Arctic Expedition Research Articles

Isolation and identification of a novel LCI like antibacterial protein from Bacillus sp. MD-5 reveals its potential application in controlling Staphylococcus aureus in food industry

A novel LCI like antibacterial protein produced by Bacillus sp. MD-5, which was isolated from the Arctic Ocean sediment sample during the sixth Chinese National Arctic Expedition in 2014, was purified and characterized. After saturation of Bacillus sp. MD-5 culture supernatant with ammonium sulfate and separation with ion-exchange chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), an antibacterial protein (MD) was purified. The MD protein was determined to be a novel LCI like antibacterial protein with molecular weight of about 7.0 kDa using liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometer (LC-MS) identification and the sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). It displayed antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus at minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 7.33 μg/mL. MD protein possessed high thermostability and wide range of pH tolerance, and had a certain extent of protease, surfactant and metal ion resistance. MD protein was suggested to inhibit the growth of S. aureus through inhibiting peptidoglycan biosynthesis in the view of TEM detection. These results suggested that MD may represent a novel antibacterial protein with potential application in controlling S. aureus in food industry.

TO THE QUESTION OF DIAGNOSES OF ENDOTHELIAL DYSFUNCTION UNDER THE CONDITIONS OF THE TRANSPORTED FLIGHT IN THE ARCTIC

The aim of the study was to assess the state of endothelial function in conditions of in the work, individual biochemical (homocysteine, folate, vitamin B12 levels) and functional (by peripheral arterial tonometry) markers of endothelial dysfunction during a marine trans-latitude voyage in the Arctic were studied. The design of the study is a prospective cohort nonrandomized study. The object of the study was practically healthy people - members of the Arctic scientific expedition and crew members of the marine scientific research vessel. The preliminary analysis of the obtained data allows to state that in healthy participants of short-term transhort maritime voyage in the Arctic abnormalities of endothelium-dependent vasodilation function were detected using the method of peripheral arterial tonometry on EndoPaT-2000 device with a test with active hyperemia and homocysteine exchange results, which indicates the presence of endothelial dysfunction. The unfavorable influence of high latitudes of the Arctic on the formation of endothelial dysfunction in healthy participants of the expedition and members of the research vessel crew was revealed.

Melville in the Arctic

Arctic expeditions in search of the missing British explorer Sir John Franklin carried copies of Typee and Omoo in their libraries in two notable examples. How does one read Melville's Polynesian romances in the Arctic? In the context of their interactions with Inuit and other indigenous people of the North, Arctic sailors might have concluded from their reading of Typee or Omoo that white, Western ways were not supreme. Ideologically instantiating Western primacy would have consequences both for indigenous and colonial populations. The story of Melville in the Arctic is a history of refusing national or imperial sovereignty in favor of the open spaces of the sea.

Social interaction and pain: An arctic expedition

Complex human behaviour can only be understood within its social environment. However, disentangling the causal links between individual outcomes and social network position is empirically challenging. We present a research design in a closed real-world setting with high-resolution temporal data to understand this interplay within a fundamental human experience – physical pain. Study participants completed an isolated 3-week hiking expedition in the Arctic Circle during which they were subject to the same variation in environmental conditions and only interacted amongst themselves. Adolescents provided daily ratings of pain and social interaction partners. Using longitudinal network models, we analyze the interplay between social network position and the experience of pain. Specifically, we test whether experiencing pain is linked to decreasing popularity (increasing isolation), whether adolescents prefer to interact with others experiencing similar pain (homophily), and whether participants are increasingly likely to report similar pain as their interaction partners (contagion). We find that reporting pain is associated with decreasing popularity – interestingly, this effect holds for males only. Further exploratory analyses suggest this is at least partly driven by males withdrawing from contact with females when in pain, enhancing our understanding of pain and masculinity. Contrary to recent experimental and clinical studies, we found no evidence of pain homophily or contagion in the expedition group.

