Following the footsteps of Shackleton

Antarctica is the most remote continent on the planet, but people have been coming here for over 200 years. The earliest visitors were whalers who set up stations at some of the sub-Antarctic islands and sailed their ships through the Antarctic waters to hunt whales. Then, explorers started visiting the continent in various attempts to discover new lands, make scientific discoveries, and earn the glory of being the first to reach the South Pole. There are some amazing stories about the adventure and hardships faced by these early explorers! 

One of those famous explorers is Ernest Shackleton. He made several attempts to reach the South Pole. He also attempted the first crossing of the entire Antarctic continent, an expedition that started here on the Peninsula. His team attempted to sail as far south as they could in the Weddell Sea, and then trek south across ice and land to reach the South Pole. However, their boat became trapped in ice, was crushed, and slowly sank. The had plenty of time to abandon the ship and grab the gear they wanted and were living on the ice shelf over the Weddell Seal. When their boat finally sank, they had to haul all of their gear across the frozen ice to find help. They didn’t have pack animals, so this was all done by man-hauling. They man-hauled all of the food, gear, and three life boats! They walked as far as they could before the ice started breaking up, which left them on Elephant Island. There, they fixed up one of their life boats (a boat named the James Caird) using parts from a second life boat. A few of the men, including Shackleton, sailed in the small, repaired life boat in the open seas all the way to South Georgia Island where there was a whaling station, which helped them arrange rescue from mainland Chile. The third life boat was flipped upside down to make a shelter for the men remaining on Elephant Island until a ship from Chile came to get them over a year later. The men spent four months on Elephant Island, surviving in an overturned boat. Amazingly, everyone survived!

As you know from my last blog post, Elephant Island is one of our sampling sites. We had a chance to visit the site where the men built their camp 100 years ago while waiting for rescue. There isn’t anything remaining from that adventure except a statue that the Chileans built to honor the captain of the Chilean ship that eventually rescued them.

It’s a very dramatic site, but rather bleak in comparison to the other areas we’ve visited. It’s very rocky without much vegetation (but there were a lot of chinstrap penguins and fur seals!).  Plus, we were there on a very foggy day which added to the mysterious feeling. I sure wouldn’t want to spend two winters living there!

It was very special to be able to see a site with so much historical significance. It’s always amazing to think about how they handled the crazy and unpredictable conditions in Antarctica without all of the modern technology that we use to travel here. So much has changed in 100 years (yet in other ways, much is still the same). 

Two more sites

A couple days ago we made it to our second sampling site: Signy Island. Signy is at the top of our transect, all the way up at 60°S. It is a very beautiful place!

The British Antarctic Survey has a research base on Signy Island, and we started with a visit to the scientists living there. 

Then, the five of us hiked up the hill behind the base to look for a sampling site. We actually had a hard time finding a good spot, because while there’s a TON of green stuff, it’s mostly moss. We had to look for a while before we found an area that had a lot of grass.

After sampling, we spent the next day processing the samples in the lab while we sailed to our next site at Elephant Island. We currently sit just off the south shore of Elephant Island waiting for the wind to die down. The LMG can’t sail right up next to the islands, because the water gets too shallow. We have to take zodiacs (small boats) from the LMG to the islands. The zodiacs are light enough that wind this strong can flip them over! So here we wait…

Processing samples

We have had a busy few days working in the lab to process the samples we collected at Biscoe Point.

First, we spent a day at Palmer Station. We were supposed to only be there overnight to drop off passengers and cargo, but the wind picked up. We can’t use the cranes to offload cargo when it’s windy, so we had to wait overnight until the wind died down. That gave us the time to use the lab facilities at Palmer, which has more equipment than the LMG. It also meant we could visit with the people who live and work at Palmer, which was a lot of fun.

Then, the busy times in the lab began! There are several things we must do to each of our samples before we can freeze them to ship home. Freezing can kill the organisms that we want to study, so we have to remove them before-hand. Plus, some of the chemistry we analyze is better on fresh soil, rather than frozen. We have to do all of these things relatively quickly, so that we can freeze the soil within a couple of days of collecting it. Otherwise, the organisms and chemistry in the sample can change and ruin the sample. To do all of these things in 1-2 days, all five of us were busy working together to make sure it all gets done.

