Mendel polar station

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Mendelova polární stanice
Mendel polar station
Mendel polar station (Antarctica)
Red pog.svg
Coordinates 63 ° 48 ′  S , 57 ° 53 ′  W Coordinates: 63 ° 48 ′  S , 57 ° 53 ′  W
Basic data
Country Antarctica
ISO 3166-2 AQ
height 10 m
Residents 20 (maximum number, temporary, only summer season)
founding February 2007Template: Infobox location / maintenance / date
Website polar.sci.muni.cz/en/antarctica (English)

The Mendel polar station (official Czech name Mendelova polární stanice ) is a Czech research station in Antarctica on the coast of James Ross Island . It was founded by the Czech polar explorer Pavel Prošek . The official opening ceremony took place in February 2007 and made the Czech Republic the 26th state with its own scientific base on the continent. The station is owned by Masaryk University in Brno and is named after the father of modern genetics, the meteorologist Gregor Johann Mendel . Thanks to the research carried out at the station, the Czech Republic has voting rights under the Antarctic Treaty .

history

Beginnings

A plan to build a Czech polar station was first made in the 1960s. The plans were partly driven by political interests of the Soviet Union, but above all by the desire to expand biological , glaciological , climatological and geological research in Czechoslovakia. However, efforts to build the station ended in the early 1970s due to a lack of funds. At the same time, interest in investing in research in such a remote place has waned.

The interest of the Central Geological Institute, now the Czech Geological Survey ( Česká geologická služba ), grew again in the 1980s. At the same time, a location was chosen where the base was to be built: the eastern part of Antarctica at Prydz Bay . Later Australia, Russia and China also built their stations in this area. However, despite sufficient funding, the project was canceled again. This time it was not possible to find a federal institution willing to submit the plan to parliament for approval; even the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic refused.

Look for alternatives

In 1994, a group of Czech researchers from Masaryk University , the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic , the University of South Bohemia in Budweis and the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute ( Český hydrometeorologický ústav (ČHMÚ) ) made their way to King George Island to study at the Polish Arctowski Station , which is one of eight stations in this area. This collaboration lasted until 1997. However, working in a foreign location proved difficult due to conflicts between the individual research teams. Then it was proposed to build a common station for the countries of the Visegrád group ( Czech Republic , Slovakia , Poland and Hungary ). However, this proposal was not implemented because of problems in distributing the costs between the four states.

The research activities of Masaryk University and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Antarctica continued between 1999 and 2004. Since there was still no Czech station (although preparations for its construction were already underway), research was carried out on the stations of Great Britain and Ukraine .

Planning

The first site planned for a future Czech polar station was Turret Point , which is located near King George Bay on the south coast of King George Island , approximately 200 km north of the current site. In 2001 the proposed location was presented at the Consultative Meeting of the Contracting States to the Antarctic Treaty in Saint Petersburg . However, the proposal was rejected, largely because of the number of existing stations in the area and a competing proposal from other countries to declare the area a protected area. There were offers to use one of the disused British stations, but none of them met the needs of the Czech scientists. A new location was therefore sought and presented at the next consultative conference in Warsaw in 2002 . This time the proposed location of the station was approved without any further problems. The position is on the northern tip of James Ross Island and it is where the station was eventually built. The ice-free environment and the great distance to other stations - the closest is the Argentine Marambio station more than 70 km southeast - are the main advantages of this location. The project documentation for the station was completed for the next consultative conference in 2003, but was rejected there due to changes after the deadline. Only in the following year at the 2004 conference in Cape Town was it adopted almost unchanged. The transport of materials to the future location of the station began in autumn 2004.

Specifications

The construction of the station should meet two main requirements: minimal energy consumption and minimal environmental impact on the environment. The main principles for building the station were:

  • Provision of sufficient space for work, research, equipment and leisure as well as for sanitary facilities and facilities for cooking and eating,
  • Minimization of the risk of fire and accidents,
  • Use of suitable building materials (especially with regard to thermal insulation and corrosion resistance),
  • Use of environmentally friendly power sources (sun and wind),
  • Provision of a fresh water supply from a glacier stream,
  • Ensuring suitable and sufficiently environmentally friendly waste disposal.

