Dr Sam’s Polar experience

A student who had to get to grips with firing a rifle and driving a snowmobile in order to study for his PhD degree graduated with a Doctorate.

Image of Sam Sam Rastrick originally chose to study his undergrad degree in Bangor because of its world reputation for the study of marine biology and the excellent reputation of the Miles Dyslexia Unit who supported Sam throughout his higher education.

Sam conducted his research at Bangor University’s School of Biological Sciences with PhD supervisor and lecturer, Dr Nia Whiteley. This research took Sam to both the Arctic and Antarctic in order to study amphipods; small shrimp-like crustaceans that are at the bottom of the food web. His interest was in finding out how these important and abundant creatures will adapt to climate change. He explains “That although few people have heard of amphipods they are an important food source for many animals include birds, marine mammals, and commercially important fish species. They are also an important animal for scientists to study as they are a good environmental indicator of what will happen in the environment as a whole."

Before being able to head off to the Arctic Circle Sam had to undergo rifle training- just in case a polar bear strayed too close- fortunately it was training he didn’t need to use.

As well as visiting Svalbard, Spitzbergen, deep inside the Arctic Circle in the summers of 2007 and 2008 Sam was also awarded a place on the prestigious International Antarctic Biology Course 2010 funded by the US government to facilitate young scientists to work in Antarctica.

Lecturer and PhD supervisor Nia Whiteley said:

'Sam was an enthusiastic and extremely positive PhD student. He really enjoyed his PhD experience In addition to his experimental work, and field work, he also presented his research in four academic Conferences, winning awards along the way including a Travel Scholarship from the Welsh Livery Guild. Sam intends to carry on in science and I wish him well in his future career.'

Sam says “I was honoured to be given this opportunity to work with world famous polar biologists at the US McMurdo Base on Ross Island, Antarctica. There was a real sense of the history and importance of polar science, the Base was close to the hut where 100 years ago Edward Wilson, one of the first scientists in Antarctica, set off with Captain Scot on the ill-fated South Pole Expedition. We were giving the opportunity to look around Scots hut where the cold dry conditions of Antarctica have preserved everything exactly as it was, even the bottles of lime juice, that in the end could not prevent the scurvy, that perhaps took their lives”.

“Our work has shown that some ecologically important polar animals make proteins that are important for growth and reproduction at a low rate and process energy very slowly. This is most likely an adaptation to living in polar environments where energy is in very low supply. However this may make it difficult for these animals to adapt to future climate change. Many Polar Regions are among the fastest warming environments on the planet and therefore an excellent place to study how life on earth may be affected by climate change.”

Image of Sam “You can not help but be deeply affected working in Polar Regions, Farley Mowat an Arctic explorer in the 1940s described this as the “Arctic Fever” the driving force that keeps drawing one back to these inhospitable environments.

Sam remembers one experience that he will not forget. “When in Antarctica a group of us decided to ski out to a land mark known as Castle Rock. This is a 415m high pinnacle of rock that juts out of the glacier and we were told it offered spectacular views form the top. It was worth the climb, from the top we could see out across the glaciers of Ross Island to the ice shelf and beyond the ice edge to the open ocean dotted with icebergs. Behind us was a view of Mount Erebus the most southern active volcano spewing smoke at 3,794m. Standing there I was struck by the massive scale and apparent permanence of something so fragile. As I nervously stood looking down the few hundred feet of sheer cliff to the glacier below, I felt my own fragility and the irony of how humans, so vulnerable as individuals, can be so destructive as a species.”

“During my PhD I have been humbled by some of the most spectacular and remote environments on earth, I just hope that these ecosystems survive to be studied far in to the future”

Sam gained his first BSc degree BSc in Zoology with Marine Zoology and his MSc in Ecology at Bangor University. Sam comes from Thornbury, near Bristol and attended the Castle School, Thornbury.