Australia, China close in on ice partnership

AUSTRALIA and China plan to undertake climate-change research through the study of million-year-old Antarctic ice cores, with a formal partnership between the two nations expected soon.

At a workshop in Hobart last week, more than 30 Chinese and Australian researchers discussed opportunities for science in Antarctica as part of a Memorandum of Understanding signed during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Hobart in 2014.

Australian Antarctic Division science planning and coordination manager Donna Roberts said the two countries had agreed to collaborate in a number of areas sometime in the future.

Dr Roberts said draft rec- ommendations had been agreed that would enable collaboration in central Antarctica, where researchers would seek out million-year-old ice cores.

The cores would be the oldest on record and could unlock Earth’s ancient climate secrets relating to how carbon dioxide enters and leaves the atmosphere. This will help understand how climate change will work in the future. The two countries will also examine iceberg and ocean interaction on the Amery Ice Shelf in East Antarctica, in order to predict future sea-level rise.

Other areas included trying to promote green and carbonneutral voyages as well as long-term polar atmospheric monitoring. Dr Roberts said it was unclear when formal draft documents would be signed.

She said there were also informal talks to run collaborative voyages between Australia’s new ice breaker Nuyina, due for completion in 2020, and China’s not-yet-built Antarctic vessel.

Australia and China are already part of an international consortium undertaking ongoing surveys of the ice sheet, bedrock and ice shelves in East Antarctica.