Local lass on Antarctica research mission
How one Zululand girl plans to address climate change
ZULULAND microbiology major Samantha Waterworth (26), has been selected as part of an expedition team for the first ever circumnavigation of Antarctica later this year.
Waterworth will be accompanied by 55 researchers from 30 countries taking part in the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE) on the Russian ice breaker ship, the Akademik Treshnikov.
Born in Durban but raised in Richards Bay, Waterworth attended Richards Bay Primary School and Grantleigh Schools.
Currently completing her PhD at Rhodes University, Waterworth 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.
‘I loved genetics and in my Honours year I was offered a project by Prof. Rosemary Dorrington.
‘The project entailed sequencing, assembling, annotating and analysing a bacterial genome, something no one had done at Rhodes before,’ Waterworth said.
‘It’s like solving a huge puzzle with no picture on the box lid. You can only look at the pieces and determine how they all fit together.
‘I was hooked after that. The entire world relies on microbes, whether the people appreciate it or not!’
Proudly part of the only African team on ACE, Waterworth said they aim to better understand the workings of the Southern Ocean, and by doing so, better understand climate change.
‘Everyone knows that climate change is upon us and this is most evident in the polar regions,’ she said.
‘The Southern Ocean is where all the major oceans meet and is responsible for a large amount of nutrient cycling and heat absorption, therefore any change in the Southern Ocean will translate to changes in the global climate.
She explained the expedition aims to bring together researchers from all over the world and from various disciplines to better understand the dynamics and biology of the Southern Ocean and its islands.
‘It all comes down to uncovering the relationships between the ocean microbes and their environment and how that relationship impacts the global climate.’
The ACE project will consist of three legs from 20 December to 17 March next year:
Leg 1: Cape Town to Hobart, Tasmania
Leg 2: Hobart to Punta Arenas, Chile
Leg 3: Punta Arenas to Cape Town, South Africa
Waterworth will be part of the first leg from South Africa to Australia in which her research team will aim to assess microbial diversity in conjunction with chemical and physical analyses of the ocean environment to better understand the role of microbes in Southern Ocean productivity.
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