Layman would say that it is cold in Antarctica all the time. Why would you say this year´s winter was so extreme, and how did it affect the research?
Before we arrived at the station almost the entire region was still under snow. Normally reopening the station takes three days; this year it took four and a half. A lot of places we had reached in previous years without any problems were under a huge mantle of snow. The waterways were very often covered with ice, so we could not use our rubber boats. The winter also hindered the development of vegetation ecosystems.
Was the winter also cold and extreme when measured in the long term?
That we cannot say, because we have been compiling the data by which we analyze the local climate for only five years so far. But my colleague Kamil Láska, who is a climatologist, analyzed this years data from several climatic exchanges and declared this winter exceptional. He recorded the lowest minimum winter temperature to this point – minus 37.2 degrees Celsius.
The university station in Antarctica has been in operation for four years. What is the biggest advantage it provides?
Most of all it provides a place in which we have accommodation and technical facilities. We used to participate in other expeditions in the Antarctica just as guests of research teams from other countries, and our work lacked a unified direction. Now we can work in one place and conceptually. This gives us the ability to monitor long-term processes. The surroundings of the station form a huge natural laboratory, because the area of James Ross Island is one of the biggest unglaciated areas in Antarctica. It is a vast uncharted territory – the diversity, the number of organisms there and the mechanisms of their adaptation to extreme environments are enormous. So we can guarantee the sustainability of the scientific topics and the attractiveness of issues that will be addressed there.