The polar ecologist Jiří Bárta will break the idea of a lonely polar wolf with frostbite fingers in a few minutes. He is going to research in the summer, sharing the bedroom with eight people, and when he goes to the field, he carries samples of permafrost for research, carries a pickaxe, a shovel and a charged gun.
Have you ever slept in igloo?
We tried to build it, my colleagues then slept in it, but I admit that I did not go into it then. But we slept outside in the field.
What is it like on Spitsbergen?
It’s amazing there. There is a strong community of people, both Czechoslovak and international scientific cooperation. Everyone is aware of the rough conditions there, so they help each other a lot. Also in research. When we present the results and invent new projects, we think about who could help us and we were again. And the fact that we have the opportunity to be there and participate in international research is, I would say, our pride.
Do you have somehow set out areas that you are exploring? Like gold diggers?
Poles have some areas on Spitsbergen, but it’s not that everyone walks just somewhere. Rather, we have been trying to optimize the location of monitoring stations recently. So that the same parameters of the Polish and Czech devices do not measure unnecessarily on one glacier.
The University of South Bohemia has its own polar station there?
Even two, last year we celebrated the tenth year after its foundation. One is in the capital of Longyearbyen, which means a long -day city. Because when you’re there in the summer, it’s really just a day. And then we have a Nostoc terrain station named after one known cyanobacteria. There we do field work, take samples from glaciers and examine how they retreat.
How much time do you spend there a year?
It’s different. Last year we were there for a month with students, actually July. This January I was there for a week at the conference and we go just as it is needed. But mostly in the summer, when it is possible to take samples of permafrost.
What does the day look like at the polar station?
It’s similar to imagining a day at a scout camp. We have services. In the morning, the service for all prepares breakfast, then we go to the field and prepare all dinner in the evening. And of course there are smaller teams that agree on how they organize the day. It is really a very camp way of life where teams have to work with each other, it is not much for individualists. But the advantage is that you don’t have to rush to dinner because it doesn’t fit.
How big is this off -road station?
Not much. It consists of four tailor -made containers. Nine people can fit in one of the bunk beds and the whole station has a capacity of fourteen people. In one container there is a kitchen with dining room and one serves as a temporary off -road laboratory. The environment is a bit cramped and one has to get used to sharing space with others. This is one of the reasons why it is important to have a good team of people in these areas that pull together.
What is your research?
It could be divided into two parts. On the foreground of the glaciers or from permafrost we take soil samples and then isolate them in the laboratory of bacteria. Genetic methods determine a number of special groups of microorganisms in permafrost or just melting glaciers. We sequence the genetic codes and we find out how many microorganisms we know and which may not be.
Is it necessary to move in the field in a special way? Do you use dogs?
In Longyearbyen they have a short distance from the city of the dog and the locals use them. If you do not start the car, you just borrow a dog sled. But we do not use them, because in the summer everything is melted and we get everywhere in the boots. Sometimes, of course, you have to wade through the river that flows from the glacier, and we go barefoot or in socks. And directly on the glacier we walk on the rope as climbers. We have cats and non -shy and we go with students in the long snake, which gradually rises to the glacier.
We have already mentioned samples several times. How is it going?
At the first expedition, I laughed quite well. I thought to myself: Did I study a college to kick the shovel in Siberia? Because we actually need a small spoon to take, we use a small amount. But there we got shovels and pickaxes and kicked the pit five meters wide and a meter long. It wasn’t just because of us, of course there were colleagues who might have been exploring the soil horizon thanks to the profile of those pits. They were looking for pockets where, thanks to the so -called cryoturbation, organic matter, which is naturally rich in carbon. For example, we found that these pockets can eventually affect greenhouse gases more than temperature.
But when the soil is frozen, you probably can’t just get it.
It depends on what depth we want to take. But I have already learned the so -called Swedish way, when we had a probe that looks a bit like a sharp scaffolding tube and pounded it with a hammer until we were deep enough. We still had to rotate her so that she didn’t freeze. Of course, you can have a special motor drill, but it is much harder and it is very difficult to get it into a remote area. You will then pull this tube – or rather you gradually plow with the shovel – and then you can take and follow the individual layers of the soil. It’s a bit of improvisation, you have to be able to cope.
