All set for the Arctic expedition

KOCHI: Cochin University’s tryst with the exploration of the Arctic Ocean will continue when S Bijoy Nandan, Associate Professor, Cusat, visits the region as a member of the Indian contingent.The Arctic expedition is being coordinated by the National Centre for Arctic Ocean Research (NCAOR), Goa, and the team will reach Norway by the end of the week. For many years, the Arctic Ocean remained unexplored and unreachable, but the country’s tie-up with the Kingsbay Arctic Research Centre in Norway in 2007  opened more opportunities for discoveries in the Arctic belt.Bijoy Nandan is the second person from Cusat to be selected for the expedition team enroute to the Arctic.The eight-member group, also comprising scientists from the National Institute of Oceanography, will set out for Ny-Alesund, Norway, at the Arctic Ocean on July 16 for a 22-day trip. His paper on ‘The bottom dwelling organisms in the benthic regions’ paved the way for him to explore smaller organisms in the Northern belt. “I have a passion for Polar Science — to discover and learn the minute life existing in the polar regions. Studies on higher organisms are conducted everywhere but these organisms also have a history. I am studying the climatic influence on these smaller organisms in the Arctic region, especially now as a drastic change is affecting the northern hemisphere.”The change is a result of the huge carbon content being emitted into the earth’s atmosphere especially carbondioxide caused by extensive burning of fossil fuels by countries across the world.During the past several decades, the Arctic has been warming up at an alarming rate and it is projected to reach 18 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100. “This affects the life of minute organisms existing there. When these organisms are subject to climatic changes,  a genetic change is witnessed.” Ny-lesund is home to the new Arctic Marine Laboratory (the norther  nmost in the world), which was officially opened on June 1, 2005. With many open rooms and wet and dry lab spaces, the marine lab is particularly useful for countries which do not maintain permanent research stations in the area.“India is doing its own independent studies on these minute organisms on its shores but has not had the opportunity to do it on foreign shores, till now. Studies, at the international and national level have not intense in this arena. But it needs to be more serious. Just like every other higher degree organism, these smaller organisms on the earth’s surface are subject to genetic changes when it is affected by the change in composition of the earth’s atmosphere,” he said.