Studying the Dry Valleys of Antarctica | Continent 7: Antarctica

these systems are very unique and as
things change climate wise they’re gonna
change and could change irreversibly the
Dry Valleys
are very similar to Mars environment I
mean it’s incredible all of the
microbial life on the continent has kind
of concentrated and sequestered for the
valleys dry valleys is the largest
ice-free
area of the condom so likely it’s got
the most biology my obsession is with
understanding how organisms can survive
in some of the most extreme environments
on the planet the coldest places on
earth the driest places on earth
this project has 12 scientists
investigating the impact of people on
the ecosystem as well as the impact of
potential climate change on the
ecosystem we go to the Dry Valleys
because the surface cover is very simple
and we can do observations that we can’t
do anywhere else in the world what I’ve
done now is set up the high end infrared
camera and what we try to do is measure
the surface temperature of different
surfaces the coldest being the lake
obviously sort of new violet colors and
this is one of the dynamics we’re trying
to capture in our analysis whether it is
a global phenomenon and whatever happens
in Antarctica will affect eventually
weather in different areas in the world
temperature 0 Celsius
every now and then the wind picks up my
main focus is the surface few metres
above the ground is where people live
where we grow our crops so this is why
it is important as the stewards of this
planet we shouldn’t tolerate extinction