At first glance, the white frozen landscape of Antarctica appears devoid of any living thing, but if one takes a closer look at areas not covered by ice, it's teaming with tiny life forms
Background
Ice-free areas which are scarce but can be found scattered across East Antarctica, are amongst the most extreme terrestrial environments on Earth. Here, life is dominated by small microbes which somehow manage to survive these harsh conditions.
What shapes the biodiversity and biogeochemical processes of these tiny organisms provides a scientific basis for habitat mapping, developing conservation strategies, guiding long-term monitoring efforts and predicting the possible responses of these organisms to future environmental changes in Antarctica.
The MICROBIAN Project
Scientists from the University of Ghent and Liège University, Elie Verleyen, Sam Lambrechts and Valentina Savaglia, are now at Princess Elisabeth research station to discover more about this.
A previous expedition to Antarctica by their team revealed that many of the organisms living in the Sør Rondane Mountains are unique to the continent and so very special. Perhaps not really surprising considering these mountains encompass a diversity of terrestrial habitats which vary widely in geology and soil, exposure time and microclimatic conditions.
In fact, so little is known about the mountains near Princess Elisabeth that the area is a haven for scientists hoping to make new discoveries. And for Elie and his team, studying species which are highly adapted and possibly endemic to cold and dry environments are especially interesting for further research as these organisms could yield new insights into the cold and dry limits of life on earth.
Why choose Princess Elisabeth?
‘So far, most projects looking at microbial communities in Antarctica were done in coastal regions. Unlike many other research stations, Princess Elisabeth is about 200 km inland. This means that the ice-free regions around the station offer us a unique opportunity to study microbial communities in regions characterized by more extreme environmental and climatic conditions than those found in coastal ice-free oases.’ Prof. Dr. Elie Verleyen, Ghent University
Elie and his team will for the first time use high resolution satellite images to identify areas of special biological interest in East Antarctica. Among other things, they also plan to create an inventory of what microbes can be found, what factors determine their distribution and what effects climate change may have on them.
More broadly, the new knowledge they gain under the MICROBIAN project will make a significant contribution to our understanding of the ecology of Antarctica’s unique terrestrial microbes.
Meet the MICROBIAN Team
lie Verleyen has a PhD in Biology and works as a tenure track professor in the Protistology and Aquatic Ecology lab at Ghent University. He has expertise in the Late Quaternary ecology and evolution of polar and cold-temperate aquatic ecosystems, and in microbial biogeography and macroecology. He has played a significant role in the development of a network of reconstructions of Late Quaternary climate and relative sea level changes in East Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands. He has begun complementary work in the Arctic region, which will allow for a thorough understanding of the effects of climate change on the overall functioning and diversity of polar terrestrial ecosystems.
Sam Lambrechts is a PhD student based at the Laboratory of Microbiology of Ghent University. Trained as a biologist, Sam studies microbial biodiversity and ecology, with a focus on extreme environments, including polar and alpine ecosystems. His research on the recently discovered uncultivated majority, the so-called dark matter of microbiology, has highlighted how little we know about the diversity of microbes on this planet, this allowed him to discover how these are exciting times to be a microbial ecologist. In addition to his interest in microbiology, polar and alpine regions have unmistakably played a defining role in his life, triggering the same curiosity, continuous wonder and astonishment he experiences in scientific research.
Valentina Savaglia grew up in Sicily where she discovered the underwater world very early. For her, pursuing a career in ocean conservation was a natural progression. Fascinated by polar environments and intrigued by the adaptations living organisms need to survive such extreme environment, she found herself embarked to Carlini Station, in the Antarctic Peninsula. Here she decided to pursue studies on Antarctic ecology and is currently working on her Ph.D. at Liège University. As part of the MICROBIAN project, Valentina studies the biogeography, function and diversity of cyanobacteria in the Sør Rondane Mountains (East Antarctica), under the supervision of Dr. Annick Wilmotte and Dr. Elie Verleyen of Ghent University.
MICROBIAN is a project funded by BelSPO
Author: Lisa Benedetti
Scientists are going back in time near Princess Elisabeth to try and understand the global implications of a changing Eastern Antarctic Ice Sheet
Background
Images of large glaciers breaking off the Antarctic have been stirring up quite a bit of attention recently. These events are not only impressive to see, but have also provoked questions and concern around the world about how fast these changes are happening and how they may impact future global sea level rise in the face of climate change.
