On March 3, the mission of the KHIONE project aboard the polar expedition ship Le Commandant Charcot ended. The project aimed to test (1) citizen science as a tool to collect and share relevant scientific data from marine and terrestrial ecosystems and the cryosphere; (2) the application of citizen science as a value-added tool to promote the environmental awareness and sensitivity of cruise passengers. The project was partially funded by the POLAR2E college, and counts with a multidisciplinary team form the college including researcher from CEG-IGOT, MARE-FCUL and DEQ/IST.

The expedition, which began on February 6, was attended by Paula Matos (project coordinator) and Margarida Queirós, CEG/IGOT-ULisboa researchers, and departed from Lyttelton, New Zealand, towards Ushuaia, Argentina, along the east coast of Antarctica.

During the 12800 km traveled, the researchers conducted a multidisciplinary research, combining scientific sampling of marine microalgae and physicochemical characteristics of seawater, terrestrial vegetation and soil, and characteristics of the marine and terrestrial cryosphere and citizen science done by the ship’s passengers. 

Despite the multiple sea storms that difficulted the work, and the adverse weather conditions at land, such as the -30ºC felt, the more than 500 samples collected prove the success of the mission.

The mission included sampling at iconic sites in Antarctic history, such as Cape Royds and Evans, where the huts that served as the base camp of the British Antarctic Expedition in the early 20th century to explorers Shackleton and Scott, respectively, are located. The samples are already being processed at ULisboa.

Michaela Kňažková, who is visiting us for a week, gave a lecture this Monday at the Seminar on Physical Geography about Permafrost on James Ross Island.
In her lecture, she discussed the interannual variability of soil thermal conductivity and moisture, as well as the linkage between active layer thickness and the seasonal amount and availability of liquid water, and its impact on the abundance and health of vegetation on James Ross Island, Antarctica.

PhD student Joana Baptista (CEG/IGOT-ULisboa) participated in the EGU General Assembly held in Vienna from April 14th to 19th. Thanks to funding support from the POLAR2E grant for young researchers to attend international conferences, she was able to engage in Cryosphere sessions and other initiatives organized by the Union throughout the week. During the session CR4.2 on Permafrost dynamics, interactions, feedbacks, disturbances, and GHGs across scales: perspectives from observation to modelling, she delivered an oral presentation titled “Cryogrid potential for modeling permafrost temperature in Maritime Antarctica (Barton Peninsula, King George Island)“.