WATCH: Travel all in the name of marine biology

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FORMER Zululand local, microbiology major, Samantha Waterworth (26) recently returned from the third leg of an Antarctica expedition with the aim of gaining further knowledge into the role of marine microbes in the Southern Ocean.

Samantha was last year chosen to be a part of the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE) on the Russian ice breaker ship, the Akademik Treshnikov.

The ACE project consisted of three legs.

After completing the first leg from South Africa to Australia, Samantha had the opportunity to take part in the third leg, something she labelled as ‘incredible’.

‘We started off spending a week in Patagonia, exploring Torres del Paines and other beautiful regions before boarding the Akademik Treshnikov for the second time.

‘This leg was only three weeks long and saw us visiting South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands and Bouvet Island.

‘The highlight of this trip was definitely visiting Shackleton’s grave and exploring the rest of South Georgia.’

Samantha noted that along the way, they collected water from different depths and filtered the water to collect bacteria and phytoplankton.

‘My colleagues used the same water samples to investigate dissolved carbon and nitrogen and to assess their isotopic signatures.

‘With this we hope to assess the role of marine microbes in the carbon and nitrogen pumps within the Southern Ocean,’ she said.

Currently completing her PhD at Rhodes University, Samantha recently received the award for best oral presentation at the International Marine Biotechnology Conference in Baltimore, USA and has to some extent pioneered certain projects at Rhodes.

‘With some hard work and determination, I will finish my PhD this year and go on to perhaps acquire a postdoctoral position in a new lab.’

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