Mendel Polar Base, Antarctica |
The Czech Republic built a research station on James Ross Island last year (yes, James Ross Island is different that Ross Island -- JRI is close to South America, and RI is closer to New Zealand), and this Antarctic summer will be the second season for research at the Mendel Polar Station. Last year, Czech scientists built four "greenhouses" around the island. This year, they are going to build more.
Now, these are not your typical greenhouses and the plants inside are not cultivated, per se. The little greenhouses are about a meter and a half on each side and there is no roof. The short walls protect the greenhouse from wind, but obviously rain and snow are more than welcome. So, what do these greenhouses do?
Well, the inside of the greenhouses are slightly warmer than the outside of the greenhouse. And this is important because the plants that will grow inside the greenhouse are more like a preview to what is going to happen to Antarctica as the world warms up. The temperature inside the greenhouse should be about 2 degrees Celsias (shameless plug) warmer than the frigid polar air, and that is like looking into the future. The houses are rigged up with equipment and sensors to watch the progress of native lichens, mosses and algae that will begin to grow in and on the houses. In fact, some flora may have already sprung up on the four previously built houses. We will have to wait to see what the research team finds in the next three months.
Yes, there is a reason that the Czechs are on James Ross Island, instead of say, Ross Island. James Ross Island, out off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, has a significant chunk (20%) that is ice-free in the summers. The Czechs are interested in studying how previously ice-bound soil and rock will respond to freedom and photosynthesis.
From a pamphlet published by the Czech Ministry of Environment in 2007.
[The] main subject will be to investigate how the exposed surface of the earth, once covered by ice and now comprising approximately 20% of the area of the island, gradually changes. On the basis of the data collected a model will be created in order to describe the workings of such an environment in as much detail as possible. Today researchers are already curious if these models can be used to describe similar or future thawed oases elsewhere in the Antarctic. -- Env.cz (PDF)
Researchers are estimating that it will take five years for the greenhouses to start showing new life. Although the surrounding Peninsula is showing more and more of these "oases" that are hosting their own little ecological study habitats, this is not as new a phenomenon as it may seem.
But the disintegration of the Larsen Ice Shelf seems to be the result of a relatively recent--and perhaps ominous--change in Antarctica's climate. Over the past 50 years the average temperature on the Antarctic Peninsula has risen 2.5[degrees]C, to -3[degrees]C. That's a much greater increase than for anywhere else in the world. Not only are ice shelves turning to slush, but plant life is also exploding, with vegetation in some spots increasing 25-fold. --TimeIf you didn't check out that link to Time, you would not know that article is from 1995.
