UB scientific campaign to study the impact of global change and human activities in Antarctica

The campaign, which begins on 8 January, is led by researchers Elisenda Ballesté and Conxita Ávila, from the UB’s Faculty of Biology and the UB Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio).

CHALLENGE-2 will expand the scientific understanding of the Antarctic marine ecosystems and will provide critical data to develop sustainable management strategies and improve the protection of ecosystems increasingly exposed to human pressures and the impact of global change.

The new campaign, which is a continuation of the previous CHALLENGE and BACTPLAST projects on the Antarctic Peninsula, will integrate scientific data to establish clear links between different environmental pressures and observed changes in biodiversity and ecological health of ecosystems.

Global change, marine litter and plastisphere

For five weeks, the project team will study the impact of global warming and changes in biodiversity at different scales (macro- and microorganisms), especially on species that act as bio-indicators of the environmental health of the ecosystem. They will also study marine litter — especially microplastics — both in the water column and in sediments, as well as in some benthic organisms, to understand the distribution of these compounds and the effects they have on the natural environment. The project will also study the microbial communities of plastispheres — an emerging habitat associated with plastic waste that is highly resistant to environmental change — and the presence and transmission of antibiotic-resistant bacterial genes, a potential threat in terms of the spread of disease in the same remote environments.

The sample collection campaign, on board of the oceanographic ship Bio Hespérides, will follow a latitudinal gradient from Margarida Bay to the South Orkney Islands. They will collect samples from pristine areas — with minimal human influence — and from areas that are more affected by anthropic activity — areas close to scientific bases and tourist activities. This comparative approach will make it possible to contrast the results between areas with different anthropogenic pressure and to obtain a more complete perspective on the differential impact of human activities on Antarctic marine ecosystems.

In previous campaigns, UB research activity in Antarctic regions has been decisive in expanding the natural catalogue of marine biodiversity, with the discovery of new species of marine invertebrates — molluscs, annelids, nemertea, bryozoans and other organisms — as well as identifying bioactive compounds of marine origin of potential pharmaceutical interest and deepening our knowledge of the ecology of Antarctic benthic ecosystems.