NOVA: Mystery Beneath The Ice

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Tiny, transparent, and threatened, krill are crucial to the Antarctic ecosystem. But the population of krill is crashing for reasons that continue to baffle the experts. A leading theory says that krill’s life cycle is driven by an internal body clock that responds to the waxing and waning of the Antarctic ice pack, and as climate change alters the timing of the ice pack, their life cycle is disrupted.

On "Mystery Beneath The Ice," NOVA travels on the Polarstern, a state-of-the-art research vessel, to the frigid ice pack in the dead of winter. From camps established on the ice, scientists dive beneath the surface in search of the ice caves that shelter juvenile krill during the winter.

There, they hope to discover what’s causing the krill to vanish and, ultimately, how the shifting seasons caused by climate change could disrupt ecosystems around the world.

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Adult Antarctic krill.

Courtesy of Heather Walsh/ WGBH Boston

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View from top of the gangway to Ice Camp 1.

Courtesy of Heather Walsh/ WGBH Boston

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View of the Polarstern, a state-of-the-art research vessel, beyond the dive camp.

Courtesy of Heather Walsh/ WGBH Boston

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Simon Jarman and Rob King from the Australian Antarctic Division hold the tether of the ROV.

Courtesy of Heather Walsh/ WGBH Boston

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I Noyan Yilmaz clearing ice from the dive security hole on ice camp.

Courtesy of Heather Walsh/ WGBH Boston

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Albrecht Gotz receives instructions while in the water.

Courtesy of Heather Walsh/ WGBH Boston

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Scientific diver Sven Kerwath gets a ride back to the Polarstern on a skidoo.

Courtesy of Heather Walsh/ WGBH Boston

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An iceberg sits in front of one the South Sandwich Islands, southern Atlantic Ocean.

Courtesy of David Sington/ WGBH Boston

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Melting icebergs at Rothera form fantastical shapes.

Courtesy of Heather Walsh/ WGBH Boston

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