When on February 22, 1904, the employees of the Meteorological Observatory on Lori Island began recording weather data, few could have imagined that 120 years later, the continuity of scientific research in Antarctica would make Argentina one of the world reference countries in the scientific field. Production on the consequences of climate change, among other areas.
Argentine research in Antarctica includes monitoring industrial gases that are blown by the wind towards Antarctica, where they are concentrated in bright clouds that capture oxygen atoms and make the ozone layer that protects us from solar radiation less dense.
Other ongoing projects are studying the effect of black carbon particles from the burning of hydrocarbons or forest fires that fly to Antarctica and settle on its snow, glaciers or large ice shelves, reducing their ability to reflect light and increasing the speed of its melting.
This content was created thanks to the support of the El Destape community. join us. Let's keep making history.
Subscribe to discover
The melting ice surrounding Antarctica limits the nesting possibilities of the emperor penguin, whose numbers are declining, while penguins or other marine animals are forced to swim increasingly greater distances to find food due to pressure from Antarctic fishing activity. Krill.
“Our country’s continued presence in Antarctica is the most extensive in the continent’s history and represents a tremendous advantage,” Walter MacCormack, director of the Argentine Antarctic Institute (IAA), an organization that coordinates science policies in Antarctica, told Télam. ; “It is the result of a sustained effort by many different actors in Antarctic activity to coordinate a complex mission.”
“Scientists, technicians, armed forces, diplomats and public officials have made, and continue to make, a great effort to preserve what today, under the rules of the Antarctic Treaty, is considered the primary reason for human presence in Antarctica, which is scientific research,” he estimates.
The researcher believes that science in Argentine Antarctica faces different challenges.
Which is reflected in its current priorities and considers that the most important thing is to enhance knowledge of the effects of climate change and global warming.
“This serious planetary problem affects the north of the Antarctic Peninsula with particular intensity and its causes and effects represent a completely cross-sectional problem, which must be studied from very diverse scientific disciplines (biological, geological, oceanographic, atmospheric, physico-chemical, etc.), which is why it is recorded and analysed. Changes in various physical and chemical parameters of the Antarctic environment, such as mass balances of glaciers or changes in sea and atmospheric temperature. The impact of changes in the above-mentioned parameters on marine life is explained by terrestrial organisms, as well as the responses of Antarctic species to these changes.
Caring for Antarctica's environment, reducing human impact, and developing possible remediation strategies are other major challenges. In this sense, Argentina is actively developing and applying biological remediation processes for soils affected by the presence of hydrocarbons using local microorganisms.
“This represents scientific knowledge that can lay the foundations for the development of new products and technologies with commercial and industrial applications of high added value for our country,” McCormack stressed.
In the area of conservation and remediation of the Antarctic environment, a line of work has also been initiated on the detection, identification and biodegradability of microplastics found in the Antarctic marine environment.
Microplastic pollution is a serious problem affecting all seas, including Antarctica; This work is carried out in partnership with the International Atomic Energy Agency, and it officially began recently in Antarctica, in the presence of President Javier Miley, a number of ministers, and the Director General of the Agency, Rafael Grossi.
Research on the conservation of living resources in the South Seas includes permanent monitoring of key species to identify and mitigate impacts of human origin, mainly associated with fisheries, and to distinguish them from those of natural sources, which is fundamental to the design and promotion of conservation measures within the scope of the Antarctic Treaty System.
The IAA also coordinates studies of links between Antarctica and the Argentinean territories of South America, which aim to reveal the intimate biogeographical relationships between the two regions, both current and those of the geological past.
According to the latest Antarctic Annual Plan, the 2023/24 campaign includes the implementation of 51 research projects distributed among 88 working groups (since many projects require the deployment of several working groups to different bases or camps).
All of these projects fall within the IAA's main work areas; The field of life sciences, the field of earth sciences, the field of physical and chemical sciences, environmental research, and the field of social sciences.
Regarding the latter, the official said: “The establishment of the region responds to the need to organize the study of the rich Antarctic history of our country and the analysis and preservation of the historical heritage that Argentina has in Antarctica; therefore, that great region It is also responsible for communication and dissemination activities, not only Work in the social sciences, but also all the activities of IAA scientists, as well as, for example, the rescue and publication of films, photographic and bibliographic materials in Antarctica.”
“The profound impact that climate change is having on Antarctica, especially on the Antarctic Peninsula, is of great concern. Understanding the cause of this significant impact and, fundamentally, examining the consequences at all levels (changes in ecosystems, reducing From biodiversity) the emergence of invasive species, the retreat of glaciers, changes in sea level and ocean currents, etc., etc.) climate change in Antarctica, represents the greatest challenge to science on the near horizon. Let us hope that humanity as a society will Cormac noted that everyone can understand the seriousness of this phenomenon and take the necessary measures to mitigate it.
With information from Telam
