Stephane Blain, principal investigator, opened the meeting and recapitulated the main objectives of the four work packages. Once more, he pointed out the unique possibilities that the project has unfolded in order to further develop technologies and work on specific SOCLIM-related scientific aspects. Both are important components for improving our knowledge about the Southern Ocean.

The two days were dedicated to presentations highlighting ongoing research and current outreach activities. The initial objectives of the project have been dealt with by addressing various spatial and temporal scales, parameters and mechanisms, by presenting the diverse data collected either autonomously and/or aboard the ship during the SOCLIM cruise, by analysing plankton communities and studying topics such as current patterns, variability and trends and by communicating and reaching out.

In an interactive manner, first results were discussed and feedback was proposed. The team also addressed questions that are still open and attempted preliminary interpretations. Based on these exchanges, a road map was set up for the upcoming year.

Four SOCLIM team members, Stephane Blain, Ingrid Obernosterer, Olivier Crispi and Xavier Morin, are currently onboard the vessel Marion Dufresne and have just recovered the RAS. The samples and the in-situ data collected by this mooring over spring and summer will be brought back to the lab for analysis and interpretation. They will reveal the seasonal dynamics of the biogeochemical properties in the surface layer of this special oceanic system.

Workshops, symposiums, seminars, exhibitions, documentary film screenings and public awareness events were held in venues such as the Oceanographic Museum, the Monaco Yacht Club, the International Hydrographic Organization’s head office and Stars’N’Bars. Within this context, the co-principal investigator of the SOCLIM project Hervé Claustre, his collaborator Jean-Pierre Gattuso and the “mon ocean & moi” team proposed several events to reach out to the wider public:

• 1/ In a conference-style and focusing on the Southern Ocean, Hervé Claustre talked about ongoing research and robotic observations of the ocean in the context of climate change.
  
  
• 2/ Jean-Pierre Gattuso spoke about climate change and the oceans and particularly addressed in his oral presentation possible consequences and solutions.
  
  
• 3/ The “mon ocean & moi” team proposed a complementary communication and hands-on activities centered on ocean observation by profiling floats and ocean acidification.
  

The cruise described a latitudinal transect from the warm subtropical waters to the cold Antarctic waters, providing the opportunity to observe an important diversity of size and shapes. Species are enumerated, identified, and images are acquired before numerous morphometric measurements are performed on the micrographs. The biovolume of plankton communities can be derived from these measurements combined with shape-specific equations....

This classical, time-consuming technique remains the only one able to provide plankton biovolume with a sufficient taxonomic resolution. It is then compared to the optical signal reported by modern optical tools that recorded the water optical signature during the SOCLIM cruise. Understanding the optical signatures of different plankton communities will be of great interest in order to interpret the numerous optical data reported by the floats deployed in the Southern Ocean.

credit photo, Mathieu Rembauville

On October 6, 2016, the vessel Marion Dufresne left the coast of La Reunion Island and head towards the Kerguelen Archipelago. About a month, 15 hydrocast stations, 14 deployments of moorings and profiling floats, and 11 380 kilometers later, the SOCLIM team came back to La Reunion where the Marion Dufresne was demobilized. Now will come the time of samples and data analysis...

Relive the SOCLIM cruise through the journal developed by Universcience

All the videos may also be found on our SOCLIM Vimeo channel

credit photo, Julien Boulanger / Universcience - Fondation BNP Paribas - IPEV

and though the weather conditions were not favorable, more than 1000 people came to visit the marine station in Villefranche-sur-mer.
This year, the team presented the SOCLIM project on a booth to a wider public and centered its presentations on the topic of the "Island effect" and the ongoing mission. Pictures of the departure of the R/V Marion Dufresne and videos such as the first series of the logbook “En direct de l’océan Austral” (online report @science actualités.fr) took the visitors aboard. Interested about the Austral Ocean as well as various aspects of the project, they could find out more thanks to complementary projections, explications and with hands-on activities.

credit photo, soclim

Mission objective: to better understand the role of the ocean in a changing climate.

Discover the mission on the BNP-Paribas Foundation website

It was a long process for the team of engineers from the Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche (Edouard Leymarie, Antoine Poteau and Christophe Penkerc’h) to prepare the 8 floats up to their departure from Villefranche via Brest on their way to La Réunion. The preparation started a year ago, when NKE, the manufacturer, delivered the floats. First we tested the floats in the deep pool of Ifremer (Brest) in order to check the navigation. Then, we shipped them to the Villefranche Lab for additional tests and preparation.

credit photo, soclim

The SOCLIM cruise scheduled in October 2016 has kept the team very busy over the past few months…Preparing for the cruise has involved not only ordering equipment and supplies, but also testing sensors to be deployed in the field, and packing and shipping all necessary gear. The crates have been picked up in the three labs participating to the cruise in mid-June and shipped to IPEV (Brest).
From there they will travel by sea to La Reunion Island and delivered to R/V Marion Dufresne in October.

credit photo, soclim

Members of the SOCLIM team presented their work within the project to the international audience and exchanged on methods and first findings with specialists in the respective fields.

The meeting was largely dedicated to the preparation of the next SOCLIM cruise that will take place in October 2016 on-board R/V Marion Dufresne.

credit photo, Henry Bittig

The team of the Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche-sur-mer would like to acquire “Hi-tech” profiling floats that would be able to drift under the ice and allow to share the measurements and maybe new discoveries with you and a larger public.

About 1200 people including school children and their teachers visited the stands on which the team proposed thematic posters, interactive web-based presentations and hands-on experiments.