Recording the baseline before the change: First steps towards an integrated chemical and biological pollution and effects assessment off Dronning Maud Land

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Gesine Witt
• Subject Area: Oceanography
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 502020590

With rising global surface temperatures, an increasing number of semi-volatile pollutants emitted in lower latitudes of the southern hemisphere will evaporate and undergo an, in turn, prolonged atmospheric long-range transport. Thus, more persistent organic pollutants (POPs) will eventually deposit in the southern cold-trap - the Antarctic. At the same time, a warming ocean will accelerate the re-release of ice-sealed contaminants into the Southern ocean. Consequently, an increase in bioavailable anthropogenic pollution is a foreseeable perspective for Antarctica and its biota. However, in Dronning Maud land, this intensification of pollution stress and its biological implications will proceed somewhat unnoticed due to a lack of holistic, baseline investigations of pollutants and their impact. Therefore, in this project, we will perform an integrated pollution and risk assessment for Dronning Maud land and its biota, based on a three-month sampling campaign of the sea-ice of Atka Bay. Using innovative passive sampling techniques, we will investigate the current status of POP pollution in different environmental matrixes ranging from sea ice to (deceased) penguin tissue. Starting at the onset of the melt season and extending into austral summer, we will follow up on the release of pollutants from the ice into the seawater and their putative uptake into ice alga and further into kill feeding on them. By determining pollutant body burdens, we will assess pollutants bioaccumulation and further biomagnification in Antarctic key species. Furthermore, in evaluating this in a recurring sample collection, we will learn about the seasonality of POP pollution. As a significant counterpart to chemical analytics, we will complement the screening for POPs with a biological impact assessment. For this, we will investigate the biomarker response in krill to employing cellular and subcellular biomarkers of detoxification, oxidative stress, and regeneration. Again, the seasonal, stationary, sampling approach will enhance our knowledge of the variability of these physiological and potentially pathological responses. This will facilitate the interpretation of future sampling campaigns and forecast biomarker behavior. Involving other research stations in developing this concept, we aim to expand the current boundaries of pollution research and contribute to establishing future comprehensive and coordinated pollution and effect assessments in Antarctica.

• DFG Programme: Infrastructure Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1158: Infrastructure area - Antarctic Research with Comparative Investigations in Arctic Sea Ice Areas
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Matthias Brenner