In the early morning of December 20th Kate Hendry (BAS) and Alanna Grant (CEH) boarded the British Antarctic Survey’s Dash 7 airplane at Punta Arenas airport to make the five-hour journey across the Drake Passage to the West Antarctic Peninsula. They were making their way to Rothera Research Station for the BIOPOLE project.
The overall aim of the BIOPOLE Rothera campaign was to assess the flux of organic and inorganic nutrients into Ryder Bay, the glaciated bay near Rothera Research Station. Kate and Alanna worked together in 2023 during the first BIOPOLE Svalbard fieldwork season, but faced very different conditions this time around off the West Antarctic Peninsula.
Whilst the northern fieldwork involved extensive river sampling, of glaciated and non-glacial river systems, the freshwater inputs into Ryder Bay are much harder to access. They’re hoping to be able to sample surface meltwater runoff later in the season, as the summer months progress, but in the meantime will be sampling seawater and using isotope geochemistry to unpick the meltwater contributions.
As well as characterising freshwater inputs, the team have been working with the Rothera Time Series (RaTS) project, together with Rothera Ocean Scientists Alice Clement and Sean McLoughlin, to sample marine waters within Ryder Bay. RaTS has been operating since 1997, and is an almost unique long-term observational dataset, especially important as data are collected year-round (not just in the Antarctic summer, when access is more straightforward).
The BIOPOLE fieldwork is being carried out in collaboration with NERC-funded project SiCLING. Kate will be joined by SiCLING team members later in January to carry out sampling of marine sediments and waters.
The BIOPOLE/SiCLING team would like to thank Allie and Sean (Rothera Ocean Scientists), and the rest of the marine team. Thanks also to everyone at Rothera Research Station for all their support.
The author of the article – Kate Hendry from British Antarctic Survey and Alanna Grant from UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology