Penguin Research:


Penguin research has been going on in Antarctica for over 50 years now. It has been a highly debated area of research because of the currently changing climate and the possible longterm effects that will have on the Emperor, Adélie (photo), and Macaroni Penguins of Antarctica (make sure to click on the interactive MAP in the upper right corner of this blog to see the distribution of the various penguins in Antarctica).

Adélie Penguins:

These birds inhabit the Ross Island Sea. Currently there are roughly 5 million penguins making up 38% of Adélie colonies, and they are all dependent on the delicate ecosystem of the Ross Sea, which itself makes up only 10% of the Antarctic coastline. To learn more about the researching being done with Adélie penguins click here: Penguin Science.

Antarctic Exploration, a History:

TIMELINE:


350 BC: The Ancient Greeks first hypothesised the existence of Antarctica based on the notion of symmetry. They knew about the existence of the northern arctic area and thus inferred that there should be an equal but opposite such area in the south. This they called Ant-arctic which then became Antarctica. They never made it even close to Antarctica, it was just a lucky guess, made by philosophers rather than scientists!

1773: James Cook (British) crossed the Antarctic circle and circumnavigated the ice mass. Cook didn't see land, but he found rock sediment in the ice and theorized the existence of another continent.

1819-1821: Several explorers, Russian then British, claimed title of first to 'discover' Antarctica and see the land mass that is the continent. This is the first and only TRUE discovery of a continent, meaning that there are no native peoples of Antarctica. Later in 1821 the first landing on Antarctica occurs by American, John Davis.

1840's: British James Clark Ross took two ships, Erebus and Terror, to the massive ice shelf later named for him. A scientist on the ship identifies 145 new species of fish.

Exploration continued, using wooden ships (photo left), which would flex slightly when rammed into and through the heavy icebergs of the Antarctic ocean and in cases where landing was desired the ships would ram directly into ice shelf's, like the Ross Ice Shelf.

1902: Captain Robert Falcon Scott set up lodging on the coast (photo right) and attempted to reach the South Pole using a sledge party. Scott traveled with Shackleton, Wilson, and horses. The use of horses was the downfall of Scott's first expedition. Horses consume an enormous amount of food (all of which had to be brought from Europe) and when they die due to cold they do not cannibalize, because they are of course herbivores. Scott's company was forced to turn back after reaching the 82nd parallel due to snow blindness and scurvy. *Snow blindness occurs because of to the intensity of the reflected glare off snow, scurvy is a condition which sets in due to lack of fresh fruit and meat.


RACE to the POLE...

1910
Roald Amundsen (left)
VS.
Robert F. Scott (right)


Norwegan Roald Amundsen deeply desired to beat the British Scott to his goal of reaching the South Pole. Though Amundsen told everyone publicly that he was heading for the North Pole he secretly knew the intended destination long before he began preparations for the trip. When Amundsen finally announced his plan to beat Scott, to his crew and the world, Scott became deeply distressed.
The pressure lead to Scott's decision to prepare food, fuel, ponies, sledges, and the ship in one week, a job which Amundsen did over the course of a year.

Differences that made the Difference:

Amundsen started on the Ross Ice Shelf which decreased the total distance marched by 80 miles. (see map below; A-red, S-blue)

Amundsen had 5 men and 52 dogs; Scott had 5 men and ponies, which only lasted 4 weeks.

In the days and months before starting Amundsen left depots of food and supplies so they only had to pack enough to arrive to the South Pole on their sledges, everything else they would pick up upon return.

On Friday December 14, 1911 Amundsen (right) and crew reached the South Pole. They were so keen to ensure they had really reached the pole that they calculated for 3 days and skied in a 10 mile wide circle around the area just in case. Then they stood up a Norwegian flag and left a note for Scott when he arrived.
Scott arrived 33 days later on January 17, 1912. They began dying a month later and all perished in an 8 day long blizzard that caught them when they were only 11 miles from the next deposit of food. They had run out of oil because the lids of the cans leaked and they were suffering of scurvy and fatigue.
detailed history

The difficulties of travel for both parties were tremendous, and much of the difficulty was increased because of the time period the exploration was occurring in. First of all, the voyages started on ship. All materials, food, water, animals, ect. had to be packed onto the ship and survive for the voyage through choppy waters and cold winds. When the ship finally arrived at the Ross Ice Shelf the only way to land was to ram the ship into the ice. Sometimes the winter and summer would be so cold that even when the crew needed to set off they could not remove the ship from the surrounding ice, so they had to be prepared for anything. The clothing was another problem all together. At that time the warmest clothes were fur based. When they would sweat the fur held excess moisture and would freeze the clothes at night. Even worse the moisture would freeze the fur sleeping bags and each night the men would be forced to worm their way into frozen bags, sleeping became torture, and the bags were very heavy to pull. The worst disaster occurred when one of Scott's men got frostbite on his feet. When the feet became blackened walking was agony and returning from the pole was impossible. Scurvy (caused by a lack of Vitamin C) left men feeling weak, tired, and achy. One of Scott's men suffered from the appearance of big red blood-blisters which grow into larger purplish blotches on the skin of the legs and feet, which also made walking excruciating.



SOUTH POLE
Roald Amundsen
and dogs (left)
VS.
Robert F. Scott
and team(right)

Facts about the Frozen Desert:

LOCATION: Antarctica is found at the bottom of the traditional globe, is called the most southern point of Earth, and houses the magnetic field of the South Pole. Some people even wonder whether everything is upside down at the South Pole....

