Three researchers from the Oceano-Ecimat group (Mariano Lastra, as IP, Jesús López and the director of Ecimat, Jesús Souza Troncoso) and two from the USC (José Emilio Mora and Manuel Ángel García) are finishing the final preparations to leave for Antarctica from Vigo on January 29. The Spanish military base Gabriel de Castilla, on Deception Island, will be their home. This team led by Mariano Lastra will develop one of the 20 national and international research projects selected for the XXIX Antarctic Campaign, in which a total of 100 scientists participate and which will last 100 days. ECIMAT will accompany the Vigo researchers from a distance and will broadcast the course of the campaign through our blog and our website.
Gabriel de Castilla military base
The Galician team’s experience in Antarctica is broad and deep. After five previous campaigns, they will try to analyze the ecological and biogeochemical processes associated with the decomposition of algae in the sedimentary intertidal of Port Foster, on Deception Island in Antarctica. The project has a total duration of three years, a budget of 50,000 euros, and includes two campaigns in Antarctica, this February and another one just a year later. The objective is to create a model to predict the effect of geothermal activity on the Antarctic coast.
Deception Island is an active volcanic caldera that forms a ring-shaped island, the center of which is Foster Bay. The coastline presents frequent geothermal heating, so that the coast in certain areas registers high temperatures and phenomena such as fumaroles and emissions of water vapor and other gases of volcanic origin such as methane, CO2 or hydrogen sulfide. In the southern summer, the beaches of the island, classified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and as an Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASP 140), receive significant contributions from masses of algae that are detached and end up on the intertidal coast. These materials have enormous ecological importance, “given that they provide food and habitat for many species of invertebrates”, emphasizes Lastra, who also explains that the recycling of this biomass is the origin of interesting biogeochemical processes that result in the release of nutrients into the coastal environment.
Deception Island
In the case of Foster Bay, fumaroles and hydrothermal vents resulting from the volcanic origin of the island, condition the decomposition patterns of algal biomass, its colonization, consumption, nutrient flow and gas emission. To analyze these processes, field sampling and several experiments of natural environment manipulation will be carried out. The stock, replacement rate and decomposition of macroalgae will be calculated at eight sampling stations distributed throughout the coast. The starting hypothesis of the project is that “both high temperatures and gases affect the ecological and biogeochemical processes associated with the decomposition of macroalgae biomass deposited in large quantities by the tides”. The final objective of the project is to generate a model of the coupled functioning of the coastal ecosystems of Foster Bay. To this end, scientists will carry out sampling on the beaches with quantitative methods before and after the massive arrival of algae, in order to analyze the consequences of their heating and decomposition, both due to the effect of the sun and hydrothermal activity.
A team like the Galician one, which already has previous experience on the frozen continent, values this location very positively as a place for research. “Working in Antarctica means working in ideal conditions for a scientist; the environment is unique and little known, in which almost everything remains to be studied and, in addition, we can dedicate 100% of our time to work”.
Have a good trip.
Source: Duvi
