Mini-Symposia SCAR 2024

International collaboration has always been a hallmark of Antarctic research. However, implementing complex multinational projects requires a long lead time and development of specific partnerships between the science and the science support communities. Such partnerships are based on years of experience with lessons learned and improved over decades of polar research supported through COMNAP and its Member national Antarctic programs. The success of future partnerships is promising with the likes of the SCAR ANTOS Expert Group, the SCAR RINGS Action Group, ICED, and the Antarctica InSync project on the implementation horizon to name only a few international, large-scale partnerships ready for action.  This mini-symposium will explore the complex nature of establishing the framework for providing logistics for circumpolar research programs. Presenters will include scientists involved in the development of the research strategies for each of these initiatives and presenters from the national Antarctic programs involved in planning and implementation, operations, logistics and science support for such polar research. The mini-symposium will explore the critical science/science support nexus that enables circumpolar research collaborations. By looking at these present initiatives we can take the lessons learned into future circumpolar collaborations to ensure their inclusiveness and success.

Chairs

• Dr Antonio Quesada, COMNAP Chair
• Dr Deneb Karentz, SCAR Vice President Science

Speakers

• Dr Antje Boetius, Director Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Germany
• Dr Kenny Matsuoka, Chair RINGS Action Group / Norwegian Polar Institute, Norway
• John Guldahl, Director Operations & Logistics Norwegian Polar Institute, Norway / COMNAP Deputy Manager and Project Manager for the COMNAP RINGS Collaboration Project
• Dr Vonda Cummings, Principal Scientist National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research, New Zealand / Co-chair ANTOS
• Dr Jennifer Freer, Marine Ecosystems Modeller, British Antarctic Survey, UK / ICED

Panelists:

• Dr Marcelo Leppe, SCAR Vice President Administration
• Capt. Doğaç Baybars IŞILER, Logistics Co-ordinator TUBITAK Marmara Research Center Polar Research Institute, Türkiye / APECS Immediate Past Vice President

Over the past years, transdisciplinary and collaborative developments in the study of the evolution of polar environments and life in Antarctica and the constituent continents of Gondwana have provided new and more accurate models to explain patterns of species emergence, evolution, and disappearance at high southern latitudes. The integration of these patterns with historical paleoclimatic data is reshaping our interpretation of the contemporary world by illuminating the intricate connection between these patterns and ongoing shifts in both local and global abiotic environments. This insight underscores the significant impact of paleoclimatic information on our understanding of the present-day world. The main objective of this mini-symposium is to provide a space for discussion and cooperation on the origin, diversification, and extinction of the Austral-Antarctic biota in the light of new paleontological, biogeographical, paleoclimatic, geological and evolutionary findings, as well as to offer a space to reunion and direct contact between young and senior researchers from the different nations involved in Antarctic research on these topics.

• Dr. Kenichi Matsuoka (Norwegian Polar Institute, Norway)
• Dr. Laura Herraiz-Borreguero (CSIRO, Australia)
• Dr. Clare Eayrs (Korea Polar Research Institute, Republic of Korea)
• Dr. Emilia Kyung Jin (Korea Polar Research Institute, Republic of Korea)