Climatology and impacts of atmospheric rivers in Antarctica

Understanding the causes of variations in surface mass balance in Antarctica, where 90% of land ice is concentrated, is fundamental to assessing the impact of climate change on sea level evolution. In recent years, with the acceleration of iceberg break-up, the loss of continental ice in the polar regions has become a key contributor to sea-level rise (Rignot et al., 2019). The surface mass balance of a large part of Antarctica is controlled by a few extreme events, resulting in a high natural variability of this variable. Recent studies (Wille et al., 2019, 2020) show the key role played by the frequency of occurrence of atmospheric rivers in these variations.

Biogeochemistry and Marine Microbiology

The ocean absorbs arounda quarter of annual greenhouse gasemissions, thereby partly limiting climate change. In the ocean, trace metals partly control the development of phytoplankton, which contribute to this absorption through photosynthesis.

anumber of trace metals, such as iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), molybdenum (Mo) and cadmium (Cd), are very important micronutrients because they partly determine the acquisition and uptake of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus by phytoplankton (Boyd and Bressac 2017; Morel and Price 2003; Sunda 2012). They are 99% complexed by organic ligands, which are necessary for their solubility in water and for their exchange between organisms (Gledhill and Buck 2012).

Microplastics and organic contaminants

Pollution by microplastic (0.3-1mm) and nanoplastic (<0.1mm ) particles is a global problem that affects all oceans. Plastic particles have been found trapped in Arctic pack ice (Peeken et al. 2018) and Antarctic pack ice (Kelly et al. 2020).

These plastic particles have multiple effects: in addition to accumulating in the digestive systems of marine fauna, they transport organic additives (Campanale et al. 2020) and micro-organisms (Dussud et al. 2018 ) to the various marine ecosystems around the world.

Sociology of science

Antarctica is a continent that has been entirely devoted to international scientific research since the signing of the treaty that governs it.

Although a considerable number of field missions are currently being carried out in the southern hemisphere, involving researchers from all over the world, very few studies describe in concrete terms the conditions under which scientific knowledge is produced and disseminated. Yet the Antarctic continent is an emblematic area of contemporary research, at the crossroads of scientific discovery, international relations and environmental policy (Aykut and Dahan 2015; Elzinga 1993). It has become one of the most emblematic research areas on the planet in terms of the study of climate change, but it is also one of the most threatened (Gaudin 2007a; Gaudin 2007b).

Monitoring penguin populations

In the southern region, penguin nesting sites are limited by the topographical characteristics of the terrain and by intra- and inter-specific competition.
Breeding colonies are often found on beaches and along coastlines.

The rise in sea level that we are currently experiencing (Frederikse et al. 2020) due to global warming could therefore lead to a loss of sites suitable for penguin nesting, forcing them to migrate. These migratory flows lead to a reorganisation of territory sharing between penguins of the same or different species, resulting in new selection pressures. Events such as these have already been observed, and today we are seeing movements of penguin populations towards the Antarctic Peninsula in response to global warming.