At the moment, we only have satellite measurements from over a few decades which give us a rather narrow picture of how the Antarctic Ice Sheet behaves over time. We do know that dramatic lowering of the surface of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet has occurred during the last million years, but there are other important aspects we know almost nothing about.
The DEAIS Project
The only way to get a clearer idea of how the Antarctic Ice Sheet will behave in the future and how it may impact future sea-level change is if we have information stretching over longer periods of time.
Scientists Dr. Naki Akçar and Dr. Serdar Yeşilyurt are now stationed at Princess Elisabeth exactly for this purpose. Their project DEAIS will help decipher the pace of deglaciation in the past as well as the long-term behavior of the Antarctic Ice Sheet in the Sør Rondane Mountains in Queen Maud Land.
Part of their work involves visiting nunatacks south and west of Princess Elisabeth station. A nunatack is an often rocky and exposed part of a ridge or mountain within or at the edge of a glacier or ice field. They plan to locate and map the paleo-positions and glacial retreat of ice margins found in these nunatacks. They will also analyze rock samples they collect from glacial deposits and glacially abraded bedrock at the study sites.
Why conduct research at Princess Elisabeth?
"First of all, the Sor Rondane Mountains remain largely unexplored and unstudied. Secondly, Princess Elisabeth’s location is perfect. It's found between the high ice plateau and lowlands to the north, and mountains are quite close. Scientists can access most study sites easily during daily trips without having to organize long difficult expeditions. A bonus is that the logistical standards offered at the station are very high which allows for top quality field research." Dr. Naki Akçar
Naki and Serdar’s work will give us insight into the deglaciation history and amount of sub-glacial erosion that has occurred in the region. But on a global scale, this knowledge will give us a better picture of how a changing Eastern Antarctic Ice Sheet will impact the world in the future.
Meet the DEAIS Team
Dr. Naki Akçar is a sedimentologist and stratigrapher based at the University of Bern. He teaches sedimentary petrography, sedimentology, geological and geomorphological mapping. He is especially keen about exploring the interactions occuring between the geosphere, climate and human societies during the Quaternary (last 2.6 million years of the Earth’s history) through the study of geological archives. He tries to solve this puzzle by producing quantitative sedimentological and chronological data from conducting field studies, quantitative methods in the lab, time calibration with cosmogenic nuclide chronologies, and modeling. This knowledge allows him to reconstruct and build the basis for assessing the causes and rates of landscape evolution over time.
Dr. Serdar Yeşilyurt is a geographer and geomorphologist who recently finished his PhD studies at the Physical Geography Division the Ankara University. His research interest is Quaternary landscapes, especially glacial morphology. In 2014, he was awarded an international intra-PhD grant by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey for scientific training at the Institute of Geological Sciences at the University of Bern. His key activities include contributing to state-of-the-art research projects as well as involvement in the management of a high-quality research laboratory and supervision of graduate students and teaching. He applies unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) technologies for detailed mapping and compares collected data with existing aerial photographs.
Author: Lisa Benedetti
Canadian scientist Dr. Lori Ziolkowski has returned to Princess Elisabeth to study the limits of life on earth
Background
Antarctica is a natural laboratory for studying the limits of life on Earth because it’s one of the harshest and most extreme environments on the planet where only the most resilient organisms can survive. Its geographical isolation from nearly all human activity also means that carbon cycle processes here are unique when compared to elsewhere on Earth.
The REMACA Project
Dr. Lori Ziolkowski, Baillet Latour Antarctica Fellowship winner, has just returned to Princess Elisabeth for a second season to continue her work on the incredible small microbial life forms that can be found near the station.
She brought an all female team with her this season, young Canadian scientist, Dr. Jenine McCutcheon and Prof. Liane Benning, from the GFZ in Potsdam and the University of Leeds, and also past President of the European Association of Geochemistry.
They’ve been collecting rocks, water, soil and other materials in a wide variety of habitats near the station. They’ve already visited a number of sites to find the best approach to this season's sampling and census activities. So far, they’ve visited Yobuku Valley, Duboisbreen, Teltet, Petrelnutten and the Pingvinane. They have amongst other things, re-visited a lake in the Yobuku Vallet known as "Gigi's Lake", which like last year has open water again.
