First-ever Canadian-led mission to Antarctic includes Dalhousie scientists

A pair of University of Dalhousie scientists are aboard the HMCS Margaret Brooke in the Southern Ocean, the first-ever Canadian-led research mission to the Antarctic.

Jennifer Tolman, manager of the LaRoche Lab in Dal’s Department of Biology, and Jeshua Becker, an oceanographic research technician with the CERC.OCEAN lab in the Oceanography Department, are part of a group conducting research in the area to further understand climate change at “the bottom of the earth.”

The team is being led by Tom James, from Natural Resources Canada, and co-chief scientist, Brent Else from the University of Calgary. It includes more than a dozen experts from multiple universities and government departments, the press release from Dal reads.

“The polar regions are changing more rapidly than anywhere else on earth, and studies here in Antarctica will be interesting to compare to what is happening in our own Canadian Arctic,” Tolman said.

Researchers are using cutting-edge technology designed and built in Nova Scotia that will allow them to sample biogeochemistry and environmental DNA, helping the world understand more on how the warming of the planet is impacting the global ocean.

“This unique mission uniting government, military and academia in an expedition to a very distant and challenging environment came together relatively quickly, and serves as a great example of what can happen when the will to collaborate around great science exists,” she said.

After setting sail in early March, the team reached Admiralty Bay, off the coast of Antarctica, by March 6, where they collected water and sediment samples. Tolman said she is working to filter water using a Nova Scotia-made system. Becker is using an eDNA system that helps filter and preserves samples, built by Dartmouth Ocean Technologies.

Once the mission is complete the samples will be taken back to the university to understand what is living in the seawater.

“We’re interested in microbial communities — the little engines that drive many key reactions in the ocean — but we’ll also get information about larger organisms, such as fish and penguins,” Tolman said in the press release. “We’ve seen SO many penguins here! They’ve been swimming around the boat as we sample sometimes!”