AUSTRALIAN ANTARCTIC MAGAZINE ISSUE 29 2015 AUSTRALIAN ANTARCTIC MAGAZINE ISSUE 29 2015 The Australian Antarctic Division, a Division of the Department of the Environment, leads Australia’s Antarctic program and seeks to advance Australia’s Antarctic interests in pursuit of its vision of having ‘Antarctica valued, protected and understood’. It does this by managing Australian government activity in Antarctica, providing transport and logistic support to Australia’s Antarctic research program, maintaining four permanent Australian research stations, and conducting scientific research SCIENCE programs both on land and in the Southern Ocean. 12 Measuring algae in the fast ice Australia’s Antarctic national interests are to: • Preserve our sovereignty over the Australian Antarctic ICEBREAKER HISTORY Territory, including our sovereign rights over the 16 New icebreaker plans unveiled 24 Two-wheeled Antarctic adventures adjacent offshore areas. • Take advantage of the special opportunities Antarctica offers for scientific research. • Protect the Antarctic environment, having regard to its special qualities and effects on our region. • Maintain Antarctica’s freedom from strategic and/or political confrontation. • Be informed about and able to influence developments in a region geographically proximate to Australia. • Derive any reasonable economic benefits from living and non-living resources of the Antarctic (excluding deriving such benefits from mining and oil drilling). Australian Antarctic Magazine seeks to inform the Australian and international Antarctic community about the activities of the Australian Antarctic program. Opinions expressed in Australian Antarctic Magazine do not necessarily represent the position of the Australian CONTENTS Government. Australian Antarctic Magazine is produced twice a year DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE POLICY (June and December). All text and images published in the Australia’s Antarctic future 1 Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting 19 magazine are copyright of the Commonwealth of Australia, unless otherwise stated. Editorial enquiries, including SCIENCE EXPEDITIONERS requests to reproduce material, or contributions, should be Spotlight on the K-Axis 2 Building Team Mawson 20 addressed to: DNA barcoding plankton 4 Expeditioner with an eye to the sky 22 The Editor Visionary approach to ageing Antarctic krill 5 Australian Antarctic Magazine HISTORY Australian Antarctic Division Krill focus for inaugural Fellow 6 Two-wheeled Antarctic adventures 24 203 Channel Highway Sizing up marine ecosystems 8 Lost: Antarctic history etched in a bottle 26 Kingston, 7050 Time Machine earth reveals icy past and Commemorating Antarctic ANZACs 28 Tasmania, Australia. future sea level 10 Australian Antarctic Division Measuring algae in the fast ice 12 ANTARCTIC ART Telephone: (03) 6232 3209 Adélie penguins on the rise in East Antarctica 14 Ice in your paintbrush 29 IN BRIEF (International 61 3 6232 3209) ICEBREAKER email: [email protected] New icebreaker plans unveiled 16 FREEZE FRAME Facsimile: (03) 6232 3288 POLAR MEDICINE (International 61 3 6232 3288) Editor: Wendy Pyper Remote medicine 18 Production: Sally Chambers, Jessica Fitzpatrick Graphic Design: WOOF Creative Solutions Issue 29: December 2015 ABOUT THE COVER ISSN 1445-1735 (print version) Building Services Supervisor, Peter Layt, took the Australian Antarctic Magazine is printed on Monza satin cover photo of ice crystals growing on a window recycled paper; a 50% post consumer waste and 50% FSC at Mawson station just after mid-winter. The back- certified fibre stock. lighting by the low-level sun gave the crystals a gold colour. During winter the crystals formed in Australian Antarctic Magazine can be viewed online: an endless array of different shapes and patterns, www.antarctica.gov.au/magazine which looked absolutely stunning when the detail was revealed under magnification. Peter used a Nikon D800 camera set at f7.1, 1/320s, ISO 400, with a Micro (macro) 200 mm 1:4D lens. 1. Australian Antarctic Division Director, 1 Dr Nick Gales, at the launch of the AAD Antarctic Gateway Partnership in September. The Partnership aims to consolidate Tasmania’s place as a global leader in Antarctic and Southern Ocean science and get more scientists on the ice. Australia’s Antarctic future In August I was privileged to take on the role of Director of the Australian Antarctic Division, at one of the most exciting times in Australia’s Antarctic history. Top of my ‘to do’ list is continuing the good work started by our previous Director, Dr Tony Fleming, to support the delivery of an Australian Antarctic strategy and, as part of that strategy, replace our ageing icebreaker ship, Aurora Australis, with a new research and resupply vessel. You will not be