Over the 2023-2024 summer, SAEF took part in the Australian Antarctic Program’s Denman Terrestrial Campaign, a major science campaign to study the Denman Glacier and Bunger Hills region.
For approximately eight weeks, 9 SAEF scientists were based in a remote field camp in the Bunger Hills, a region 450 km west of Casey Station, alongside scientists and support personnel from the Australian Antarctic Division, the Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science and the Australian Antarctic Partnership Program.
As part of this campaign, SAEF conducted six interrelated research projects to understand the region’s past, present, and future and deliver insights to inform its protection. The team collected rock, soil, water, and moss samples and completed drone, remote sensing, and visual mapping.
The science will:
- help unveil the environmental history of the Denman Glacier, including how ice mass has changed over time and its implications for global sea level and biodiversity;
- reveal the drivers of patterns in the abundance of Antarctic life to improve projections for its responses to changing climates and human disturbance;
- integrate remote sensing, visual, and paleontological measures of the environment with assessments of biodiversity and landscape change to support conservation;
- provide policy-ready insights for improving the protection of Antarctica.
Read more about the Denman Terrestrial Campaign the Australian Antarctic Program website.
