Afonso Ferreira and Graça Sofia Nunes in an interview with Sábado
MARE researchers Afonso Ferreira and Graça Sofia Nunes embarked on a scientific expedition aboard the Brazilian Navy polar ship Almirante Maximiano to study the effects of climate change on phytoplankton in the Antarctic Peninsula region. For almost a month, the two Portuguese researchers lived on board the ship, surrounded by ice and water, with 20 hours of light a day.
Despite the long working hours, which stretch from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Graça Sofia Nunes reveals that the routine also includes moments of relaxation, such as watching movies or playing cards after work. Meals are “typically Brazilian, rice and beans with protein, which isn't bad at all, but I already miss our cuisine,” she confesses.
Work on board the Almirante Maximiano is organized in shifts, ensuring that research tasks are not interrupted. Graça explains that, despite the intense pace, there is time to socialize with the team in the “Praça das Armas” or even to use the ship's gym whenever possible.
The journey to Antarctica was a logistical challenge. To reach the ship, the researchers needed two commercial flights, two buses and a military flight from the Brazilian Air Force to Chile.
The study by the two researchers is part of the ImpactANT project, a partnership between the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon and the Federal University of Rio Grande, in Brazil, which has been running since 2017. The project aims to “study how the Antarctic ecosystem is changing in the face of climate change”, taking into account “the study of various biological groups, including phytoplankton, whales and cetaceans and seabirds”.
Afonso Ferreira also highlighted the “financial support from the Portuguese Polar Program, which opens an application every year for small projects taking place in polar regions”, and the collaboration with NASA, which is providing images from the PACE satellite, launched in February 2024. Through these images, it will be possible to monitor the region's phytoplankton communities, a complex job that can only be carried out from space.
Graça Sofia Nunes explains that Antarctica was chosen because it is “a place with a high concentration of phytoplankton due to the combination of a high availability of nutrients, combined with the availability of sunlight during the austral summer”. “Given that Antarctica is one of the regions most affected by climate change, it is essential to understand how phytoplankton are responding to this threat and what the potential impacts of this response are for the rest of the ecosystem.”
The importance of phytoplankton cannot be underestimated, as Afonso Ferreira states. “Phytoplankton play an essential role in the planet's marine ecosystems”, ‘essential for transforming carbon dioxide into oxygen through photosynthesis, allowing us and other animals to breathe properly’. It is also “an essential food for many emblematic organisms, including ‘our’ sardines”, which means that “any drastic change in phytoplankton can have serious consequences for the balance of the ecosystem”.
The Portuguese researchers returned to Portugal on February 20, after almost a month on board, with their mission accomplished, but with many new discoveries about the effects of climate change on the Antarctic ecosystem.
To access the article in Sábado magazine click HERE