Studying A Fragile And Alien Icy World

NIWA scientists are doing what no others have done before. In a mysterious world just below the Antarctic ice, a delicate web of ice crystals forms a habitat that’s unique and largely unknown. Until now… Thanks to ingenious new technology, researchers can study this environment in detail, including the life that calls it home. But will climate change destroy this fragile habitat before we can know all its secrets?

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Antarctica feels like an alien planet. It’s a truly extraordinary place, holding more world records than an Olympic athlete - it is our southernmost, highest, driest, windiest, coldest, and iciest continent. Antarctica is a dream place to work for those fascinated by the frosty wilderness.

Dr Natalie Robinson is one of those people; she’s part of the lucky few who have experienced this vast, freezing, and dazzling landscape. She’s a marine physicist whose work focuses in the Ross Sea. In the space where solid ice meets liquid water, a phenomenon called ‘platelet ice’ occurs. Platelet ice is a several-metre-thick layer of thin and delicate ice crystals that grow and lock together to construct a dense but fragile maze, creating an environment unlike any other on Earth.

Platelet ice forms a protective habitat for algae and bacteria - the organisms that underpin the entire food chain - to flourish. For decades, this mysterious platelet ice ecosystem has been theorised as being incredibly important to the marine food web. But it’s fragility and rarity make it notoriously difficult to study. It is an unknown entity. Or it was, until now.

Natalie has just returned from a six-week deployment in Antarctica with a team of physicists and biologists, testing out an innovative sampling technique. The new drill system, designed by NIWA colleague Dr Craig Stewart, is the first of its kind to be used.

It works a bit like an apple corer, plunging into the ice without any spin, allowing platelet ice layers to be captured along with the water that fills the gaps between the ice crystals. This prevents the structure from collapsing and maintains the platelet layers, so that the algae, bacteria, and animals that are living between the platelets can collected along with their habitat.

Ultimately the drill system will be complemented with a range of other sampling devices and instruments so that scientists can observe and quantify a wide range of characteristics, including those of the ocean, platelet ice, sea ice, snow cover and atmosphere, plus any associated biology, so that the links between them can be identified.

"I am over the moon with how our expedition went," says Natalie, a week after she landed back in New Zealand. "The new technique worked even better than we hoped, producing great samples. It means that we can now study this ecosystem in a way that we haven’t been able to before."

Time is of the essence for exploring and investigating platelet ice in Antarctica. The continent is warming, fast - in February 2020, the highest ever temperature was recorded there - a balmy 18.3°C.

"This research is so important, given how climate change is impacting the region. The platelet ice habitat exists on a knife edge, needing quite specific conditions to form. Any small shifts in the environment could change where, when, and even if platelet ice forms. Such impacts could be disastrous for the animals that need it to survive, with knock on-effects for the wider Ross Sea marine ecosystem. The more we can learn about it, the more we know about what we stand to lose, and the more we can do to help protect it," says Natalie.

LIFE IN ANTARCTICA

Beyond the science that keeps her busy at the bottom of the world, what is life like for someone living and working in such an extreme environment?

"The quietness of the place is the most unusual thing for me. When it’s not windy, there is a level of silence that I’ve never experienced before. We also visit over the spring and summer, which means we have 24 hours of continuous daylight; the sun never sets. This sends your body clock completely out of whack. The first time that I went to Antarctica, I slept about 4 hours per night."

It’s not just people’s sleep that’s affected by the continuous sunlight - the long hours of exposure and reflective qualities of the snow mean that sunburn is also a very real threat.

"One of my friends decided to sleep outside one night, which seemed like a very romantic idea. But because her mouth was open when she was sleeping, she got sunburnt on the inside of her mouth!"

Ouch.

As with any long expedition or time away from home (Natalie’s expeditions can last up to six weeks), she says food becomes immensely important. This is especially true for such a cold climate, where the human body needs around double the number of calories than it usually does, just to keep itself warm.

"The coldest temperature I’ve experienced was when I stepped off the plane and it was -37°C. The hairs in my nose immediately froze. Even though we wear several layers of clothing, we still need tonnes of food. We are fed a diet of high energy snack bars and drink double the amount of water than we would back at home, because air is so dry.

"It’s also really important to have nice treats. This year, I took pre-made scone mix, long-life cream, and jam so we could eat freshly made scones. They went down a storm!"

Now in warmer climes with access to all the scones she could dream of, how does Natalie reflect on her time away and stepping back into "reality"?

"It’s great to be with my family again, especially my children. The expedition was extended this year because Covid-19 meant we had to do two weeks of isolation, which made it a bit more difficult.

"It was nice to be away from all the continuous news and emails though. You’re basically off-grid because internet access is so limited. It’s funny to be away from society for so long because you don’t know what kind of world that’s waiting for you, especially these days. I was in Antarctica during the 2007 - 2008 financial crash and when Donald Trump became the US President in 2016 - those were crazy things to come back to."

Thankfully this year, things hadn’t changed too much. Natalie is now looking forward to spending Christmas with her family, getting stuck into the "amazing" data they collected, and planning for her next Antarctic adventure.

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