A world 1st: Xuelong-2 wraps up Antarctic autumn ecosystem mission

Multiple scientific breakthroughs were achieved during China's icebreaker Xuelong-2's latest 208-day, 40,000-nautical-mile journey, which returned to Haikou City, south China's Hainan Province, on May 28.

China's 41st Antarctic expedition became the world's first multinational joint expedition focusing on Antarctic autumn ecosystems. A total of 91 people from China, Australia, South Korea, the United States, Malaysia, Norway, Thailand, New Zealand and the United Kingdom participated in the expedition, including 10 faculty members and students from the School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

During the 20-day field survey from March 27 to April 15, researchers completed marine investigations at 24 sampling stations along four transects. Despite challenging conditions of around minus 20 degrees Celsius temperatures, they collected over 5,000 samples comprising water columns, membrane filtrates, sediment cores, biological specimens and sea ice samples.

Researchers completed the world's first systematic study of key Antarctic trophic levels, including zooplankton, Antarctic krill, mesopelagic fish, seabirds and marine mammals, during the critical autumn freeze-up period. This sheds new light on how polar organisms adapt to the extreme low-light conditions of winter and how carbon is transported into the deep ocean during the ice formation season.