ATHENA: Advancing TecHnologies and ENvironmental stewardship in Antarctica

1. ATHENA: Advancing TecHnologies and ENvironmental stewardship in Antarctica SCAR Open Science Conference, Portland, 15th July Co-chairs: Peter Doran (University of Illinois at Chicago, USA: Co-chair), JemmaWadham (University of Bristol, UK: Co-chair),

2. Background and Rationale • SRP - Subglacial Antarctic Lake Environments (SALE) formed 10 years ago to help guide new science • Disbanding, having met goals • Continued communication needed to help funded and planned SAE programmes meet environmental and technological challenges

3. ATHENA Objectives • Provide an independent and international forum for sharing of information in the run up to funded lake drilling campaigns • Work with SCAR to promote interdisciplinary science on Antarctic aquatic subglacial environments • Define critical infrastructure/protocols (environmental and technologies)

4. ATHENA Membership • *JemmaWadham (UK) and *Peter Doran (US): co-chairs • Christoph Mayer (Germany) • Carlo Barbante (Italy) • *Warwick Vincent (Canada) • *Irina Alekhina (Russia – link to Vostok drilling programme) • Matt Mowlem (UK – link to Lake Ellsworth Exploration Programme) • Alberto Behar (US – link to WISSARD drilling programme) • Alex Pyne (New Zealand – link to ANDRILL) • Satoshi Imura (Japan) *also on AG-CCR-SAE (Code of Conduct for the Exploration and Research of Subglacial Aquatic Environments

5. Three funded Subglacial Lake Drilling campaigns • Lake Vostok – December 2011 (lake ice) • Lake Ellsworth – December 2012 • Lake Whillans – December 2012 Lake Vostok, NASA Lake Ellsworth consortium

6. 1. Provision of independent forum • Steering Committee members drawn from 7 nations • Four steering committee meetings for communication with major national groups (see website for minutes) • Website as central portal for all environmental protection data on subglacial lake access, information portal (Ellsworth, Vostok, Vida)

8. Reactive news coverage of lake access - Vostok

9. 2.Promote inter-discipilinary science • SCAR Open Science Conference – two sessions • Session #29 “Advancing clean technologies for exploration of aquatic ecosystems” (Wadham, Doran, Vincent) • Session #17 “Subglacial aquatic environments” (Vincent, Alekhina, Bell) • Edited volume to follow later in 2012 • Members standing on international bodies: • Vostok Implementation Study (5yrs) – International Task Group (Siegert et al – EU application, Doran + Wadham) • Ice Drilling Design and Operations Group (IDDOG) Technical Advisory Committee (TAB), a member of WISSARD (Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling) advisory committee (Doran) • Lake Ellsworth Steering Committee (Wadham, Mowlem)

10. 3. Infrastructure: Environmental Protection • Current environmental protocols based on limited data and no lake samples • There will be a need to have an independent science body track protocols against new knowledge • Ongoing map of where subglacial sites have been accessed in Antarctica • New Code of Conduct? -2013 National academies press – Polar Research Board

11. Technologies • Limited sensor toolkit: few suitable COTS/marine sensors (low temperature, low levels of analytes) • Currently no autonomous devices that can be deployed to SAEs: communications through ice, limited sensors, EP concerns • Spatially and temporally limited data from SAEs • Need carefully coordinated international effort and information exchange Lake Ellsworth probe (NOCS)

12. Plan for 2012 • Steering Committee Meeting – SCAR OSC • Two SCAR-OSC sessions • Improve the present knowledge on clean access and sample retrieval for chemical/biological analysis (collaboration with the AG-CCR-SAE, detailed protocols) • Edited volume on “Clean Technologies for Exploring Subglacial Aquatic Environments”