There are numerous leads to follow after last season's expedition where Lori was accompanied by Dr. Stefanie Lutz also from the GFZ in Potsdam. With the specialized knowledge of the three scientists, it will add another dimension to the microbiology oriented work of last season. The geochemical specialization will allow them to look at other mechanisms of formation of sediments and crystals as well as the pathways for the creation of endolithic communities.
REMACA is a unique opportunity to uncover first estimates of the age of carbon and microbial activity in eastern Antarctica. This will play a part in any future study on past climate patterns and microbial diversity in East Antarctica.
Keep on top of REMACA and discoveries about these tiny resilient creatures here:
http://seoe.sc.edu/lori-ziolkowski
https://twitter.com/extraneutrons
Meet the REMACA Team
Dr. Lori Ziolkowski is a Canadian scientist now working as an Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina. She studies the role that microbes living in permafrost and glaciers may play in future climate feedback. Lori’s passionate about understanding what controls the limits of life and carbon recycling on Earth. She has developed new techniques to isolate chemicals from complex mixtures to determine their age using carbon dating. She applies these techniques to study the limits of microbes in extreme environments like Antarctica.
Dr. Liane G Benning is leading the interface-geochemistry group at the German Research Centre for Geosciences, GFZ in Potsdam, Germany and is affiliated with the Cohen Laboratories in the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds. Over the last decade she has focused her work on molecular aspects which govern processes at microbe-mineral-fluid interfaces. Her Arctic work focuses on mineral transformations in icebergs and glacial meltwaters, changes in soil formation in newly deglaciated areas, and the makeup of snow and ice algae. This is Liane’s first trip to Antarctica. She will contribute to REMACA, but also look at soils and rocks, their geo-bio make-up and how they affect carbon and nutrient cycling in the remote, extreme settings around the Princess Elisabeth.
Dr. Jenine McCutcheon is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Cohen Geochemistry Group in the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds. Her background is in Geology and Microbiology. Jenine has examined microbe-mineral interactions in a variety of natural and engineered environments, including the Canadian High Arctic, Great Barrier Reef, and various mine sites in Canada and Australia. Her current postdoctoral research expands beyond her interest in microbe-mineral interactions, and will help determine their contribution to darkening and melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet.
Antarctica is probably the best place in the world to study space travel
Background
Life in Antarctica is similar to that which astronauts face in outer space. In both cases, you have people in good physical condition of a comparable age range who live together under a challenging situation: extreme isolation and confinement, interactions with the same people day in and day out and very little fresh food.
The IMAGE project
These are the main motives behind Belgian Professor Sarah Baatout’s IMAGE project at Princess Elisabeth this season.
Back in Belgium, Sarah and her SCK•CEN group at the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre have been following astronauts who spend 6 months or more at the International Space Station. Immunity becomes weaker in extreme environments and is therefore one of the main obstacles to overcome during space travel. As part of its research on immunity, SCK•CEN takes blood and other samples from astronauts before, during and after their space flights.
As with the astronauts she follows, Sarah is now collecting samples from the scientists and crew at Princess Elisabeth to study immune responses to extreme conditions in Antarctica. She’s also testing the stability of 20 different medicines inside and outside the station to be potentially used in the medical kits of the astronauts of tomorrow.
Part of Sarah’s curiosity is finding out how spirulina may affect health by feeding it to the scientists and crew at the station. Spirulina is a bacterium used as an antioxidant and vitamin rich nutritional supplement. It’s a good candidate for long-term space flight because it can be easily grown in outer space and so could be used to enhance and sustain the immunity of astronauts.
Never sitting still at Princess Elisabeth, Sarah is also regularly in touch with schools in Belgium and abroad via internet to share her energy and enthusiasm for science. This is completely in harmony with IPF’s motto of bridging science and society.
Meet Dr. Sarah Baatout
Sarah is the Head of the Radiobiology Unit at the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK•CEN) and Guest Professor in bio-engineering at Gent University. SCK•CEN is one of the largest research centers in Belgium. They specialize in peaceful applications of radioactivity, including safety of nuclear installations and management of radioactive waste, but also the safety of astronauts during space travel. She not only loves to inspire students to become excited about science, but is also involved in numerous non-profit organisations, namely in the European Radiation Research Society, the Belgian Space Science Society and Youspace.
