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Dr. Syed Wajih Ahmad Naqvi is an Indian marine scientist and the former director of the National Institute of Oceanography. His work has concentrated in oceanic water chemistry, biogeochemistry, and chemical interrelations with living organisms. He has also performed research on freshwater ecosystems. He was the chief Indian scientist of LOHAFEX, an ocean iron fertilization experiment jointly planned by the Council of Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR), India, and Helmholtz Foundation, Germany.
Wajih Naqvi was born on August 10, 1954, at Amroha, Uttar Pradesh. The third of seven children of Aziz Fatima and Sibte Mehmood, Naqvi had his early schooling at Amroha (Imamul Madaris Intermediate College) and Bareilly (FR Islamia College) before moving to Lucknow for intermediate and higher education at Shia College and Lucknow University. After obtaining his M.Sc. degree in physical chemistry in 1974, Naqvi secured a CSIR Junior Research Fellowship to carry out research at the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa. After retiring from NIO in August 2016, Naqvi worked at Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) for one year, and thereafter at the CSIR Headquarters as a distinguished scientist for three years. Presently, he is a distinguished visiting professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. Naqvi is married to Khamisa Zarreen and has two children, Asad Mehmood and Sumbul Zarreen.
Early in his research career, Naqvi was mentored by the late Dr. R. Sen Gupta, under whose guidance he obtained a Ph.D. degree from Poona University in 1987. His research focussed on biologically mediated chemical transformations in the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) of the Arabian Sea, which were largely unknown at that time. He provided conclusive evidence for large-scale denitrification (microbial reduction of nitrate to N2 and N2O) in the water column, demarcated its spatial extent and determined its temporal variability. Quantifying denitrification using a variety of innovative techniques, Naqvi showed that the Arabian Sea is the world's largest oceanic denitrification site, accounting for at least one-third of the global water column denitrification. His results revealed that in contrast with the eastern Pacific, zones of highest primary production and most intense denitrification are geographically separated in the northern Indian Ocean. This decoupling was also shown to be reflected by respiration rates that were found to be maximal within the OMZ, and also too high to be supported by organic matter supplied by particles sinking from the surface layer. These results clearly point to additional modes of organic matter supply, including in situ chemoautotrophic production, within the OMZ. The denitrifying layer was also demonstrated to contain maxima in bacterial abundance and turbidity. Naqvi and colleagues also generated the first comprehensive data set on natural abundance of isotopes in various dissolved nitrogen species from any oceanic area that provided new insights into marine nitrogen cycling. Further, their work showed that, contrary to the prevalent belief, the Arabian Sea OMZ is ventilated surprisingly rapidly (on time scales of a few years at most). These results imply that the Arabian Sea is highly vulnerable to potential anthropogenic perturbations.
As a part of his pioneering efforts to investigate the impacts of global change on marine bio-geochemistry of the northern Indian Ocean, Naqvi carried out extensive work on greenhouse gases [carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4)] both in the open-ocean and seasonally-occurring coastal hypoxic zone. The coastal low-oxygen zone, the largest of its kind in the world, has been found to have intensified in recent years, affecting living resources and providing feedback to global change. The former is because denitrification removes all nitrate, at rates that are the highest ever measured from any marine system, culminating in sulphidic conditions, and the latter is due to unprecedented accumulation of N2O. Thus, it has been shown for the first time that human activities are causing an increase in oceanic emissions of N2O, and the efflux of this potent greenhouse gas from the Arabian Sea is globally significant, unlike those of CO2 and CH4.
