Tauranga student awarded $20k Antarctica research scholarship

Sofia Rauzi, middle, has been named a recipient alongside Madison Farrant and Alex Aves. Photo / Supplied

Tauranga's Sofia Rauzi has received a $20,000 scholarship to study the role of sea creatures' skeletons in the Antarctic Ocean carbon cycle.

But she will be doing her research from laboratories in Tauranga, Hamilton, and sometimes Texas - not direct from Antarctica.

"Sadly no I don't get to go to Antarctica. I wish."

The 25-year-old is one of three university students across the country to receive a post-graduate research scholarship with Antarctica New Zealand alongside Madison Farrant and Alex Aves.

Rauzi has received an Antarctica New Zealand Doctoral Scholarship, which provides $20,000 in funding over two years.

Her research aims to shed light on carbon dioxide fluxes in and out of the Southern Ocean - also known as the Antarctic Ocean - which takes up about 10 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions produced by humans. This includes carbon incorporated into marine organisms' skeletons; which, when they die, can be transported down to the deep sea where they are buried as calcium carbonate.

"In layman's terms, our objective is to constrain a CO2 flux out of the Southern Ocean."

To do that, Rauzi will study three sediment cores from the Ross Sea to help answer the question 'are Antarctic marine sediments hotspots for the release of carbon dioxide?'.

She said the rate of marine clay formation in the Southern Ocean and subsequent CO2 release needed to be better understood, so it could more accurately be factored into climate modelling that helps to understand what will happen as the world warms.

"There is an unconstrained carbon flux that we are trying to quantify, and this is a novel approach that I am excited about.

Sofia Rauzi has received a $20,000 Antarctica New Zealand scholarship. Photo / Supplied

"There is more silica in the Southern Ocean sediments than anywhere else in the world, and this is an opportunity to learn how this process works."

It meant hopefully opening up research into how other oceans were operating, she said.

Two years from now, Rauzi said the dream was to have a better understanding of how clays formed and what type of clays formed in the marine realm.

Rauzi said she had always wanted to study climate change and has been interested in paleoclimate.

"We have been studying this marine clay formation process in the past quite a lot and I think there is a big gap in how it works in the modern environment.

"I am really excited to be working with Antarctica New Zealand. This is kind of my first foray into modern climate change and doing something that directly impacts modern climate modelling."

She will study sediment cores already collected from the Southern Ocean between laboratories at the University of Waikato campuses in Tauranga and Hamilton, as well as in the northeastern United States.

Rauzi, who moved to New Zealand from Houston, Texas in June, said she was excited to work with University of Waikato senior lecturer of geobiology and marine chemistry Dr Terry Isson.

"He is a brilliant scientist and I was really excited to be able to work with him. That is really what drew me here."

Antarctica New Zealand chief scientific adviser Professor Jordy Hendrikx said the scholarships helped support new talent entering the Antarctic research community.

"These post-graduate scholarships are highly competitive, and each year we received numerous applications from some of the brightest upcoming Antarctic research stars.

"We are proud to support researchers during these early stages of their career and hope that these scholarships will serve as a springboard to support their research and career development

"These young women are highly motivated to make a difference in the world, and bring about change for the better. Understanding Antarctica is essential to understanding what will happen as the world warms, and it is great to support these emerging researchers to help answer the important questions of our time."