Keep on top of Sarah's scientific mission to Princess Elisabeth Antarctica here: Facebook / Blog
Interview with Sarah just before her journey
Author: Lisa Benedetti
There are a lot of things that can happen in Antarctica, but when it comes to medical emergencies, it can mean the difference between life and death
Like everywhere in Antarctica, there are many risks to manage for the scientists and crew who stay at and near Princess Elisabeth. The station is on a glacier, there are hidden crevasses, there is always the risk of accident when driving or even sitting on snowmobiles and whenever the station is under maintenance or construction
That’s why it’s so important to have someone like Jacques Richon at Princess Elisabeth. Jacques is a veteran Swiss doctor who ensures the good health of everyone who stays at the station. He’s ready on standby to provide medical aid whenever it’s needed. But he also avoids problems by giving the stations residents safety training and briefings.
Luckily, there have never been any serious injuries so far, but Jacques is the kind of doctor you want if something goes really wrong. Because if serious medical aid is needed, it’s only available in Cape Town, about 5000 km away.
Not just any doctor can treat frostbite induced gangrene, which is no problem for Jacques because he has the know how, Zen like mental control and strong stomach needed to treat extreme injuries in extreme locations.
And if he needs assistance, it’s no problem because Jacques has ringed himself with expert advice through a network of colleagues from different disciplines who are a mere satellite phone call away.
This is already Jacques 8th time at Princess Elisabeth, but one of his goals this season is to develop and test a tele-medicine procedure with a hospital in Switzerland (Hôpital du Valais) and GRIMM (Groupe d’Intervention Médicale en Montagne). This will not only be useful in Antarctica, but for anyone needing medical assistance in remote locations.
Jacques also trains the stations residents learning crevasse rescue and rescue in challenging environments.
And just in case, he can even fly a helicopter.
Is Antarctica as pristine and untouched as we think? A group of scientists have been collecting snow and dust near Princess Elisabeth to find out
Background
Tiny particles like dust which become airborne and trapped in the atmosphere interact with each other through scattering and absorption with the sun’s radiation. These particles play a crucial role in the formation of clouds because they affect both the radiative properties of clouds and precipitation like rain and snow.
Although Antarctica is considered one of the most pristine places on Earth when it comes to anthropogenic emissions, these miniscule particles can trap and bind pollutants and carry them over great distances. This means the Antarctic may not be as pristine as we once believed.
The CHASE project
This is one of the reasons Dr. Christophe Walgraeve, Dr. Nadine Mattielli and Dr. Alexander Mangold have just collected samples near Princess Elisabeth Antarctica research station. They will compare dust which arrives on the coast to that which travels towards the center of Antarctica, closer to the plateau.
They will try to discover which types and what are the sources of the dust that arrives in eastern Antarctica. But equally, they would like to find out more about the atmospheric transport pathways that occur between the atmosphere and snow, and possibly in the nearby Southern Ocean.
Such knowledge will give us important insight concerning biogeochemical cycles and the relative importance of natural and anthropogenic compounds found in Antarctica. This will also improve our understanding of climate data extracted from ice cores and the transport and deposition processes of not only mineral nutrients, but also organic micro-pollutants in polar regions.
This type of work has never been done in Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica, where Princess Elisabeth station is found, so we are looking forward to finding out what new science the CHASE team uncovers.
Watch video of Dr. Nadine Mattielli talking about CHASE
Meet the CHASE team
Dr. Christophe Walgraeve is a Belgian scientist. He did his PhD research at the University of Ghent with the EnVOC research group under the PARHEALTH project (supported by the federal government). Christophe’s research focuses on the detection and quantification of atmospheric organic micro pollutants, particularly volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and semi-volatile organics sorbed onto particulate matter. He uses advanced sampling (through active and passive sampling methodologies) and analytical methods requiring the use of various techniques like gas chromatography (GC) hyphenated to high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) and high resolution proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-Qi-TOFMS).
Dr. Nadine Mattielli is a geologist and geochemist. She is currently a full Professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and Head of the Geology teaching program in the Faculty of Sciences and Secretary of the Master Jury. She is co-director of the Laboratoire G-Time (Geochemistry - Isotope, Mineral and Element Tracing), from the DGES (Department of Geosciences, Environment and Society) and PI or co-PI of several research programs (Belspo, FNRS, ARC, PAI, EU) and the BIGE analytical platform, a joint venture between AMGC (VUB) and G-Time (ULB). Nadine’s main field of expertise is isotope geochemistry (radiogenic and heavy stable isotopes), in particular, the sources and clouding processes which affect airborne particles collected in Antarctica.