Biological productivity in the ocean is sometimes limited by low concentration of iron. This phenomenon, widely prevalent in the Southern Ocean and equatorial Pacific, has been discovered for the first time in the western Arabian Sea, significantly affecting regional biogeochemistry, including the anomalous location of the OMZ. It has been proposed that addition of iron to the HNLC waters could promote biological production causing a drawdown of atmospheric CO2. Consequently, ocean iron fertilization (OIF) has been widely regarded as a potential technique to sequester CO2 from the atmosphere. Naqvi organized the largest OIF experiment conducted so far – called the LOHAFEX – in the Southern Ocean, which yielded quite different results from those of previous studies. In the absence of diatoms, due to silicon deficiency in the study area, intense grazing of smaller phytoplankton by zooplankton prevented large build-up of phytoplankton biomass and carbon export to the deep sea. The LOHAFEX findings imply a much lower than expected potential of OIF for sequestration of atmospheric CO2.
Naqvi initiated the first systematic study of freshwater ecosystems of India (groundwaters, natural lakes and man-made reservoirs). Observations in a large number of dams revealed relatively moderate eutrophication, with anoxic conditions prevailing in the lypolimnia during summer stratification with an apparent loss of fixed nitrogen in most reservoirs. Mechanisms and rates of this loss have been determined. More importantly, it has been demonstrated that methane emissions from Indian dams, previously postulated to be the highest in the world, are much smaller.
Naqvi provided a nucleus for the formation of a bio-geochemistry group in NIO that over the years has developed to be among the best in the world. In this process he also set up numerous state-of-the-art analytical facilities and developed expertise, many of which are not available anywhere in the country. He guided and trained a large number of youngsters who are occupying high positions in academic and research institutions both in India and abroad. He also led numerous research projects. He participated in over 50 research expeditions, being the chief scientist of over half of them, including LOHAFEX. He was also a member of the Third Indian Expedition to Antarctica that set up the first permanent station at the icy continent. Naqvi has extensively traveled abroad delivering invited talks at a large number of institutions and conferences. He has worked at the following institutions: Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, New York, USA (as a Raman Research Fellow); Institute for Hydrospheric-Atmospheric Sciences, Nagoya University, Japan (as a visiting professor); Centre for Tropical Marine Ecology, Bremen, Germany (as a Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg Fellow); Max-Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen (as a Marie Curie Fellow), and KISR, Salmiya, Kuwait. He was an Adjunct Scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, US, from 2007 to 2017.
Naqvi served on a very large number of national and international committees, including United Nations panels and organizing committees of many international conferences. He has been actively involved with planning and implementation of several ocean-related projects of International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and Scientific Committee on Ocean Research (SCOR). He was a member of the executive committee and several working groups of SCOR. He has also been engaged in editing of international journals, serving on editorial boards of Indian Journal of Marine Sciences, 'Marine Biology and Aquatic Biology, and an executive editor of Biogeosciences.
In recognition of his scientific contributions, Naqvi has received a large number of awards/recognitions, including the CSIR Young Scientist Award (1987), MAAS Young Scientist Award (1989), Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Prize (1996), Vigyan Ratna by the Uttar Pradesh Government (2004), National Award for Ocean Science & Technology by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India (2013), PSN National Award for Excellence in Science & Technology, HN Siddiquie medal by the Indian Geophysical Union (2014), Sisir Kumar Mitra Memorial Award by the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) (2015), and National Geosciences Award for Excellence (2018) by the Ministry of Mines, Government of India. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India, Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, and Third World Academy of Sciences. He has also been selected as a Geochemistry Fellow by the Geochemical Society (USA) and the European Association of Geochemistry in 2020.
The Arabian Sea is a region of sea in the northern Indian Ocean, bounded on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, Gulf of Aden and Guardafui Channel, on the northwest by Gulf of Oman and Iran, on the north by Pakistan, on the east by India, and on the southeast by the Laccadive Sea and the Maldives, on the southwest by Somalia. Its total area is 3,862,000 km2 (1,491,000 sq mi) and its maximum depth is 4,652 meters. The Gulf of Aden in the west connects the Arabian Sea to the Red Sea through the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, and the Gulf of Oman is in the northwest, connecting it to the Persian Gulf.
