Zorigto Namsaraev

Zorigto Namsaraev is a microbiologist working in the Center for Protein
Engineering of the University of Liege (Belgium) (www.cip.ulg.ac.be) and the Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology from the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow). Extremophilic bacteria are at the center of his scientific interests. Zorigto has joined more than 15 expeditions in Siberia, Mongolia, North America, and the Arctic. Currently he has a 2-year FNRS funded post-doc fellowship to study the biogeography and ecology of polar cyanobacteria in Ulg with Annick Wilmotte (www.bipoles.ulg.ac.be).


Zorigto Namsaraev and Marie-José Mano (PhD student working on BELDIVA) showing a satellite map of the Sor Rondane region, sent by Dr Yves Cornet (Geomatics Department, University of LIège)

During the 2010 expedition to Antarctica, Zorigto plans to carry out several
experiments: installation of Open-Top Chambers for local simulation of global warming; sampling of rocks, biofilms, cryoconites and sediments; filtration of air to estimate the potential of aerial transport of cyanobacteria; study of a daily cycle of photosynthetic activity using a fluorometer; and measurement of microenvironmental conditions using temperature and humidity sensors.
The goals are to estimate the potential of microbial communities to respond to climate change, to study the biodiversity and the factors driving it, and which are the real environmental conditions experienced by the microorganisms in their microniches.

Elie Verleyen

Elie Verleyen is a member of the laboratory of Protistology and Aquatic Ecology of the University of Gent. He has been involved in the LAQUAN project during his PhD research, which was mainly focused on the reconstruction of past climate changes and variations in sea-ice extent and ice-sheet thickness in coastal Antarctic regions using biological proxies in lake-sediment cores.
Elie was the recipient of the Antarctic Baillet-Latour fellowship award in December 2008 and will work on the DELAQUA project.
http://www.inbevbailletlatour.com/media/misc_media/PB%20IBL%20Polar%20Foundation-fr%20dec%2008.pdf

Josef Elster

http://www.sinicerasy.cz/

Josef Elster is a polar ecologist at the Botany Institute of the Academy of Sciences. He also teaches at the University of South Bohemia and the Masaryk University in his country. He is interested in the ecology and ecophysiology of algae in natural, extreme and man-made environments.

Josef Elster has already carried out 15 research expeditions to the Polar Regions (The Arctic – Svalbard - 1988, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2004, Ellesmere Island 1991, 1993, 1994, Northern Sweden – Abisko – 2006, Antarctica 1996, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007). He had a 26 months postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto, Canada, and has spent 6 months at the National Institute of Polar Research, Tokyo, Japan,. Moreover, he made several short stays at various institutions.

However, it will be the first time that he will work in continental Antarctica, as he generally went to more coastal areas, like King Georges Island or Ross Island where the Czech Republic is running a Research Station.
http://www.radio.cz/fr/article/86310

Annick Wilmotte

Steve Roberts

Steve est un scientifique travaillant pour The British Antarctic Survey à Cambridge,
Royaume-Unis.

Il travaille sur le climat et sur le projet Climate and Chemistry Pole Equator (CACHE-PEP). CACHE-PEP est un projet de recherche de 5 ans étudiant des relevés faits dans des lacs ou des carottes de glace en rapport avec le changement climatique (niveau de la mer) passé (paléo) depuis les 20,000 dernières années et cela depuis la Péninsule Antarctique jusqu'au Sud de l'Amérique.

Au cours de ces dix dernières années, nous avons collecté des carottes de sédiments de plusieurs lacs de la Péninsule Antarctique. Nous avons l'intention de relier ces relevés à d'autres, similaires, provenant du Sud de l'Amérique et d'intégrer ces informations du changement climatique passé avec des modèles de changement régionaux et globaux et avec des changements climatiques et du niveau de la mer.
Cette recherche contribue à un programme de recherche de reconstruction climatique internationallement coordonné réunissant des données sur le climat le long d'un transect latitudinal depuis le Nord jusqu'au pôle Sud, en passant par le Nord et le Sud du continent américain.