Location

The station is located at 63 ° 48'02.3 "S, 57 ° 52'59.9" W on James Ross Island near the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. This peninsula extends from mainland Antarctica north to the southern tip of South America. The first sailor to reach James Ross Island was likely James Clark Ross in the 19th century, who called it "Haddington Land". It was not until the winter of 1902/1903 that an expedition led by Otto Nordenskjöld found out that Haddington Land was actually an island, and named it James Ross Island in honor of its discoverer. There are only a few polar stations on the Prince Gustav Canal , which separates them from the mainland, the closest being the Argentine Marambio base on Seymour Island . The building and facilities of the Mendel polar station are located on the north coast, on a slightly stony beach about 80–100 m from the shore at a height of 9 m above sea level between Bibby Point and Cape Lachman . The Prinz Gustav Canal was covered by a permanent layer of ice until 1994 and is still filled with ice floes and pieces of iceberg, so that ship transport remains complicated (as of 2010).

The entire northwestern part of the island, the Ulu Peninsula , is one of the largest ice-free areas in Antarctica. Up to 80% of the island's area is ice-free. Thanks to a rain shadow formed by the Antarctic Peninsula, the annual rainfall is low at around 300 mm and is absorbed into the ground. The reason for this is that the station is located on a lake terrace consisting of compact fine sand (regolith). In 2008 the temperatures were between −35 ° C and +12.5 ° C (mean value was −4.6 ° C); the humidity ag between 71.2% and 88.1% (on average at 81%).

Establishment

Individual modules and parts of the infrastructure required for the station were manufactured in the Czech Republic in 2001–2002. During the preparation phase, some parts were assembled and tested in order to shorten the construction time on site and to avoid possible problems. The transport of building materials began in November 2004. The material was first sent to Hamburg and then to the port of Punta Arenas in Chile. The plan was to transport everything from there directly to James Ross Island, but the transport was fraught with problems: the first planned ship, the Antarctic Dream , could not take off at all due to its poor technical condition and the second, the Porvenir I. , had an accident near the port on the way to the loading point. Only the third attempt, in which the Chilean military icebreaker Oscar Almirante Viel was used, finally succeeded.

The icebreaker reached the planned location on the morning of February 24, 2004. In the following two days, eight containers with a total weight of 130 tons were unloaded from the ship. Construction began as soon as the ship was unloaded. With this first delivery of material, almost the entire main building was built, in which materials for further expansion were then stored. Since the first delivery did not yet contain all the necessary components and materials, the main building and the surrounding containers were made winter-proof and construction work continued in the following year. For the Antarctic, the weather conditions during construction were very favorable, the temperatures were between −8 ° C and +6 ° C with storms that sometimes lasted several days and with wind speeds of up to 120 km / h.

After completing the necessary work, the station was inaugurated and christened on February 22, 2007. The members of the scientific team, a representative of the Czech Embassy in Argentina and the dean of the Faculty of Science of Masaryk University attended the celebration.

The project was funded by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic and is owned by Masaryk University. The entire complex was built by the company PSG-International from Zlín , to which the project was awarded as part of a tender. The cost of building the station was around 60 million Czech crowns (2.1 million euros, as of February 2007).

building

Compared to other older stations, the station is rather small. The design of the entire complex is based on the climatic conditions in the region. The main building is a single-storey wooden structure (26.5 m long, 11.5 m wide, 2.8-3.6 m high), which is used for living, cooking and eating as well as for leisure and research. There are twelve single or twin rooms, two common rooms, a dining room, a small kitchen, sanitary facilities and a drying room. A 40 cm high lattice structure made of oak railway sleepers is embedded in the foundation of the building in order to reduce heat loss through the cold Antarctic soil. The walls are 26.5 cm thick and each consist of two coarse chipboard with an insulating layer of foamed polystyrene between them . The outer surface of the walls is also covered with plywood to protect the structure from harmful environmental influences (sea salt aerosol, occasional dust storms). The floor and the ceilings are constructed in a similar way, but at 32.0 cm thicker than the walls. The roof slopes to the south with a slope of 5% and is covered with a PVC sheet that protects the building from ultraviolet radiation.

