The Weddell Sea is the largest marginal sea of the Southern Ocean in the Antarctic and a hotspot of life. Emperor penguins and seals give birth here. Swarms of krill that graze on microalgae beneath the ice floes attract fish, whales and seabirds. Millions of ice fish breed on the sea floor and underwater gardens of glass sponges, cnidarians and sea squirts reach a similar level of biodiversity to tropical reefs.
Eleven institutions from eight countries have joined forces to form the Weddell Sea Observatory of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Change (WOBEC). Over the next three years, the scientists involved will determine the current status of the species community in the Weddell Sea as a reference for long-term observation of the ecosystem in a changing Antarctic. WOBEC is one of 33 projects in the European Union’s flagship program BiodivMon under the umbrella of Biodiversa+, the European Biodiversity Partnership. The program started in April with a kick-off meeting in Tallinn, Estonia. The national funding partners are financing WOBEC with 1.9 million euros. The Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) is supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and is also making a significant contribution of its own.
“The Weddell Sea is a largely untouched natural area that is particularly worthy of protection. It not only has a high aesthetic value but is also home to a unique variety of life. This biological diversity also enables important ecosystem services, such as the storage of carbon in the deep sea by sinking ice algae and plankton residues,” explains Dr. Hauke Flores, a marine biologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute and coordinator of the EU project. “But climate change has long since reached the South Polar Region: In recent years we have observed an unexpectedly drastic decline in sea ice. We do not know whether and how the inhabitants there will adapt to the changed environmental conditions. In order to be able to assess this, we first need to know the current state of the ecosystem better and urgently start collecting data systematically.”
The focus of the project is on observing possible long-term changes in biodiversity in the eastern Weddell Sea. Nations such as Germany, Norway and South Africa have been researching this region for decades, but there is a lack of systematic studies of the huge ecosystem. There is a big gap here: to the east and west of the WOBEC study area, there are no long-term observations of marine biodiversity for thousands of kilometers, says Hauke Flores.
An expedition with the icebreaker Polarstern along the Prime Meridian and into the southern Weddell Sea is planned for 2026 under the leadership of the University of Rostock. During the trip, the researchers want to explore, among other things, the Maud Rise seamount and build on previous studies of the benthic species communities at Cape Norwegia west of the German Neumayer Station III.
The scientists will not only collect new data, but will also search through their archives and make previously unpublished or difficult-to-access results available to the general public in public databases. “On the basis of historical and current data, we want to develop a strategy for long-term environmental observations in the Weddell Sea using autonomous observatories, satellite remote sensing and ship-based measurements,” says Hauke Flores. This will be done with the involvement of interest groups from politics, business and nature conservation and in close cooperation with the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).
The EU and other CCAMLR members have long been committed to protecting large parts of the Weddell Sea. With the expertise of the AWI, a protection concept was developed and submitted to the CCAMLR for the first time in 2016. “The proposed marine protected area currently covers two regions in the western and eastern Weddell Sea, some of which are located in the WOBEC study area,” explains Dr. Katharina Teschke, marine ecologist and head of the protected area project at the AWI. The planned marine protected area follows an approach that takes the entire ecosystem into account and is based on the precautionary principle. “It is about preserving a previously untouched marine region as a refuge for cold-loving species, where they can adapt undisturbed to the changing environmental conditions as the earth continues to warm,” says Katharina Teschke.
“So far, the application for the proposed marine protected area has failed to achieve the required unanimity, and the current geopolitical situation is making CCAMLR’s negotiations difficult. However, the adoption of the United Nations Treaty on Biological Diversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Treaty) last year gives us hope,” says Katharina Teschke. “It is a positive signal that may help stimulate the process of designating a protected area in the Weddell Sea under CCAMLR. WOBEC offers the opportunity to develop a strategy for recording biodiversity and its future changes in the area of the marine protected area on a scientific basis.”
