Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) is partnering to support the global delivery of research data from the first all-Canadian led scientific expedition to the Southern Ocean.
The Canadian Antarctic Research Expedition (CARE 2025) in February and March 2025 aboard the Royal Canadian Navy vessel HMCS Margaret Brooke was a milestone oceanographic research mission to the Southern Ocean and Antarctic coast that brought together government, academia and industry. The data were collected by an interdisciplinary team of 15 scientists.
As a Major Research Facility and an initiative of the University of Victoria (UVic), ONC's expertise in data stewardship has played a critical role, during and after the expedition.
"This first all-Canadian research expedition to the Southern Ocean, supported by ONC's data management expertise, marks a significant step in enhancing our understanding of climate change impacts in this critical region,” says ONC president and CEO Kate Moran. “The dedication of our data specialists ensures these valuable findings will be accessible to Canada and the global research community, contributing to a more resilient future."
Data delivery
The ingestion and parsing of the collected water property data, being made available on ONC’s Oceans 3.0 data portal, provides valuable ocean intelligence for scientists to better understand the rapidly changing conditions in this polar region. This includes the ocean and seafloor conditions, near ONC's partner subsea observatory with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), north of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Together with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) scientists, ONC is processing data from 35 deployments of a conductivity (salinity), temperature, and depth (CTD) instrument deployed on a rosette sampler in the Southern Ocean. The CTD rosette was used to measure both physical and chemical water column properties at 22 locations spanning an area within the South Shetland Islands in the Drake Passage, north of the Antarctic Peninsula. Water samples were also collected for laboratory analyses.
This CTD rosette system is part of the Modular Ocean Research Infrastructure (MORI), owned and operated by the Marine Environmental Observation, Prediction and Response network (MEOPAR), which assembled the academic component of the research team for CARE 2025, with funding from Polar Knowledge Canada.
A map shows the locations of the 22 water column profiles that were sampled within the South Shetland Islands in the Drake Passage. The data will be made available through ONC’s data management portal, Oceans 3.0. Map credit: ONC
ONC’s data specialists are processing the raw data with established methodologies, correcting for instrument response times, applying calibration and quality controls, and adding essential metadata including the location and type of instrumentation, digital object identifiers (DOIs), and other searchable features. Further processing will occur through a new automated pipeline currently in development by ONC that adds value with specialized plots, maps, data formats, and automated publication to the Canadian Integrated Ocean Observing System (CIOOS) data catalogue. The new CTD data pipeline will also streamline future expeditions that utilize MORI's CTD infrastructure.
ONC is working with partners to make all data from the CARE 2025 expedition openly available over the coming months through Oceans 3.0 and CIOOS data portals, supporting the global research community and the public.
Scroll the data dashboard below and check back for updates.
The science program of CARE 2025 includes three broad disciplines of oceanography, geoscience, and contaminants research. Dr. Thomas James, a research scientist with Natural Resources Canada and CARE 2025 Chief Scientist, designed the program to encompass these disciplines to capture a range of environmental responses to climate change and human-generated chemicals. The influence of melting glaciers on ocean waters and the marine and coastal geological record was a common element of much of the sampling and surveying.
Seafloor mapping
A primary goal of the expedition was also to map the seafloor in this largely unexplored region, including the bay surrounding ONC’s partner subsea cabled observatory with the Spanish National Research Council, first deployed in January 2024 offshore of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, near the Spanish Juan Carlos I station.
Research scientist Dr. Kevin Wilcox with the University of New Brunswick's Ocean Mapping Group led this effort onboard the HMCS Margaret Brooke. He utilized a small, remotely controlled, uncrewed surface vessel equipped with Canadian-made GNSS technology to conduct multiple transects while mapping the seafloor terrain using a multibeam system. Other sites surveyed include Admiralty Bay and Deception Island, the site of an underwater volcanic caldera.
Video: A map created by Dr. Kevin Wilcox from the University of New Brunswick shows the seafloor in the bay where ONC’s partner observatory is located. Credit: Kevin Wilcox
Wilcox anticipates the high-accuracy maps will help contribute to the larger story of how the ocean waters around the southern continent are changing.
“For the ONC partner observatory location, my hope is it provides some context to what is being monitored there. It's unique to have sensors in the Southern Ocean that continually monitor ocean properties and a big part of that is how that mixing of glacier melt with ocean water is taking place,” says Wilcox. “If you know what the seafloor in that area looks like through mapping, you can understand what you’re seeing with the sensors and how that relates to other properties.”
Currently, just over 25% of the global seafloor has been mapped and these efforts are helping contribute to efforts in a part of the world that is both extreme in its environment and rapid change.
Melting glaciers
Dr. Tia Anderlini, a UVic researcher in chemical oceanography, was also aboard the HMCS Margaret Brooke. Her research focuses on how tidewater glaciers contribute to the region's chemical distributions.
Prior research indicates that the warming ocean waters and atmosphere are causing accelerated melting of Antarctic tidewater glaciers and contributing to sea level rise.
“The goal of our sampling was to profile the water properties in transects moving away from glacier fronts in bays of the South Shetland Islands, allowing us to investigate the contribution of tidewater glaciers to the chemical distributions of the region. From this, we may be able to draw conclusions about the future impact of glacial melt,” says Anderlini.
The chemical properties of interest to Anderlini include trace metal micronutrients (e.g. iron and manganese) which are required by phytoplankton, and toxins (e.g. lead and cadmium) which can interfere with the normal functioning of organisms and ultimately limit their growth.
From the edge of a multi-role rescue boat near the ONC observatory, Anderlini and the team deployed a CTD as well as a 12L sampling bottle at three locations within the bay. The CTD data will be available as part of the expedition data available on Oceans 3.0.
MEOPAR played a central role in assembling the university research team for CARE 2025 supported with funding from Polar Knowledge Canada. Photo credit: CARE 2025
“By looking at the distributions of metals at various distances from glaciers and by pairing this data with other sampled variables and with ONC data, we can start to understand the quantity of metals being added to the water column and transported towards the open ocean, how this may change over time with glacial retreat, and the biological implications of this addition,” says Anderlini.
“The expedition was a great opportunity to work with other researchers from across Canada, to form new collaborations, and to draw connections to our work in the Canadian Arctic. But it was also amazing to have this sense of Canadian pride - particularly given the current global political climate – as we took on this expedition and research as a fully Canadian team.”
CARE 2025 was part of Canada’s engagement in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean to learn about this polar region with strong parallels to the Canadian Arctic and to support global environmental standards.
ONC is applying the same data validation and quality monitoring methods used for its two major subsea cabled observatories (NEPTUNE and VENUS), coastal observatories, and programs such as Community Fishers.
