Members of the scientific expedition team bid farewell to their relatives, friends and colleagues on China's polar research icebreaker Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, in Shanghai, East China, Nov 1, 2025. Photo: Xinhua News Agency

China's polar research icebreaker Xuelong, also known as Snow Dragon, currently on the country's 42nd Antarctic scientific expedition and en route to the Amundsen Sea, deployed the voyage's first expendable conductivity-temperature-depth probe on Friday ship time, marking the official start of oceanographic survey operations, Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday. 

The Xuelong ocean team comprises 31 members from 12 domestic research institutes and universities, and the oceanographic survey in the Amundsen Sea and its adjacent waters will focus on investigating key components of the marine ecosystem, Xinhua said.

According to the expedition team, comprehensive marine scientific surveys will be conducted in the Amundsen Sea and Ross Sea of West Antarctica from mid-January to mid-February 2026. The surveys aim to deepen the understanding of ecosystem characteristics in the target waters, clarify the trophic structure of key pelagic species, track the changing trends of critical populations, and further elevate China's research capabilities in cutting-edge fields such as Antarctic marine ecosystems and climate change. Meanwhile, seabed topographic surveys will be carried out to map the topographical and geomorphological features of the target sea areas.

During Xuelong's voyage, the oceanographic team will also conduct multidisciplinary observations covering hydrology, meteorology, biology, and chemistry, collecting data on key variables within the marine ecosystems in the Westerlies and circum-Antarctic regions and enabling dynamic monitoring of the circum-Antarctic marine ecological conditions.

The West Antarctic region, where the surveyed waters are located, is among the areas most significantly affected by global climate change. The ice sheets and ice shelves south of the Amundsen Sea are experiencing the most rapid melting, making this area one of the global hotspots for Antarctic scientific research on climate change, according to Xinhua.

Wei Fuhai, leader and chief scientist of China's 42nd Antarctic expedition, said that China has conducted multidisciplinary surveys in the Amundsen Sea for eight consecutive years since 2018. Such long-term continuous observations are crucial for capturing the complex and rapid marine change processes in this region. The survey results will provide valuable data for assessing the impact of global climate change on marine ecosystems.

Global Times