SAEF’s Antarctic field season has commenced, with over 40 SAEF students and staff heading south on expeditions to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Against the backdrop of another year of extraordinarily low sea ice and the arrival of the highly contagious H5N1 strain of avian flu, SAEF’s interdisciplinary teams are undertaking fieldwork designed to deliver the science and future workforce required to address the region’s most urgent challenges.
This year, SAEF expeditioners will reach more areas of the continent than ever before, with teams heading to the Holtedahl Mountains in Queen Maud Land, the Denman Glacier, Bunger Hills and Shackleton Ice Shelf in Wilkes Land, the Morozumi Mountains in North Victoria Land and the Antarctic Peninsula.
Three PhD students who departed for the Antarctic Peninsula in November were the first to go south. They are interested in the biodiversity that lives on the “islands in the ice”, the ice-free areas along the coastline. This region is experiencing a warming and greening trend, and they will conduct surveys to understand the abundance of grasses. They will also investigate the impacts of climate change on one of only two native Antarctic insects, Belgica antarctica. Later in the season, SAEF biologists will travel with the Chilean Antarctic Program to collect moss “cores” to better understand how Antarctic moss health varies across the continent.
In early December, a team of eight SAEF scientists and support personnel will travel to the Holtedahl Mountains, supported by White Desert. This multidisciplinary team of glaciologists, ecologists, and microbiologists will study the dynamics of the ice in the region and how genomics of the organisms can be used to understand the history of the ice sheet.
Meanwhile, two SAEF scientists will head to the Morozumi Mountains supported by Antarctica New Zealand to study the region’s poorly understood biodiversity and its relationship with the ice as it has advanced and retreated over millennia.
As part of the Australian Antarctic Program’s Denman Terrestrial Campaign, a team of SAEF scientists will deploy remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to uncover the unusual and intriguing species that live beneath and within the Antarctic sea ice. A key goal is understanding how recent record-low sea ice extents impact these species and their ecosystems.
In February, another team of SAEF scientists will depart on the RSV Nuyina’s first dedicated science voyage, the Denman Marine Voyage. Many members of the SAEF team on this voyage will be collecting seafloor animals, such as sea stars and octopuses, whose DNA can offer a timestamp for how Southern Ocean life has evolved in tune with the ice.
A unique part of this year’s field season is an exciting new initiative that will provide two SAEF staff members with a professional development opportunity to visit Antarctica with Noble Caledonia. They will gain first-hand experience of the continent and learn about the preparations, logistics, and decision-making required to undertake safe expeditions to the region.
