Oceanography, Air-Sea Interactions, Mixed Layer Dynamics

Dr Sarah Nicholson, Principal Researcher, Southern Ocean Carbon-Climate Observatory (SOCCO) at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)

Dr Sarah Nicholson is an oceanographer with a focus on coupled physical-biogeochemical processes in the Southern Ocean. She completed her PhD in 2016 through a joint program between Sorbonne Université (formerly UPMC) and the University of Cape Town, co-supervised by Dr Marina Levy, Prof Pedro Monteiro, and Dr Sebastiaan Swart.

Since joining the Southern Ocean Carbon-Climate Observatory (SOCCO) at CSIR in 2016, she has led multiple field campaigns using autonomous ocean platforms and contributed to advancing Southern Ocean observing systems. Promoted to Principal Researcher in 2024, Dr Nicholson has been PI on several SANAP-NRF grants.

Internationally, she serves on several expert panels, including the CLIVAR/CliC/SCAR Southern Ocean Region Panel, the SOFLUX Capability Working Group Leadership Team, the SCOR ATOMIX Working Group, and previously as Co-Chair of the CLIVAR Ocean Model Development Panel.

Research focus

Dr Sarah Nicholson’s research investigates how upper-ocean processes influence climate, with a focus on the exchange of heat and carbon dioxide (CO₂) between the ocean and atmosphere. These exchanges play a key role in regulating global climate, but many of the underlying mechanisms, such as the impact of turbulence, storms, and biological processes are still not well understood.

Dr Nicholson’s research combines the use of autonomous ocean gliders with physical-biogeochemical modelling to observe and better understand these processes across a range of ocean environments. While much of her research focused on the Southern Ocean, her current work involves understanding drivers of critically low oxygen regions along the West African margin, supported by Schmidt Sciences.

Her interests are also in marine Carbon Dioxide Removal and currently involved in efforts to improve South Africa’s observational baseline of coastal observations of CO₂ through glider observations.