutes or so between 9.30 a.m. November, 1755, about two o’clock Br. Assoc. Advancement Sci. 38, and 10.15 a.m. must be an error in the afternoon ... the sea, about 112–21. because, with a longitude of 4º 34'W, half an hour after ebb, was observed, Haslett, S.K. (2012) Clues to catastro- the local time at Loch Lomond at the pier of St Michael’s Mount, to phe. Discovering evidence for tsu- would already have been almost 10 rise suddenly and then to retire. This namis around Britain’s coast. Ocean o’clock by the time the frst shock attracted the attention of the specta- Challenge 19, 25–30. hit in Lisbon. But otherwise, they all tors, and to their great amazement, ten seem consistent with, and explicable minutes after, the sea rose nearly six Tony Rice by, the fast-moving P, S, Raleigh feet, coming in from the South-East With grateful thanks to Bob Whitmarsh and Love waves mentioned above. extremely rapid; it then ebbed away for improving this biologist’s attempt Several of the accounts describe with the same rapidity to the West- to address some complex geophysics. quite remarkable events, from ships ward for about ten minutes, till it was being suddenly rocked violently in near six feet lower than before; it then otherwise calm waters in Portsmouth returned again, and fell again in the harbour at about 10.35 a.m. and in same space of time, and continued the the Thames at Rotherhithe somewhat agitation, alternately rising and falling, later, to large volumes of water being each retreat and advance nearly of

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020) 41 Book Reviews

Citizen science comes of age data visualisation and how to evaluate a and outputs. This section clearly outlines project. how citizen science can be done whilst Handbook of citizen science in ecology also acting as a platform to generate ideas Each citizen science project is unique. and conservation edited by Christopher and projects. Such projects have an enormous range of Lepcyzk, Owen Boyle and Timothy Vargo settings, and many questions to answer, As science is continually evolving, I sus- (2020) University of California Press, and it is unfeasible for the authors to set pect that the resources and tools that I 336pp. £33 (paperback, ISBN: 978-0520- out, step-by-step, how to design and have referenced throughout this review will 28479-1), £70 (hard cover, ISBN: 978-052- conduct a specifc project. Instead, each soon be joined by newer, more advanced 028477-7), £33 (ebook, ISBN: 978-0520- chapter contains crucial information that tools. However, just like the majority of the 96047-3). is accompanied by a range of case stud- Handbook’s contents, they are essential ies and up-to-date references – encour- to any citizen science project and will The tide is turning for citizen science as its aging further investigation by the reader. continue to be integral to establishing the tremendous value in advancing research Where this book shines, is in the authors’ necessary framework for projects long into and instigating community action are use of resource tables and web-links as the future. This is a superb book that has being realised as it improves environ- well as pertinent considerations given in introduced me to new concepts and con- mental understanding and contributes to concise ‘steps’ and scannable guidelines, siderations that I am certain will aid others some of the most important studies of our checklists and schematics. For example, with their current and future projects. time. As humans continue to put strain Chapter 10 provides a three-page table of and stress on the environment, citizen tools for data management, analysis and Thomas Dallison science is becoming ever more important. visualisation, followed by a description of Head of Science However, with increasing need comes a each data-handling tool, and a URL for Coral Cay Conservation greater requirement for good planning and the website where it can be found. With efective evaluation processes, and this the rigour of project planning, equipping is where this Handbook comes in. It is an readers with such resources provides a excellent multi-authored book that actively wealth of information, placing them in promotes the use of citizen science in a the best position to develop an impactful broad range of settings, and discusses project. its fundamental aspects and the difering approaches that can be taken. Split into The majority of project examples are three digestible parts, the Handbook is US-based and are in terrestrial settings. full of detailed chapters, case studies and As someone active within the marine useful resources that would not go amiss sector, this did not trouble me, nor did it on the bookshelves of those with extensive make feel excluded from the book. The experience, as well as those new to citizen cases are discussed within the context of science. the chapter and cover basic aspects of citizen science projects such as training In Part I, the authors provide a thorough and citizen scientist recruitment; how- introduction ofering a well rounded ever, the authors