PCAPS-related highlights from the SCAR OSC in Pucón, Chile (19 - 22 August 2024)

The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research’s (SCAR) Open Science Conference (OSC), which had not been held in person since 2018, brought approximately 1,300 Antarctic researchers and experts to Pucón, Chile from 19 to 22 August, 2024. Among them were three members of the PCAPS Steering Group: Clare Eayrs from the Korea Polar Research Insitute (KOPRI), Machiel Lamers from the Wageningen University & Research, and Daniela Liggett from the University of Canterbury. Aside from presenting their own research, Clare, Machiel and Daniela used the opportunity to network and create greater awareness about PCAPS in the Antarctic community.

Machiel Lamers, Daniela Liggett and Clare Eayrs from the PCAPS Steering Group at the SCAR conference venue in Pucón, Chile, overlooking Lago Villarica in the back. Photo credit: Daniela Cajiao

The SCAR OSC is the largest biennial gathering of Antarctic researchers, and this year’s conference exceeded all expectations in terms of the number of conference participants and presentations, with up to 11 parallel sessions outside the daily plenary talks.

Clare, Machiel and Daniela shared information about PCAPS in their own presentations as appropriate.  For instance, as a panellist in a mini-symposium on critical ice-ocean-atmosphere boundaries in Antarctica and their global climate impacts, Clare highlighted some of the key poorly understood sea ice processes that PCAPS Task Teams could contribute to. Daniela presented the results of this year’s PCAPS community survey (led by Vicki Heinrich) and expert elicitation workshop in Hobart, Australia. Machiel, in his presentation on current developments in Antarctic tourism, emphasised how weather and sea ice forecasts are both necessary for safe operations as well as a potential driver in the growth of tourism.  

View from the conference venue to volcano Villarica. Photo credit: Clare Eayrs

In addition, Clare and Daniela were co-convenors of a workshop on Antarctic extremes , which was championed by the CIIMAR – Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research researcher Irina Gorodetskaya and co-convened by Tom Bracegirdle, Rachel Cavanagh, Daniela Liggett, Jilda Caccavo, Florence Colleoni, Clare Eayrs, Mercedes Santos, Dieter Tetzner and Pranab Deb. This workshop was one of the best-attended workshops at the SCAR OSC, with over 100 participants, both online and in a room that was bursting at the seams and was filled beyond capacity. 

The workshop started with a general overview on the problem of lacking a comprehensive definition of extremes in Antarctica, followed by presentations by co-chief officers of each SCAR programme (AntClimNow, INSTANT and Ant-ICON) on the importance of the extremes in each programme domain (atmosphere&ocean, glaciology, biology, social applications).

This was followed by 20, two-minute presentations by researchers across a wide range of disciplines – from atmospheric research and meteorology, to glaciology, ecology, climate science, to the human geography and architecture – showcased how the definitions of ‘extreme events’ and their impacts differed across the disciplines.  These presentations highlighted the urgency required to understand and, ideally better prepare for, Antarctic extreme events. 

The second part of the workshop was dedicated to breakout-group work, during which five groups further explored how and why Antarctic extreme events feature in the participating researchers’ fields of study and what the key research priorities with regard to extreme events were. 

The consensus of all groups was that we are still lacking baseline data in relation to which extremes can be demarcated.  Considering the range of different definitions of extremes, it was also suggested that all definitions, along with pertinent examples, be collated in a multi-disciplinary glossary. 

The question on how to advance research on Antarctic extremes was also addressed in breakout discussions, and ideas ranged from joint publications to dedicated research networks (e.g., via a SCAR subsidiary body, such as an Action Group) to a dedicated conference. 

There was agreement that knowledge gaps in relation to Antarctic extremes were too important to ignore and that, with extreme events (not only related to weather but including complex interactions of atmosphere-ocean-ice-ecosystems) in the polar regions likely to become more frequent and to result in severe consequences for the environment, and potentially also humans and human assets and infrastructure, dedicated efforts in the international research community were needed to address the most urgent questions. 

These efforts would need to be transdisciplinary in that polar operators and other stakeholders should be involved from the start. PCAPS has a lot to contribute to this endeavour – so, stay tuned for more updates on the topic of Antarctic (or rather polar) extremes.