Around the main building there are nine containers (6.0 m × 2.5 m × 2.6 m) that have been expanded to store generators and spare parts, as garages, for a waste incineration plant and a generator block. Wind turbines are attached to the containers and can be folded up when the wind is too strong. The individual buildings were set up in a distributed manner to reduce the risk of fire or an environmental disaster.

business

The station is only operated seasonally in the summer months with around 15 employees. Heating and drinking water production would be difficult outside the summer season: the water would have to be obtained by melting snow, which would require a high level of fuel. The station has a system of alternative energy sources to reduce the consumption of diesel oil in the summer months: solar thermal collectors, which cover a wall surface of 36 m², were installed on the north side of the building, which has the most solar radiation, and are in the Able to heat air up to 55 ° C. The warm air is blown inside the building and keeps the room temperature at 17-19 ° C. Originally there were also flat-plate collectors that heated water for the kitchen and bathroom on warm days. However, the capacity of these collectors turned out to be insufficient; they were removed and solar cells were installed in their place . Electricity is also generated by eight 1.5 kW wind turbines ; the energy they generate can be stored in NiCd batteries. The rest of the required electrical energy is generated by diesel generators. Depending on the weather, renewable energy sources provide 60–90% of the station's energy consumption. The station uses the Argentine time zone UTC-3 .

The water is obtained from a nearby stream, but as the stream occasionally freezes over in February and March, the water is also stored in special containers inside the building. Communication with the outside world is possible thanks to the Bender satellite technology system based on the Inmarsat network, which was developed in cooperation with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague. It enables data exchange at a speed of up to 492 Kbit / s. The station has a sewage disposal system that discharges treated sewage into the sea.

The annual cost of running the station is 11 million crowns and is largely borne by the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, the rest is borne by Masaryk University. To avoid missing funds, e.g. The Czech Antarctic Foundation ( Český antarktický nadační fond ) was established in 2014 to compensate, for example, due to budget cuts . It is directed by Pavel Prošek, the founder of the Czech polar station.

research

The station's location was not yet explored prior to construction, although the area is attractive for the type of projects that are at the heart of Czech Antarctic exploration. Geologically speaking, it is an area with fossil-rich chalk sediments and occasional incursions of igneous rock . Volcanic activity often took place under the glaciers. The consequences of climate change have been observed in this area since the middle of the 20th century with the retreat of the glaciers and the colonization of the exposed surface by non-vascular plants. Many organisms are completely new to science and there are high levels of endemic species. The freshwater lakes in the area contain interesting and so far unexplained communities of algae , cyanobacteria and simple animal species.

The research projects in this area had already started before the construction of the station and included geological surveys under the direction of the Czech Geological Service, as well as climatological and geomorphological studies under the direction of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Masaryk University. When the construction was nearing completion, the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the University of South Bohemia under České Budějovice and the Botanical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic started a joint botanical project to study cyanobacteria. The Faculty of Science at Masaryk University conducted a research project focusing on the ultraviolet radiation in the area; In addition to UV radiation, ozone layers were also examined. The area around the station has been geologically mapped by the Czech Geological Service. There has been basic ornithological research, but the nesting season for most birds begins in mid-November, while the ornithologist usually doesn't arrive until early January. The ichthyological research focused on fish in coastal waters and their parasites and a study on the genus Gammarus, which looked at how the animals sense the magnetic field. Bacteriological research has identified new types of bacteria. Another project looked at the stress experienced by the polar explorers during their stay at the station and the extent to which their bodies adapted to the conditions in Antarctica, while another project looked at the aging of plastic materials in extreme Antarctic weather. Institutions from abroad also participate in the research, such as the Instituto Antártico Argentino , the Instituto Nacional Antártico Chileno , the British Antarctic Survey , the Servicio Meteorológico Nacional Argentina or the Nederlands Instituut voor Ecologie . Free places at the station are offered to researchers and students at Czech and foreign universities and research institutions.

