Sally Cheuk Yin Lau (2022)

2022 INSTANT Fellow

Project: Reconstructing past grounded ice extent over time around Wilkes Land margin, East Antarctica, using animal genomes

This project has two components that targets Theme 1 and Theme 3 of INSTANT’s Science Implementation Plan.

Theme 1 – Atmosphere-ocean-ice interactions

The marine-based margins of the Antarctic Ice Sheet are vulnerable to collapse based on current trajectories in temperature rise. A complete collapse of the marine-based West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) and East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) will lead to ~3.3-5m [1] and ~3-4m [2] in global sea level rise, respectively. While recent progress has been made to understand the thresholds of WAIS instability under +1.5°C increase in temperature [3], a deep uncertainty remains on whether the marine-based margins of the EAIS (ie, Aurora subglacial basin and Wilkes subglacial basin) are also sensitive to climate change [4-6]. This project utilises the DNA of the octopus Pareledone turqueti as biological proxies of past EAIS configurations.

Theme 3 – Antarctic contribution to sea level change & science-stakeholders interactions

This project specifically utilises existing octopus samples curated in museum collections. This involves visiting host institute, Western Australian Museum (WAM), for animal sampling work. This project also identifies national museums as stakeholder relevant to policy making and public science communication. While visiting WAM, this project highlights how stakeholder’s contributions, such as effective biological sample curation, are crucial to resolving Antarctica’s contribution to past and future sea level rise.