Acclimatising in Antarctica (Tanya O'Neill)

Tanya O'Neill says "Superbly uneventful is how I would describe this year’s flight South.  Smooth to the point where I found myself thinking ‘surely something is about to go wrong?’  I am not a pessimistic person by any means but after four attempts last season, firstly due to high turbulence over Canterbury, followed by bad weather at Scott Base, and finally mechanical issues with our ski-equipped Hercules mid-flight, I have reason to be a little sceptical about things going to plan first time round.  But as the engines revved up for the final time on the Christchurch tarmac, I couldn’t help but smile … and not just because the ‘petrol-head’ gene I inherited from my Dad (a mechanic and Ford V8 man) gets a buzz every time an aircraft’s engines fire up and you are pushed back into your seat with force … but I smile because I am off again to one of the most mind-blowingly stunning, yet harshest continents on Earth.  At that instant, as our packed to capacity US Antarctic Program Globe master C-17 lifted off the runway, I was a swirl of emotions:  excited, feeling extremely fortunate, and raring to go. 

"Not to mention tired.  So what is involved in getting to Antarctica with the New Zealand Antarctic Programme?  Firstly you have to secure logistic funding through the New Zealand Government and get your science approved.  This is of course limited.  Once that is in place the ‘Event Planning’ team at Antarctica New Zealand (crown research institute) get the ball rolling and everyone venturing South must have an up-to-date First Aid certificate, as well as Medical and Dental Clearance.  I don’t envy the local GP performing my medical exam, some four pages long, I ventured out about 3 hours later having been poked and prodded, as well as a trip to med-lab for every imaginable test in the book!  The day before departure all party members arrive in Christchurch to be kitted out in some very swish field clothing.  So stylish we Kiwis are told to guard it with our lives when we visit our neighbours in the nearby US base of McMurdo Station as the primaloft orange and black jackets with cool Antarctica NZ penguin and fern logo have gone walk-about in the past! 

"Touching down at Pegasus airfield on the Ross Ice Shelf is an awesome experience.  The first thing one notices getting out of the plane isn’t the obvious cold, as you have been wearing your ECW gear (extreme cold weather - able to keep you toasty warm at – 40 ^oC) since you left Christchurch, rather it is the glare.  Polarised sunglasses are a must.  Next you notice the absence of greenery, trees, and for that matter anything that will give you a handle on scale, and therefore distance.  The landscapes are vast, infinite, and somewhat indescribable – photos do not do them justice.  Kiwi’s are greeted by staff from Scott Base, and quickly shuttled from the ice airfield to that familiar set of green buildings New Zealander’s have called home since the late 1950s. 

"You quickly settle into life on Base.  It’s a bit like school camp; things like mealtimes need to be structured to work.  Everybody pitches in with the dishes.  Breakfast is between 6 am and 8 am, lunch 12 noon, and so on.  Bread is baked daily, something like 10 loaves of bread each morning (nobody is a fan of the crusts, so I am in my element!).  Scott Base is a tropical 18 ^oC all year round.  This is achieved by heating the outside air, which consequently drops the humidity indoors to an extremely dry <10%.  Vaseline Intensive Care is scattered all over Base; and the blokes are quick to use it too!  Another consequence is excess static, there are metal strips beside the Base phones, computers etc, and you have to discharge yourself (i.e. voluntarily give yourself a massive shock!) before touching electrical equipment.  There are home comforts like a zippy café-style coffee machine (another vice of mine), and a cupboard full of home-baking. Scott Base has a bar with pool table, a well-equipped gym with treadmills, exercycles, and a bit of weights gear; and has the most beautiful lounge area in the world, with views out to the flagpole, the Ross Ice Shelf and aptly named White and Black Islands beyond.

"It’s not all luxury resort-style living, Base is but a hub full of scientists and artists on fellowship programmes, eager to get out into the field to start the programmes they’ve been planning for months and months.  Antarctica is not named the most inhospitable continent for no reason, the weather forecast must be factored into every move, even a trip up nearby Observation Hill (a high point on Ross Island which Scott’s Party climbed and waited for their leader to return from the Pole) requires a trip to the sign-out book, an estimated time of return (they will come searching!), and extra clothing as even the most perfect day and quickly change. 

"The first couple of days focused on reconnaissance, a lot of walking between Base and neighbouring McMurdo Station, up and around Observation Hill, and up Crater Hill, the site of the brand new wind turbines, which will play an important role in decreasing fossil fuel reliance at both stations.  Born and raised in the Manawatu, wind turbines on the skyline remind me of home! 

