The 20th Bulgarian expedition to Antarctica will set out early November with an ambitious agenda emphasizing on the effects of global warming on local plant and animal life.

The 9-strong team will depart from Bulgaria November 2 and are expected at the Bulgarian base in Antarctica some 10 days later.

Prof. Hristo Pimpirev, the director of the Antarctic Studies unit at the Bulgarian Academy of Science, has said that a truck of supplies has already left.

"We will push forward a Bulgarian project for climate change research - how it affects sea mammals and Antarctic lichens," said Pimpirev.

The researcher added that another line for study will be monitoring the radiation environment on the frozen continent.

Another project, in which Bulgarian Academy of Sciences researchers collaborate with international colleagues, has to to again with global warming, this time studying frozen Antarctic soils.

On another note, Bulgarian researchers hope to construct a new Christian Orthodox chapel named after Bulgarian patron saint, St. Ivan Rilski (St. John of Rila).

The already existing Bulgarian chapel is only the second Eastern Orthodox temple on the Antarctic continent, but BAS scientists have the intention to place a new, bigger one at a better location.