Scientists from the Surface Earth Geochemistry group at ETH participate in the Antarctic Circumpolar Expedition
PhD student Matthias Sieber, and post-doctoral researchers Greg de Souza and Nolwenn Lemaitre are braving the rough seas of the Southern Ocean to take part in a remarkable expedition to study the environment of the Southern Ocean, the sea surrounding Antarctica.
From December 2016 to March 2017, scientific teams from all over the world will be on board the Russian research vessel Akademik Treshnikov for an unprecedented external page expedition around Antarctica that has been featured on Swiss TV news. During the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE), researchers will work on a number of inter-related fields, from biology to climatology to oceanography, relevant for the future of this continent and the planet in general.
The ETH researchers are investigating the impact of a mighty Southern Ocean algal organism – diatoms – on the chemistry of the ocean. These organisms, which photosynthesise more carbon than all the equatorial rainforests on the continents combined, gobble up the nutrients they need from the dissolved material in the surface ocean. Because the Southern Ocean is a key hub through which water passes in its circulation around the global ocean, their impact on ocean chemistry is also global. Matthias Sieber, Greg de Souza and Nolwenn Lemaître will collect water samples containing these microbes and study their effect on their watery environment in a controlled environment on board the ship.
