West Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Arc (WAPSA) Regional Working Group Welcomes New Co-Chair and Leadership Team Members 

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The West Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Arc (WAPSA) Regional Working Group welcomes Carlos Moffat as the new working group co-chair. Carlos will join Co-chair Juan Hofer alongside 4 new members to their leadership group Elisa Seyboth, Heather Forrer, Jennifer Allen and Mireia Mestre. We congratulate everyone to their new positions!

Carlos Moffat is an associate professor at University of Delaware. He is a physical oceanographer interested in ice-ocean interactions, shelf dynamics, and the long-term evolution of Antarctic coast ecosystems. He’s a principal investigator of the Palmer Long-Term Ecological Program.

Mireia Mestre is a polar researcher with a tenure-track position at the MNCN-CSIC. Her background is in Biology and Oceanography, where I specialized in marine microbes, particularly in polar regions. Currently, Mireia is studying microbial communities in the Western Antarctic Peninsula, where she had led multiple expeditions to locations such as Gerlache Strait, Bransfield Strait, the South Orkney Islands, and South Georgia Island. Mireia's work explores the relationships between marine microbial communities and oceanographic factors, as well as the microbes associated with Antarctic animals, including krill, salps, and penguins.
Heather Forrer is a chemical oceanographer, her interdisciplinary research uses biogeochemical tools and techniques to assess Southern Ocean carbon cycling with the aim of better constraining nutrient utilization, ecosystem functioning, and carbon export. Broadly, this research aims to understand Southern Ocean carbon capture resilience today and in a warming world – with particular focus on the rapidly warming west Antarctic Peninsula. Heather is excited to join the WAPSA working group and looks forward to excellent science discussions and leveraged research in the region!

Jennifer Allen is a cetacean behavioural ecologist focusing on culture and social learning. She works on foraging strategies, song learning, and sexual selection. My Antarctic work focuses on the emergence and spread of novel bubble-net feeding within Western Antarctic Peninsula humpback whales. Her goal is to determine how these whales behaviourally respond to the environmental shifts of climate change. Jenny also contributes behavioural ecology insights to the circumpolar Humpback Whale Sentinel Program which uses humpback whales to monitor Antarctic ecosystem health.

Elisa Seyboth is a Brazilian oceanographer whose research focuses on various aspects of cetacean ecology in the Southern Hemisphere, including the influence of climate on their habitat use, diet, and reproductive success. Elisa has a strong interest in investigating changes in the abundance and distribution of baleen whales around the western Antarctic Peninsula, and how these changes may be linked to krill fishery management.  

News article 14/Dec/2024/JB