It would take a long time to tell you about all of the analyses we do in the lab before freezing it, so I’ll tell you now about one of them. (I’ll explain other things later.) One of the first things we do is extract the arthropods from the soil. The arthropods we find include insects and other very tiny things like collembola (commonly known as springtails) and mites. These arthropods like being cool and moist, so to get them out of the soil, we use heat. In nature, when the sun shines on the soil, the top layer gets hot and dry. The arthropods don’t like that, so they move lower in the soil to where it’s still cool and moist. We use the same principle in the lab. We put the soil or plant sample on a metal funnel and shine a light bulb over it. That acts like the sun to make the soil hotter and dryer. The arthropods move lower like they would in the soil, except instead of more soil like in nature, there’s a funnel! They drop all the way out the bottom and through the funnel into a collecting jar. You might remember the photos I showed you of the extractors I built to do this. Here’s that extractor in use with our samples from Biscoe Point:

After a couple days of sitting under the heat of the light bulb, we remove the samples and preserve the arthropods in the vial. Because they’re so tiny, it’s hard to see them without a microscope, and it’s very hard to use a microscope on a moving boat! So I can’t show you good pictures of what we’ve found, but here’s a close-up of what was collected in one vial. We can see that there are a few different species of collembola in there, and a midge (a type of fly).

Tonight, we arrive at Signy Island which will be our second sampling site. Signy is at the top of the Peninsula, and we’ll be slowly working our way back down to Palmer. Tomorrow we should have another busy day collecting samples, followed by busy days processing them in the lab.

First day sampling

Today we made it to our first sampling site!

 As you read in an earlier post, we are looking at soil biodiversity at many stops all along the entire Antarctic Peninsula. Today's stop is at Biscoe Point on Anvers Island, one of the most southern of our sampling sites this year (and about halfway down the entire gradient we're sampling).

 When we sample at a site, we collect soil from under five different types of plant cover: grass, moss, lichen, algae, and bare soil. We want to know how the plants influence what lives in the soil. A lot of people don't think these types of plants would grow somewhere as harsh as Antarctica, but they do! You can see in this photo all of the lush, green plants we found at Biscoe Point!

At the bottom of the photo, you can see a lot of moss (the greener stuff) with tufts of grass growing in it (the browner puffs). Uffe is up on a terrace towards the back sampling grass, and Connor is in the center of the photo sampling under algae.

We take a small sample of the plant material to extract the invertebrates that live in the plants themselves. Then we carefully remove more of the plant material to expose soil. We carefully clean our tools to kill foreign microbes, then scoop a little bit of soil into tubes for microbial analyses, and then more soil into a plastic bag for all of the other biological and chemical analyses that we'll run. We then carefully put the plant material back over the remaining soil to cover up our work and leave as little damage as possible. We did that a total of 70 times! We now have 70 plant samples and 70 soil samples in the lab on the LMG ready to be processed.

There is also a colony of Gentoo penguins that lives at Biscoe Point. We sample away from the rookery, but we walked by a few on-lookers on the way back to the boat. The scruffy looking penguins are the juveniles that are molting into their adult plumage.

Biscoe Point is near Palmer Station, which is where we're docked for the night. We were able to visit the station and meet some of the scientists working here. (And, I got a note from my friend Magen who was here just a few days ago on a National Geographic cruise!)

Tomorrow, we have a lot of lab work to do, while the LMG carries us back to the top of the Peninsula to sample our northern-most site! Here's hoping it's a smoother ride than coming down...

Data Recovery

We finally made it through the Drake Passage! It was a rough ride, so I’m glad it’s over. Today, we were helping out another project.

Over a year ago, a group of scientists dropped moorings into the ocean to measure sea temperature. They are concerned that temperature change will allow an invasive crab to move into Antarctica from the deep ocean. The crab could have a BIG impact, because it would be a new predator in the ecosystem! The deep ocean crab hasn’t been able to live in Antarctica because the temperature is too cold and magnesium levels in the water are too high. But, with global climate change, the water has been changing. Over a year ago, the scientists dropped temperature sensors into the ocean that were anchored into the ocean floor. Temperature probes measured the sea temperature at certain depths over the course of the past year. Since we were in the area (and Maggie, one of the scientists in their group, is on the LMG right now), we stopped at each of the moorings to pick up the data loggers.