The National Institute of Oceanography, founded on 1 January 1966 as one of 38 constituent laboratories of the CSIR, is a self-governing research organisation in India that conducts scientific research and studies on the unique oceanographic features of the northern Indian Ocean. It is headquartered in Goa and has regional offices in Kochi, Mumbai, and Visakhapatnam.
The National Oceanography Centre Southampton (NOCS) is a centre for research, teaching, and technology development in Ocean and Earth science. NOCS was created in 1995, jointly between the University of Southampton and the UK Natural Environment Research Council and is located within the port of Southampton at a purpose-built dockside campus with modern facilities. In 2010 the university and NERC components demerged, and the NERC-managed component became the National Oceanography Centre. The two components of NOCS continue close collaboration through the jointly run Graduate School, shared research facilities and laboratories, complementary research groups, and many joint research grants and publications. The university component “Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre Southampton” (OES) is part of the Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences, (FELS). It was ranked 46th in the world for Earth and Marine Sciences by the QS World University Rankings in 2019.
Prem Chand Pandey is an Indian space scientist, planetary scientist, and academic in the fields of satellite oceanography, remote sensing, atmospheric science, the Antarctic and climate change, and also he is the founding director of the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR).
Syed Mahmood Naqvi was an Indian Earth scientist specialising in geochemistry at the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) in Hyderabad. In a four-decade career, from the 1960s through 2000s, he was the recipient of numerous awards, scientific as well as humanitarian, and served as Fellow of the Association of Applied Geochemists, Indian Geophysical Union, Andhra Pradesh Academy of Sciences and Indian National Science Academy (INSA) as well as vice-president of the Geological Society of India, the Geological Mining and Metallurgical Society of India and the Indian Society of Applied Geochemists (ISAG).
LOHAFEX was an ocean iron fertilization experiment jointly planned by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in India and the Helmholtz Association in Germany. The purpose of the experiment was to see if the iron would cause an algal bloom and trap carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. While an algal bloom did result, it was smaller than expected and as most of the algae were consumed by zooplankton instead of sinking to the ocean floor, the amount of carbon dioxide permanently removed from the atmosphere was deemed negligible. The result was thus a setback for plans to use iron fertilization of the oceans to create negative carbon dioxide emissions.
Johann Reinder Erlers Lutjeharms, was a leading South African marine scientist and an authority in the oceanography of the Agulhas Current, who authored a definitive work on the subject, The Agulhas Current. His main field of investigation was the large-scale circulation patterns of the oceans adjacent to southern Africa and their influence on weather and climate, and he participated in 17 research cruises and was responsible for a further 48 projects undertaken on such cruises.
Aditi Pant, is an Indian oceanographer. She was the first Indian woman to visit Antarctica, alongside geologist Sudipta Sengupta in 1983 as part of the Indian Antarctic Program. She has held prominent positions at institutions including the National Institute of Oceanography, National Chemical Laboratory, University of Pune, and Maharashtra Academy of Sciences.
The International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE) was a large-scale multinational hydrographic survey of the Indian Ocean which took place from September 1, 1959, to December 31, 1965, Jawaharlal Nehru then PM of India inaugurated International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE) in 1959 with collaboration with foreign universities. It worked to describe and understand the basic features of the Indian Ocean.
Hassan Nasiem Siddique was an Indian marine geologist and the director of the National Institute of Oceanography. He was the deputy leader of the first Indian expedition to the Antarctica during 1981–82. He was known for his geological studies on Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea and was an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, Geological Society of India, Association of Exploration Geophysicists and the National Academy of Sciences, India. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences in 1978. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Shri in 1983.
Bhamidipati Lakshmidhara Kanakadri Somayajulu (1937-2016) is an Indian geochemist and a CSIR Emeritus Scientist at Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad. He is known for his studies on ancient and contemporary marine processes and is an elected fellow of several science societies such as the National Academy of Sciences, India, Geological Society of India, Indian Geophysical Union, American Geophysical Union, European Association for Geochemistry, Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences in 1978.
