Feature photograph: South Africa’s Antarctic research and supply ship, the S.A. Agulhas II
DJ Keyez of Voice of Wits FM (VO FM) interviewed Tracy Klarenbeek, Professional Officer, Knowledge Fields Development Directorate (KFD) in South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF) last month. The NRF manages the research at the South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP) which is supported logistically by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) and funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
He wanted to know more about the research that goes on at South Africa’s Antarctic base at Vesleskarvet in Dronning Maud Land, known as SANAE IV. Tracy also talked about research conducted at South Africa’s sub-Antarctic research stations on Marion Island in the Prince Edward Island Group in the southern Indian Ocean, at Gough Island in the South Atlantic and at sea in the Southern Ocean south of Africa. Research at all these localities is supported by the NRF.
Tracy explained that the Southern Ocean and the largely untouched and uninhabited sub-Antarctic islands with no to little human impact are a ‘natural laboratory’, allowing SANAP to play an important role in the investigation of global climate change in both the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions.
Listen to the Podcast and find out more about ongoing research projects within the South African National Antarctic Programme.
Voice of Wits FM is broadcast by the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
Anché Louw, Antarctic Legacy of South Africa, Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, 13 July 2016