John Richardson's ‘missing’ Arctic journal, 6–29 October 1821

ABSTRACTThe 1819–1822 overland Arctic expedition led by John Franklin was one of the most disastrous in polar history. In 1821, 20 men travelled to the Arctic Ocean by way of the Coppermine River; only nine of them survived. John Richardson's expedition journal, as published by C. Stuart Houston in 1984, is incomplete. There are no entries between 7 and 29 October 1821, even though five of the 11 deaths (some or possibly all of them by murder) occurred during this critical period. The omission of these events from the journal on which Houston's edition was based has raised suspicions that the account published in Franklin's 1823 narrative may be inaccurate. This article prints the ‘missing’ journal entries, which were located in the files of the Colonial Office, and analyses the differences between these previously unknown entries and the 1823 account.

A comparative analysis of the Su-pung-er and Bayne testimonies related to the Franklin expedition

ABSTRACTDuring Charles Francis Hall's second Arctic expedition (1864–1869) to find survivors and/or documents of Sir John Franklin's 1845 Northwest Passage expedition, two separate Inuit testimonies were recorded of a potential burial vault of a high-ranking officer. The first testimony was provided by a Boothia Inuk named Su-pung-er. The second testimony was documented by Captain Peter Bayne who, at the time, was employed by Hall. To date the vault has not been found. Recently, both the HMSErebusand HMSTerrorhave been located. The discovery of these vessels was made possible, in part, by Inuit testimony of encounters with and observations of the Franklin expedition. The findings of theErebusandTerrorhave significantly bolstered the view that the Inuit accurately reported their observations and interactions with the Franklin crew. The purpose of this paper is to publish in their entirety Hall's notes from conversations with Su-pung-er focused on the vaults and to compare these observations to those reported in the Bayne testimony. It is our hope that in so doing the final major archaeological site of the Franklin expedition may be located.

Response of phytoplankton community to different water types in the western Arctic Ocean surface water based on pigment analysis in summer 2008

Nutrients and photosynthesis pigments were investigated in the western Arctic Ocean during the 3rd Chinese Arctic Research Expedition Cruise in summer 2008. The study area was divided into five provinces using the Kmeans clustering method based on the physical and chemical characteristics of the sea water, and to discuss the distribution of the phytoplankton community structure in these provinces. CHEMTAX software was performed using HPLC pigments to estimate the contributions of eight algal classes to the total chlorophyll a (TChl a). The results showed that on the Chukchi Shelf, the Pacific Ocean inflow mainly controlled the Chl a biomass and phytoplankton communities by nutrient concentrations. The high nutrient Anadyr Water and Bering Shelf Water (AnW and BSW) controlled region have high Chl a levels and the diatom dominated community structure. In contrast, in the region occupied by low-nutrient like Alaska Coastal Water (ACW), the Chl a biomass was low, with pico- and nano-phytoplankton as dominated species, such as prasinophytes, chrysophytes and cryptophytes. However, over the off-shelf, the ice cover condition which would affect the physical and nutrient concentrations of the water masses, in consequence had a greater impact on the phytoplankton community structure. Diatom dominated in ice cover region and its contribution to Chl a biomass was up to 75%. In the region close to the Mendeleev Abyssal Plain (MAP), controlled by sea-ice melt water with relatively high salinity (MW-HS), higher nutrient and Chl a concentrations were found and the phytoplankton was dominated by pico- and nano-algae, while the diatom abundance reduced to 33%. In the southern Canada Basin, an ice-free basin (IfB) with the lowest nutrient concentrations and most freshened surface water, low Chl a biomass was a consequence of low nutrients. The ice retreating and a prolonged period of open ocean may not be beneficial to the carbon export efficiency due to reducing the Chl a biomass or intriguing smaller size algae growth.

Factors dominating bacterioplankton abundance and production in the Nordic seas and the Chukchi Sea in summer 2012

Abundance and production of bacterioplankton were measured in the Nordic seas and Chukchi Sea during the 5th Chinese Arctic Research Expedition in summer 2012. The results showed that average bacterial abundances ranged from 3.31×1011 cells/m3 to 2.25×1011 cells/m3, and average bacterial productions (calculated by carbon) were 0.46 mg/(m3·d) and 0.54 mg/(m3·d) in the Nordic seas and Chukchi Sea, respectively. T-test result showed that bacterial abundances were significantly different between the Nordic seas and Chukchi Sea, however, no significant difference was observed regarding bacterial productions. Based on the slope of lg bacterial biomass versus lg bacterial production, bacterial communities in the Nordic seas and Chukchi Sea were moderately dominated by bottom-up control. Both Pearson correlation analysis and multivariable linear regression indicated that temperature had significant positive correlation with bacterial abundance in the Chukchi Sea, while no correlations with productions in both areas. Meanwhile, Chl a had positive correlations with both bacterial abundance and production in these two regions. As the temperature and Chl a keep changing in the future, we suggest that both bacterial abundance and production been hanced in the Chukchi Sea but weaken in the Nordic seas, though the enhancement will not be dramatic as a result of higher pressure of predation and viral lysis.

