Scientists also study ‘extremophiles’ at Czech-built station
Brno, March 13 (ČTK) —Czech scientists took some 7,300 parasites from fish for examination and they studied the melting of four icebergs, and moss and lichen species during an expedition to the J.G. Mendel polar station on Ross Island in Antractica this year, biologist Miloš Barták told CTK.
Many ice blocks prevented them from transporting new technical equipment to the station because the icebreaker carrying the expedition to the island could not get closer than 18 kilometers away from the station in February, Barták, from Masaryk University in Brno, said.
The team was taken to the station aboard a helicopter.
A major part of the 16-member team comprised mainly of scientists from the university that built the station on the island in 2005-06 has returned home leaving behind three members.
Now that the situation in the sea has improved, the three Czechs together with Chilean marines will attempt to take 108 new solar panels, a wind power plant and a water container from the ship to the base.
In spite of the adverse conditions, the expedition also collected a big number of invertebrates to study magnetoreception, or their ability to orientate themselves based on the magnetic field of the Earth.
The scientists continue studying extremophiles, which are small organisms capable of surviving sharp changes in weather, and the scientists want to know the cause.
The scientists found out that all four monitored icebergs are melting, which proves the continuing climate warming.
Biologist study Antarctic oases, or places where life in the form of algae and lichens emerges after the icebergs retreat.
