Big Aust. Antarctic programme

Press, 9 January 1986, Page 14

Big Aust. Antarctic programme

By

RICHARD BREWSTER,

Service, in Hobart

Australia has stepped up its scientific activities in the Antarctic with the most extensive research programme in the Australian Antarctic Territory for at least seven years. As part of the programme, a new summer research station will be established at Bunger Hills, an ice-free area of the Antarctic on the coast of Queen Mary Land and about 2000 nautical miles southwest of Hobart.

The station will be called Edgeworth David after the renowned Australian geologist, Sir Tannatt William Edgeworth-David, who was a member of Shackleton’s expedition in 1907 and in 1908 led the first party to reach the south magnetic pole. A total of sAust33.9 million (SNZ46 million) has been allocated to the Australian Antarctic Division in Hobart for 1985-86 — a 9.8 per cent budget increase — and activities include an ambitious summer research programme involving 94 scientists and technicians.

The projects include: • A survey of Commonwealth Bay in the eastern sector of the Australian Antarctic Territory. This is a preliminary step towards establishing the first Australian station there since Sir Douglas Mawson’s hut was set up in 1911. • A multi-disciplinary study of the Bunger Hills, a large ice-free area 450 kilometres (280 miles) west of Casey station.

of the Australian Information

• A research programme at Heard Island, a glacier-covered volcano about 2500 kilometres (1550 miles) south-west of Perth which erupted last summer. • A two-month cruise to investigate life at the edge of the sea ice. • A study of the Totten glacier, 220 kilometres (137 miles) east of Casey station, as part of a detailed international investigation of the dynamics of large glaciers. i% When he issued details of Australia’s summer programme, the Minister for Science, Mr Barry Jones, said Australia, which claims 42 per cent of Antarctica, had a large stake in it. "We were among the first nations to establish a presence there, and we have a long and proud history of discovery, exploration, and research,” he said. “We are taking our Antarctic responsibilities very seriously. In a situation in which more and more countries are expanding their programmes there, Australia cannot be left behind.”

The first project to get under way was the two-month cruise to investigate life at the edge of the sea ice. One of Australia’s two chartered Antarctic resupply vessels, Nella Dan, left Hobart on September 16, dropped 14 expeditioners at Heard Island to examine elephant seal populations, and continued to Amundsen Bay off Enderby Land in the Australian Antarctic Territory to carry out its research. Here the Nella Dan

became trapped on October 23 in ice.

Although it became necessary to ask the Royal Australian Navy for assistance with resupply voyages normally carried out by the Nella Dan, the director of research at the Antarctic Division, Dr Pat Quilty, said that with the ship trapped, scientists were able to conduct projects usually not possible on a cruise of this nature.

For example, by being stuck in an ice floe, the ship acted like a drifting buoy, providing scientists with information on surface water movements in the area, he said. The satellite readings of the Nella Dan’s movements were compared with those of three drifting buoys deployed in the region in March. One of the major aims of the research cruise was to study the little-known crab-eater seal, considered to be an indicator of the health of Antarctic marine life because the main part of its diet comprises krill, a prawn-like creature central to the ecosystem. Dr Quilty said the seals could be a useful indicator of krill populations. A means of monitoring krill was necessary before any largescale harvesting of krill — the largest relatively untapped source of animal protein in the world — could be contemplated. From earlier research in the Weddell sea, it was believed the crab-eaters, which derive their name from a German word for shrimp, went on to the ice floes in September to mate and give birth to their pups. “From our observations this

time, we now know that they breed on the edge of the continental shelf and not on the pack ice,” he said.

Dr Quilty said that because the Nella Dan had been trapped, scientists on board had been unable to estimate total crab-eater populations. However, they had been able to closely study family groups and record the weight of individual pups. By sending specially equipped divers under the ice, scientists attempted to study krill populations and to determine where the vast swarms went in winter.

Two different species of krill — one for shallow and one for deep water — were found as a result of the experiments. Divers, were able to watch the deep-water krill grazing on algae, growing both in and under the ice, and to make experiments on the fresh-water component of the algae life cycle as the ice began to melt.

“We place some algae in plastic bags containing only salt water to see how rapidly they would grow in a purely saline environment,” Dr Quilty said. These sorts of experiments were important to knowing the longterm effect man was likely to have on the Antarctic environment. Dr Quilty said scientists believed that in about 50 to 90 years temperatures, particularly in the polar regions, would increase by six to eight degrees Celsius because of the “greenhouse” effect and result in a melting of the ice caps. Work at Melbourne University and an extensive glaciology research programme near Casey was trying to determine the rate at which the various gases — carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide and methane — which control the greenhouse effect were increasing. Dr Quilty said scientists so far had drilled to a depth of 600 metres (1970 feet) to ice 40,000 years old. Within 10 years they would reach 4800 metres (15,745 feet) to ice up to 500,000 years old. “Each layer of ice contains bubbles of air, enabling us to determine the composition of the atmosphere at that time,” he said. “If we can study several glaciation cycles back 500,000 years, perhaps we can predict both the start of the next one and also the beginning of the next warmer period.” Dr Quilty said Australian scientists would study the Totten glacier this summer as part of an international glaciological programme to examine ice stability in the Antarctic.

On one or two glaciers near Casey, Dr Quilty said, scientists would try to determine the thick-

ness of the ice, how fast it was moving, and to where.

Scientists on board the Nella Dan has used the time while trapped to drill through the 4 metre (13 foot) ice floe to learn more about the factors controlling heat exchange as the ice began to melt.

World weather ,■ patterns were affected by heat exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere and both the Arctic and Antarctic played a major role in the process. Using a deep-water camera lowered over the side of the ship, scientists also had been able to make a detailed study of the sea floor over a small region and obtained information about sediment structures, not possible while crusing normally. Dr Quilty said a study of the Bunger Hills was in response to recognition of the need to reestablish a geological programme in the Australian Antarctic Territory. In past years, Australia had achieved international recognition for the high-quality geological studies it had made in the Prince Charles Mountains and Enderby Land.

Dr Quilty said that this summer a party of 23, including scientists from the Bureau of Mineral Resources and universities throughout Australia, would be conducting geological field programmes. “These studies will help to build up information on the geological structure of the Antarctic and how glaciation developed,” he said. “They will also provide information on the past geological history of Australia when it was part of much larger Gondwanaland.” Dr Quilty said the aim of the Heard Island research programme was to determine whether elephant seal populations had been declining in recent years. If the Nella Dan had not become trapped for such an extended period it would also have been able to study the fishing potential in the 200 nautical miles surrounding the island and conduct geological experiments on the nearby Kerguelen Plateau. Australia’s other resupply vessel, Icebird, was involved in a site survey of Commonwealth Bay to determine the feasibility of establishing the first Australian station since Mawson’s 1911 exped-. ition.

Dr Quilty said that 105 people would winter at Australia’s four stations — Casey, Davis and Mawson in the Antarctic and Macquarie Island in the sub-Antarctic. Forty-five winter research projects would be conducted in upper atmosphere physics, medicine, cosmic ray physics, geophysics, glaciology, and terrestrial biology. — Australian Information Service.