Field events: October 2024
It’s another bumper research season for the Antarctic Science Platform with 13 events heading south in the 2024/25 summer season.
All the best to our research teams - we hope you have an inspiring and productive season ahead! Your work is crucial to building our understanding of Antarctica's role in the global Earth system, especially as climate change accelerates. The insights you uncover — from the delicate ecosystems beneath the Ross Sea to the dynamic changes in the ice shelves — will deepen our knowledge of how this unique continent influences global climate and ecosystem health.
The front end of the season has an emphasis on ecological research, with teams working out on the sea ice (as well as under it).
Here’s a brief overview of the teams entering the field in October:
Functional attributes of Antarctic Sponges
Glass sponges (Porifera, Hexactinellida) are important species in the Antarctic ecosystem, yet their role in linking the ocean floor to the water column and their physiological needs remain largely unknown. This makes it difficult to model how sensitive they are to environmental changes.
To address these gaps, a research team will gather data this season by documenting the population structure of glass sponges around Ross Island using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).
Divers will also tag individual sponges for photogrammetry and conduct in situ experiments to study their diet, feeding rates and metabolism. Additionally, environmental data will be collected from the surrounding area.
This research will contribute to biogeographic models developed under Antarctic Science Platform Project 3, helping to better understand the vulnerability of these iconic reef-building organisms to changing environmental conditions.
Platelet ice as a habitat
Beneath the Ross Sea's ice lies a fragile, largely unexplored world of delicate "platelet ice" layers, which form a unique habitat. These layers protect algae and bacteria and serve as a nursery for Antarctic silverfish, playing a crucial role in the Ross Sea food web.
A team led by Dr Natalie Robinson will continue research into sea ice in McMurdo Sound collecting quantitative cores from the sub-ice platelet layer, as well as environmental data to provide context.
They will also be recovering and then redeploying a seafloor-mounted mooring from the 2023/24 summer season. The mooring will provide valuable measurements of ocean temperature, salinity, and current flow.
Ultimately, the information will contribute to an improved understanding of ice-ocean processes and the seasonal cycle of ocean circulation from beneath the McMurdo Ice Shelf cavity.
Antarctic aquatic ecosystems
The microbial communities that colonise the inland lakes and ponds of the McMurdo Dry Valleys are unique, surviving in one of the coldest and driest environments on Earth. However, they are also extremely vulnerable to changes in climate, and there is great risk that these unique ecosystems may disappear as Antarctica warms.
Prof Ian Hawes will continue investigations into aquatic microbial communities in the McMurdo Dry Valleys and their response to environmental change, particularly rising lake levels resulting from melting glaciers.
His team is re-visiting Lake Fryxell and Lake Bonney this season, using a combination of remotely operated vehicles (ROV), diving, under-water experimentation and sampling techniques to study microbial mats.
This work continues a collaboration with the United States-led Long-Term Ecological Research programme (LTER).
Fishing for environmental DNA (eDNA)
All living things shed genetic information into their local environment - this is called environmental DNA, or eDNA. The collection of eDNA provides information on the types of animals living in the local area. Understanding the Ross Sea food web is important because it is anticipated that this unique and fragile system will be impacted by climate change.
This season, Prof Steve Wing’s team will again be working through holes in the sea ice to collect fish and water samples at multiple sites on Ross Island.
Alongside this, they will visit Capes Bird and Royds to collect samples of penguin guano, and Turtle Rock and Razorback Island to collect seal scat. The samples will be used for eDNA analysis, which will contribute to an improved understanding of Ross Sea food webs.
Ross Ice Shelf melt hotspot
Ice shelves (ice floating on the ocean) are a ‘safety band’ around Antarctica, slowing the flow of the ice sheet (ice on land) toward the ocean. The Platform is investigating how the inflow of warm surface ocean water is contributing to rapid melting on the underside of the Ross Ice Shelf.
As part of the work, a team led by Dr Craig Stewart has established a network of phase-sensitive Radar Echo Sounders (ApRES) on the Ross Ice Shelf, at a location east of Cape Crozier where a ‘hot-spot’ is melting faster than other parts of the ice shelf. The network remains in place this season, continuing to provide hourly estimates of ice shelf thickness throughout the year.