IDEAL-ICM

ECA 55

Effects of the Discharges of Glacial melting on the Antarctic coastal Ecosystem (EDGE)

Expedition facts

Name: ECA-55 – EDGE

Ship: Research Vessel Karpuj / Chilean Antartic Researh Station “Yelcho”

Distance: from Punta Arenas, Chile: 1365 km

Started: February 5, 2019. Finished: March 3, 2019.

Departure and arrival port: Punta Arenas -Chile

Funding Agencies: CONICYT (Chile) and Centro IDEAL (Chile)

Institutions: CSIC, ICM, Centro IDEAL.

Introduction
The Antarctic Peninsula region undergoes a faster warming pace than in many places on the planet, almost six times more than the global average. The increase in temperature causes the coastal glaciers to retreat, releasing to the sea, fresh water, nutrients and sediment that modify the biological activity in the water (pelagos) and on the seabed (benthos). This project aims to investigate, through the carbon biogeochemical cycle, how the Antarctic coastal ecosystem changes throughout the year, the relationship of this change with environmental variation and whether there is a connection with global warming. The IDEAL-ICM project is especially important because for the first time, at least as far as we know, coastal sedimentary processes can be investigated permanently over several years.
Main objective
Study glacial melting effects on the Antarctic coastal water column and their relationship with the carbon cycle.
Methodology

This approach will be possible due to the installation of an instrumented moored line, including pH, conductivity, temperature and CO2 pressure sensors and a sediment trap for several years in a coastal area with little risk of destruction by the passage of large icebergs. The sediment trap collected particles during 2019 and was recovered in the austral summer 2021. The trap was reinstalled at the same point in the summer 2021 and is already collecting particle fluxes. We will recover it in the austral summer 2022 after one year of continuous sampling.

Results

We successfully installed and recovered a sediment trap in South Bay, Doumer Island. The samples collected by the trap during the first year of continuous sampling are processed and their results were presented at the «10th SCAR Open Science Conference. Antarctica in a Changing World (SCAR 2022)”, hosted in India in an online format.

Conclusions

It is still early to provide them.

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Team

Humberto González

Humberto González

Marine Biology Professor

Professor at the Universidad Austral de Chile and Director of Centro IDEAL. He  is a world expert in marine plancton. He mainly works in the Antartic and the Patagonian fjords.

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Ricardo Giesecke

Ricardo Giesecke

PhD Biology

Expert in zooplancton and carbon fluxes in hight latitude pelagic systems. He works at the Instituto de Ciencias Marinas y Limnológicas de la Universidad Austral de Chile and researcher at the Centro IDEAL.

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Emilio Alarcón

Emilio Alarcón

Biologist

He works at the Centro de Investigación en Ecosistemas de la Patagonia analysing phytoplancton and acidification effects on marine calcifiers. He is a fundamental piece in the field work and also very interested in science outreach.  

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Eduardo Menschel

Eduardo Menschel

PhD in Oceanography

Research assitent at the Universidad Austral de Chile and Centro IDEAL. He is especialist in biogenic fluxes, microplankton communities and coccoliths in the Humboldt Current and the Patagonian fjords. He is also expert in mooring techniqueploma on Antarctic Affairs. 

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Andrea Navarro

Andrea Navarro

Social Communication and Journalist

Diploma in Antarctic Affairs. It is specialized in scientific divulgation. Member of the Regional Committee of the Environment of the Magallanes Region. She is in charge of the press office of the IDEAL Center

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Vania Carrera

Vania Carrera

Marine Biologist

She is a Master student at the Universidad de Concepción and Centro IDEAL, her work is entitled “Modelling summer phytoplankton growth in Maxwell Bay, Antarctica”

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Paulina Möller

Paulina Möller

Marine Biologist and MSc Geography and Geomatics

She has been research field assistant in several Antarctic expeditions for Centro IDEAL. She is Research Assistant at the Ecology Department of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

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Silvia de Diago

Silvia de Diago

Geologist

She carries out the biogenic opal analyses at the Marine Science Institut-CSIC. She has long experience analysing  sediment and suspended particles from several regions of the world.

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Neus Maestro

Neus Maestro

Laboratory technician

She is the laboratory technician on charge of the organic carbon analyses at the Marine Science Institut-CSIC. She runs the C/N elemental analyser with animal and sediment samples from several environments.

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Enrique Isla

Enrique Isla

PhD Marine Science

His main research line is Marine Geochemistry. He relates the physical-chemical characteristics of marine sediment and suspended particulate matter to the environment where they were developed. He has participated in oceanographic expeditions to the Antarctic, Mediterranean and the South Pacific.

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