Dr. Alexander Mangold has been working with the Observations Department at the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium since 2005. He manages the institute’s research on aerosols, UV and ozone at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica research station. So far, Alexander has participated in six expeditions to the station where he not only built an observatory to monitor aerosol, ozone and UV, but also carries out radio soundings using weather balloons. During the 2017-2018 scientific expedition to Princess Elisabeth, he will focus most of his time conducting project AEROCLOUD but will also be busy with the CHASE project, in partnership with the University of Ghent and Université Libre de Bruxelles.
A team of glaciologists are drilling deep near Princess Elisabeth to discover more about Antarctica’s role in future sea level rise
Background
The Southern Hemisphere’s climate at high latitudes has changed dramatically over the last decades, but these changes and their global implications are not well known because existing short term records provide a limited picture. The Antarctic’s climate system itself is very complex with strong interactions between the continents ice sheet, atmosphere, ocean and sea ice. Within this system even small scale variations often have large scale consequences.
To make any progress in our understanding of the Antarctic’s influence on future sea level rise, it is crucial we link the dynamics that affect Antarctica at different spatial and temporal scales. Such knowledge is not only a high priority for the scientific community, but will also help inform policies which help us tackle and respond to the effects of climate change.
MASS2ANT Project
Dr. Jean-Louis Tison, from the University of Brussels, and a group of glaciologists from Belgium and Canada are now stationed at Princess Elisabeth to solve some of these riddles through the MASS2ANT project. This new project will examine the amount of snow falling each year in Antarctica, which is key to understanding the global implications of Antarctica’s influence on future sea level rise.
Two Canadian core experts are helping Tison and his team drill into a so-called "ice rise", a kind of ice hill about 500 m thick, that occurs along the coast near the station. Meteorological towers will also be set up on both sides of the ice hill on which they are working. Over the next three weeks, the team will crisscross the coast near the station to collect ice and snow samples.
Gathered snow samples will allow for reconstruction of the history of snow accumulation as well as the climate in Eastern Antarctica over the last two centuries. Tison and his team will also take a look at the internal structure of the ice they collect to see how snow is redistributed over Antarctica's surface.
MASS2ANT will give us an exciting glimpse into how man has influenced the evolution of the accumulation of snow through global warming.
Meet the MASS2ANT Team
Dr. Hugues Goosse is a Research Director at the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique and a Professor at the Université de Louvain (UCL) in Belgium. He is also Head of the Earth and Climate Division of the Earth and Life Institute and the Georges Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research (TECLIM). The UCL-CLIM group has well respected expertise in climate modelling and they are actively engaged in studies of: (1) past climate change, (2) present state of the Earth system, (3) human-environment interactions and (4) modelling tools. Hugues recent work is mostly focused on sea-ice-ocean-atmosphere interactions in the Southern Ocean, decadal to centennial climate variations over the past millennium and data assimilations using ensemble methods in climate models.
Dr. Jean-Louis Tison is the Co-Director of the Laboratoire de Glaciologie at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Head of the PROPICE (Properties of Ice) Unit within that laboratory. For more than 35 years, the PROPICE Unit has built its expertise in field sampling and multi-parametric analyses of natural and artificial ice samples. Specialized in the analyses of ice at interfaces, this unit is fully equipped for the preparation and treatment of “sensitive” samples such as basal ice from ice sheets, sea ice, marine ice and lake ice. Jean-Louis has participated in 19 Antarctic, 6 Arctic and 16 Alpine expeditions and has contributed to several major publications on the unique paleoclimatic records of deep ice cores from the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets (GRIP, North-GRIP, NEEM, Vostok, EPICA Dome C).
Dr. Stéphane Vannitsem is Head of Unit at the Dynamical Meteorology and Climatology of the Meteorological and Climatological Research Service of the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium. His main research activities are oriented towards applying techniques in nonlinear dynamics and stochastic processes for the study of atmospheric and climate related challenges with particular emphasis on variability and predictability. Characteristic contributions include the development of techniques for post-processing weather, hydrological and climate forecasts and projections, and the development of coupled ocean-atmosphere models and their use to understand the development of the low-frequency variability within the atmosphere.