See also

literature

  • Pavel Prošek: Antarctica ( Czech ), 1st edition, Academia, Praha 2013, ISBN 978-80-200-2140-3 .
  • Hynek Adámek: Češi v Antarktidě ( Czech ), 1st edition, Freytag & Berndt, Praha 2010, ISBN 978-80-86236-23-0 .
  • Jaroslav Čuřík: Pavel Prošek - profesor v Antarktidě / rozhovor ( Czech ), 1st edition, Akropolis, Prague 2009, ISBN 978-80-86903-94-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Hynek Adámek: Češi v Antarktidě ( Czech ), 1st edition, Freytag & Berndt, Praha 2010, ISBN 978-80-86236-23-0 , p. 92 f ..
  2. ↑ a b c d e Hynek Adámek: Češi v Antarktidě ( Czech ), 1st edition, Freytag & Berndt, Praha 2010, ISBN 978-80-86236-23-0 , pp. 74-76.
  3. ↑ a b c d Václav Štětka: V Antarktidě stojí první česká polární stanice . In: muni . March 2005, pp. 1–2. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Prošek , pp. 218–223.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g Hynek Adámek: Češi v Antarktidě ( Czech ), 1st edition, Freytag & Berndt, Praha 2010, ISBN 978-80-86236-23-0 , pp. 96-99.
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Pavel Prošek: Facilities of JG Mendel Antarctic station: Technical and technological solutions with a special respect to energy sources . In: Czech Polar Reports . 2013, pp. 38–57. doi : 10.5817 / CPR2013-1-7 . Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  7. ^ Hynek Adámek: Češi v Antarktidě ( Czech ), 1st edition, Freytag & Berndt, Praha 2010, ISBN 978-80-86236-23-0 , pp. 77-79.
  8. ↑ a b c d Prošek , pp. 242-244
  9. ↑ Martina Fojtů: Vědcům v Antarktidě ztížila práci Tuha zima . In: muni . April 2010, p. 4. Accessed February 2, 2017.
  10. ↑ Kamil Láska: Climatic and ecological characteristics of deglaciated area of ​​James Ross Island, Antarctica, with a special respect to vegetation cover . In: Czech Polar Reports . 2011, pp. 49-62. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  11. ^ A b Hynek Adámek: Češi v Antarktidě ( Czech ), 1st edition, Freytag & Berndt, Praha 2010, ISBN 978-80-86236-23-0 , p. 88.
  12. ^ Hynek Adámek: Češi v Antarktidě ( Czech ), 1st edition, Freytag & Berndt, Praha 2010, ISBN 978-80-86236-23-0 , pp. 98–99.
  13. ↑ a b c Czech News Agency: Mendelova polární stanice v Antarktidě je technickým unikátem ( cs ) ceskenoviny.cz. March 11, 2015. Archived from the original on March 20, 2015.
  14. ↑ Jan Kolář: Colic časových pásem je v Antarktidě? ( cs ) prirodovedci.cz. January 9, 2015. Accessed February 2, 2017.
  15. ↑ Nadace pomůže vědcům s financováním Mendelovy polární stanice ( cs ) January 1, 2015. Accessed February 2, 2017.
  16. ↑ Václav Pavel: Mendelova polární stanice; V ZEMI Kamení a chladného slunce . (pdf) In: Ochrana přírody . No. 5, 2012, pp. 28-31. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  17. ↑ Ema Wiesnerová: Výzkum v Antarktidě sleduje climate i stres lidí . In: muni . April 2014, p. 6. Accessed February 2, 2017.
  18. ↑ Tereza Kadrnožková: Vědci z Brna budou na polární stanici v Antarktidě zkoumat, jak rychle stárnou plasty ( cs ) Český rozhlas ( Czech Radio ). December 10, 2014. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  19. ↑ Pavel Kapler: Volná místa na stanici ( cs ) n. D .. Retrieved on February 2, 2017.