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Mitigating climate change（https://antarcticsciencefoundation.org/mitigating-climate-change）
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Mitigating the effects of climate change
The presence of humans on Antarctica might be small, but the long reach of our influence is not: it is felt in the receding boundary of Antarctica’s annual sea ice, its shifting winds, augmented seasons. Antarctica is a meeting place for the great systems of our planet – our atmosphere, ocean, earth – to interchange and exchange, making it the ideal location for a global understanding of climate. Not just the present, but the secrets of the past and future are contained in Antarctica’s ice and sediment, its geology and atmosphere. It’s in the very landscape of Antarctica that the truth of Confucius’ proposition resounds, “Study the past if you would define the future”.
Research topics
At the Antarctic Science Foundation, we investigate both the past – through ancient cores of ice and sediment – and the present through climate analysis and modelling, as well as Antarctica’s underlying geology and pollutants.
Ancient Antarctic cores: ice and sediment
Cores are samples, usually extracted by drilling, that inform us about Earth’s past and thereby its future. Researchers can analyse cores of Antarctic ice to reveal the climatic conditions up to millennia or even a million years into the past. Cores can also be sampled from marine sediment, composed not of ice but of the solidified material of ancient marine life revealing the chemical conditions of the ocean, including dissolved CO2.
Climate and atmosphere modelling
The relationship between the land and the air and the sea is profoundly complex – and this is no less true in the Antarctic, where sea and continental ice abound. Through the use of sophisticated imaging techniques (such as satellite observations) our researchers model the dynamics of the climate, our oceans and atmosphere (and their interchanging), to make predictions about how the natural course of these processes may deviate in our contemporary human-altered system.
Geology and chemistry
Antarctica is its own continent, though due to its being largely buried beneath kilometres of ice – the dynamics of its underlying geology remain mysterious to us. With modern technology, we can understand Antarctica’s geology, including its absorption of geothermal heat which has a direct bearing on the continent’s ice sheets.
Pollution
Riding on moisture and wind, organic pollutants can travel far from their anthropogenic source. Antarctica and its wildlife are a vital study system for understanding just how far and in what proportions our pollutants can travel and accumulate.
NEWS | Mitigating the effects of climate change
Featured
Researchers find 1 million-year-old marine DNA in Antarctic sediment（https://phys.org/news/2022-10-million-year-old-marine-dna-antarctic-sediment.html）
A new study led by the University of Tasmania—with the participation of the University of Bonn—discovered the oldest marine DNA in deep-sea sediments of the Scotia Sea north of the Antarctic continent. The material could be dated to one million years. Such old material demonstrates that sedimentary DNA can open the pathway to study long-term responses of ocean ecosystems to climate change. Read more on Phys.org（https://phys.org/news/2022-10-million-year-old-marine-dna-antarctic-sediment.html）
Read more →（https://antarcticsciencefoundation.org/bloge/2023/7/25/researchers-find-1-million-year-old-marine-dna-in-antarctic-sediment）
Scientists call for chemical pollution monitoring in Antarctica to support global chemical policy（https://news.griffith.edu.au/2023/05/16/scientists-call-for-chemical-pollution-monitoring-in-antarctica-to-support-global-chemical-policy/）
Published in The Lancet Planetary Health, the ‘Personal View’ paper led by Griffith University’s Professor Susan Bengtson Nash from the Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, highlights that chemical pollution monitoring frameworks were lacking in the Antarctic and Southern Ocean region, which acts as barometers for planetary health. Read more at GriffithNews（https://news.griffith.edu.au/2023/05/16/scientists-call-for-chemical-pollution-monitoring-in-antarctica-to-support-global-chemical-policy/）
Read more →（https://antarcticsciencefoundation.org/bloge/2023/7/24/scientists-call-for-chemical-pollution-monitoring-in-antarctica-to-support-global-chemical-policy）
Ground beneath Antarctica’s most vulnerable glacier mapped for first time（https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/991925）
Analysis of the geology below the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica shows there is less sedimentary rock than expected – a finding that could affect how the ice slides into the ocean in the coming decades. Read more on EurekAlert（https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/991925）
Read more →（https://antarcticsciencefoundation.org/bloge/2023/7/24/ground-beneath-antarcticas-most-vulnerable-glacier-mapped-for-first-time）
Australian team sets off on Antarctica mission to drill for ‘oldest ice core ever obtained’（https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/31/australian-team-sets-off-on-antarctica-mission-to-drill-for-oldest-ice-core-ever-obtained）
Australian researchers have set off on their most ambitious polar expedition in two decades, aiming to drill down into million-year-old ice to learn about climate change. Read more in the Guardian（https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/31/australian-team-sets-off-on-antarctica-mission-to-drill-for-oldest-ice-core-ever-obtained）
Read more →（https://antarcticsciencefoundation.org/bloge/2023/7/24/australian-team-sets-off-on-antarctica-mission-to-drill-for-oldest-ice-core-ever-obtained）
ASF researchers specialised to climate change mitigation
Scholar Profile
Dr Krystal Randall（https://antarcticsciencefoundation.org/scholar-profile/krystal-randall-nzjn4）