Dr. Jan Lenaerts is an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado. He is an expert in ice sheets and climate, but has a specific interest in polar climates, snow-atmosphere and ice-ocean interactions on meso- to global scales. The main tools he uses in his research are climate models evaluated with remote sensing and in-situ climate observations. He received his PhD cum laude in Polar Meteorology at Utrecht University in February 2013. His PhD research focused on blowing snow processes in Greenland and Antarctica. Since then, Jan has steered his research on improving snow and ice sheet processes in a global climate model (CESM). He received a NWO Veni Grant and InBev-Baillet Latour Antarctic Fellowship (both in 2014) to perform fieldwork in East Antarctica, and the AGU Cryosphere Early Career Award in 2017. He has led field expeditions to Greenland (2012) and East Antarctica (2014).
Dr. Stef Lhermitte has been working as an Assistant Professor in the Department Geoscience and Remote Sensing at the Delft University of Technology since 2016. Stef is an expert in multi-source remote sensing and snow modeling, but has a specific interest in assessing land-atmosphere interactions. He received his PhD at KULeuven in 2008 and subsequently worked at CEAZA (Chile), the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). In 2013, Stef received the prestigious FWO post-doctoral fellowship. During this period he studied the importance of atmosphere-snow interactions in polar regions. He coordinated and participated in the 2016 Benemelt field campaign beginning from the Princess Elizabeth station in East-Antarctica.
Henri Robert is busy in Antarctica conducting the first ever bird population assessment in the Sor Rondane Mountains near Princess Elisabeth research station
Background
Current global changes are quickly affecting our planet, and parts of Antarctica are among the fastest warming regions of the world while the Southern Ocean is also further endangered by ocean acidification. Having undergone historic climatic changes, the Snow Petrel is a circumpolar Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic seabird which serves as a perfect model organism to predict future global change scenarios. However, the evolutionary history and taxonomic status of this seabird is the subject of considerable controversy. The current consensus is that there are two distinct subspecies, the lesser and the greater Snow Petrel (respectively P. nivea nivea and P. n. major) which could be the result of different glacial refugia and the establishment of post glacial hybridization zones.
RECTO Project (BELSPO)
As one of the target species of the BELSPO-RECTO project, the beautiful and graceful Snow Petrel (Pagodroma nivea s.l.) is now capturing all of Henri Robert’s attention during the 2017-2018 BELARE campaign. The Snow Petrel is the most common species of the inland Queen Maud Land (the station and colonies are located nearly 200 km from the coast). Henri is not only doing a population assessment, but also a genetic assessment of the species in an attempt to reconstruct its evolutionary history and phylogeography. He will predict future distributions of the Snow Petrel and its prey under different scenarios by integrating spatial and trait distribution models with state-of-the art models for ocean dynamics, prey availability and sea ice.
The RECTO project will link the Snow Petrel's population history and refugia to past climate changes events. Biometrical variation (bill, tarsus, wing and tail length) will be measured and used to assess morphological variance among populations located around the Antarctic continent and Sub-Antarctic islands. Molecular techniques will be used to untangle the complex genetic structures of these birds, reveal population expansions, bottlenecks and population connectivity. Other studies will also allow for reconstruction of the phylogeography of the two “subspecies” occurring today.
In Action at Princess Elisabeth
Soon after arriving at Princess Elisabeth research station, Henri began work at the different study sites. The planning is ambicious: during one short season the objective is to monitor all breeding sites of Snow Petrel (Pagodroma nivea s.l.) of the Eastern Sor Rondane, perform a primary population estimate of the area and collect DNA samples.
Every day with his guide, equipped with polar clothes, shoes studs and ice axe, Henri is systematically surveying the rocky slopes of each nunatak where Petrels are known to breed. Each nest will be geo-referenced and local population estimated based on the number of occupied cavities.
Working conditions have been favourable so far, only two days of storm and poor visibility in late November. Most of the time, however, the sun is shining through clear blue skies and the wind is relatively calm. Temperature varies between -5°C and -20°C (with some season's unusual peak of 0°C on the brightest sunny days).
Stay tuned for more news on Henri's Snow Petrel work at Princess Elisabeth.
