Falklands Symposium: Q&A with Dr Paul Mayewski (USA)

Following in the footsteps of Charles Darwin, the first ever Pan–American Science Delegation to the Falkland Islands is participating in a week-long mission to showcase the beauty of the UK South Atlantic Overseas Territories and immense opportunities for scientific research and collaboration in the Falkland Islands and South Georgia.

Scientists from the US, Canada, Chile, Brazil, Mexico and Columbia have the opportunity to form partnerships and collaborate with the South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute (SAERI) with the aim of establishing the Falklands and the wider South Atlantic as a place for groundbreaking scientific research.

Q: The Falkland Islands are a largely un-researched, pristine environment for scientific exploration. Also due to its remote location not much is known about life on the island.  What did you expect the Falklands to be like in terms of culture and heritage? How is the reality different to your expectations?  

I visited the Falkland Islands for the first time in 2012.  The people are keenly aware of their heritage and their environment and it is a great pleasure for me to learn from them, since I am an environmental scientist, about changes in their environment that they and their families have observed.  The Falklands are located in a region that is significantly impacted by changes in the Antarctic and as a consequence will experience considerably more change as Antarctica and the Southern Ocean respond to the greenhouse gas warming, ozone depletion and other anthropogenic emissions.   It is critical that baseline studies be conducted in this region to be able to quantify and respond to future change.

Q: SAERI and the Falkland Islands Government highlight that environmental stewardship is vital to establishment of home for scientific expertise on the Islands as well as its long term sustainability. What have you observed in this regard on the Island?

There is no doubt that Falkland Islanders are closely tied to their environment through their heritage, economy and quality of life.  It is clear that they are keen to see scientific research address some of their growing concerns regarding potential changes in fisheries, agriculture and pollution as Southern Hemisphere climate change evolves.

Q: As a scientist and expert in your field, what are you hoping to get out of this delegation?

I direct the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine (USA) and we already have four early stage collaborative projects with SAERI related to providing long term climate and ecological perspective extending back at least 20,000 years in addition to recent studies to address prediction of future climate for the region.

Q: The UK places a great deal of value on excellence in Science and the importance of the internationalisation of Science. Do you have international collaborations in place with the UK?  If so, please describe

I have many international collaborations across the world including: leadership of the International Trans Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE) under Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR).  ITASE is comprised of 21 nations including the UK.  I also have strong collaborative programs with BAS and in the past Scott Polar Research Institute (Cambridge).

Q: Global environmental challenges require international cooperation to achieve effective solutions. SAERI is a world class research institute working in the South Atlantic. What ways do you see SAERI contributing now and in the future

SAERI is a very young but rapidly expanding research institute with a very strong basis in marine biology and fisheries and as a consequence SAERI offers great potential for not only developing a sustainable Falkland Islands marine environment but also one with new opportunities.   SAERI will pay a critical role in allowing the Falkland Islands to make important conditions concerning its environment.

Q: Describe what you do and how the Falklands Islands provide an environment for scientific study. What are the broader applications of your work?

My research home, the Climate Change Institute, plans to provide a framework for assessing change in the region’s physical climate and ecosystem by providing a baseline from which to assess change.  My own personal research focuses on understanding changes in atmospheric circulation that drives Falkland and South Atlantic temperature, precipitation, storms and ocean currents through recovery of robust environmental records of past climate from South Georgia ice cores set within the context of ice core records we have collected throughout Antarctica, coupled with climate modeling.

Q: This delegation was designed to bring together delegates from a diverse range of countries and academic backgrounds in order to build a network of people who know about and use the Island as a scientific resource. What role do you think this scientific delegation will play in creating links between countries and disciplines?

The delegates are all very enthusiastic about potential opportunities related to their own discipline and to interacting with those represented by other delegates to form multidisciplinary approaches to problem solving that might not have emerged without this meeting.  This meeting has been an amazing opportunity to broaden all of our research horizons and enhance science based decision making for the Falkland Islands.

Dr Paul Mayewski is the Director and distinguished Professor at the Climate Change Institute, School for Earth and Climate Science, School of Marine Sciences, School for Policy and International Affairs, University of Maine.  He is a pioneer in the use of instrumentally calibrated ice core records resulting in global reconstruction of past atmospheric circulation conditions and an early demonstrator of associations between past climate and disruptions to civilisation.