The career for studying “Las Maravillas” Antarctica before it’s too late

But climate change has caused the ice to become more fragile, so it is no longer so safe to walk the ice surface to make the holes.

“We used to do about 100 diving diving for the icy sea during the winter season,” he explained to the BBC Morley, a biologist from the British Antartic Survey, Bas.

“Last year we could do just between five or ten dives,” he added.

Ice is creating what is known as a Catch-22 situation.

“It is very thick so that the boats reach there, but not enough to cut the holes and be able to do the diving sessions,” he explained.

Now, this situation has given rise to an alternative: keep the boats ready during the winter, so that they can navigate this sea when there is a window of opportunity.

We usually think that Antarctica is an eternal ice world.

But while the continent remains a hostile and challenging environment for humans, it is changing.

The volume of frozen water in Antarctica is being reduced by a high index, the vegetation is spreading through large areas and the air temperature is increasing.

The scientists studying this icy continent and the organisms that live there have noticed these changes. Especially because research work is becoming more difficult.

“The glacier that I learned to explore with ski in South Georgia is no longer a glacier. He is no longer there,” said Morley, who has been working in this place since 2005.

Instead of the glacier, now on the island that is located in the northeast of the Antarctic Peninsula, it has been filled with invasive grass areas that have appeared in recent years.

Now that it is not possible to perform diving dives throughout the year to study marine life, he and his colleagues are trying to make those immersions in groups during the summer and winter, which allows them to make comparisons between stations instead of Make continuous monitoring.

What is hurry?

A reason why scientists are interested in Antarctic ice is to study past patterns about climate change.

Scientific activities such as taking ice blocks that are composed of layers formed during millennia can reveal what were the temperatures in different eras of time.

And gas bags trapped in these blocks can be analyzed to help us understand how the appearance of the atmosphere has changed.

However, these precious records are threatened by the disappearance of glaciers and the heating of polar regions.

The pressure is to collect all possible information before it is too late.

Morley emphasizes the spectacular species he has seen on his trips: “Beautiful sponges, anemones and ascidias gardens. They are absolutely incredible, but all those underwater wonders are at risk.”

“Now that there is less ice covering the cold waters of this place and where these animals live, the light that comes with greater intensity is making algae grow much more than they traditionally do, which directly threatens the life of the sponges And other similar life forms, “Morley explained.

Underwater life

In May, he and his colleagues published an investigation by noticing that these creatures face another problem related to climate change: there is a high risk that huge pieces of ice fall into the seab that they live.

Another BAS researcher, the physicist expert in Marine ice issues Jeremy Wilkinson, said he has had to adjust some of his experiments in the other polar region, the Arctic.

This is because sea ice is less and less reliable.

When the weather was colder, his work team used waterproof instruments that could record data such as wind speed and temperature throughout a year.

“Now with the ice ending at so much speed, we cannot do it because the ice melts and the teams go to the bottom of the sea,” Wilkinson said. “Now all our instruments float.”

Again in Antarctica, the lack of sea ice in the southern hemisphere during the winter has scared Natalie Robinson, a marine physics of the New Zealand Water and Atmosphere Institute (NIWA).

Robinson’s intention was to take samples of ice that is near Ross’s barrier, a huge ice wall with an area of ​​about one million square meters.

However, the extreme conditions of the weather translated into the fact that they could not collect the samples of the desired place and had to take the samples of the Scott Base, the New Zealand Research Station in the Antarctica.

“It is indeed a very different part of the ocean we are studying. Nothing we had planned,”he points out.

His team uses satellite images to keep an eye on the formations of the McMurdo Strait, a body of water on the coast of Antarctica that is near South New Zealand.

“In 2022, we had a winter growth season [el período en el que la capa de hielo suele expandirse] that nobody had ever seen before, “Robinson said.

“At the end of August we still had open waters,” he said.

While the ice layer was forming in the Strait in the following weeks, he never managed to form enough for Robinson and his colleagues to carry out the experiments they had planned to perform in certain places.

In some areas of this place, other researchers had been able to transport scientific teams on the ice and foot.

But now, with the ice with just 1.1 meters thick -half of the usual -it was determined that it was very dangerous to drive on that layer. It was the first time that the New Zealand team of scientists had to transport their equipment on foot.

“The description of that season was like unprecedented, but the same happened this 2024,” Robinson noted.

For seven years, Robinson has hoped to use a sampling extraction system to study platelet ice: a mass of blurred -looking ice crystals full of cavities full of seawater.

His team has designed an ice extraction system that will allow scientists to obtain this type of intact ice, so that they can study their structure and also observe the ways of life that inhabit them.

The problem is not only that the warmer temperatures are hindering the formation of ice, but also that storms seem to be increasing in the southern ocean, which agitates ice and prevents it from safely adhering to the earth, Robinson said.

This storm also has other implications.

“If we are seeing a more windy general configuration, it will definitely make any field work we make is much more challenging,” he said.

Robinson explained that his experiences in Antarctica during the last 22 years revealed the dramatic impact that climate change is having on the continent. She described what she has seen as “Aleccuador.”

That said, throughout his career, Robinson has noticed the evolution of the public’s attitudes towards global warming.

The denial of climate change seems less extended than before, for example. “That, without a doubt, is hopeful for me.”

However, the time to carry out certain scientific experiments in Antarctica is ending, so the next few years will be crucial.

Potentially, some field works will no longer be possible if large marine ice strips disappear completely.

“We are running to collect all the data we can,” Robinson added, “before these important changes occur.”

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