By Veronica M. Berounsky, Ph.D.’90
For Regina Rodrigues, Ph.D. ’04, the URI Graduate School of Oceanography wasn’t part of her original plan, but it quickly became a place where her research found momentum. “At the time, my master’s adviser in Brazil, at the University of São Paulo, was writing a proposal with GSO Professor Mark Wimbush,” says Rodrigues. “The proposal was about the bifurcation of the South Equatorial Current in the South Atlantic. When it was not funded, I applied for a grant to the Brazilian National Science Foundation to do my Ph.D. abroad.”
As a result, she arrived at GSO with Wimbush as her major professor and became part of a vibrant scientific community. Her dissertation on South Atlantic circulation filled a critical gap in our knowledge of an understudied area and led to multiple peer-reviewed publications. GSO Research Professor Randolph Watts, who served on her degree committee and co-authored a paper with her, recalled Rodrigues as “projecting a sense of quiet competence—reliable and determined. Those fine characteristics have help propel her to a prominent position in physical oceanography in Brazil.”
A Researcher and Writer
After earning her degree, Rodrigues returned to Brazil and continued to focus her work on South America and the South Atlantic. A prolific and well-respected scientist and writer, Rodrigues says “my research interests include understanding how tropical ocean basins interact and affect the extra-tropics leading to extreme events. Recently, I’ve focused on understanding compound extreme events of drought, land and marine heatwaves, as well extremes of high acidity and low productivity in the oceans.”
Rodrigues also integrates the human dimension in her research. Last year she spoke as part of URI’s Metcalf Institute lecture series titled “Implications of Under-researching the South Atlantic for Water Scarcity in South America.” She discussed the effects of warming temperatures and weather events on water resources. Previously she wrote a related article for Carbon Brief: Clear on Climate titled: “How the South Atlantic is overcoming its history as an under-researched ocean.” She noted “changes in the South Atlantic driven by human-caused climate change can contribute to an increase in extreme events such as heatwaves, droughts and floods in South American and African countries, leading to water and food insecurity for millions of people and resulting in mass migration.”
Beyond large-scale trends, she also writes about local, community-driven responses to climate change. In her 2022 article in PNAS Nexus, “Small is beautiful: Climate change science as if people mattered,” Rodrigues advocates for a “bottom-up” approach to climate mitigation strategies that empower people and help them to see the results of their activities.
A Teacher and Mentor
Rodrigues has taught and mentored many undergraduate and graduate students. Afonso Gonçalves Neto, Ph.D. ’20, worked with Rodrigues as an undergraduate research assistant and researcher as part of the Brazilian Research Network on Climate Change. When he wanted to pursue his Ph.D., Rodrigues encouraged him to go to GSO. “I learned a lot from the physical oceanography faculty, who were not only very knowledgeable but also respectful and patient,” she says. “It was a great environment, and I enjoyed my time in Rhode Island. These are essential factors to consider when applying for a Ph.D.”
When Gonçalves Neto finished his doctorate, Rodrigues had a grant from the European Commission Horizon 2020 Program for research on marine heatwaves and their impacts on marine ecosystems in the South Atlantic, so Gonçalves Neto returned to Brazil to be her post-doctoral researcher. Although Gonçalves Neto has since moved on to other positions, their work together resulted in two recent publications in the journal Nature Communications. In one, they provided data to show that an extreme marine heat wave was the cause of a severe 2020 coral bleaching event off the Brazilian coast. In the other, they documented that the frequency and intensity of triple compound events—marine heat waves, high acidity and low chlorophyll—have increased dramatically over the past two decades.
“I think what she accomplishes as a Brazilian researcher who chose to live and work in Brazil is remarkable,” says Gonçalves Neto. “She publishes high-quality research papers, is an editor for Communications Earth & Environment, does an amazing job behind the scenes with World Climate Research Program and still teaches and advises undergraduate and graduate students. She is probably the most relevant Brazilian physical oceanographer nowadays, while still working in Brazil, researching the South Atlantic and strongly advocating for climate justice and for the development of research and climate mitigation and adaptation in the Global South. I feel very, very lucky to have had the chance to learn from her!”
An Innovator
As an associate professor of physical oceanography and climate at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Rodrigues is heading the development of the new “Institute for Climate Change.” “The university has expertise in several areas, ranging from renewable energy (engineering departments) to climate justice (social sciences),” she says. “The idea is to develop real interdisciplinary research under the new institute and make it meaningful to society, to support mitigation and adaptation policies.”
An Advocate
While studying at GSO, Rodrigues realized how much funding for oceanography was linked to geopolitics. “Since the South Atlantic has historically been considered less geopolitically and economically important, it has not been the focus of oceanographic research,” she says. “Moreover, the ocean is flanked by low- to middle-income countries that still struggle to fund the high costs of oceanographic research. Yet, the South Atlantic plays a crucial role in the global climate. It is a key part of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).”
Rodrigues strives to overcome these funding obstacles and also bring attention to the importance of better understanding the oceanography of this area and its implications. She is involved with the South Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (SAMOC) initiative, a group dedicated to further understanding of the role of the South Atlantic Ocean in the MOC system and the establishment of an observing system to document the circulation. As she noted in the Carbon Brief article, “the success of the SAMOC initiative can be explained by its community, which is driven by a shared vision, well-defined goals and a grassroots sharing of resources. This allowed the equal participation of scientists from the global south and north.” Rodrigues is the editor of a special collection on ocean science in the South Atlantic published in 2022 by the journal Communications Earth & Environment and is the co-chair of the World Climate Research Program Lighthouse Activity “My Climate Risk,” which is charged with developing a framework to construct climate information involving local communities.
An Organizer
Rodrigues will get a boost towards better understanding the South Atlantic in November when the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which includes the 30th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 30), takes place in Belém, Brazil. This will be the first time a major climate conference will be held in an Amazonian city. The timing and circumstances are perfect for Rodrigues as it provides an opportunity to highlight the lessons learned from research in the South Atlantic. As one of the organizers, Rodrigues says she is working hard to “make science and people at the center of COP30 with less lobbying from fossil fuel industry. But this is not an easy task.” She also would like to see more of the word “oceans” in the conference documents. “Oceans are essential for mitigation and adaptation, yet they are almost completely ignored in the previous negotiations,” she says.
With Rodrigues helping shape the agenda and conference reports, that oversight is unlikely to persist.