HR Excellence in Science
Date: 28.02.2019

Olga Flegontova on board of research icebreaker Polarstern

Olga Flegontova, a molecular and evolutionary biologist from the Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre CAS, is on board of the German research icebreaker Polarstern, which is just breaking through the ice of the Weddell Sea to the Antarctic peninsula. The 45-strong international team of the german expedition is heading for the iceshelf Larsen C, from which, in 2017, a giant iceberg broke off in 2017, revealing a large swathe of ocean that had lain in darkness beneath the ice. The newly exposed seabed might hold clues to the evolution and mobility of marine life and its response to climate change.

The start of expedition was in February 18, in the port of Punta Arenas, Chile. Olga Flegontova says in her report:

"The most negative thing is that we lost 8 days in a Chilean port Punta Arenas because of two reasons. First, our ship crane was broken, and we needed it to upload containers with our equipment to the ship. Despite continuous efforts, our engineers failed to fix the crane, and port a crane was used instead. And another reason for our delay was a long refueling queue composed of touristic ships. Finally, both problems were resolved, and we left Punta Arenas on February 18th, 9 days behind schedule. Then we spend one day going from Punta Arenas to the tip of Mitre Peninsula, the southernmost part of Argentina. Then we crossed the Drake Passage in two days. During these two days we've seen waves 6 meters high, but the crew members said these waves are rather small for the Drake Passage, they could be up to 20 meters high in this area.

The fourth day of our cruise was the most exciting so far. We approached Antarctica and passed between King George and Elephant Islands, and between the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula and Bransfield Island. That day we have seen everything: first icebergs, mountains of Antarctica, penguins, seals and whales, and in the end of the day we got stuck in the ice close to Rosamel Island. And now for five days in a row we have been moving very slowly, breaking the ice and heading southwest towards the Larsen C ice shelf. In the beginning of our expedition we passed around 230 nautical miles or 425 km per day, but now when we are surrounded by the ice, we pass 16-40 nautical miles per day. And so far the Larsen C ice shelf (67.7°S 60.7°W) is still 160 nautical miles or 296 km away.

Another negative aspect of our expedition is that we are still very far from the study area, and we cannot sample because the ship is in hurry and attempts to break the ice all the time. Only two scientific groups (hydroacoustics and sea ice group) can conduct their studies during ship movements. Other scientists spend a lot of time just watching from the bridge or from the outside deck (at air temperature around -10°C) how our ship breaks the ice. Sometimes the ship goes pretty fast with a speed of up to 5 knots, but sometimes the ship gets stuck for several hours. It depends on how the surrounding ice is packed, and that in its turn depends on wind and tides. A helicopter helps us a lot in observing the ice situation and navigating our ship through relatively thin ice."

Olga Flegontova will take samples of marine protozoa to study diplonemids, which is one of the most widespread and species-rich groups of protozoa in marine plankton. "So far, this group has been almost unknown for science, but we have discovered that it plays a key role in the ocean, "says Aleš Horák, head of the Environmental Genomics Laboratory, Biology Centre CAS. "Olga will spend two months at the sea. Analyzing antarktic samples we want to find out what diplonemids live there and whati is their function in the ecosystem, " Aleš Horák explains .

 
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