Microbiome diversity and function in the Sør Rondane Mountains, East Antarctica Follow the updates on the expeditions of the MICROBIAN project to continental Antarctica!
16-01-2018
Arrival at the Princess Elisabeth Station and training
After a 6 hours flight from Cape Town we arrived at Novo Station where we had a small lunch. In the meantime, our luggage and the cargo for Princess Elisabeth station was offloaded from the Boeing 757 and loaded in a Basler plane. A flight of a little bit more than an 1 hour took us to the station. The view from the plane was breathtaking! We observed inland nunataks (mountain tops sticking out of the ice sheet), and towards the coast we could see icebergs which have calved off from the ice sheet.
The days after our arrival, the MICROBIAN team followed a number of training courses and got prepared for the sampling. We followed a medical training organized by the doctor Barbara, a skidoo training given by the mechanic/field guide Christian and the field guide Pierre-Yves, and a training to pitch the tent. Alain explained us how we need to use the GPS and VHF radio. A short exercise on using the GPS around the station allowed us to check the open-top-chambers (OTCs) on the Utsteinen ridge. These OTCs were installed in 2010 and will allow us to experimentally assess the effect of temperature rise on microbial communities in the Sør Rondane Mountains. On Tuesday afternoon we had a crevasse training c. 10 km away from the station. This was very cool (see picture)! Because we will travel on skidoo between the different nunataks in which we will take our samples, we need to travel on sometimes dangerous terrain. The training will allow us to react appropriately in case of an emergency. In the meantime, the team has pre-assembled the new OTCs, cleaned and prepared the lab space in the science container and prepared all the sampling equipment. We are ready to go!
