Over the past month I have begun my 3.5 month field season starting with an incredible week in Pucón, Chile for Scar 2024. Throughout the week, I had the opportunity to learn from experts across a broad range of disciplines about the continent I am studying. While many talks highlighted the alarming impact of the climate crisis on Antarctica and the rest of the world, they also underscored the importance of global collaboration to address these challenges. In line with this theme, I was honoured to attend an event hosted by the British Embassy in Chile, celebrating the ongoing collaboration in Antarctic science between Chile and the UK. I also had the opportunity to present my poster at the conference where I had many conversations with scientists from various fields, which provided further insights into research opportunities and fostered new collaborative links.
After the conference, I travelled to Punta Arenas for a week to meet with researchers at The Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH) and University of Magallanes, where we explored further collaboration opportunities for my project.
Once I arrived in the Falkland Islands, my fieldwork officially began. Following site recces, I immediately started collecting Durvillaea antarctica (Southern Bull Kelp) holdfasts from Hookers Point in Stanley. Since then, I’ve continued gathering kelp and begun lab assessments of the biodiversity within the holdfasts, marking a strong start to the season. So far in the lab I have processed bull kelp samples finding a rough 70 organisms per sample. These communities are made up of a combination of amphipods, ophiuroids, decapods, gastropods, bivalves and isopods. These preliminary findings already highlight the importance of kelp as a habitat provisioner within the Falkland Islands.
