During the 2008-2009 austral summer, our research team assembled from around the world in Christchurch, New Zealand, to embark on a major scientific research mission to the Dry Valleys, Antarctica. From Christchurch, our scientists travelled by air to Antarctica, landing on ice runways on the Ross Ice Shelf. With the final preparations made at Scott Base, teams travelled by helicopter to camps throughout the Dry Valley study area to spend a few weeks camping and hiking to explore locations and collect samples. The study area valleys, the Garwood, Marshall and Miers Valleys, are at the southern end of the Dry Valley system. Ranging from sea level to over 1200m, the study area covers a landscape over 200km² made up of steep sided valleys covered in gravel, sand and boulders, with glaciers, melt streams and lakes.
The first team embarked on a reconnaissance mission in November, 2008, to identify sample locations representing the range of geomorphologic and topological combinations in the study area.
Possible locations had been identified using Geographic Information Systems and satellite images and divide the study area into over 500 tiles. Using Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and digital cameras, each possible sample location was recorded and described. The second team, embarking in early January 2009, visited and collected data from the different locations identified by the November team.At each location surveys were taken and soil samples collected to discover the range of biology present at each site. These samples were airlifted to McMurdo station, where high-tech laboratory equipment is available to examine in detail what biology could be found in each sample.
Click on the following links to find out how each team carried out their mission. |