"The real science is set to start as I begin sampling disturbed and adjacent undisturbed sites to get handle on how soil properties change with human disturbance. "

 

Waikato University student Tanya O’Neill was studying for a PhD, looking at the impact human activity is having on Antarctic soils.  In a series of stories, she shares some of the highlights and lowlights of life on the ice.  Tanya was awarded the Murray Jessen Scholarship from Landcare Research.

 

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Tanya O'Neill on Christmas in Antarctica

Christmas in Antarctica.  An adventure for some, and undoubtedly a difficult time for others.  I’ve been asking around Base trying to get a feel for who fits into each category.  I know personally Christmas is a highlight of my year - - and no, this 29 year old is past associating Christmas with waking up extra early (OK that still happens) to check if Santa has left some goodies in my plastic stocking sitting the couch (and checking out my little brother's too, ever so quietly) – Christmas for me is usually about family time.

Christmas at Scott Base is celebrated over a three day period – but the preparation, particularly the Christmas baking, goes on for weeks beforehand.  The Christmas decorations were put up the first week of December, two Christmas trees, one in the dining area, and the other in the lounge, and Sir Ed’s ice axe has a draping of festivity, mounted above the fireplace. Bobbi the Chef assures everyone that there will be turkey, ham, new potatoes, all the trimmings, the works.  Christmas Dinner is for 50 people, most of which are base staff, Meridian Wind Farm workers, and then a small number of scientists working over the holiday season.  Bobbi and the team also make Christmas hampers – fruit cakes and baked goodies – for those out in the field over Christmas. 

Christmas Dinner is European-style, starting from 7 pm on Christmas Eve.  Just like Christmas at home, there will be plenty of leftovers, and other pre-made meals in the fridge, leaving the chefs to enjoy the well-earned break. 

Six weeks ago staff did the Secret Santa name swap, time a plenty for those who plan to get creative and make something for their Secret Santa-ee.  Christmas Day is a holiday for all. Those on Base will take the ski’s and snowboards out to the Skifield, no doubt crank up the BBQ too; some will get their kites out, or walk along the pressure ridges, others will take a rock climbing trip out to Castle Rock, and some will been keen just to sleep-in and blob at Base, having eaten to excess -- so much like home! 

Our 4-person group was helicoptered into the field on the 23^rd of December, so for us, Christmas Day would be spent in the vicinity of Marble Point.  The Americans at the Marble Point refuelling station LOVE company on Christmas Day, so I think we will be sharing our Scott Base Christmas hamper with those that probably aren’t so spoilt.  We plan to have Christmas Day off, and go for a nice long walk down to New Harbour – a round trip 10’s of kilometres from camp – but we have all day – it’s difficult to escape that 24 hours of sunlight.

I am sure a bit of time will be spent contemplating how those early explorers, Scott, Shackleton, and others, spent their festive seasons back in the early 1900s.  No fresh berries shipped in on the last Hercules to top the pavalova I’m sure!  By the time Christmas has been and gone we will be half way through our one week of “freshies”, and well into our days without showers, where ‘baby-wipes baths’ and a fake toilet seat propped ontop a “poo bucket” are as sophisticated as you get!

 

 

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Tanya O'Neill reflects on her first field season in Antarctica

A common trait among those working at Scott Base and undertaking Antarctic fieldwork is their unique unflappability and flexibility towards everything down there.  You make the most of opportunities when they arise. No-one gets hung up about a lost day in the field - helo flights are put on stand-by for good reason!  I think this is the key to a successful field season and enjoyable experience in the polar realms.

In 2009, I learnt this (lesson no 1) early with a four-day delay in Christchurch with my primary supervisor, Megan Balks from University of Waikato.  We had postponements due to severe turbulence over Canterbury, then poor landing conditions out at Willy Field and Pegasus. We did manage an hour in the air before heading back to Christchurch because the Hercules had mechanical 'issues'.  But eventually, we were rewarded with a scenic flight with breathtaking rare views down into the lava lake of Mt Erebus (thanks to a VIP on-board). 

Being my first Antarctic field season, I had to complete an overnight Antarctic Field Training (AFT) course on arrival.  I loved AFT! There were six of us: two Canadian Antarctic Heritage Trust carpenters (part of the team restoring Scott’s Historic Hut at Cape Evans), two Australian engineers from Powercorp working on the Crater Hill Wind Farm project, myself, and another Kiwi working on the telecommunications rigs.  I was surprised how quickly we formed a tight-knit unit, working wonderfully as a team, constructing an igloo, snow caves, and helping one-another practise self arresting techniques with our ice-axes, sliding down a nearby hill. In Antarctica’s extreme environment, cooperation and teamwork are vital.  (That was important lesson no 2!)

