Kufos researchers embark on Arctic expedition for research

KUFOS researchers from Kochi are swapping warm climes for Arctic research. Four have already made it to the list of Arctic explorers. All are from the same lab and focus on the Southern Ocean. Their research includes sedimentary organic compounds, micro/nano-plastics, pollutants, Arctic warming, and methane release. Resmi P. is researching Arctic warming and methane release, while Princy M. John is studying vanadium and microplastics in the Southern Ocean.

Swapping the warm climes of Kochi for the harsh conditions of the Arctic appears as easy as pie for a bunch of scientists from the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (Kufos) who are pursuing research in the polar region.

Four researchers from Kufos have already made it to the growing list of Arctic explorers from the country. Anu Gopinath, associate professor and the head of the Department of Aquatic Environment Management, joined Arctic expeditions in 2014, 2016 and 2017.

All the researchers are from her lab and they are also focusing on the Southern Ocean (Antarctic Ocean, the southernmost waters of the world ocean encircling Antarctica). All the expeditions Dr. Gopinath was part of were organised under the umbrella of National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India.

She said that the major focus of the project was sedimentary organic compounds, emerging contaminants like micro and nano-plastics and persistent organic pollutants from the Arctic, Arctic warming and methane release controlled by methanogens/methanotrophs in the Arctic Fjords.

Aswathy S., faculty of Ocean Science and Technology participated in the Arctic expeditions in 2018 and 2019 as part of her research for her doctoral degree. Her work involved characterisation of sedimentary organic compounds using spectral techniques like NMR, FT-IR and other spectroscopic techniques and further finding their role in binding toxic heavy metals from two major Fjords –Kongsfjord and Krossfjord – from the Arctic.

Resmi P., a post-doctoral fellow under the UJJWAL fellowship programme of the Department of Environment and Climate Change, Kerala , is working with Dr. Gopinath and participated in the Indian Arctic expedition under NCPOR, Goa, from May 25 to June 22 this year.

Her work focuses on the ‘Arctic Warming and methane release controlled by methanogens/methanotrophs in Arctic Fjords’. The primary objective of the project is to conduct research on methane emission and its associated microbial community from the Arctic fjords since the northern latitude is considered a major source for methane emission.