also present emerging description of citizen science with a broad considerations such as the legalities of range of examples of where and how data and barriers to participation by those citizen scientists are enormously important. from minority backgrounds and LGBTQ+ Describing the evolving nature of citizen individuals. scientists, the authors go back to the likes of Carl Linnaeus building some of the The book concludes with a six-chapter most valuable collections of specimens in section that provides examples of the A very personal exploration ecology and conservation, still used today. information provided in Part II in the form of the atmosphere Ensuring the reader has a solid under- of extensive case studies. The authors standing of the history of citizen science, of each chapter discuss example cases, 18 miles: The epic drama of the atmos- the frst part of the book is rounded of challenges and summaries from a range phere and its weather by Christopher with a discussion of current approaches of projects that includes using citizen Dewdney (2019) Bloomsbury Sigma, 272pp. across fve project models, laying a strong science as an educational tool in schools £19.99 (hard cover, ISBN: 978-1472-96989- foundation for the following, more intricate, helping indigenous communities in Bra- 7), £11.89 (EPUB/MOBI ebook, ISBN: 978- sections of the book. zilian Amazonia to monitor biodiversity. 1472-96992-7). Each chapter and case study is unique Part II, ‘Planning and Implementation and delivers a well rounded account of The ‘18 miles’ of the title is the depth of the of Citizen Science Projects’, presents a the respective project straight from the atmosphere that contains 99% of its mass, detailed account of the crucial consider- authors’ experiences. It is an important a fact that provides the context for this ations to be borne in mind when instigating section that facilitates the contextualisa- book. For a geologist, this 18 miles is a thin a citizen science project. As the core of tion of broader topics covered whilst fur- sliver of the planet Earth, while to a meteo- the book, the chapters range from project ther cementing the critical point that ‘one rologist it is a great thickness – encom- planning and participant recruitment to size does not ft all’, with each project’s passing everything we think of as weather training, high-quality data collection, own cohort of participants, challenges, and climate. For the author, award-winning

42 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020) Canadian poet Christopher Dewdney, it is a as a reservoir of microbial life during palimpsest for exploring his experience and Snowball Earth, with a cameo appearance concept of the natural world from the Earth’s in the fnal section which takes a rapid tour core to outer space, from before the begin- from the Earth’s core outwards. In contrast ning of life into the greenhouse future. to the entertaining and mostly factual tour of the atmosphere itself, this second half The author takes us through time and is less satisfying for an Earth scientist with space in a very individual way, with each environmental and historical bents. Some chapter combining some personal experi- of the information about ice ages, for ences of the Earth system with his under- example, is incorrect, with confusion over standing of science, as well as its historical what ice cover matched which glaciations, development. This approach led to the particularly glaringly so for England. Few book being the winner of the Science Writ- ecologists would recognise an assertion ers and Communicators of Canada General that springs are getting later and there Audience award in 2019; the book is a very are some very dubious and idiosyncratic easy but elegant read. It will help the reader interpretations of the infuence of weather to know that the author is a poet concerned on history. The second half is also less about the natural world and its geologic satisfying because the author lost his way past, rather than a practising scientist, as through departing from a clear focus on the this perspective determines the feeling and atmospheric structure and weather, and his style of the writing. own experiences, which made the frst half About half of the book relates directly to of the book such a pleasure to read. The book weaves its narrative around spe- the atmosphere in some way, from the Nevertheless, if you were drawn into cli- cifc examples of ‘science fctions’. It begins origin of the layers of the atmosphere to mate-related sciences through a fascina- by explaining the history and principles of the components of weather: clouds, rain, tion with the weather, you will enjoy the peer review and its importance in the formal storms and hurricanes. The author had the mix of fact and personal illumination con- scientifc process, then moves swiftly on distinction of being under Hurricane Katrina tained in 18 Miles. It certainly entertained to highlighting its shortcomings. The focus both as it started as a tropical storm in and distracted me from the cares of the