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Voyage Number

IN2026_V01

Voyage Dates

02 Jan, 2026 to 26 Feb, 2026

Voyage Location

Hobart to Hobart

Chief Scientist

Dr Linda Armbrecht

Institution

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (University of Tasmania)

Map with line track overlay detailing voyage IN2026_V01
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Voyage livestream

Follow our 56-day voyage to Antarctica to study the impact of climate change on the Cook Ice Shelf marine region.

Voyage summary

RV Investigator will undertake a 56-day research voyage to Antarctica to study the Cook Ice Shelf marine region, a globally significant but poorly studied region in East Antarctica.

Modelling suggests that the Cook Ice Shelf is especially vulnerable to climate change, with a projected considerable ice mass loss (-14 Gt per year) over the next 200 years. Yet, there is a complete lack of oceanographic, bathymetric, biological and palaeo-data from this region. 

On this voyage, a multinational research team will investigate the region’s ice-sheet stability and ocean evolution, and their impact on marine ecosystem functionality over the last 1 million years. Researchers will use a range of coring systems deployed from RV Investigator to collect sediment samples from the seafloor to look back in time at previous climate cycles and marine biodiversity. They will also collect water samples and data from the Southern Ocean to assess present-day oceanographic conditions and marine biodiversity. These biodiversity surveys will be supplemented by specimen collection and underwater camera surveys to increase understanding of unique Antarctic seafloor ecosystems and species.

A suite of genetic tools will then be used to assess modern and past biodiversity which, combined with productivity and associated carbon export estimates, will benefit Antarctic ecosystem monitoring efforts and help predict how climate change will impact the region in the future. 

Voyage research outcomes will provide crucial scientific baselines as well as inform international scientific planning for the management and conservation of Antarctica, including the Australian Antarctic Territory.

There are 3 other projects on the voyage:

  • Deployment of Argo floats, including Australian core, deep and BGC (CSIRO, UTAS, OGS): five Argo floats will be deployed for various national and international programs.
  • Heat flow in the Cook Glacier region (Prof Jo Whittaker, IMAS): measurement of the geothermal heat flux in the marine area offshore from the Cook Glacier.
  • Developing Jonathan - on-vessel automated seabird detector (Carlie Devine and Dr Rich Little, CSIRO): collecting seabird counts using an automatic on-vessel seabird detector.

This voyage has 37 science participants from 13 institutions, including international participants from the UK, USA, Norway and Italy, plus 21 ship crew from Cyan Renewables.

The voyage is being led by Chief Scientist Dr Linda Armbrecht from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS).

Pushing the boundaries of palaeo-genomics with Dr Linda Armbrecht

A marine scientist at The Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), Dr Linda Armbrecht extracts ancient DNA from Antarctic sediments, revealing how past life adapted to climate change, enhancing our grasp of Earth’s history.

Being in Antarctica is a very unique experience. I can't believe that I'm here to be honest.

Nothing I would have ever thought I would do when I was younger and only a limited number of people see it and I'm really happy that I'm one of those.

My name is Linda Armbrecht and I work at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania in Hobart.

I'm a marine biologist, specifically, paleogeneticist, which sounds really complicated, but I basically investigate ancient DNA in the sea floor and look at what organisms have been living in the ocean in the past.

In Antarctica, we've been able to get DNA up to 1 million years old.

It's really important to look at marine sediment records to get a good picture of how the Earth has changed through time.

And we can make predictions using that information about how the ecosystem will change into the future with ongoing climate change.

First part of the process of what we'll be doing in the field here is we drill a really long hole through the ice shelf to be able to get to the sediment, and then we drill a sediment core.

We have a container that you can see set up in the background here, and we established this sterile environment where we can do clean samplings.

The aim of this expedition is to look at how sensitive the West Antarctic ice sheet specifically was to warming in the past.

And we want to know, when we cross 2 degrees of global warming, how does the West Antarctic ice sheet respond?

When we're going to Antarctica and we're seeing the continent and how everything changes there, it is quite concerning.

I mean, the habitat is changing and also the environment is changing. It just really makes you want to preserve and protect the continent.

I was surprised that my colleagues actually considered nominating me for the medal.

And now that it's been awarded, I feel a little proud and I think it's an amazing recognition of the work and the research that I've done, and lucky that I get to follow in the footsteps of Dorothy Hill.


Meet COOKIES voyage Chief Scientist Dr Linda Armbrecht from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) and see some of her previous research.

Supporting Antarctic science

This will be RV Investigator's 7th dedicated Antarctic research voyage. During the voyage, the vessel will achieve the milestone of spending more than one year at sea delivering Antarctic research.

Voyage outcomes

Voyage outcomes will be published approximately 3-6 months after the completion of the voyage.

Voyage media

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