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Satish Ramnath Shetye is an Indian geophysicist, oceanographer and a former vice chancellor of the University of Goa. He is a former director of the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) and is known for his researches on the monsoon-driven currents along the Indian coast. He is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies viz. Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, India as well as the Indian Geophysical Union. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences in 1992.
Kolluru Sree Krishna is an Indian marine geophysicist and former chief scientist at the National Institute of Oceanography, India. He is known for his studies on the evolution of the Indian Ocean and is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies: Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences, India. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences in 2001.
Sunil Kumar Singh is a leading Indian geochemist, a professor at the Physical Research Laboratory and currently the director of the National Institute of Oceanography, India. He is known for his studies on low temperature elemental and isotope geochemistry and his researches are reported to have assisted in widening the understanding of the evolution of the Himalayas. His studies have been documented in several peer-reviewed articles; Google Scholar, an online repository of scientific articles, has listed 99 of them respectively.
Dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA), also known as nitrate/nitrite ammonification, is the result of anaerobic respiration by chemoorganoheterotrophic microbes using nitrate (NO3−) as an electron acceptor for respiration. In anaerobic conditions microbes which undertake DNRA oxidise organic matter and use nitrate (rather than oxygen) as an electron acceptor, reducing it to nitrite, and then to ammonium (NO3− → NO2− → NH4+).
An oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) is characterized as an oxygen-deficient layer in the world's oceans. Typically found between 200 m to 1500 m deep below regions of high productivity, such as the western coasts of continents. OMZs can be seasonal following the spring-summer upwelling season. Upwelling of nutrient-rich water leads to high productivity and labile organic matter, that is respired by heterotrophs as it sinks down the water column. High respiration rates deplete the oxygen in the water column to concentrations of 2 mg/L or less forming the OMZ. OMZs are expanding, with increasing ocean deoxygenation. Under these oxygen-starved conditions, energy is diverted from higher trophic levels to microbial communities that have evolved to use other biogeochemical species instead of oxygen, these species include nitrate, nitrite, sulphate etc. Several Bacteria and Archea have adapted to live in these environments by using these alternate chemical species and thrive. The most abundant phyla in OMZs are Pseudomonadota, Bacteroidota, Actinomycetota, and Planctomycetota.
Parthasarathi Chakraborty is an Indian environmental geochemist, a former senior scientist at the CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography and an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India. Chakraborty is known for his studies in the field of Environmental Chemistry. He made contributions to the field of Environmental Geochemistry which has facilitated our understanding of the metals-natural ligands interactions in natural and marine environments. He is a recipient of the National Geoscience Award-2015 and an elected fellow of the Indian Geophysical Union.The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences in 2018.
Bess Ward is an American oceanographer, biogeochemist, microbiologist, and William J. Sinclair Professor of Geosciences at Princeton University.
Sivasankaran Bijoy Nandan is a professor at the Department of Marine Biology, Microbiology & Biochemistry, School of Marine Sciences, Cochin University of Science & Technology (CUSAT). He currently appointed as Vice Chacellor of Kannur University and holds the office of the Dean, Faculty of Marine Sciences, Cochin University of Science and Technology. He is also syndicate and senate member of CUSAT. He was served as Head of the department, Department of Marine Biology, Microbiology and Biochemistry, CUSAT during 2019 - 2021 period. He has expertise in teaching, research, and development activities in the broad area of Aquatic Ecosystem Characterisation, Conservation, Restoration and Management, Carbon Dynamics & Community Ecology, Communities Ecology & Biology, Eco-toxicology and Biology of Polar Communities. Recently a new species of deep sea wood boring mollusc collected from eastern Arabian Sea named after Prof. Bijoy Nandan as Xylophaga nandani by team of Researchers from Brazil and India namely, Marcel Velásquez, P.R. Jayachandran & M. Jima. Recently, a crab species discovered along the Kerala coast was named Aniptumnus bijoyi in honor of Bijoy, as recognized by Hari, Hershey, and Mendoza in 2022.