then remains on the negative as the four the Bahamas and when it ended life as an second quarter of 2020! specifc pitfalls given in the subtitle are extra-tropical storm in Ontario, giving him evidenced and analysed in sequence. The an unusual insight into hurricanes as ex- Grant Bigg common threads which emerge in these treme events. These chapters were some University of Shefeld sections draw the reader through, and they of the best and most entertaining in the are satisfyingly tied together in the over- book. Anyone who observes the weather arching broader critique of the institutional will immediately recognise the drama the Lies, damned lies ... and failings which have supported the prolifer- author relates here. scientific publications? ation of these bad practices. Finally, there The second half of the book takes the is the compulsory optimistic forward look, reader on a more varied route through Science fctions: Exposing fraud, bias, where Ritchie triumphs in avoiding the pitfall sometimes mythological aspects of the negligence and hype in science by Stuart of presenting an oversimplifed solution to cardinal winds and seasons, a somewhat Ritchie (2020) Penguin, The Bodley Head, the ‘crisis’ his book has exposed, in all its curiously placed discussion of weather 368pp. £18.99 (hard cover, ISBN: 978-1847- complexities. forecasting, and perceptions of climate 92565-7), £9.99 (paperback, ISBN: 978- As an ocean scientist, I initially hesitated change from ‘Snowball Earth’ to extreme 1473-56425-1); £13 (audio download, ISBN: to pick up this book because of my own weather and greenhouse warming. The 978-1473-58407-5). bias: I expected it not to be very rele- ocean gets a minor mention here, mostly The title and subtitle of this book do not do vant to the oceanographic community. justice to its scope. It presents a thorough I thought that the author’s perspective as and thoughtful discussion of the shortcom- a psychologist – a feld shaken by several ings of the practice of science in today’s high-profle ‘science fctions’ – would lead institutions. Science Fictions presents many to the presentation of that feld’s problems very interesting, if disturbing, recent exam- as directly transferable to all of science, ples of fraud (deliberate lies), (un-declared) without acknowledging the diferences in bias, negligence (accidental lies) and hype standard methodologies between felds. (overselling impact) in the peer-reviewed My worry was unfounded. Ritchie is up front scientifc literature. The examples demon- about his perspective, throughout referring strate how elements of the mainstream to psychology examples as being about ‘my scientifc system are letting both scientists feld’. The book is dominated by examples and society down. But the real focus is from psychology and medicine, but on on the ‘why’: Why is there so much of this balance care is taken not to over-generalise. bad scientifc practice? Richie builds an By focussing on what leads to ‘p-hacking’ engaging, informed, well referenced and (a range of shady statistical practices to persuasive argument for how these uncom- dress up unsignifcant results as signif- fortable examples are the products of a cant) and ‘the replication crisis’ (the growing broken reward system. He calls on readers – number of unsuccessful, often large-scale scientist and non-scientist alike – to demand and inter-laboratory, eforts to reproduce better. previously published results), Ritchie con-

Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020) 43 vinces even the sceptical reader of its broad neglected. The indefatigable Henry importance beyond any specifc or worst- Nottidge Moseley, the ‘naturalists’ natu- case example. There is even one example ralist’ of the team, features prominently, from ocean science. equally at home botanising on land, wading over coral reefs or examining a dredge Where technical understanding is needed to haul (while pursuing a strong sideline in support an example, it is presented clearly ethnography). and concisely. Enough detail and background are given to follow the argument, The bulk of the work (Chapters 4–11) fol- without superfuous detail that distracts lows the time-spanning pattern described from the key messages. earlier. To give some idea of the range of subjects covered, here are three of the For sometimes superfuous information, locations visited by Challenger’s scien- there are the end notes. These are both tists that are described in the text, where fabulous and frustrating. Without fipping they introduce discussions of the topics to and through the (almost 100-page long) (shown in brackets) currently employed notes section at the end of the book, it’s to interpret the earlier fndings at these impossible to know what type of note sites: St Paul’s Rocks in the equatorial you will fnd. There are simple references, Atlantic (plate tectonics); Tristan da Cunha insightfully annotated references, additional (evolutionary history of penguins); the relevant examples, and interesting caveats sub-Antarctic Kerguelen Islands (plant and asides. Some