Polarstern 2006 / CAML expedition: Antarctic biodiversity
The Polarstern
© International Polar Foundation / René Robert
As a prelude to the International Polar Year, from the end of November 2006 to February 2007, the IPF will send its scientific liaison officer to Antarctica. On board "Polarstern", the Alfred Wegener Institute's main research vessel, Gauthier Chapelle will cover the research undertaken during this expedition.
Beside its outreach mission for international media, Gauthier will make the follow-up of the expedition accessible to the youth on Educapoles. Interviews of scientists onboard will be published on SciencePoles. Videos are also available on the Cousteau Society website.
As a main contributor to the Census of Antarctic Marine Life, this expedition will lead an international team of biologists to the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. The main destination of "Polarstern" is a zone of now open water freed to navigation by the recent collapse of the Larsen A & B ice-shelves.
Ice shelves are the floating sections of glaciers originating from an ice cap. Since 1974, the Antarctic Peninsula has lost 13,000 km2 of these giant ice shelves, most probably because of global warming. The most spectacular of these events occurred in February 2002, when a 3,250 km2 (roughly the area of Luxemburg) and 200 m thick chunk of the Larsen B ice shelf fell apart in less than a month, after existing in the same place since the end of the last ice age 5,000 years ago. This first biological expedition should enable studies on how these climate-induced shifts in ice cover will impact the seabed biodiversity. Planktonic algae will be able to colonise these new areas of open sea, thereby offering a new food source to the dependent bottom communities.
Leaving from Cape Town, South Africa, on the 23rd of November, the "Polarstern" expedition will first refuel the German Antarctic station of Neumayer. After another 10 days of sailing, a first period of 3 weeks will be devoted to the monitoring of fish stocks for the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), mainly around the South Shetland Islands. If sea ice conditions allow it, the next three weeks will bring the ice-breaker to the Larsen area. The multi-disciplinary study of the bottom communities will constitute the highlight of the expedition, with recently discovered cold seeps as an additional target. The cruise will come to an end in Punta Arenas, Chile, on the 30th of January.
The presence of an outreach liaison onboard Polarstern will allow regular reports, pictures and interviews of scientists to be sent, potentially ensuring a high media exposure. Video footages will be edited onboard for subsequent use. Gauthier Chapelle will also be available for opportunistic phone calls from journalists during the expedition. The IPF webteam will make the follow-up of the expedition accessible to the youth through SciencePoles