What do you still carry into the field?
Protective equipment, gloves, ethanol or other disinfectant. Some sterile bags or tubes so that we can freeze the samples on the station immediately. For this we have special freezer bags that can handle those minutes of twenty or twenty -five degrees. And we have to have a weapon at the Spitsbergen.
Why weapon?
There are many indigenous people on Spitsbergen, much more than people. They are polar bears who regularly visit our station, because of course it is an interesting place for them. Every year we say not if, but when they come. And seeing the bear is always an experience.
And if you meet outside?
Fortunately, the Arctic tundra is usually visible at a long distance and there is also good visibility. Therefore, you often see it for a few kilometers and you can adapt or return it. It’s not that he chasing you on a purpose. But maybe they may relax for a ridge and the like, and therefore it is necessary to be cautious. Also because we have students with us. And to wear a weapon in the field today, unlike Alaska, is mandatory.
Do you have rescue exams?
Of course, colleagues have logistics and of course we try to prevent as a preventive way. We have protective suits, even into the water, because sometimes we go somewhere in boats and in them we also transport to the field station. Last summer, for example, we went with students to the largest close glacier, Nordic Shield. Along the way there was a surface like a mirror, and in a few hours on the way back so huge waves that we were happy to get back without paddles. A little action crossing, but again the students had an experience.
Have you already experienced a polar night?
For the first time this January. And it’s a strange feeling. You go to bed, it’s dark, you wake up, it’s still dark. Outside you are always wearing a reflective vest so that someone may not hit you on a scooter. And again you have to watch out for bears, because they go even during a long night. Such a peculiarity of the Arctic is that it does not lock. Cars, houses. If you happen to meet a bear so you don’t have to look for keys for a long time.
How became a polar ecologist?
I already enjoyed studying at university what microorganisms can do. How they can spread harmful substances and thus clean water or soil. I got to the polar research thanks to the then head of the department, Professor Hana Šantrůčková, who in 2009 won a prestigious international grant, where there were about five or six countries, and addressed me. I started freshly at the University of South Bohemia and started a laboratory where we do genetic analyzes. Thanks to her, I could see Siberia for the first time.
The University of South Bohemia has bases at the North Pole, Masarykova, South, as scientists you are recognized in international research. How is it that the small country from the slight zone is quite successful in this field?
If we look at it historically, one of the two leaders of the expedition that examined the Spitsbergen and discovered the land of František Joseph, was Julius Payer, a native of Teplice. Our missionaries went to Greenland, where they are named cities. František Běhounek and many other scientists participated in key expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica. Perhaps we have it in Nature that as a tiny nation we are trying to pass into the world.
Do you have to bring all samples back to Bohemia?
Fortunately, not. UNIX, which is a common university center of several Norwegian universities and the Norwegian Polar Institute, and we are also trying to use their background. Our students can apply for courses, some colleagues lectures there. We are also trying to develop international cooperation, which works quite well in our field.
In the field station, are you more likely to rely on yourself or not?
We have a fun Polish station and fun we say that the stream is the boundary. You go brushing your teeth, and if you trip over, you’ll end up with the Poles. It even looks like one big station from afar. And we have really great relationships with them. Last summer, when the Olympics were, we organized a pentathlon together. We were throwing a hammer, running. We have a place against the song against Trudnom.
Is there anything you miss in Arctic?
Most of the time I realize how much you go there to relax from all e-mails, from the Internet and similar things. Because we don’t have the Internet at the off -road station. Colleagues from Poland have already introduced it, but we don’t. This is why I miss contact with my family, of course, but that can be endured and it is nice if you don’t have to check the phone all the time. It is actually really like in the camp where children hand over phones, no one can call home. There is a bunch, we play guitar in the evening and it is really such an adventure in the Arctic. One gets infected with an Arctic virus and then does not want to go back.
Not only interview with Jiří Bárta can be found as a podcast on podcast platforms.