Henri Robert
Henri Robert is a biologist with the Conservation Biology Unit (OD Nature) of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS). Henri began his career as a field assistant for several conservation and research programmes across the world, focusing mainly on birds. For twelve years, he worked in the Carcinology Laboratory of RBINS on taxonomy of Southern Ocean amphipods. It was during this period where he took part in several missions on research vessels that he developed a passion for polar environments. As a keen ornithologist with an equal passion for marine mammals he then joined the Conservation Biology Unit with an insatiable curiosity for the Southern Ocean and its wildlife. In collaboration with the Laboratory of Polar Ecology (PolE) he participated in several missions along the Scotia Arc, the Antarctic Peninsula, the Weddell Sea and the high Arctic Ocean to perform long term “top predators” (marine mammal and seabird) monitoring. Other research and wildlife conservation programs has led Henri to work in the remotest tropical forests of the Congo basin (Central Africa) as well as Pacific Ocean to explore the invertebrate communities. While gathering data for the Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML) he had the opportunity to take part in the 2008-2009 BELARE campaign where local bird populations (Snow Petrel mainly) caught his attention and persuaded him to return to Princess Elisabeth Antarctica research station nearly a decade later to further investigate these emblematic and little known birds.
A series of short reports will soon be available on: www.naturalsciences.be/en/news and www.instagram.com/rbinsmuseum/
We are very sad to say goodbye to one of our dearest friends, Philippe Maystadt
Au revoir, cher ami
Nous apprenons avec une grande tristesse l’annonce du décès de Philippe Maystadt, un ami de La Fondation Polaire Internationale dont il était par ailleurs un administrateur actif.
Alain Hubert, actuellement en mission à 200 km de la base Princess Elisabeth a immédiatement été averti par téléphone.
Il présente, avec l’ensemble des administrateurs et de l'équipe de la Fondation, ses sincères condoléances à la famille et aux proches.
Goodbye, dearest friend
It is with great sadness that we learned of the death of Philippe Maystadt.
He was a friend of the International Polar Foundation as well as an active administrator.
He, as well as the IPF administrators and team, would like to send his family and relatives their deepest condolences.
Tot ziens, beste vriend
Met grote droefheid hebben we gehoord van de dood van wijlen Philippe Maystadt.
Hij was een vriend van de International Polar Foundation en een actieve beheerder.
Alain Hubert, die momenteel op expeditie is op 200 km van de basis van Prinses Elisabeth, werd onmiddellijk op de hoogte gebracht via de telefoon.
Hij, evenals de IPF-beheerders en het team, willen zijn familie en familieleden hun diepste medeleven betuigen.
Dr. Alexander Mangold, from the Meteorological Institute of Belgium, is now at Princess Elisabeth station to try and uncover the mysteries of different cloud types and aerosols, and their effect on surface energy budgets in eastern Antarctica
AEROCLOUD
The role of clouds, and their interaction with radiation and aerosols, are well known to be key elements of the climate system. Surprisingly, although finding out more about this is high on the international research agenda, very little is known about these interactions in Antarctica.
Precipitation is the only source of mass to the Antarctic ice sheet, and precipitation and cloud processes are closely connected. Considering that the Antarctic ice sheet will become a dominant contributor to sea level rise in the 21st Century, it is important we learn as much as possible about these interactions.
Further, clouds exert a large influence on the temporal and spatial variability of Antarctic surface energy and mass balance. Aerosols, mostly carried to Antarctica via long-range atmospheric pathways, strongly affect cloud formation and their ability to produce precipitation. However, the exact role of cloud properties is largely unknown.
The AEROCLOUD project will help solve these mysteries by gathering the following insights concerning the East Antarctic climate system: What is the role of clouds and aerosols and what is the inter-relation between these aerosols and clouds?
The starting point for this research is the meteorological-cloud-precipitation-aerosol observatory that was established during 2009-2012 at Princess Elisabeth in the framework of two BELSPO projects (HYDRANT and BELATMOS). Detailed measurements from the observatory will be used to evaluate and improve the regional climate model CCLM. An important advantage of the CCLM is the inclusion of a detailed parametrization scheme that takes into account the effect of aerosols on cloud microphysics.
Dr. Alexander Mangold
Dr. Alexander Mangold is a German scientist who has been working with the Observations Department at the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium since 2005. He manages the institute’s research on aerosols, UV and ozone at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica research station. So far, Dr. Mangold has participated in six expeditions to the station where he not only built an observatory to monitor aerosol, ozone and UV, but also carries out radio soundings using weather balloons. During the 2017-2018 scientific expedition to Princess Elisabeth, he will focus most of his time conducting project AEROCLOUD but will also be busy with the CHASE project, in partnership with the University of Ghent and Université Libre de Bruxelles.
Video of Dr. Mangold talking about his research
AEROCLOUD is a collaborative project of KU Leuven, the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium and the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy
