It was the third season in a row icebreaker Oden worked in Antarctica. The basis of the cooperative effort was that NSF chartered Oden from the Swedish Maritime Administration and the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat to break an ice channel to the McMurdo Antarctic Station in the Ross Sea, allowing supply vessels to reach the station. As Oden sailed through the Southern Ocean, researchers had an opportunity to perform marine studies.

The research projects

The marine research conducted during Oden Southern Ocean 2008/09 was interdisciplinary, and involved environmental chemistry, chemical and physical oceanography, climate research, epidemiology and evolutionary biology. The scientific findings from the expedition will play an important role in our understanding of the Antarctic system and its role in climate change. Its extreme climate and isolated location makes the Antarctic a unique platform for studying the Earth’s climatic, biological and geological evolution, and the environmental problems of the future.

Swedish principal investigators

Katarina Abrahamsson
University of Gothenburg

Tero Härkönen
Swedish Museum of Natural History

Melissa Chierci
University of Gothenburg

Agneta Fransson
University of Gothenburg

Henrik Kylin
SLU

Göran Björk
University of Gothenburg