of these are more than p.49 of Wyville Thomson’s The Depths of geography). An apparent disciplinary bias worth the page-fipping. They are among the Sea (1873), is certainly appropriate – it in favour of the life sciences does no more the best examples of the dry humour and expressed his anticipation of the zoological than refect the expedition’s own emphasis conversational tone of the narrative, which treasures that would be found in Challen- on natural history, as shown by the choice makes the book an easy read despite its ger’s deep-sea dredges and trawls. of scientifc staf and the published results serious subject matter. of the voyage. This was almost inevitable The author, an emeritus Professor of Earth at the time; natural history was already an I will be recommending Science Fictions to Sciences at Scripps, is a Canadian now established feld of study with a major focus scientist and non-scientist friends alike. As living in Edinburgh, where the expedition’s on the marine biota, whereas understand- we hear more about ‘following the science’ voluminous fndings were organised, edited ing of the physics and chemistry of the in policy and the media, it’s an important and published for dissemination throughout ocean was still fragmentary and lacking a and timely reminder of how science works, the scientifc world, mostly under the super- theoretical structure. This is demonstrated and why it should work better. For those so vision of John Murray, another Canadian by the delayed fruition of the signifcant but inclined, there is also an audiobook version by birth. Macdougall’s latest book does not relatively unglamorous hydrographic data – read by the author. pretend to ofer a chronological account of collected during the voyage, whose full the voyage; instead he has chosen a series interpretation had to wait another ffty years. Carolyn Graves of topics investigated by Challenger’s scien- Centre for Environment Fisheries The fnal chapter explores the Challenger tists and describes them from the viewpoint and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) legacy. Macdougall asks why this expedi- of the participants. Woven between these tion became so infuential, and concludes accounts are examples illustrating related that such enduring fame is the result of areas of marine research that are currently successfully meeting ambitious goals Challenger in perspective active. The contrasts revealed emphasise before an expectant public. Behind that the limited capabilities of the equipment Endless novelties of extraordinary success lay careful planning and prepara- available on board HMS Challenger and the interest: The voyage of H.M.S. Challenger tion, not least in the selection of talented enormous advances in methodology since and the birth of modern oceanography individuals to carry out the programme, and her day. by Doug Macdougall (2019) Yale University the attention they paid to communicating Press, 288pp, £20.00 (hard cover, ISBN: Importantly, Macdougall does not overlook with both lay and scientifc readers there- 978-0300-23205-9). (Also available for £17 the broader historical context of the expe- after in a steady stream of publications, from Tantor Media Inc. on audio CD, MP3 or dition; he deals not only with its origins, but ranging from Thomson’s popular journalism download, read by Sean Runnette.) also with its place in the world of Victorian for Good Words, written during the voyage, science, setting the work of Challenger’s to Murray’s completion of the massive task Two years from now we will be marking- scientists within the culture of curiosity and of publishing the ffty-volume Report over the 150th anniversary of HMS Challen- collecting that fostered the museum boom a period of almost twenty years. As Sir ger’s departure from Portsmouth at the of the period. Maurice Yonge remarked in his opening beginning of her three-and-a-half-year address to the Second International Con- voyage of exploration. So it is ftting The frst three chapters serve to introduce gress on the History of Oceanography, held that this accurate and well written book, the key elements of the expedition: the in Edinburgh to celebrate the expedition’s only the third since 1880 to focus on the vessel, her reft for a voyage of research centenary: ‘Looking back, it is surprising Challenger expedition and its discoveries, and her roles as a sampling platform, and how little seems to have gone wrong with should appear at this time. Moreover, it the six members of the scientifc staf, the Challenger and how very much was sets out to span the intervening decades three of whom had no previous sea-going successfully accomplished.’ by showing that the Challenger investi- experience. The second chapter includes gations lay close to the roots of all the an interesting survey of their social and John Phillips marine sciences that have developed up to educational backgrounds, but the essential Milton Keynes the present day. The title, borrowed from contribution of the naval personnel is rather

44 Ocean Challenge, Vol. 24, No.2 (publ. 2020)