Plankton

Follow a group of NIWA scientists investigating various aspects of plankton which are the base of the Antarctic oceans food web.

Long-term protection of Otago’s coastal habitats took a step closer to reality after more than 100 marine Significant Ecological Areas (SEA) were identified as part of a research project led by NIWA.

As New Zealanders search for the summer sun, 38 researchers and crew will board RV Tangaroa tomorrow for a six-week science voyage deep into the waters of Antarctica.

Studying the mesopelagic in the Ross sea

It is interesting to watch all of the pieces of our science story come together with each day’s water sampling and our long term experiments.

NIWA’s flagship research vessel Tangaroa leaves soon on a six-week voyage to Antarctica, making it one of the few full scientific expeditions to the continent since the global outbreak of COVID-19.

After travelling almost 12,000km in the past six weeks, a group of scientists returns to Wellington at the weekend with new knowledge about life in the Ross Sea of Antarctica.

3 February 2019. By Voyage Leader Dr Richard O'Driscoll.

23 January 2019. By Voyage Leader Dr Richard O'Driscoll.

Phytoplankton: tiny cells with a big job

During the voyage, we collected planktonic protist cells for which DNA will be sequenced for taxonomic identification, but also to understand their physiology through the daily diurnal vertical migration (diel) cycle.