Informing open ocean restoration through historical reconstruction

Restoring degraded ecosystems requires a comprehensive understanding of their pre-disturbance state. Ecosystem restoration on the open ocean has yet to be attempted. This project will combine biogeochemical, eDNA, and microscopic analyses of sediment cores to quantify the ecological regime shifts in the Southern Ocean, with a focus on the impact of Antarctic whaling – one of the greatest removals of animal biomass ever. The approach will quantify the pre-disturbance state of one of the most important open ocean ecosystems in the world, and provide a framework for restoration targets in similar ecosystems worldwide.