First, we had to hover the boat in just the right spot so that the computers on the LMG can “talk” to the receiver attached to the mooring. Once we made the link, the technician on the LMG pressed a button to release the data loggers from the moorings. The data loggers gradually floated to the surface attached to yellow buoys. Once it floated to the top, we had to find them floating on the water. All of the people on board were scattered around the bridge and decks to find the buoys when they popped up. (Whoever spotted it first won a candy bar!) I was up on the bridge with the Captain, First Mate, and a couple other scientists.

It’s hard to notice a small yellow buoy on open water. In the photo below, can you see it? It’s there! (Hint: it’s over on the right side of the photo.) Now picture trying to find it floating among white-caps on the waves, ice bergs, and birds!

Once it was spotted, the captain would steer the boat close to the buoy and someone on deck would hook it with a grappling hook and pull it on board. The data loggers are just small silver cylinders attached to the big buoy.

We collected the buoys from three different moorings off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Now, Maggie has the data loggers carrying over a year’s worth of sea temperature data. She will send them back to the scientists in the U.S., who will look at the data to see how it influences the spread of the crab species. Curious? You can learn more about their research project at: poletopolescience.blogspot.com. There’s a video you can watch on their homepage that tells you all about it!

Now, we are on our way to Biscoe Point on Anvers Island, which will be our first sampling site!

Drake Passage

After about a day of calm sailing out of the Strait of Magellan, we entered the Drake Passage. Boy, has it been quite a ride! Winds have averaged about 30-40 knots (roughly 35-45 mph), with frequent gusts up to 50 knots! Waves have been around 10 feet. So, while it certainly could be worse, it’s been quite a trip! It takes a lot of effort to walk anywhere on the boat, and anything not secured has been flying around! Last night Uffe flew right out of the chair he was sitting in, and I gave up trying to eat with a plate in the galley and just stick to fruit that I can hold in my hand. Most of us have hunkered down in our bunks to wait it out (except Connor, who has been busily studying and doing his homework for classes back at ASU! I’m impressed that he is able to read and write through this, because I have a hard time just staying upright in a chair!)

I tried to get some pictures through my porthole to show what it’s like, but the photos don’t really do it justice.

We were followed for a while by some albatross and petrels. I stood out on the deck to watch the albatross before the weather got bad, but now we’re not allowed out on deck at all. I don’t have much desire to go out there anyway, since with wind chill it’s -20°C right now!

We’ve been moving at a steady 10 knots (about 11.5 mph) since we left Punta Arenas. If you’d like to watch the boat’s movement, you can look at these two websites that track us (and other boats in the area):

http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:454309/mmsi:368138000/vessel:LAURENCE%20M.GOULD

http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=WCX7445

Tomorrow we’re expected to hit our first stop, which is a point at the base of the Drake Passage. A couple years ago, some other scientists anchored some moorings that have been measuring sea temperature. We’re going to pick up the data loggers for them, since we’re passing by, then move on to the first sampling point for our soil research. Hopefully the water will smooth out before then so that we are able to get our gear together and prepare!

Under Way

We are at sea!

Yesterday, we stowed all of our gear on board our ship, the Laurence M. Gould (or LMG for short). This will be our home for the next month!

Here is the LMG in port at Punta Arenas. You can see the crane towards the back working hard, unloading the gear from the previous research project and loading gear for ours:

The LMG is named after Laurence McKinley Gould, an early polar scientist and geologist. He came to Antarctica on Admiral Byrd’s famous first expedition. He died in 1995 at a ripe 99 years old! Two years later, the LMG was built and named after him. It’s 230 feet long, and specially designed for Antarctic research. It can break through 1 foot of ice, and has laboratories and dive and boating facilities, as well as a galley (dining hall), dorm rooms, and everything else we need to live on board.

This morning, we set sail. We stood out on deck watching the men work to complete loading and remove our moorings, and then away we went! Here’s the view of Punta Arenas as we sailed away. Do you see the yellow and blue building in the middle? That’s the warehouse for the U.S. Antarctic Program and the pier that we left from.

As we were leaving Punta Arenas, a pod of Commerson’s dolphins followed us!

We are currently in the Strait of Magellan, at the southern tip of Chile and Argentina. South America is to the north of us, and Tierra del Fuego is to the south. Tomorrow, we will be out in the Drake Passage, which is the waterway between South America and Antarctica, connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. It is famous for being very rough waters, with high winds and big waves, and a lot of people get sea sick. The journey will depend a lot on weather, but we could be in for a very rocky ride for the next 3-4 days! We’ll see what tomorrow brings…