Abstract:
Five ice cores were collected from Terra Nova bay in the vicinity of Gondwana station. From each core the top, middle and bottom sections were sectioned and processed as described earlier. In addition, brine samples were collected at a site ~100m from the Campbell Glacier. After removing the top snow cover (~30 cm), the sea ice thickness in the area was determined to be about 1.9 m. Three holes of ... depths 45cm, 65cm and 85cm were drilled (corresponding to ¼, 1/3 and ½ of the season’s sea ice thickness) and brine was allowed to drain into the covered holes for approximately 30 minutes. A sterile Falcon tube was then used to collect the liquid from the hole and brought back to the field lab for salinity measurements and processing to generate both a glycerol sample and a frozen filter for later DNA analysis. Initial chlorophyll concentrations were determined on all samples and additional sub samples were collected for analysis of bacterial and algal cell counts, carbon concentrations, DNA content, MAA composition, species biodiversity and cell numbers. In addition, sea ice in the vicinity of Cape Evans was sampled, with five ice cores extracted from 1.9m annual ice. Additional glycerol-fixed aliquots were prepared from a random sample of three cores and kept frozen. An additional set of samples was collected from the Turning Circle (Cape Armitage) and these samples will be primarily used to generate molecular fingerprint data.