But, no, sadly everything will NOT
be upside down south of the equator.
Gravity will prevail--even in the south...

Furthermore, strictly speaking Antarctica has not always housed the South Pole. No, just like all continents Antarctica has drifted throughout history, so much so that at one point (500 million years ago) it was near the equator and dinosaurs inhabited the land that is now present day Antarctica.
SIZE: Antarctica is the fifth biggest continent on Earth and it is roughly 1.5 times the size of the US.

GEOGRAPHY: 98% of Antarctica is covered by a sheet of ice that averages 1 mile in thickness. The majority of the central part of the continent lacks ice completely and constitutes the biggest desert in the world. The ice sheet contains 87% of the world's ice. A general increase in technology has allowed scientists and geologists to generate a picture of the land mass as it would look without the surrounding ice. (Keep in mind that if the ice was really removed the oceans would rise by hundreds of meters and the land mass itself would rise due to the removal of the depressing weight of the ice.) view image

CLIMATE: "On average, Antarctica is the coldest, driest and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents" (Wikipedia) Average temperatures are the coldest on Earth. On average only 6 days a year are above freezing.
Winter* temperatures range from -112 to -130 degrees F.
(*winter in Antarctica is the summer in the US)
Summer temperatures range from 0 to -40 degrees F. (these
are the temperatures that I will be faced with in February)

POPULATION: Antarctica has no permanent residents (aside from penguins), although 1,000 people in winter and roughly 4,000 people during the summer are present.




ANIMALS:

Antarctic Krill: Small crustaceans that are eaten by many animals, including baleen whales. (photo right)
Arctic Tern: A small bird that flies from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back again each year. (photo above left)
Blue Whale: A baleen whale that is the largest animal that ever lived on Earth.
Emperor Penguin: The largest penguin; it lives on

ice packs in Antarctica. (photo left)
Humpback Whale: A long-flippered baleen whale that sings and frolics in the water. (photo right)
Minke Whale: The smallest baleen whale. It sings and has a white band on each flipper.
Octopus: Octopi have eight legs and live on the sea floor.
Orca or Killer Whale: A toothed whale that lives in small pods.
Penguin: Penguins are birds that swim very well but cannot fly.

Sea Star: Sea stars, another name for starfish, are animals that live on the ocean floor. (photo left)
Spectacled Porpoise: A porpoise (a small toothed whale) from the Southern Hemisphere.
Sperm Whale: The largest toothed whale, over 50 feet long. It eats giant squid.
Squid: The squid is a fast-swimming invertebrate with ten arms.
Weddell Seal: The Weddell seal is a large, nocturnal pinniped from Antarctica. (photo right)


POLITICS: Antarctica has no government and belongs to no country. In addition, many different countries have signed the Antarctic Treaty System, which states that Antarctica will remain a scientific preserve and has banned all military activity on the continent. To date 46 countries have signed the treaty, this map shows the original claims.

EXTREMOPHILES?

What are Extremophiles?

BACTERIA!
Everything about how important these bacteria
are depends on WHERE they live and HOW they survive!

Here are some examples of WHERE Extremophiles LIVE:
From Acid Mud Pots to Basic Salt Layers

From Boiling Liquids to Ice Layers

Now those are some really EXTREME environments!

HOW do these organisms SURVIVE?
In Yellowstone National Park there are many variations of thermophiles (heat lovers) that survive by using photosynthesis, which is the same process that green plants and algae use in your own backyard! These thermal vents have a greenish yellow tint to them due to the continual photosynthesis of the millions of extremophiles.

WHY are these organisms IMPORTANT?

Bacteria that can survive at temperatures as

high as 240 degrees F or as

low as -90 degrees F

may have useful properties for scientific purposes, for example one thermophile already being used in a process for copying DNA is known as TAQ Polymerase and was found in Yellowstone Park in the US. The research being done by the Priscu Research Group in Antarctica has also already found many forms of extremophiles living in the ice that covers several lakes in the dry valleys of Antarctica. This is an area that was once thought to be devoid of life so these bacteria may have interesting and useful properties just like the ones in Yellowstone.
Furthermore, scientists now believe that life originated in ice. This means that the mechanisms of evolution and development of life found today in Antarctica may be a present day model of the origin of life how it occurred 6.4 billion years ago!

Also life in ICE may mean that life could exist on MARS where ice has been recently found.

But how do Bacteria SURVIVE inside of ICE??

It is impossible for bacteria to survive and reproduce if they are completely frozen. So how have they survived for billions of years in the ices of the earth? The answer lies inside the ice.

When ice forms in your freezer it forms quickly, so quickly that impurities in the water are hastily incorporated into the ice as well. This does not occur in Antarctica. The ices that year round cover the valleys of Antarctica have formed very slowly and at much lower temperatures than ice in your freezer. Because of this Antarctica ice is PURE. Actually when I get there that is the water I will be drinking!

So where are the extremophiles?

The ice in your freezer and Antarctica both form bubbles as air is trapped in the freezing water. Some of these bubbles form lattice networks (see image, right.) Inside these networks of trapped air the temperature is slightly higher than the surrounding ice. Because of this slight increase in temperature some water is able to remain in its liquid phase.

It is inside of this water that rests at the bottom of the bubbles (see image, left) that bacteria are able to survive and thrive.

Delving Deeper:

Take a look for yourself at how the research group that I am with isolates the bacteria that are inside the ice layers of the Antarctica lakes. Priscu Research Group