Image: John Montgomery [CC BY-NC-ND 3.0], via Antarctica New Zealand
New Zealand academics say projects have been scrapped and careers truncated
The Covid-19 pandemic had a “profound” impact on Antarctic research and exposed problems in the governance of the region, a paper has said.
The research, published on 1 March in the journal Science Advances, found that “Antarctic exceptionalism” had been shown to be a myth by the pandemic’s effects.
The fieldwork for some Antarctic research was “put on hold” during the pandemic, the paper said. “Many Antarctic research and field operations have been delayed by at least one to two years and some considerably longer, with some field projects cancelled entirely.”
Funding cuts forced by the economic crisis around the pandemic could contribute to “substantial downstream impacts on access to facilities and the ability to carry out Antarctic science and produce the resulting outputs”, the researchers wrote. “Furthermore, they will, in all likelihood, affect development of informed Antarctic governance, which relies on robust and up-to-date scientific knowledge.”
When research did restart, several large clusters of Covid-19 were detected. In January 2022, nine unvaccinated, infected people had to be helicoptered out of the Argentinian Esperanza Base. No researchers died in Antarctica and the disease has not been detected in Antarctic wildlife.
“When Sars-Cov-2 emerged in Antarctica, it caused substantial disruption to scientific research and Antarctic logistics, including station activities,” the paper said. The climate and living conditions for Antarctic researchers were complicating factors when infections did emerge.
Delays and cancellations
Daniela Liggett, an associate professor in the University of Canterbury’s Earth and environment school, was lead author on the paper. “At the time, the Antarctic was looked at as an enclave that was spared due to its remoteness and extreme environment, but this wasn’t the case,” she said. “The pandemic caused significant impacts to the region which we are only just beginning to understand.”
Other impacts of the pandemic included “some national Antarctic programmes scrambling for solutions to overcome the difficulties they encountered with regard to getting Antarctic personnel back home at the end of the 2019-20 Antarctic season”, the paper said.
“Especially in the first year of the pandemic, various countries faced major challenges transporting their people and cargo, both through sudden loss or change in planned support from other operators and from the initial near-complete closure of international travel options.”
Liggett said: “The delays and cancellations have been further aggravated by funding cuts, resulting in the early retirement of experienced staff, the inability to give early career researchers field training and experience, and the loss of income for many—some of whom chose to leave academia.”
The paper was written as part of the work of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research’s Standing Committee on the Humanities and Social Sciences. It was supported by the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council and co-authored by members of the British Antarctic Survey.