Zero distance of Antarctic scientific research

Huang Qinghui, a teacher in the Department of Environmental Science of our school, and Li Yiting, a graduate student of the Institute of Environmental Management, flew to Beijing on December 9, 2014, to receive pre-departure education, as members of China's 31st Antarctic Science Expedition Team at the Great Wall Station. Departing on the morning of December 11, after several long-distance flights, they arrived at the Great Wall Station on the Filders Peninsula in the early morning of December 14, 2014, and started the polar scientific expedition.

The task of the polar scientific expedition comes from the background survey task of the polar special site-based ecological environment undertaken by teacher Wang Feng of our college. Also, the applicability of the portable seawater quality analyzer independently developed by Professor Gao Hongwen of our department in the polar environment will be tested. For a long time, in people's minds, the polar region is a pure land, but in recent years, studies have shown that some synthetic organic chemicals can be transported from remote land to polar regions, and enter the polar organisms and food chains. The scientific expedition team sent by our institute is mainly to find out the environmental background values of typical pollutants around the Great Wall Station and to provide important reference data for future long-term monitoring of the polar environment. At present, land soil, moss, and lichen, marine algae, shellfish, fish, and surface sediment samples have been collected, and some passive sampling devices have been installed. When the container shipping materials arrive, the collection of water samples, columnar sediments/ frozen soil, and the dismantling of wireless sensor probes placed in 30 surveys will also be carried out.

On December 22, 2014, teacher Huang Qinghui of our college actively assisted the Great Wall Station Master Xu Ning to organize the teaching work of the Great Wall College of Antarctic University and gave the first lecture titled "Polar Science Examination Zero Distance Series Lectures, Ecological Environment Investigation" to the Great Wall Station scientific expedition team members. They explained in profound and simple terms from four aspects: why should we pay attention to the polar ecological environment? What are the threats to the polar ecological environment? Where will polar environmental quality and ecological health go? How to deal with future challenges? The content of the lecture aroused the interest of the majority of scientific expeditioners. With the effect of “throwing bricks and attracting jade”, the stationmaster and the team members raised many questions. Teacher Huang patiently answered them, and the stationmaster also made a summary, he also expressed that the Great Wall College of Antarctic University will launch a series of lectures one after another.

According to teacher Huang's feedback, after half a month of field investigations and mutual exchanges, the scientific expedition team members have a deeper understanding of the polar ecological environment issues and inspection tasks and have a stronger sense of responsibility for protecting the polar ecological environment.