With my PhD, I’m quantifying the cumulative impacts of human activities on the Antarctic soil environment (something that surprisingly little is known about).  This work is building on the environmental impact-related work of Jackie Aislabie, Malcolm McLeod (both Landcare Research) and Megan Balks. Antarctic soils are generally very fragile and lacking resilience in the face of disturbance.

Ice-free areas make up less than 0.4% of the total area of the continent but are home to the majority of historic huts, research stations and biologically-rich sites. Hence they attract a short, sharp influx of tourists and science personnel each summer, but little is known about the extent to which the soils could cope with repeat visits; whether impacts are cumulative; and whether the most frequented sites are able to recover between tourist and science seasons.

To begin with, I’ve been investigating disturbed areas around Scott Base, Crater Hill, the scraped hillsides of Observation Hill (previously mined for road-fill), McMurdo Station, and Cape Evans and Cape Royds.  One interesting part of my programme was installing infrared counters across a number of recreational tracks to get reliable data on the number and frequency of users.  By coupling this with investigating the physical attributes (particle size and bulk density) of the tracks compared to adjacent undisturbed surfaces, I should be able to quantify the impacts of 100 users a day versus 2 a week, and whether it is better to constrain tracks to single file, or let people roam willy-nilly? 

Future work will be looking at the McMurdo Dry Valleys and disturbed sites such as Marble Point, the former Vanda Station site, and Cape Roberts. In the third season, I will be visiting the Antarctic Peninsula with my co-supervisor Professor Jerónimo López-Martinez (Spanish Antarctic Programme).  On the peninsula, tourism and human disturbance is of an exponentially higher magnitude. 

Which brings me to the third important ingredient that I’ve developed an appreciation for - and that is having highly experienced supervisors and colleagues with a wealth of experience to draw on.

I guess patience and flexibility, cooperation and teamwork, and sharing knowledge are important in any field work - but in the extremes of Antarctica, these traits have been refined and are as extraordinary as the environment.  I cannot wait to get back there!

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Antarctic soils



Jackie Aislabie is a microbiologist and an Antarctic expert; she leads a research programme on on soils and micro-organisms that live in that very challenging environment.

The total ice-free area of Antarctica comprises less than 0.4% of the continent. The ice-free regions, of which about 90% are soil forming, are located mainly on the continental coastline, particularly on the Antarctic Peninsula and in the McMurdo Dry Valleys in the Ross Sea Region. Approximately half of the ice-free ground occurs in the Ross Sea Region, including the largest continuous expanse of ice-free ground, the McMurdo Dry Valleys. The soils are cold desert soils and depth to ice-cemented permafrost is > 70 cm. However, in coastal areas depth to ice-cemented permafrost is often < 70 cm and soils.

Antarctic soils are characterised by extremely low soil temperatures, with an average mean annual temperature ranging between –15°C and –40°C, and low soil moisture. Antarctic soils are diverse, mainly due to differences in land-surface age (which ranges from a few thousand to millions of years), parent material, topographic position, and local climate variation.

The prevailing soil conditions create a harsh environment for plant and animal life. Only a few plants and animals have managed to colonise and survive in ice-free regions. Microbes, however, are distributed throughout soils of the Ross Sea region, with highest numbers detected in moist coastal areas compared with dryer inland soils.

Ice-free areas are the most biologically active terrestrial sites on the Antarctic Continent. They are also the focus of human activity and continue to attract scientists and increasing numbers of tourists. The majority of the operating scientific research stations are located in ice-free regions.  Click here to see a great photo gallery of soil scientists at work in some truly amazing landscapes!

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Adélie Penguin Research

Scientists have been studying Adélie penguins (Pygoscelie adeliae) for over 50 years. Antarctica is one of the last places in the world where animals can be studied in a habitat still largely unmodified by man. It is thought that data on changes to penguin populations may reflect the impacts that humans and natural factors, like climate change, may be having on the marine ecosystem.

Landcare Research, in collaboration with a US research team, has been studying Adélie penguins in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica. 

The Ross Sea is one of the most biologically productive regions of the Southern Ocean.  

More than 38% of all Adélies (5 million penguins in 38 colonies) are found here, even though this region has less than 10% of the total Antarctic coastline.

Click here to find out more about what the scientists (and penguins) are up to.

