A great sampling week!

It really was a great sampling week! Since Wednesday 30th of January, Valentina and Quinten are the only MICROBIAN scientists here at the Princess Elisabeth station, as Elie went back to Belgium.

Thanks to the very good weather conditions of these last days - even though we touched temperatures below -20C - we were able to sample in 6 different sites in 6 days (see map in Fig.1), 3 of them new to the MICROBIAN team.

Fig. 1. Map of the sampling sites

We also revisited the snow fences and many OTCs previously installed and 3 new OTCs were installed (Fig.2).

Fig.2. Newly installed OTCs in the northern nunatak of Perlebandet

One of the most diverse nunataks visited until now was Pingvinane South. The microbial communities were very developed and many cyanobacteria were visible, especially under the thin layer of granite gravel. Cyanobacteria are extraordinary photosynthetic bacteria: Some of them have sunscreen pigments that enable them to cope with the strong UV radiation in Antarctica! Measuring the photosynthetic activity of these organisms in such extreme temperatures is challenging due to the long waiting times required for these measurements.

Fig.3. Cyanobacterial colony in Gigi's lake in Yûboku Valley.

We were able to find liquid water under a thin ice layer in 4 different places, 2 of the lakes in Yûboku Valley (Fig.3), in a puddle of the southern nunatak of Pingvinane and in the windscoop of Petrelnuten. Liquid water is very important for these tiny life forms. While it is true that they can deal with very long periods of drought, they need liquid water for their metabolism.

More news about our last samplings will come in the following days.

 Take care, Valentina, Elie and Quinten!