Weeks 12 & 13: Gerritsz Lab official opening……with whales

Every so often the weather does not allow us to go out on the boat to collect water for our experiments, but this does not mean there is nothing to do! On days like this we have some time to look down the microscope and see what phytoplankton species are growing in our cultures. We are attempting to isolate species we have grown under controlled temperature and light whilst at the same time having a lesson on diatoms from Amber, the diatom specialist on base (and also luckily for us the Dutch overwinterer). Diatoms provide the bulk of phytoplankton biomass in Ryder Bay and understanding diatom dynamics and succession is a key part of our research.

Scanning electron microscope pics of diatoms, courtesy of Amber the over-winterer.

Whilst peering down the microscope our ears suddenly prick up as we hear a call over the radio ”All stations, all stations, Humpbacks sighted at the Southern end of the runway close to the Wharf”. Without a second to loose we run from our organisms smaller than one twentieth of a millimetre to the ones bigger than 10 m and join the rest of the base in the mad dash to the Wharf. The humpbacks were making a slow motion show, dancing in the water exhibiting their tails and fins in synchrony with each other. It was a breathtaking and unique spectacle!

Picture by Hugh, a physical oceanographer.

Due to the poor weather conditions, the Dutch VIP and press’ visit to Rothera was delayed for 2 days which unfortunately halved their stay on the Western Antarctic Peninsula. After their landing they had an introduction to the base followed by a small tour. They also happened to arrive on ‘Australia day’, which meant that a cricket match was going on in the afternoon followed by a BBQ on the ‘Northern beach’. It was a cold and windy BBQ but in true Adelie style a penguin popped in for a visit which always puts a smile on your face!

BBQ on the beach

The following day the VIPs, media and Dutch and British scientists went out on the boat to visit the sampling sites and the nearby islands. A lot of wildlife seems to be around at the moment and apart from the usual seals lazing on the drift ice and birds flying about, humpbacks suddenly appeared very close to the boats. At the moment krill is very abundant (from the boat you can see swarms of krill swimming around) which could explain whales being seen almost daily in the bay. The most curious ones come close to the boat to check out what is going on within their territory.

Sunday was an early morning due to the Dutch VIPs and press visiting our new labs. We introduced the four Labs and chatted with the journalists about the research being undertaken here.
At 7pm we had the official opening of the Dirck Gerritsz Laboratory. Just as the opening was about to start someone shouted ”whales at the wharf” and once again there is a dash to the wharf. This time it was Orcas in the bay and I am sure no one minded a slight delay to the lab opening ceremony.

Leo le Duc officially opened the Gerritsz lab followed by a really nice and inspiring pre-recorded speech by the Crown-Prince of The Netherlands (but soon to be King!) Willem-Alexander and we all celebrated the Dutch presence in Antarctica with a champagne toast. Back in 2009, the prince came to Rothera with his wife Maxima and they were so delighted with the research done here that they initiated the collaboration between the British Antarctic Survey and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (the NWO) which has culminated with the opening of the Dirck Gerritsz Lab at Rothera.

And here we are, in the perfect location to study climate change effects on marine ecosystems.

As usual we started the week with morning sampling out on the boat and came back just before lunch. We started the viral lysis and microzooplankton grazing method, bacterial viral lysis assay and a method to determine grazing by heterotrophic nano-flagellate (HNF). HNFs are very small animals (nanozooplankton) which swim around in the water column and feed on the bacteria and also the smallest algae. To estimate the grazing pressure from these HNFs and microzooplankton, fluorescently labelled algae and bacteria are added to natural seawater and their numbers are counted using a fluorescence microscope at the start and after 24 hours.
Unfortunately the past couple of weeks have not been trouble free. Due to space restrictions and technical issues in the cold container lab we set up our light manipulation experiment in the aquarium room of the Bonner lab. Keeping the air temperature in the aquarium at 1oC at all times puts an enormous pressure on the cooling system which decided to give up (despite the best efforts from the engineers) and our 20 litre incubations warmed up to 8oC so we had to scrap the entire experiment losing a few days’ work. Luckily for us two large water tanks have become available and so we built another light setup with a seawater flow through system that will keep the temperature more stable. All we are waiting for now is a spare day to collect another 200 L of water.

A walk around the point after a long busy day is enough to relax and be completely immersed with the pastel colours on the sky and glaciers and the surrounding wildlife. Around 11:00 pm the sun starts to set creating a gorgeous picture.

On Friday whilst out on the boat we spotted a Minke whale and many penguins during water sampling.

Penguin spotting out on the boat

We also deployed our nets for a depth profile, 500 – 200 m and 200 m – surface. Now with the electric winch on Searover, we can deploy our nets to 500 m a couple of times to try and increase the number of copepods, it’s a lot easier than by hand. We are finding a greater number of adult copepods below 200 m and more juveniles above 200 m. We wonder if this is the start of the diapause period or some sort of diel migration that is happening now that night-time has returned (for a couple of hours at least).

On Saturday the entire base was involved in a major incident response which is a practise in case a major incidence happens. The fire alarms went off and suddenly the Bonner Lab had 6 victims bursting out of the doors, some seriously injured and some not. There had been a flash fire followed by a ceiling collapse. We had to assist them immediately with first aid and try as fast as possible to give them the right medical treatment and transport them to the surgery room. Everyone coped with each other and did their best to help in this worst-case scenario. Everything went fairly well and it was a useful lesson to learn on how to behave and what to do in case this happens for real!

Casualties of the major incident response.

On Sunday after brunch Zoi went climbing up Reptile ridge (a rocky ridge on top of a mountain behind the base). It was quite challenging climbing the rocky and icy steep walls but the view from the top is absolutely magnificent. It totally rewards the long way up.

Climbing reptile ridge

After dinner all the Dutch science projects and related BAS projects gave presentations on our work here at Rothera. The combination of six talks on each research project, starting with freshwater input from the melting glacier, the physics of the bay (ice cover, vertical stratification/mixing), the chemistry (DMS, trace metals and nutrients), the biology (virus, bacteria, phytoplankton and zooplankton) gave a complete overview of the marine ecosystem and how climate change might affect the bay. It was nice for everyone to see how all the projects link together and we are all looking forward to the results of this promising collaboration!

Today (Monday morning) we launched a meteorological balloon filled with Helium to record temperature, humidity and winds, up to 25km up in the atmosphere. It is done every two days and the data is recorded at the meteorological station in the UK to predict the weather more accurately.

Releasing the weather balloon

We can really tell that winter is coming. We are once again losing more sampling days as the colder winds are picking up; for a few hours at ‘night’ there is actually darkness which feels really strange and the number of people on base is starting to dwindle.