Today we completed the last of our fieldwork and now will spend the next week in the lab, processing all of our samples and preparing them for shipment back to the university. Over this past week, we have been completing reconnaissance of other areas with ice-free terrain that are within helicopter range of McMurdo Station. These areas include Cape Evans, Black Island, Dailey Islands, Cape Bernacchi, Cape Roberts, and Spike Cape. Each day we have visited one of these areas, surveyed the ground for more abandoned colonies, and, if we found one, collected more sediment samples. We did find one new site at Cape Roberts, located high on a ridge near the end of the cape, and it appears quite old (see figure). The surface is covered with pebbles and wind-blown sediments. Ornithogenic soils occur approximately 5 cm below the surface and are degraded with only a small eggshell fragments remaining from the former colony. It will be an interesting site to date to determine its occupation history.
The other areas we visited had plenty of space for penguins to breed, but no sites. It’s difficult to say why they colonize one area and not another. It may be related to the height of the terrain above sea level, accessibility from the sea (with good beaches to come ashore), abundance of pebbles for building nests, or just some random selection factor. In any case, we have ruled out many of these places and can now concentrate on those areas where sites do exist. We did note that the scenery was different at each place and each had its own unique quality (see figure). We are very fortunate in having been able to visit so many spectacular areas in this region of Antarctica.
Our trip to Cape Evans was of interest for historical reasons. We did not find any new sites there, but we did visit the old hut built by Robert Falcon Scott during his final attempt to the South Pole in 1911-1913 (see figure). The hut was larger and more spacious than the other huts we’ve seen in the area and looked like a comfortable place to spend the winter. Much of the original artifacts remain in the hut and it was fascinating to wander through this place that has changed little since it was first occupied (see figure). It was from this hut that Scott made his famous journey to the Pole and lost his life, with four companions, on his return.
In addition to our surveys, we also spent one afternoon on the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker, the ‘Polar Sea’, which is here to escort two cargo ships to McMurdo for station resupply (see figure). The icebreaker took a group of us from the station out to the edge of the fast ice in the Ross Sea. This edge is an active place for wildlife. Besides lots of skuas and penguins, there are numerous orcas and minke whales feeding here (see figure). Weddell seals also were quite common in this area. We had excellent looks of all these species, including orcas ‘spy hopping’ or sticking their heads out of the water to see what potential prey may be basking on the ice flows, especially seals (see figure).
Now that we are completing our work here, this will be my last update. We will process samples in the lab, pack them for shipping back to the states, and leave for New Zealand on Feb. 12. There we will spend some time traveling and relaxing after a successful field season. Overall, we have sampled three active and ten abandoned sites this season so there will be lots of data to analyze over the coming months. Next year I will visit new sites and continue the studies of abandoned penguin colonies and climate change in Antarctica.