Afrika for Antarctica

Professor Marcello Vichi, the head of the Department of Oceanography in the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Faculty of Science, delivered his first lecture as a full professor in October as part of the UCT Inaugural Lecture Series. His talk focused on the relevance of polar oceanography for Africa.

Inaugural lectures are a central part of university academic life. These auspicious occasions not only commemorate the speakers’ appointment to a full professorship, but also provide a platform for the academic to share the body of research they have built throughout their career.

“These lectures are designed to be accessible to a much broader audience,” said UCT Vice-Chancellor Professor Mosa Moshabela in his opening address. “We celebrate these moments because they really represent the pinnacle of an academic journey, but we are also hoping that our young up-and-coming academics can see what it takes, as well and learn from that.

“We’re very fortunate that Professor Vichi is not only an academic in our Department of Oceanography, but also the director of MARiS or Marine and Antarctic Research for Innovation and Sustainability.

“His exceptional career spans both modelling and observation in the polar sciences, and he has led multiple expeditions into the Antarctic seas. His work has helped us to understand the interconnectedness of the polar regions and Africa, and the role that Africa plays in polar science research.”

Adding to this, the deputy dean for Transformation in the Department of Oceanography, Professor Sarah Fawcett, highlighted Vichi’s almost unmatched contribution to Antarctic oceanography, securing a seat for the South African research community at a table dominated by the Global North.

“Marcello has brought boundless energy and passion to the Department of Oceanography in his reimagining of MARiS, in his reform of our curriculum and, as we heard about tonight, his development of a national sea ice programme, which has led to novel research findings. We’ve all benefited immensely from his efforts,” she said.

A pressing issue

Vichi’s lecture, titled “Fifty degrees of separation: Why Antarctica and the polar regions matter for Afrika”, looked at the significance of Antarctica and the polar regions, emphasising their role in global climate change as well as their relevance to and impact on Africa.

“Polar regions are the cooling system of our earth for a variety of reasons. One very important feature is that they have a very long seasonal cycle. As you move towards the poles, seasonality becomes extreme – you have full days or full nights for half of the year,” Vichi explained.

“The way water behaves in these regions is also very different. The way it becomes ice is very different; this happens in the sea, where you have salt, and on land, where you have continental ice sheets – the largest reservoir of water in the world.”

“No one can talk about familiarity with the Antarctic and certainly not with the Antarctic continent.”

But why should Africa care? Although polar waters, snowfall and ice are not necessarily part of our daily lives on the continent, these phenomena have a massive impact on climate change – which disproportionately affects Africa.

“Sea ice has got the important feedback called the sea ice–albedo. So, if the sea ice goes away, then your temperatures rise much more quickly. And this is what we’re currently seeing,” he added.

Unlike the Arctic Ocean, which is surrounded by at least semi-inhabited land and has therefore been studied extensively, the Southern Ocean and Antarctica present far more unknowns. This has made Antarctic exploration and research far more urgent.

“No one can talk about familiarity with the Antarctic and certainly not with the Antarctic continent. On the Antarctic continent, we only have scientific places. You can only go there if you have a scientific programme,” Vichi said.

Leading scientific enquiries

With the significance that this research can have for both the future of Africa and the world, along with the rising geopolitical tensions across the globe, Vichi noted that South Africa has not just an opportunity but a responsibility to lead the scientific enquiries taking place on Antarctica.

“What’s happening now, since 2014, is thermodynamics is taking over. The warming of the atmosphere is now making the system go beyond its natural variability and we are unfortunately going towards a major problem,” he said.

“For example, on an expedition in 2022, when we expected ice, we didn’t find it. We actually found spring for five days in the middle of winter. This is, of course, part of natural variability, but if it happens more often, it’s a problem.

“We are the stalwarts of the whole thing. We have such a huge responsibility, which actually forms part of the Antarctic Treaty. The treaty was signed in 1959 – the year after the end of the International Geophysical Year – and we were going through complications geopolitically, with the Cold War,” he said.

“Now, we’re going towards an International Polar Year in eight years’ time and we’re going through pretty much the same conditions. We’re asking ourselves whether we’ll be able to work together with the countries who signed the treaty [Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States and Russia] in this place that we designated to be the continent for science.

“So, it’s a huge opportunity for everyone, particularly for Africans and South Africans, to engage and do this research that can really change the course of history.”

As part of these efforts, Vichi noted, UCT has been making major contributions to Antarctic research. In addition to producing a variety of instrumentation, the institution is slated to have the first sea ice laboratory on the continent to become the “pulsating cold heart of Africa”.