Arctic: Brazil makes its first research expedition – 07/13/2023 – Environment

Biologists from three Brazilian universities are starting this week the first expedition of researchers from the country to the Arctic, on a nine-day trip to the Svalbard archipelago, belonging to Norway. The team will collect samples of plants, fungi and micro-organisms, with the aim of better understanding the connections between species from the two poles of the planet.

On top of that, says Paulo Câmara, a researcher at UnB (University of Brasília) and one of the members of the expedition, the journey could initiate Brazil’s integration into studies considered strategic from a geopolitical point of view.

“Brazil has been a polar country for more than 40 years, thanks to the continuity of Brazilian Antarctic research throughout this period. Environmental changes in the Arctic affect the whole world, including us, and have repercussions on international trade and security “, he argues, noting that part of the Brazilian territory is in the northern hemisphere (above the Equator) and, therefore, is closer to the North Pole than the South Pole.

Câmara specializes in bryophytes, the group of relatively primitive plants that includes mosses and are among the few that manage to colonize polar environments with any ease. It is what he should study in Svalbard, following the example of what he is already doing in Antarctica.

“The moss mats can be seen as miniature forests. They are home to a wide diversity of other living beings, such as springtails [parentes primitivos dos insetos, também com seis patas]nematode worms and amoebae,” he explains.

The team’s experience in Antarctic territory should help them in the study of the so-called bipolar species, which are present at the two extremes of the globe, but not in the intermediate regions of the Earth.

Another member of the group, Micheline Carvalho Silva, also from UnB, explained to Sheet that one of the hypotheses to explain this connection over such great distances involves the action of wind currents, which would be capable of carrying the reproductive parts of these plants around the world.

Another possibility is that they hitch a ride on migratory birds that tend to frequent both polar regions, taking advantage of the less cold periods of the Arctic and Antarctica. “We’re going to examine these birds’ feathers to see what they’re carrying,” she explains.

According to Vívian Gonçalves, specialists in extremophile fungi (specialized in surviving in extreme environments) at UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais), she and her colleagues will collect samples both on trails that they will access by land and in fjords (sea arms that advance along the side of rocky slopes) which must be reached by boat, with the help of guides native to the region.

In addition to the species in the region, the team must also collect samples of permafrost, the frozen soil of the Arctic that has increasingly melted due to climate change.

“It’s much simpler logistics than what is needed to work in Antarctica”, summarizes Marcelo Ramada, a molecular biologist at the Catholic University of Brasília. “We can, for example, hire a commercial flight that is not so expensive to reach Svalbard. There are villages with permanent population, supermarkets, roads, hotels.”

And there are polar bears — a species that has inhabited Svalbard for tens of thousands of years but has grown closer to the archipelago’s human population because of the loss of its habitat and its main menu item, seals, with the melting of sea ice in the region.

Therefore, Norwegian legislation determines that field work in Svalbard must be accompanied by armed guides, or be carried out by people trained to defend themselves against bears, if necessary.

“We did all the training with the marines and with the Brazilian Army to be able to handle bolt-action rifles”, explains Luiz Rosa, from the microbiology department at UFMG. “I’m not going to shoot a bear, I’m a biologist, and we’re going to avoid any confrontation as much as possible, but we’re prepared.”

According to the protocols adopted in the region, you should first make noise to try to ward off predators, then fire flares, fire warning shots and only as a last resort shoot the animal. “But if we spot a bear, we’ll withdraw immediately,” says Rosa.