If the call of the open seas and crystalline ice landscapes appeals, Rhodes University offers postgraduate students of zoology and entomology a unique chance to sail the Southern Ocean and travel sub-Antarctic islands.
In conjunction with the Southern Ocean Group — a group of researchers, including academics and postgraduate students, based at Rhodes’s department of zoology and entomology — master’s and doctoral students can conduct supervised research in the field of biological oceanography.
They can also gain hands-on experience using ship-based research equipment. The research involves working closely with physical and chemical oceanographers.
Christopher McQuaid, director of the Southern Ocean Group, says: ‘We’re the only university in the country conducting marine biology work in the Southern Ocean. Because it’s ship-based research it’s very interdisciplinary and highly collaborative.”
The research focus of the Southern Ocean Group is on the sub- Antarctic Prince Edward Islands and the links between food production and land-based predators. This research provides information about these ecosystems to managers of the islands. There are occasional trips to Antarctica itself.
McQuaid says the appeal for master’s and doctoral students in joining the Southern Ocean Group is the exposure to quality scientific research and supervision, mixed with an intense life experience. ‘Students are given a unique opportunity to visit parts of the world they wouldn’t get to otherwise,” he says. ‘The islands themselves are extremely beautiful places. There are great black cliffs, waves crashing against them, and dormant volcanoes. Occasionally one will see icebergs. And if one is right down south, one can see pack ice, which is basically frozen sea. It’s stunning.”
McQuaid also highlights the biological interest of the areas: ‘You see things like whales, killer whales, albatrosses, elephant seals and millions of penguins. You are really seeing wildlife that very few people are privileged to see.”
McQuaid says there are employment opportunities for graduates in consultancy work and marine and coastal management; on specialised Antarctic research teams; and in industries like the fishing industry.
The Rhodes zoology and entomology department also offers master’s and doctoral students the opportunity to conduct thesis research through the Coastal Research Group — a group that includes academics and postgraduate students. The group conducts research into estuarine, coastal and intertidal environments in the Eastern Cape.
This research offers students the opportunity to work closely with social scientists and to focus on socio-ecological problems, especially the overexploitation of ocean resources. ‘There’s no way biology can work in a vacuum. The scientific answers are not enough on their own,” says McQuaid, who is also a member of the Coastal Research Group, stressing the importance of inter-disciplinary work between the social sciences and biology.
The research focuses on the stress placed on coastal and estuarine systems by communities in the Eastern Cape. Current areas of focus are intertidal ecology, sustainable utilisation of invertebrate resources and estuarine food webs. Employment opportunities include jobs consultancy and coastal management at national and provincial levels — though not much work in industry.
About 95% of master’s or doctoral students who have conducted research through either the Southern Ocean Group or the Coastal Research Group have gained employment in fields related to their study, McQuaid says.