Mthatha boffin puts ocean under scrutiny
Sinyanya confident her research will ‘change the way we see the world’
A scientist born and raised in Mthatha is quietly confident that once the results of her research are published, they will “change the way we see the world”.
Since 2016, Kolisa Yola Sinyanya, 34, a PhD candidate in the department of oceanography at the University of Cape Town, has been looking at the influence of microscopic ocean organisms, phytoplankton, in affecting the earth’s temperature.
As the effects of climate change continue to be felt globally, the former Zingisa Comprehensive High School and Walter Sisulu University student has worked with the Agulhas System Climate Array, an international oceanographic monitoring group, to provide answers.
Her focus of study has been the marine region between East London and Port Elizabeth.
Sinyanya graduated with an honours in botany and plant biotechnology from WSU in 2011, and later joined the National Research Foundation. She was then accepted to UCT where she did her masters degrees in botany and molecular biology and genomics.
In putting forward her PhD proposal, she noticed that there had not been much analysis of the southern ocean region in respect of this subject, “perhaps because the expertise was not previously available”, she said.
Her focus of study has been the marine region between East London and Port Elizabeth
The starting point of Sinyanya’s study is that as the planet warms, more carbon dioxide (CO²) is found in the atmosphere.
The ocean is the biggest absorber of CO² and the amount it absorbs depends on the temperatures of the waters. Cold waters absorb more carbon, while warmer waters take up less.
A “pump” process dictates the absorption of CO², which dissolves in the warmer surface waters and then is pumped into the deeper water layers and ocean floor.
What Sinyanya is looking at is the role of phytoplankton communities in this process. What she is aiming to show is how they consume species rich with nitrogen, because this is directly related to the amount of carbon dioxide that can be pumped into the ocean’s interior.
“Phytoplankton are primary producers of the marine ecosystem. This means that the marine food web primarily depends on phytoplankton. They also photosynthesise like land’s primary producers, plants. They take up carbon dioxide to manufacture their own foods and are responsible for giving off about more than half of the oxygen that animals need to breathe back into the atmosphere. That’s an impressive contribution from organisms that can’t be seen with the naked eye.”
In 2017, Sinyanya, “hopped on board” the research vessel SA Agulhas II, and lived on the ship for two months as she visited the Prince Edward Islands collecting specimens.
The SA Agulhas then made the return journey to South Africa where she took samples in the marine region between East London and Port Elizabeth.
“So far we have made some astonishing discoveries, but unfortunately I won’t be able to release them until my PhD is complete,” Sinyanya said.
“But the results are going to change the way we see the world. It is extremely exciting, because it will make us think about how the future will be for our oceans,” she said.
Sinyanya’s love of science began as a young girl in Mthatha.
“As a young kid I was always interested in science – my dad and I used to watch all the science shows,” she quipped.