EXPEDITION ARKTIS 2

Der Dokfilm EXPEDITION ARKTIS 2 – TAUCHFAHRT AM NORDPOL begleitet führende Wissenschaftler:innen rund um Antje Boetius, Direktorin des Alfred-Wegener-Instituts, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, bei ihren Entdeckungen. Was lebt in 4000 Metern Tiefe am Meeresboden? Wovon ernähren sich diese Organismen? Wie hängt das Leben in der Arktis mit dem Eis zusammen und was passiert, wenn das Eis verschwindet?

ArcWatch Expedition August – September 2023, Arctic Ocean This Polarstern expedition started in the hottest summer on record in the central Arctic Ocean. This North Pole expedition takes place during parallel minima in both Antarctic and Arctic sea ice extent. The Atlantic Ocean is warmer than ever, and El Niño has begun in the Pacific. Will this affect the Arctic sea ice and how will the biota, from the ice to the deep seafloor, respond? This is what the mission aims to find out. Scientists are equipped with a range of high-resolution observational technologies, most of them camera-based, to study the rapid melt in late August and September. 11 years ago, they discovered how, during the strongest sea ice minimum on record, the Arctic food web had completely changed in one summer, from sea ice algae to the deep seafloor (Boetius et al. 2013 Science). Now they are back to find out whether they witnessed a unique phenomenon a decade ago, or whether this was the beginning of an ecosystem shift towards a „new Arctic“. For chief scientist Antje Boetius, this is her 50th international expedition, and it is exactly 30 years since she first visited the North Pole region. As she revisits the places where she and her team established the ecological baseline for Arctic deep-sea biodiversity, she is ready to document a melting world. ArcWatch Expedition

Polarstern helicopter flies over the Arctic Ocean for sea ice thickness measurements with the instrument called „EM-Bird“. The measurements are conducted from the board helicopter of Polarstern, while the instrument is towed under it. The EM-Bird fpr this expedition was built by Jan Rohde, engineer at the Alfred-Wegener-Institute (AWI), who also carries out the measurement flights. The AWI has been measuring the Arctic Ocean sea ice for 30 years, the time series is the only aircraft- and helicopter-based measurement series in the world that has been carried out in the Arctic over such a long period.

Mapping an uncharted seafloor to create maps of former volcanic seamounts near the Gakkel Ridge during ArcWatch Expedition in the Arctic Ocean. During crossing the ridge with the vessel, photos and videos are taken and underwater maps is produced with the instrument called OFOBS (Ocean Floor Observation and Bathymetry System). Chief scientist Antje Boetius (right) Lilian Böhringer (middle) and Ullrich Hoge (right) look at the life feed coming from OFOBS from the sea floor. OFOBS is towed over the seafloor to take photos and video.

Roland Cornelsen and Julian Reiche ship mechanics retrieve the bongo net from a 50-metre deployment to collect zoo plankton. Kim Vane (with her back) of the Biological Oceanography and Sea Ice Biology team during ArcWatch expedition used a bongo net to catch crabs and other zoo plancton at a depth of 50 meters. They were collected for chemical analysis to investigate how copepods survive the winter period when they dive to depths of 1500-2000 metres and live on their body fat reserves. In spring, the copepods return to the surface to feed on algae and reproduce.

Samples taken from 4 km depth with Multicorer instrument. The Multicorer retrieved 10 undisturbed sediment cores from 4 km depth. Back on deck, scientists subsampled the cores for a wide range of analyses in collaboration with colleagues from Senckenberg (DZMB). This includes microbiology, biogeochemistry and meiofauna (small organisms between 32 µm and 1 mm in size). Most of the analyses will take place in the laboratories at home, but scientists already carry out some measurements on board.

Arriving to the first ice station during ArcWatch expedition. On the bridge of Polarstern Captain Stefan Schwarze, Marcel Nicolaus, Antje Boetius Chief Scientists and Ben Rabe.

Morton Iversen from Alfred-Wegener-Institute pours sea water collected by Marine Snow Catcher at 50 meter depth into the flow chamber, which is used to measure size and sinking speed of marine organic aggregates, to determine how much carbon is take up from the atmosphere and biologically stored in the Arctic deep ocean and sea floor.

«Man kann „Expedition Arktis“ als faszinierenden Bilderbogen betrachten oder auch als Lehrstück darüber, wie hart die Forschung am Rande des Unbekannten manchmal arbeiten muss. Stürme, auseinanderbrechende Schollen und extreme Temperaturen, aber natürlich auch die Finsternis der Polarnacht machen den Wissenschaftlern oft schwer zu schaffen.»

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Filmhandlung

2023 – das heisseste Jahr seit Beginn der Klimaaufzeichnungen. Die „Polarstern“, Deutschlands einziger Eisbrecher, macht sich auf den Weg zum Nordpol. Mit der Expedition Arc.Watch, unter der Leitung von Prof. Dr. Antje Boetius, Deutschlands bekanntester Meeresbiologin, will ein internationales Forschungsteam das maritime Leben im arktischen Ozean untersuchen. Bereits 2020 war die „Polarstern“ am Nordpol. Wissenschaftler:innen untersuchten das Meereis und die Atmosphäre. Jetzt wollen sie verstehen, wie das Leben am Nordpol funktioniert und tauchen dafür erstmals bis zum 4000 Meter tiefen Meeresboden. Was sie dort entdecken, stellt das bisherige Wissen über das System Arktis auf den Kopf.

Diese Entdeckungen sind nur durch die Mannschaft der „Polarstern“ möglich. Kapitän Stefan Schwarze ist eine lebende Legende der Seefahrt in polaren Gebieten und reiste bereits zum sechsten Mal zum Nordpol. Begleitet wird die Expedition von der renommierten Polar- und Wissenschaftsfotografin Esther Horvath. Niemand hat in den letzten Jahren so intensiv in der Arktis fotografiert wie sie. Esther Horvath liebt die Dunkelheit der Polarnacht. Nun stellte sie sich 24 Stunden Helligkeit.