Pressure in academia and science is rapidly increasing and early career researchers (ECRs) have a lot to gain from being involved in research initiatives such as large international projects. But just how inclusive are they? Here we discuss experiences of ECRs directly involved in the Marine Ecosystem Assessment for the Southern Ocean (MEASO), an Australian led international research project to assess the status and trends of Southern Ocean ecosystems. We review the benefits of ECR involvement in large-scale initiatives to the project deliverables, the leadership team and ECRs themselves. Using insights from MEASO, we outline the obstacles that may become barriers to ECRs in scientific research in general but with a focus on large-scale research projects and suggest potential actions to overcome these at the individual, institutional and scientific community level. We consider the potential for ECRs to lead future Antarctic science programmes with a focus on science communication and applied research for policy makers within a global setting.

While, in lower latitudes, population-level differences in heat tolerance are linked to temperature variability, in the Southern Ocean remarkably stable year-round temperatures prevail. Temporal variation in the physiology of Antarctic ectotherms is therefore thought to be driven\ud by the intense seasonality in primary productivity. Here we tested for differences in the acute upper temperature limits (lethal and activity) of 2 Antarctic marine invertebrates (the omnivorous starfish Odontaster validus and the filter-feeding clam Laternula elliptica) across latitude, seasons and years. Acute thermal responses in the starfish (righting and feeding) and clam (burrowing)\ud differed between populations collected at 77° S (McMurdo Sound) and 67° S (Marguerite Bay). Both species displayed significantly higher temperature performance at 67° S, where seawater can reach a maximum of +1.8°C in summer versus −0.5°C at 77° S, showing that even the narrow\ud spatial and temporal variation in environmental temperature in Antarctica is biologically meaningful\ud to these stenothermal invertebrates. Temporal comparisons of heat tolerance also demonstrated seasonal differences in acute upper limits for survival that were consistent with physiological acclimatisation: lethal limits were lower in winter than summer and higher in warm years than\ud cool years. However, clams had greater inter-annual variation of temperature limits than was observed for starfish, suggesting that variation in food availability is also an important factor, particularly for primary consumers. Teasing out the interaction of multiple factors on thermal tolerance will be important for refining species-specific predictions of climate change impacts

New Zealand has a large exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of which the area between the 30 and 50 m bathymetric zone offers the most prospects for shellfish production. Only 0.3% of this zone would be required to increase New Zealand’s shellfish production by 150,000 t. The Enabling Open Ocean Aquaculture Program, funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, is a collaboration aiming to develop technologies that will enable the extension of aquaculture into New Zealand’s harsh and challenging open ocean conditions, and facilitate adaptation to the escalating effects of climate change in inner shore environments. New Zealand has started expanding aquaculture into exposed environments, allowing farm expansion to meet increasing demand for aquaculture products but also enabling ventures into new aquatic products. Expansion into offshore developments is in direct response to mounting stakeholder interaction in inshore coastal areas. This document presents a brief overview of the potential zones for open ocean aquaculture, the influence of climate change, and two potential shellfish operational systems that may facilitate the expansion of shellfish aquaculture onto New Zealand’s exposed ocean sites.

Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) are a key component of the Antarctic food web with considerable lipid reserves that are vital for their health and higher predator survival. Krill lipids are primarily derived from their diet of plankton, in particular diatoms and flagellates. Few attempts have been made to link the spatial and temporal variations in krill lipids to those in their food supply. Remotely-sensed environmental parameters provide large-scale information on the potential availability of krill food, although relating this to physiological and biochemical differences has only been performed on small scales and with limited samples. Our study utilised remotely-sensed data (chlorophyllaand sea surface temperature) coupled with krill lipid data obtained from 3 years of fishery-derived samples. We examined within and between year variation of trends in both the environment and krill biochemistry data. Chlorophyllalevels were positively related to krill lipid levels, particularly triacylglycerol. Plankton fatty acid biomarkers analysed in krill (such as n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids) increased with decreasing sea surface temperature and increasing chlorophyllalevels. Our study demonstrates the utility of combining remote-sensing and biochemical data in examining biological and physiological relationships between Antarctic krill and the Southern Ocean environment.