Making places: the role of Arctic cruise operators in ‘creating’ tourism destinations

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates how Arctic expedition cruise operators ‘create’ tourism destinations and diversify tourism space through itinerary making. The study proposes a typology of perceived values of a tourism destination and explores what value dimensions are critical in deciding on cruising locations. The typology helps to explain why certain locations became popular tourism destinations and why tourism space in the Arctic is so diversified. The analysis shows that ‘creation’ and distribution of Arctic expedition cruise destinations is dominated by functional costs and benefits, related mostly to sailing conditions and shipping logistics. Emotional costs (e.g. perceived risks) also play significant roles and prevail over emotional benefits (e.g. perceived achievement) and social factors, which were found least important.

Filming the “Northern Front”: The Motion Pictures of the Canadian Arctic Expedition

The Northern Review 44 (2017): 427–455 The Canadian Arctic Expedition (CAE) 1913–1918 was the first Canadian government-sponsored expedition of the Western Arctic. Led by Vilhjalmur Stefansson, two teams were to explore the southern and northern areas. With them was Australian cameraman, George Hubert Wilkins, who took still shots and motion pictures of the expedition. The CAE faced challenges from the start and within a few months the Karluk, the ship upon which Stefansson and the majority of the northern team were travelling, got stuck in the ice and later sunk. The CAE was mired in controversy, with the warring expeditions, massive cost overruns, and many deaths. Wilkins filmed thousands of feet of footage and photographs, but this footage was never edited into an official film, and it appears that it was never seen by audiences of the day outside of the Arctic. Placing the CAE official film footage within the context of film in Canada, the First World War, and the controversies surrounding the CAE and its own archival records context, this paper explores the history of this official audiovisual record and attempts to answer the question of why the Canadian government did not use this motion picture record to tell and promote the story of the CAE. This article is part of a special collection of papers originally presented at a conference on “The North and the First World War,” held May 2016 in Whitehorse, Yukon. https://doi.org/10.22584/nr44.2017.019

Claiming Spaces for Science

Exploration has always centered on claims: for country, for commerce, for character. Claims for useful scientific knowledge also grew out of exploration’s varied activities across space and time. The history of the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913–18 exposes the complicated process of claim-making. The expedition operated in and made claims on many spaces, both material and rhetorical, or, put differently, in several natural and discursive spaces. In making claims for science, the explorer-scientists navigated competing demands on their commitments and activities from their own predilections and from external forces. Incorporating Arctic spaces into the Canadian polity had become a high priority during the era when the CAE traversed the Arctic. Science through exploration—practices on the ground and especially through scientific and popular discourse—facilitated this integration. So, claiming space was something done on the ground, through professional literature, and within popular narratives—and not always for the same ends. The resulting narrative tensions reveal the messy material, political, and rhetorical spaces where humans do science. This article demonstrates how explorer-scientists claimed material and discursive spaces to establish and solidify their scientific authority. When the CAE claimed its spaces in nature, nation, and narrative, it refracted a reciprocal process whereby the demands of environment, state, and discourse also claimed the CAE.

Chinese seventh Arctic scientific expedition

Chinese seventh Arctic scientific expedition

Sleep during an Antarctic summer expedition: new light on "polar insomnia".

