The Southern Ocean is one of the most rapidly changing environments on Earth. Key questions for understanding the consequences of change in the region include: (i) Will southward movement of the ocean fronts, as well as the extent of winter sea ice, give rise to a contraction in the northern range of polar species such as Antarctic krill? (ii) How will productivity of the region change as a result of changing attributes of physical habitats in areas of iron supply? (iii) What factors might give rise to a shift from a krill-based food web to a food web based on copepods and fish? These questions are central to management of fisheries and conservation in the region. Important to managers is the question on how to most efficiently monitor the ecosystem to determine whether such changes are arising or may arise in the near future. This last question is central to developing biological capability within the Southern Ocean Observing System.
MEDIA PUBLICATION
Resolving the role of mesopelagics in Southern Ocean food webs
The Southern Ocean is rapidly changing, with future environmental changes likely to have wide-reaching consequences for the structure and function of marine ecosystems (Constable et al. 2014). In addition, the coming decades are likely to see expansion of krill fisheries, and potentially the development of other new fisheries (Kock et al. 2007). Along with well-designed observation programs, ecosystem models are the central means by which we can gain insight into what these changes will mean for the structure and function of Southern Ocean ecosystems, providing the necessary information to inform management decisions into the future.
Despite initiatives to promote interdisciplinary research, early-career academics continue to perceive professional risks to working at the interface between traditional disciplines. Unexpectedly, the inherent practical challenges of interdisciplinary scholarship, such as new methodologies and lexicons, are not the chief source of the perceived risk. The perception of risk is pervasive across disciplines, and it persists despite efforts to support career development for individuals with common interests [Mitchell and Weiler, 2011]. Suggestions that interdisciplinary work can go unrewarded in academia [Clark et al., 2011] foster a concern that targeting interdisciplinary questions, such as those presented by climate change, will pose problems for acquiring and succeeding in a tenure-track position. If selfpreservation limits the questions posed by early-career academics, a perceived career risk is as damaging as a real one to new transdisciplinary initiatives. Thus, institutions should address the source of this perception whether real or specious.
