The 42nd Antarctic expedition | The "Snow Dragon" conducting ocean exploration operations in the Amundsen Sea.

On January 24th Beijing time, the Chinese icebreaker "Xuelong" carrying out the 42nd Antarctic expedition mission arrived at the designated station in the Amundsen Sea and began conducting oceanic section surveys. Zhang Haifeng, the captain of the "Xuelong" oceanic team, introduced that this oceanic section survey will mainly take place in the waters south of latitude 69 degrees, covering aspects such as hydrology, meteorology, chemistry, biology, and geology. During the expedition, the oceanic team will collect seawater, sediment, gases, and biological samples, and conduct pre-processing and analysis tests in the onboard laboratory, continuously monitoring the interannual changes in polar marine ecological environmental parameters. It was learned from the Chinese 42nd Antarctic expedition team that the key tasks of this year's oceanic survey include further understanding the characteristics of the target area's ecosystem, clarifying the trophic structure of key species in the upper layers of the ocean, and tracking the trend of key population changes.