Using Centuries-Old Data to Advance Antarctic Ice Melt Research

Using Centuries-Old Data to Advance Antarctic Ice Melt Research

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April 01, 2026
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Yoshihiro Nakayama

Yoshihiro Nakayama, Assistant Professor of Engineering, Academic Cluster: Changing Polar Regions

Verifying Data with the Libraries' Physical Collections

Rising sea levels can affect critical habitats, threaten biodiversity, accelerate erosion, and may increase the frequency of storm surges that damage natural and human-built environments. For some researchers, like Dartmouth Engineering assistant professor Yoshihiro Nakayama, they’re investigating the Antarctic region for answers. Researchers can now better monitor, observe, and analyze the Southern Ocean, particularly as Antarctic ice melt is a significant and insufficiently understood contributor to global sea-level rise. Yoshihiro’s research aims to contribute to scientists’ ability “to accurately project what might come ahead in the future to prevent and mitigate the impact [of rising sea levels] on human society.”

It is still a mystery how Antarctic ice loss started, especially because we do not have exhaustive data from ocean observations that tell us when the ocean may have warmed up about a century ago. 

Yoshihiro Nakayama, Assistant Professor of Engineering

Yoshihiro and fellow research collaborators are on a quest to learn what happened in the Antarctic region to cause rising seas, knowing the ocean itself is a major factor contributing to ice melt. “My pioneering research, a fusion of modeling and observations, is building a novel ‘mechanism map’ of Antarctic ice shelf melting, accelerating discovery and reshaping how the field investigates ocean change and ice–ocean interactions.” 

Yoshihiro Nakayama joins fellow researchers on the Research Vessel Hakuho Maru

Yoshihiro Nakayama with fellow researchers on the Research Vessel Hakuho Maru in the Southern Ocean

He shares that from the 1990s onward, data shows the ocean isn’t warming nor indicates ongoing changes, especially in West Antarctica (the region currently losing a significant amount of ice). “We don’t know how this Antarctic ice loss started,” he says, and explains that, until now, scientists were limited to geological evidence from sediment core samples. While these records suggest possible ocean warming, the available evidence is sparse and uncertain. As a result, it remains unclear whether such warming truly occurred, what its spatial and temporal patterns may have been, and what mechanisms may have driven it.

In Yoshihiro’s search for historical geological evidence, he found data online about early 20th-century explorative cruises around Antarctica. One such dataset that popped up in his online searches related to the UK’s scientific explorations on the RRS Discovery, a research ship that did extensive scientific exploration in the Antarctic region. 

British Research Ship the RRS Discovery

The RRS Discovery alongside the Great Southern Barrier from H.R. Mill's The Siege of the South Pole

However, Yoshihiro wasn’t able to identify and verify cruise reports and data logs, which led him to Dartmouth Libraries and librarian Jentry Campbell. While data collection started in the early 1900s, finding out how the measurements were conducted was critical. Jentry found the Discovery Commission Reports in an online archive, but to flip through and simultaneously view the digital volumes was difficult and inefficient. 

Luckily, Jentry also found the Discovery Commission Reports in Berry Library’s collections. The physical volumes made it much easier to flip back and forth and to compare data and information. “Jentry did deep research, digging into the collection and finding things that I didn’t even ask for! Her curiosity resulted in carving this topic down into smaller, unique pieces.” From Jentry’s findings, Yoshihiro came across unexpected but relevant and useful information that he continues to sift and parse through to this day.

With earlier datasets, we can expand what we think we know about Antarctica and the oceans, and so climate and the environment. However, those older datasets were often reported across volumes and then transcribed and compiled into modern datasets that sometimes leave off important context.

Jentry Campbell, Engineering Librarian
Jentry Campbell scans the Discovery Commission books

Jentry Campbell, Engineering Librarian, with volumes from the Libraries' copies of The Discovery Commission Report

Whether Jentry scanned through a physical book from the Stefansson Collection or referred to digitized documentation, she found it “interesting and eye-opening how much we take for granted as being digitized.” In her search for answers to Yoshihiro’s research query, she encountered some issues with accessibility, legibility, formatting, and metadata, as well as trying to find information that was saved to “unfindable places.” And some of those older documents were missing, making it more challenging to trace and verify data. 

“Unlike modern research papers, where you have a very contained structure, these older research trips were truly epic expeditions whose results were communicated to the public in long, narrative formats,” says Jentry. As such, Jentry had to investigate further to confirm sampling, storage, and measurement techniques of the expeditions’ findings. Jentry refined her search to ensure results were citable or had citations with them. She also leaned into her French language skills to translate some documents, using Google Translate to assist when what was written was less straightforward and for efficiency. Another challenge Jentry encountered was inconsistency. 

Methods for how scientists collected data have changed over the centuries, making data validation and verification that much more difficult. Further, the volumes containing data points didn’t always detail the researchers’ methods, with related methodology documented in other volumes. Methodology and documentation variations can impact data points individually, which helps “explain away outliers” or lead researchers like Yoshihiro to have increased or decreased confidence in the data.

Librarian passion is super important, and Jentry demonstrates that because passion drives research.

Yoshihiro Nakayama, Assistant Professor of Engineering

Yoshihiro joined Dartmouth a year ago, and having a dedicated engineering librarian like Jentry has been a great help to his research and as a guide to navigating the library collections and services. “Librarian passion is super important, and Jentry demonstrates that because passion drives research.” He says that Dartmouth is unique in that there is a long history of items in its collections as compared to libraries he has engaged with around the world, particularly when covering the Polar regions. “I look forward to being able to explore all the resources the library has on this subject.” 

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