Sleep complaints are consistently cited as the most prominent health and well-being problem in Arctic and Antarctic expeditions, without clear evidence to identify the causal mechanisms. The present investigation aimed at studying sleep and determining circadian regulation and mood during a 4-mo Antarctic summer expedition. All data collection was performed during the continuous illumination of the Antarctic summer. After an habituation night and acclimatization to the environment (3 wk), ambulatory polysomnography (PSG) was performed in 21 healthy male subjects, free of medication. An 18-h profile (saliva sampling every 2 h) of cortisol and melatonin was assessed. Mood, sleepiness, and subjective sleep quality were assessed, and the psychomotor vigilance task was administered. PSG showed, in addition to high sleep fragmentation, a major decrease in slow-wave sleep (SWS) and an increase in stage R sleep. Furthermore, the ultradian rhythmicity of sleep was altered, with SWS occurring mainly at the end of the night and stage R sleep at the beginning. Cortisol secretion profiles were normal; melatonin secretion, however, showed a severe phase delay. There were no mood alterations according to the Profile of Mood States scores, but the psychomotor vigilance test showed an impaired vigilance performance. These results confirm previous reports on "polar insomnia", the decrease in SWS, and present novel insight, the disturbed ultradian sleep structure. A hypothesis is formulated linking the prolonged SWS latency to the phase delay in melatonin.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The present paper presents a rare body of work on sleep and sleep wake regulation in the extreme environment of an Antarctic expedition, documenting the effects of constant illumination on sleep, mood, and chronobiology. For applied research, these results suggest the potential efficiency of melatonin supplementation in similar deployments. For fundamental research, these results warrant further investigation of the potential link between melatonin secretion and the onset of slow-wave sleep.

Aerial observations of sea ice and melt ponds near the North Pole during CHINARE2010

An aerial photography has been used to provide validation data on sea ice near the North Pole where most polar orbiting satellites cannot cover. This kind of data can also be used as a supplement for missing data and for reducing the uncertainty of data interpolation. The aerial photos are analyzed near the North Pole collected during the Chinese national arctic research expedition in the summer of 2010 (CHINARE2010). The result shows that the average fraction of open water increases from the ice camp at approximately 87°N to the North Pole, resulting in the decrease in the sea ice. The average sea ice concentration is only 62.0% for the two flights (16 and 19 August 2010). The average albedo (0.42) estimated from the area ratios among snow-covered ice, melt pond and water is slightly lower than the 0.49 of HOTRAX 2005. The data on 19 August 2010 shows that the albedo decreases from the ice camp at approximately 87°N to the North Pole, primarily due to the decrease in the fraction of snow-covered ice and the increase in fractions of melt-pond and open-water. The ice concentration from the aerial photos and AMSR-E (The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System) images at 87.0°–87.5°N exhibits similar spatial patterns, although the AMSR-E concentration is approximately 18.0% (on average) higher than aerial photos. This can be attributed to the 6.25 km resolution of AMSR-E, which cannot separate melt ponds/submerged ice from ice and cannot detect the small leads between floes. Thus, the aerial photos would play an important role in providing high-resolution independent estimates of the ice concentration and the fraction of melt pond cover to validate and/or supplement space-borne remote sensing products near the North Pole.

Hydrologic CTD Dataset Obtained through Chi-nese Arctic Expeditions

Hydrologic CTD Dataset Obtained through Chi-nese Arctic Expeditions

The relevance of practice theories for tourism research

Practice theories offer a new perspective on tourism, by not focussing on individual agents or social structures, but on social practices as the starting point for theorising and conducting research. Illustrated by the practice of Arctic expedition cruising, we discuss the basic premises of practice theories and their potential applications to tourism studies, including various ways of conceptualising social practices, the principle idea of a flat ontology, the methodological implications and the relevance for tourism policies. Practice theories could contribute to the agenda of tourism studies in three ways, i.e. by enabling in-depth analysis of performed tourism consumption or production practices, by facilitating analysis of change in tourism over time and by unravelling the embeddedness of tourism practices.

Arctic trophy hunters, tourism and masculinities, 1827–1914

ABSTRACTTrophy hunting in the Arctic happened in an intersection between tourism, expeditions and hunting. This study contributes to a discrete history of masculinity within the context of trophy hunting organized from North Norway and to a broader understanding of Arctic masculinity. As trophy-hunting expeditions are primarily a male, even masculinist, practice, an analysis from a gender perspective is unavoidable. By taking an empirical approach I investigate performances of masculinity in written accounts of Arctic trophy-hunting expeditions from 1827–1914. The use of masculinity as a pivot demonstrates that a modification of the prevailing perception of Arctic masculinity is necessary. While the general understanding is dominated by an emphasis on physical strength, roughness, ingenuity, and self-realization, qualities connected to traditional knowledge of trappers, sailors and explorers, my analysis shows that trophy hunting introduced aristocratic ideals such as gentlemen’s sport, self-discipline, hunting morals, care for nature and knowledge to their home communities. Trophy hunting made possible performances of different forms of masculinity, not only the conquest and mastery of nature, but also the interest in and care for nature. Women accompanied as family members and hunters, and took part in the hunt more than has been commonly noted.