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Environmental protection of the Ross Sea region of Antarctica

Jackie Aislabie (Landcare Research) has spent many years working in Antarctica, and the image gallery that she and her colleagues have compiled provide a fascinating insight into many field seasons working on a variety of research.

Jackie and her team have been increasing fundamental knowledge and understanding of Antarctic soils - including soil climate and distribution, microbial diversity, and vulnerability to human activities. She currently leads a programme entitled “Environmental Domains Classification for the Ross Sea region”.

Ice-free areas of Antarctica (most of which are soil forming) are the most biologically active and vulnerable terrestrial sites in the continent. Much of the ice-free area in Antarctica occurs in Ross Sea region. New Zealand as an Antarctic Treaty partner is committed to the comprehensive protection of Ross Sea region and its dependent and associated ecosystems. Achieving this goal requires an understanding of the biogeographic character of terrestrial ecosystems in the Ross Sea region. To meet this need we are aiming to develop an environmental domains classification for Ross Sea region.

Environmental domains analysis (EDA) is a systematic environmental classification framework that allows similar environments (including small distinctive environments that are otherwise easily overlooked at the continental scale) to be grouped based on their environmental character regardless of their geographic location.

An environmental classification of Ross Sea region (within the context of our Antarctic-wide classification) will utilize a suite of environmental variables including climate, landform, soil, and biology data. We will gather and collate available data, along with that derived from our new research on soil attributes, climate and microbial diversity and abundance. As data is freely available for research purposes Antarctica provides an ideal opportunity to develop the next generation environmental domains analysis.

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Antarctic - an extreme environment for soils

The total ice-free area of Antarctica comprises less than 0.4% of the continent, with the largest continuous expanse of ice-free ground in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. About 90% of the ice-free regions have formed soils, characterised by extremely low soil temperatures (average annual mean ranging between -15^oC and -40^oC) and low soil moisture. Antarctic soils are diverse mainly due to difference in land-surface age (a few thousand to millions of years), parent material, topographic position and local climate variation. Landcare Research has a rich history of Antarctic soils research dating back to the old Soil Bureau days, including soil distribution and climate, bacterial diversity, and vulnerability to human impacts (i.e. oil spills and trampling). Jackie Aislabie (Hamilton) leads the current soils research there.

In some areas, permafrost may be several million years old

Antarctic soils comprise a surface pavement and a seasonally-thawed active layer over permafrost, which is defined as soil that remains at temperatures <0^oC for two consecutive years. The surface pavement is a layer of weathered gravel, stones or boulders (strong winds blow away the fine materials). Beneath the surface pavement is the active layer, often loose and unconsolidated material ranging in depth from 17 to 55 cm. The colour of the subsurface varies according to the age of the soil and parent materials.

Permafrost underlies all exposed ground surfaces, except for those heated by volcanic activity. Near the coast the permafrost is usually ice-cemented because of greater precipitation. At inland sites, particularly the dry valleys, the water content of the permafrost (generally <5%) is insufficient to cement the soil particles together, and described as ‘dry permafrost’. In some areas, permafrost may consist almost entirely of ground ice believed to be up to several million years old.

Low fertility

The soils typically have low levels of carbon and nitrogen (<2%) and are low in clay and consequently have little pH buffering capacity. A notable exception are soils under penguin rookeries, which have a carbon content of around 20% and total nitrogen around 10%. 

Soil pH ranges from highly alkaline (pH 9) in soils of coastal regions (chlorides from wind-blown sea water predominate) to weakly acidic (pH 6) in inland soils at high elevation (nitrates and sulphates predominate). The salts in older, drier soils commonly occur as a firm layer about 5-15 cm below the soil surface, with salt encrustations common under surface pavement rocks.  

Soil conditions are harsh for plant and animal life

The prevailing soil conditions create a harsh environment for plant and animal life. Only a few plants and animals have managed to colonise and survive in ice-free regions. Microbes however, are distributed throughout soils of the Ross Sea region with higher numbers detected in moist coastal areas compared with dryer inland soils. Ice-free areas are the most biologically-active terrestrial sites on the Antarctic continent.

Impact of human activity

Ice-free areas are also the focus of human activity and continue to attract scientists and increasing numbers of tourists. The majority of scientific research stations are operating in ice-free regions. There has been long-standing concern about the potential long-term impacts of people on these fragile soils.

For his PhD research, Malcolm McLeod (Landcare Research) has been mapping soils of the Wright valley and determining their vulnerability to human impacts. The team’s collaborators are Dr Megan Balks (University of Waikato), Professor Jim Bockheim (University of Wisconsin), Dr Cathy Seybold (United States Department of Agriculture).