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Dr Kim Bernard recognised for her pioneering research on ocean systems
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In August this year, SAEON’s Dr Kim Bernard was selected as the second runner-up in the Best Emerging Young Scientist category of the annual Women in Science Awards1, which recognises the achievement of women scientists in South Africa by rewarding outstanding work done by women in research.
Bernard said that she was thrilled to have been honoured in this way. "It is daunting setting off into one’s career, but this award has indicated that I’m definitely doing the right thing and that I will eventually be in the position to make a real impact in my field, and maybe even a difference in the world," she added.
Bernard - a marine biologist focusing on pelagic ecosystems (both coastal and off-shore) with an emphasis on zooplankton ecology - is particularly interested in how climate change is impacting marine pelagic ecosystems, from changes in biogeochemical cycling to changes in food web structures and organism life history patterns.
"I have always had a passion and love for nature, in particular the sea," she admitted. Her father, a zoologist, introduced her to the natural sciences at a very early age. He taught her how to see her environment in a different light and encouraged her questioning mind.
"The thought that our oceans could change for the worse in the future has been a major driver for me to become a marine biologist and to get into climate change research," Bernard explained.
Significant contribution
Bernard completed her PhD in Southern Ocean marine biology with a focus on zooplankton ecology in November 2006. The study, which examined the ecological role of the pteropod (shelled pelagic snails) Limacina retroversa in the Southern Ocean, came at a critical time in both marine and climate change science. It has been recognised as an important contribution to our understanding of the role that pteropods play in the Southern Ocean, and the impact that their impending demise might have on the pelagic ecosystems of that region.
As atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations increase, so does the amount of carbon stored in the surface waters of the ocean. This increase in carbon in the ocean is rapidly leading to what has been termed ocean acidification. Recent studies have shown that by the year 2050 the high latitude regions of the Southern Ocean will experience an increase in acidity that will essentially result in the shells of living pteropods being dissolved.
Results from Bernard’s PhD have been published in international peer-reviewed journals, including Deep-Sea Research I, Progress in Oceanography and Polar Biology. At the time these publications went to press, very little was known about the ecological role that pteropods played in the Southern Ocean. Her PhD highlighted the importance of pteropods as grazers of phytoplankton and their potential role in assisting the transport of carbon to the ocean depths as well as further up the food chain. These findings are significant because they allow marine researchers to gauge how the predicted ocean acidification might affect the pelagic ecosystems as a whole.
In January 2007, Bernard joined SAEON’s Elwandle Node as Data Scientist. Her primary role at the time was to set up and manage databases focusing on various coastal marine environments, such as estuaries and rocky shores. During her first year at Elwandle she played a significant role in the planning and development of the South African Estuaries Database.
In January 2008 she was promoted to Coastal Science and Data Coordinator and her role shifted from a purely data management role to one with a stronger emphasis on the development and implementation of research and monitoring programmes.
She has played a pivotal role in the development and more recently, the implementation and on-going management of the Elwandle and Egagasini Nodes’ first long-term monitoring and research site, Algoa Bay. The site is managed through the Algoa Bay Long Term Monitoring & Research Programme (LTMRP) for which Bernard is a Co-Principal Investigator and the Elwandle Node’s Lead Coordinator.
Long-term monitoring of key marine coastal habitats
Through the Algoa Bay LTMRP the SAEON Elwandle Node aims to set up a foundation for sustained long-term monitoring of key marine coastal habitats in Algoa Bay and the surrounding waters. The programme is a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional effort that will provide essential information on the structure and functioning of key Algoa Bay marine coastal ecosystems such as exposed coastline, sheltered bay, exposed bay and islands. This information will allow for the detection of environmental change and, once sufficient data have been collected it will allow for the development of tools to predict potential changes in the future.
In addition to the Algoa Bay LTMRP, Bernard is Principal Investigator of a project entitled “Coastal Upwelling and its Influence on Nearshore Productivity and Biogeochemistry”, funded through the Marine Living Resources Fund (MLRF) of Marine and Coastal Management (MCM) and the National Research Foundation (NRF). This project aims to understand how wind-driven coastal upwelling occurring off the coast of Port Alfred drives biological productivity and biogeochemistry in the nearshore. Very little research has been conducted on coastal upwelling along the south-east coast of South Africa (most upwelling research has focused on the west coast). Future changes to the coastal upwelling regime, due to climate change, will likely have significant impacts on the nearshore ecology in the region. Results from this study will benefit MCM by contributing to their understanding of how South Africa’s marine and coastal resources may be affected in the future.
"I have always wanted to do something that will contribute to the well-being of the oceans. I am determined to make a difference in climate change research and make significant contributions to our understanding of how climate change is impacting (and will impact ) marine ecosystems," Bernard said in conclusion.
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Towards the end of this year, Bernard will take up a two-year Postdoctoral Research Associate position at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, USA to work on a cutting-edge project developing novel methods of monitoring zooplankton in Antarctica, which once tested will be deployed throughout the world’s oceans.
Her research will feed into the greater Palmer Antarctica Long Term Ecological Research (PAL) project that aims to understand how climate change is affecting the pelagic ecosystem of the Western Antarctic Peninsula. The Peninsula has experienced the greatest winter time increase in surface air temperatures on the planet and this is having severe knock-on effects, influencing sea ice dynamics (reducing sea ice extent and duration) and reducing phytoplankton production, zooplankton biomass and Adélie penguin populations, to name a few.
1 Through the Women in Science Awards, South Africa’s Department of Science and Technology aims to increase the number of prominent women scientists and their access to research professions in the country, and to profile them as role models for younger women scientists and girls countrywide.