Simultaneous Determination of Chlorofluorocarbons and Sulfur Hexafluoride in Seawater Based on a Purge and Trap Gas Chromatographic System

Abstract Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) are types of anthropogenic halogenated compounds, and are very important for ocean processes, including air-sea and water mass exchanges. Meanwhile, they can also be used to calculate some key physical and biogeochemical parameters such as the apparent oxygen utilization rate and anthropogenic CO2. Compared to CFCs, SF6 is quite difficult to measure in seawater due to its low solubility. However, it is useful to study the ocean processes based on both CFCs and SF6. In this study, a purge and trap gas chromatography system was developed to simultaneously measure CFC-12 and SF6 in seawater. The optimal conditions were as follows: trap temperature of −70 °C, purge time of 8 min, purge gas pressure of 310 kPa, desorption time of 30 s, desorption temperature of 90 °C. The method was simple and sensitive. The detection limit were 0.02 pmol kg−1 for CFC-12 and 0.03 fmol kg−1 for SF6. The analytical precision of CFC-12 was ±1.2% and that of SF6 was ±0.5%. The correlation coefficient (R2) values of all calibration curves were greater than 0.9995. This method was successfully used in the analysis of sea water samples collected during the 6th Chinese Arctic Research Expedition.

Measuring pH in the Arctic Ocean: Colorimetric method or SeaFET?

The suitability of the colorimetric method in a custom-made instrumental set-up and the commercial potentiometric SeaFET®electrode sensor to measure pH in surface oceanic water in the Arctic was investigated during the Chinese Arctic Research Expedition (CHINARE) in summer 2014. The instruments were set up in parallel on the on-board underway seawater supply for 65 days, enabling comparison in various conditions in the Arctic Ocean from the Chukchi Sea to the ice-covered high latitudes (81°N) and the open-water North-western Pacific Ocean. Overall, the instruments yielded pH datasets of similar high quality (method uncertainty ≤0.010). Detailed comparison with the parallel colorimetric pH measurements indicated that the measurements with the SeaFET external electrode in the low salinity ice-covered area were problematical and that the internal reference electrode failed after almost 2 months of cruise. Reasons for discrepancies between the data from the two instruments and recommendations for the use of either instrument for pH measurements in the Arctic are discussed. Finally, the investigation yielded a reliable high-resolution pH dataset in surface waters along a transect from the Pacific to the Arctic Ocean. Large pH variations were observed in the ice-free Arctic surface waters, with pH ranging between 7.98 and 8.49. The highest pH values were observed at the ice edge, whereas a relatively invariable pH (8.02±0.02) was measured in under-ice seawater in the ice-covered Arctic Ocean. The high resolution surface seawater pH dataset obtained here could be used as reference to detect the on-going acidification rate in the Pacific Arctic.

Methyl iodine over oceans from the Arctic Ocean to the maritime Antarctic.

Studies about methyl iodide (CH3I), an important atmospheric iodine species over oceans, had been conducted in some maritime regions, but the understanding of the spatial distribution of CH3I on a global scale is still limited. In this study, we reports atmospheric CH3I over oceans during the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Research Expeditions. CH3I varied considerably with the range of 0.17 to 2.9 pptv with absent of ship emission. The concentration of CH3I generally decreased with increasing latitudes, except for higher levels in the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere than in the low latitudes. For sea areas, the Norwegian Sea had the highest CH3I concentrations with a median of 0.91 pptv, while the Central Arctic Ocean had the lowest concentrations with all values below 0.5 pptv. CH3I concentration over oceans was affected by many parameters, including sea surface temperature, salinity, dissolved organic carbon, biogenic emissions and input from continents, with distinctive dominant factor in different regions, indicating complex biogeochemical processes of CH3I on a global scale.