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UK Team Heads to Antarctica to Save Climate-Threatened Port
Confirmed
In Short: A new team of UK specialists is embarking on a 9,000-mile journey to Antarctica to protect Port Lockroy, a British science base threatened by climate change.
A new team of UK specialists is embarking on a 9,000-mile journey to Antarctica to protect Port Lockroy, a British science base threatened by climate change.
The site, more than 80 years old, faces structural deterioration due to rising temperatures and extreme weather on the rapidly warming Antarctic Peninsula.
The team will live on Goudier Island, working in sub-zero temperatures, 24-hour daylight, and without running water.
Postmaster George Clarke, spending his third season at Port Lockroy, said, "I've really fallen in love with the Antarctic wilderness."
Last year's team prepared the site for this season's interventions, which UKAHT said was the charity's "biggest ever conservation season" at Port Lockroy.
This year's team will install beams and props to help the buildings withstand increased precipitation and snow loading, as well as monitor the penguin colony.
The team will be counting penguin nests, eggs, and chicks as part of a study to monitor and protect the colony.
A team of eight will spend five months at remote Base A, Port Lockroy on Goudier Island, while a field team of six specialists will travel further south to carry out the first comprehensive survey of another British heritage site, Wordie House.
Researchers from Japan’s National Institute of Polar Research and Nagoya University investigated the mismatch using measurements from the research icebreaker R/V Shirase during the 64th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition.
Krill had never been spotted at a hydrothermal vent before, but Bernard and her colleagues report in the journal Communications Biology the discovery of a surprising habitat for the krill.
The team will also be monitoring the impact of climate change on the wildlife and special places in their care.
What this adds
The team's work is part of a broader effort to understand and mitigate the effects of climate change on the Antarctic Peninsula, which is experiencing some of the fastest warming on the planet.
Background
The Supreme Court began its new term with a high-profile case on whether federal or state courts should handle climate change lawsuits.
The Supreme Court heard arguments on Monday in a case that could set a precedent for climate change lawsuits against oil and gas companies.
What's confirmed
- A new team of UK specialists is embarking on a 9,000-mile journey to Antarctica to protect Port Lockroy, a British science base threatened by climate change.
- The site, more than 80 years old, faces structural deterioration due to rising temperatures and extreme weather on the rapidly warming Antarctic Peninsula.
- The team will live on Goudier Island, working in sub-zero temperatures, 24-hour daylight, and without running water.
- Last year's team prepared the site for this season's interventions, which UKAHT said was the charity's "biggest ever conservation season" at Port Lockroy.
- This year's team will install beams and props to help the buildings withstand increased precipitation and snow loading, as well as monitor the penguin colony.
- The team will be counting penguin nests, eggs, and chicks as part of a study to monitor and protect the colony.
- A team of eight will spend five months at remote Base A, Port Lockroy on Goudier Island, while a field team of six specialists will travel further south to carry out the first comprehensive survey of another British heritage site, Wordie House.
- Researchers from Japan’s National Institute of Polar Research and Nagoya University investigated the mismatch using measurements from the research icebreaker R/V Shirase during the 64th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition.
- Krill had never been spotted at a hydrothermal vent before, but Bernard and her colleagues report in the journal Communications Biology the discovery of a surprising habitat for the krill.
- The team will also be monitoring the impact of climate change on the wildlife and special places in their care.
What's still developing
- "The teamwork, the bonding, the appreciation of the place - it's all going to make for the most wonderful experience."
- Observations from an Antarctic research voyage suggest that fixing the cloud count alone will not solve the problem.
- Antarctic Peninsula models show emissions levels will shape ice, seas and wildlife A new study examining possible future greenhouse gas emissions scenarios forecasts the range of fates for the Antarctic Peninsula, and for Antarctic wildlife like these elephant seals ( Mirounga leonina ).
- “The Antarctic Peninsula is really the alarm bell for the continent,” says Bethan Davies, a glaciologist at Newcastle University in England.
- That, in turn, can slow down the formation of a water mass known as Antarctic Intermediate Water, which links the Southern Ocean to global ocean circulation.
- The Antarctic Peninsula is an early warning system for the southernmost continent when it comes to climate change.
- “Changes that happen in the Antarctic Peninsula also don’t stay in the Antarctic Peninsula,” Davies says.
- But experts say this rich habitat in the Southern Ocean at the bottom of the world is shifting rapidly due to climate change.
- "It just looks like pirouetting. I pretty much threw the tea in the air and ran down to the control room, screaming, 'There's krill, there's krill!'" Krill had never been spotted at a hydrothermal vent before.
- "And if they don't, they feed on something else that feeds directly on Antarctic krill. So they are absolutely fundamental to the functioning and health of that ecosystem."
- "Most of them feed on Antarctic krill," says Kim Bernard, a biological oceanographer at Oregon State University and a National Geographic explorer.
- "And it's very scarce in the Southern Ocean. So potentially that's a reason for them to go down there."