Belgica 120

In the framework of the RECTO and vERSO projects funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office, the expedition aims at carrying out a biodiversity census in the Western Antarctic Peninsula in March 2018, and to test-case the potential for an agile sampling platform (the Australis sailboat). The expedition bears a strong historic link to the first scientific expedition to overwinter in Antarctica in 1897-99 recording the first intertidal biodiversity data, 120 years ago. This historic expedition was led by Adrien de Gerlache, onboard the RV Belgica.

The overarching objective of the expedition is to delineate the impact of contrasted glacial regimes on the structure of shallow benthic communities in a fast-warming region of the Southern Ocean. The idea is to refine insights gained in the plasticities of these communities in the framework of the RECTO/vERSO projects. This objective will be tackled using a multi-faceted approach, as determined in the RECTO project. This approach is matched by the complementary competences of the scientific crew. The expedition will be a unique opportunity to address a series of underlying scientific/logistic questions, including: to map the marine habitats in selected locations from the Gerlache Strait to quantify the physiological sensitivity of selected species to contrasted environmental conditions to assess the levels of biodiversity in an underexplored area of the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) to model trophic networks in fast-changing environmental conditions to test the concept of using an agile platform for Antarctic marine biology work and its potential to fill knowledge gaps to quantify the levels of variability of a set of environmental parameters at fine scale to determine the levels of plastic contamination, including adsorbed pollutants (organic and inorganic)