By Live Oftedahl, NTNU
Anyone who thinks of research as just serious and meticulous work should have been on a cruise with Summers. That is when she is in her true element. The giggly energy and enthusiasm for her work, combined with dedicated care for the team, are inspiring.
The research becomes like a game, which ends happily when one of your articles is published in the prestigious magazine Nature.
Natalie on a field cruise. Next thursday, 6 June, she will defend her thesis. Photo: Private
How did she end up as a marine biologist researching polar regions? Summers was born in England, with a British father and a mother from Mauritius with British and French ancestry. She grew up in Turkey where her father and mother led archaeological excavations using completely new methods in Yozgat, which is a four-hour drive from Ankara.
Here she and her sister spent a lot of their childhood when they were not at school, and they undoubtedly became part of the organism called a research team.
She draws parallels from her childhood experiences at archaeological excavations to the marine biological research she conducts today – where technology contributes to completely new data.
” I got up at six in the morning to join the excavation in the mountains, but I was mostly interested in collecting insects and frogs.”
The parents used, among other things, photos and films taken from balloons in the air, so-called magnetometers.
“We were the kids with the biggest balloons!”
Natalie Summers and her dad in the field. Natalie grew up in a research environment thanks to her parents. Photo: Private.
Testing out new methods and making new equipment. In this picture you see two Blueeyes combined to make one new tool. Photo: Norwegian Polar Institute.
Circles of life
In May 2022, she participated in the very first test of the observation pyramid in Ny-Ålesund on Svalbard – where the view from above with satellites and drones helps to determine where unmanned surface vessels and autonomous underwater robots should collect data at the same time and place.
“In a way, I grew up with the observation pyramid. 30 years ago, my father did some of the same on land – combining aerial imaging with geophysical methods to map ancient cities before deciding where to excavate.”
She usually spent her holidays in Mauritius, and eventually on some marine archaeological projects. For her 16th birthday, she received a diving certificate. When conducting marine archaeological work, she was constantly distracted by corals, fish, and crabs.
“It was probably clearer to others than to myself that marine biology was my interest. My father hinted to me that marine biology is actually a field of study.”
When she saw the first series about life in the ocean with David Attenborough, she had no doubt that this was what she wanted to pursue.
She applied to some universities in the USA and was accepted there, but they were expensive. Instead, she chose to study biology and biochemistry in Reunion, the neighbouring island to Mauritius. In her third year, she went on exchange to McGill in Canada. She knew it had to be a master’s in marine biology.
“First, I took a paid internship for six months in Mexico, where I participated in a marine survey, at the same time as I became a divemaster.”
Two master’s degrees
She took her master’s in Australia in tropical marine biology and then got a job in Mauritius in an NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation) community-based conservation where the task was to create an agreement between the government, the tourism industry, and fishermen on how to manage the sea and its resources in a way that was in everyone’s interest. While they created underwater trails for tourists, they trained fishermen and had teams that taught in schools.
“You can’t just tell people what to do. You must build trust and collaborate with them to find good solutions. You must listen to fishermen who complain about hotels and how things are managed, who see trends and changes in the sea. You cannot order them to stop fishing. You must come to an agreement about what the problems are – and what the solutions are.”
After four years of work, she went to a scientific conference with the findings from the project and ended up taking a second master’s degree in Hawaii on deep-sea marine biology. During her time there, she participated in two cruises to collect data on deep sea corals.
Parallel to her master’s, she taught bachelor students in biology. While studying at the University of Hawaii, she met Geir Johnsen who was there for his sabbatical. They struck up a conversation and found a common ground. After she completed her master’s, she applied for a PhD at NTNU focusing on life in the Arctic Sea. The two shared a similar energy on a Polar Night cruise at the beginning of her PhD.
“I am drawn to exploration. It seemed exciting, and I could also live closer to my sister who is settled in France – and my parents who are settled in Mauritius. It was almost like neighbouring countries?! Before Covid, at least.”
First encounter with the north
She arrived in Trondheim in September 2019, straight from Hawaii, and experienced a week of rain. While it was exotic so far north, she wondered if it was worth it. Three weeks after arrival, she attended the first annual meeting of The Nansen Legacy. Right after Christmas, she was on her first polar night cruise.
“Here I got to snorkel in water that was around minus one degree in a survival suit. When I came up I couldn’t feel my feet anymore.”
To gather data, she used two Blueye underwater vehicles, which were merged into one construction by two PhD students in biology and marine technology: Aksel Mogstad and Håvard Snefjellå Løvås.
“Blueye is a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that can film underwater up to several hundred meters down in the water column. When two were put together, we could also attach a hyperspectral camera in the middle along with various other sensors.”
The hyperspectral camera sees far more than a standard RGB (red, green and blue) camera. This construction was used to map green, red and brown macroalgae under newly forming sea ice.
“I got really good data for the first article in my PhD. The measurements showed that the algae grow and are in good health throughout the winter. In many ways, they are healthier than the rest of the year.”
It is not many years since marine biologists believed that life under the sea ice in the wintertime was almost in hibernation, and that not much happened during the dark season – the Polar Night. So wrong can one be.
Outside the academic bubble, she has, among other things, developed an interest in historical reenactment (medieval and Viking age) as well as historical martial arts with longsword. Photo: Private.
New findings
When Covid arrived in Norway and everything was locked down from March 12, 2020, two expeditions with The Nansen Legacy were postponed. Summers applied and managed to go to Ny-Ålesund in October to see how the algae were then.
“I made the same measurements as in January and got really good data then as well. It was the same place, but it did not seem like the same place at all. It was completely different. In the analysis afterward, we saw a difference in photosynthetic parameters. In October, the algae look less healthy than in January..”
When she did literature studies, she found that the data from October were quite similar to previous findings, and the datasets from January were very different.
“Nobody has made these measurements during the Polar Night before. People honestly believed that there wasn’t much life. These measurements showed that the algae start growing sooner than previously thought.”
On these expeditions, there are many researchers investigating different things. Each one has their little task.
“Together we create a bigger picture. This is what makes research so exciting!”
Pioneering work
The research on what goes on under the ice is a bit like icebergs – where you only see a tenth on the surface. In what was believed to be areas without much life, it has instead been found that there is a lot going on.
Summers has been a pioneer by working closely with PhD students in marine technology who have developed underwater robots that can help map and observe life under the water beneath the ice, at the balance point between technology and science.
“I can help push technology development forward. In other places, you just have to trust the technology. The advantage of close collaboration between technologists and biologists is that it can make the technology more accessible to those who are not engineers.”
Using these robots allow biologists to collect more data – both in time and space.
“We can provide feedback to those who develop the technology on how the data can be collected in a way that makes them valuable.”
Summers’ PhD is coming to an end. Now she’s hooked and wants to continue working in a postdoc and continue life here on the north side of the globe.
Outside the academic bubble, she has, among other things, developed an interest in historical reenactment (medieval and Viking age) as well as historical martial arts with longswords. But curiosity about life on earth and in the oceans is the main driving force:
“There are still many technological challenges. This research is just in its infancy. There are probably no more than ten people in the whole world who have studied algae through hyperspectral imaging, some of them are technologists, some are biologists. This is a completely new field. And we get to shape how it develops.”