Antarctic Peninsula's ice shelf vanished with 13,500 km2 since 1974 due to the regional temperature rise of more than 2°C in these past 50 years.

The melting of the polar shelves, which has an ascendant trend, will release the huge amount of water stocked in them, causing the rise of the sea level.

The latest and biggest event in this series is the collapse of the Larsen B platform in February 2002, releasing 3,250 km2 of sea bottom of an ice cover 5,000 years old.

But this event also left a blank spot on Antarctica.

Now, researchers embarked on Polarstern (photo), the research flagship of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research which can operate at -50 degrees Celsius and break through 1.5 m thick ice at a speed of 5 knots, will make the first major biological research of this area, investigating biotic communities, from microbes to fishes and whales.

The Polarstern starts from Cape Town, South Africa, in November 23, 2006, heading towards the Weddell Sea and will reach Antarctic Peninsula on December 14, 2006.

The first investigations will be made on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula, around the South Shetland Islands.

The subsequent studies will be made around the Larsen A/B area.

If the sea ice is not penetrable, an alternative area around Joinville Island will be investigated.

The Polarstern will end its expedition in Punta Arenas, Chile, on January 30, 2007.

The 47 researchers will lead 25 different research projects on benthology, planktonology, taxonomy, ecology, physiology, biogeochemistry, genetics, bathymetry, etc.

The expedition will also investigate fish stocks as a contribution to the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), as a continuous monitoring since 1976, in order to see the state of stock recovery from previously fished area.

The vanishing ice shelf allows plankton to enter and thrive in these areas, permitting the appearance of bottom animal communities (benthos) feeding on plankton.

Sampling and the use of a remote operated vehicle with a video camera and a high-resolution deep-sea still camera will reveal the species that have colonized this new pristine environment.

This will offer the best pattern of the early stages of colonization.

This study will bring an important model as, with the increasing global warming, the ice shelves in other parts of Antarctica are expected to brake soon.

The research will also cover a 2005 discovered cold-vent ecosystem in the same Larsen area, the first of its kind known in Antarctica, of 8 km2.

Mounds tossing out liquids and mud particles harbor an ecosystem, including large clams, depending more on chemical energy from the Earth, rather than on photosynthesis or hot emissions from inside the planet.
Polarstern's voyage will open the way for further polar research.