surprised that I will bring to the Division’s Airbus. And our science projects role of Director a strong focus on our Antarctic this season will involve collaborations Australia has maintained an active interest science. I want to ensure that our opportunities with 21 countries and 150 international in Antarctica for more than 100 years and to conduct our world class research are institutions. Our vision to see Hobart grow as these two significant projects will enable us maximised and that we deliver the information an international gateway to Antarctica and an to further our leadership in Antarctic science, we need to protect and understand Antarctica Antarctic science hub is happening! policy and operations over the coming decades. and our climate. It is through this research As you’ll discover in this issue of the Australian As the backbone of the Australian Antarctic that our strategic collaborations with our Antarctic Magazine, this season will involve a program, our new icebreaker will play a critical neighbours are delivered. major marine science project south of Heard role in Australia’s Antarctic future. The ship My Executive and I will also continue to lead Island to assess habitats, productivity and will provide a world-class scientific platform Australia’s engagement with the international food webs on the Kerguelen Axis in the Indian for conducting multi-disciplinary research in Antarctic community to maintain and further Sector of the Southern Ocean (page 2). DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE the Southern Ocean and sea-ice zone, and a develop relationships with other nations to A wide-ranging geodesy research program flexible logistical platform for station resupply. achieve our scientific, environmental and will be active in the Prince Charles Mountains, The icebreaking performance alone (1.65 m operational goals. This will include negotiations east of Davis and in the Bunger Hills (page 10). of ice at a speed of three knots, compared to through international bodies such as the Land-fast sea ice studies off Davis will employ the Aurora Australis’ 1.23 m of ice) will extend 2015 Committee for the Conservation of Antarctic remotely operated vehicles underneath the our potential operating season, while the 1200 29 Marine Living Resources, the Antarctic Treaty sea ice (page 12). And an airborne geophysics tonne cargo capacity will increase our ability to Consultative Meeting, and the Council of program conducted over a number of years carry equipment and infrastructure by 50 per ISSUE Managers of National Antarctic Programs. will continue to use airborne instruments to cent. Our new ship will change the way we are investigate the Antarctic ice sheet over vast able to work in Antarctica. Our Australian Antarctic Program is already distances. These are just a few of the 94 active truly international and highly collaborative. This Continuing this vision, this Antarctic season science projects across the program. season, for example, we are involved in logistic will see us explore a new aerial logistics collaborations with the United States, China, capability as we conduct up to five proof of Dr NICK GALES New Zealand, France and Italy, and recently we concept flights to Wilkins aerodrome, in a C17A Director, Australian Antarctic Division reached formal agreements to share logistics Globemaster, with the Royal Australian Air with the US, China, New Zealand and France Force (RAAF). These flights have the potential during the 2015–16 season. to enhance Australia’s logistical and scientific capabilities in the region and improve the Chinese, French and Italian expeditioners will RAAF’s capability for search and rescue and also use Hobart as a gateway for flights to MAGAZINE ANTARCTIC AUSTRALIAN multi-casualty air evacuation. and from Wilkins aerodrome on the Antarctic 1 Marion Dufresne, the Japanese Umitaka The productivity component of the work Maru and CSIRO’s new national research will focus primarily on iron sources in each Spotlight facility, Investigator. There will also be some habitat area. oceanographic input from the US vessel Roger ‘Each of these areas has different potential Revelle. The data collected will help address a sources of iron, which is critical for blooms number of research questions. on the of phytoplankton at different times,’ Dr The first area of research will investigate Constable said. the factors that affect the distribution of ‘However, the sources of iron in the Southern K-Axis Antarctic krill and determine the species’ Ocean are a big question at present. It could northern limits. These factors could include come from the adjacent continents via the temperature, the distribution of their food wind, or be concentrated in sea ice through Draw a line from the South Pole, through the source (phytoplankton),