USAP-DC

The McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, are a mosaic of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in a cold desert. The McMurdo Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) project has been observing these ecosystems since 1993 and this award will support key long-term measurements, manipulation experiments, synthesis, and modeling to test current theories on ecosystem structure and function. Data collection is focused on meteorology and physical and biological dimensions of soils, streams, lakes, glaciers, and permafrost. The long-term measurements show that biological communities have adapted to the seasonally cold, dark, and arid conditions that prevail for all but a short period in the austral summer. Physical (climate and geological) drivers impart a dynamic connectivity among portions of the Dry Valley landscape over seasonal to millennial time scales. For instance, lakes and soils have been connected through cycles of lake-level rise and fall over the past 20,000 years while streams connect glaciers to lakes over seasonal time scales. Overlaid upon this physical system are biotic communities that are structured by the environment and by the movement of individual organisms within and between the glaciers, streams, lakes, and soils. The new work to be conducted at the McMurdo LTER site will explore how the layers of connectivity in the McMurdo Dry Valleys influence ecosystem structure and function. This project will test the hypothesis that increased ecological connectivity following enhanced melt conditions within the McMurdo Dry Valleys ecosystem will amplify exchange of biota, energy, and matter, homogenizing ecosystem structure and functioning. This hypothesis will be tested with new and continuing experiments that examine: 1) how climate variation alters connectivity among landscape units, and 2) how biota are connected across a heterogeneous landscape using state-of-the-science tools and methods including automated sensor networks, analysis of seasonal satellite imagery, biogeochemical analyses, and next-generation sequencing. McMurdo LTER education programs and outreach activities will be continued, and expanded with new programs associated with the 200th anniversary of the first recorded sightings of Antarctica. These activities will advance societal understanding of how polar ecosystems respond to change. McMurdo LTER will continue its mission of training and mentoring students, postdocs, and early career scientists as the next generation of leaders in polar ecosystem science, and lead the development of international environmental stewardship protocols for human activities in the region.

Person	Role
Gooseff, Michael N.	Investigator and contact
Takacs-Vesbach, Cristina	Co-Investigator
Howkins, Adrian	Co-Investigator
McKnight, Diane	Co-Investigator
Doran, Peter	Co-Investigator
Adams, Byron	Co-Investigator
Barrett, John	Co-Investigator
Morgan-Kiss, Rachael	Co-Investigator
Priscu, John	Co-Investigator

Antarctic Integrated System Science

Award # 1637708

USAP-1637708_1

None in the Database

Repository	Title (link)	Format(s)	Status
LTER	McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER Data Repository	None	exist
EDI	EDI Data Portal: McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER	None	exists

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3. Bergstrom, A., Gooseff, M. N., Myers, M., Doran, P. T., & Cross, J. M. (2020). The seasonal evolution of albedo across glaciers and the surrounding landscape of Taylor Valley, Antarctica. The Cryosphere, 14(3), 769–788. (doi:10.5194/tc-14-769-2020)
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5. Obryk, M. K., Doran, P. T., & Priscu, J. C. (2019). Prediction of Ice‐Free Conditions for a Perennially Ice‐Covered Antarctic Lake. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 124(2), 686–694. (doi:10.1029/2018jf004756)
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7. Raymond, J. A., Morgan-Kiss, R., & Stahl-Rommel, S. (2020). Glycerol Is an Osmoprotectant in Two Antarctic Chlamydomonas Species From an Ice-Covered Saline Lake and Is Synthesized by an Unusual Bidomain Enzyme. Frontiers in Plant Science, 11. (doi:10.3389/fpls.2020.01259)
8. Obryk, M. K., Doran, P. T., Fountain, A. G., Myers, M., & McKay, C. P. (2020). Climate From the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, 1986–2017: Surface Air Temperature Trends and Redefined Summer Season. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 125(13). (doi:10.1029/2019jd032180)
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10. Collins, G. E., Hogg, I. D., Convey, P., Sancho, L. G., Cowan, D. A., Lyons, W. B., … Green, T. G. A. (2020). Genetic diversity of soil invertebrates corroborates timing estimates for past collapses of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 202007925. (doi:10.1073/pnas.2007925117)
11. Kalra, I., Wang, X., Cvetkovska, M., Jeong, J., McHargue, W., Zhang, R., … Morgan-Kiss, R. (2020). Chlamydomonas sp. UWO 241 Exhibits High Cyclic Electron Flow and Rewired Metabolism under High Salinity. Plant Physiology, 183(2), 588–601. (doi:10.1104/pp.19.01280)
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13. Lumian, J. E., Jungblut, A. D., Dillion, M. L., Hawes, I., Doran, P. T., Mackey, T. J., … Sumner, D. Y. (2021). Metabolic Capacity of the Antarctic Cyanobacterium Phormidium pseudopriestleyi That Sustains Oxygenic Photosynthesis in the Presence of Hydrogen Sulfide. Genes, 12(3), 426. (doi:10.3390/genes12030426)
14. Dillon, M. L., Hawes, I., Jungblut, A. D., Mackey, T. J., Eisen, J. A., Doran, P. T., & Sumner, D. Y. (2020). Energetic and Environmental Constraints on the Community Structure of Benthic Microbial Mats in Lake Fryxell, Antarctica. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 96(2). (doi:10.1093/femsec/fiz207)
15. See http://mcm.lternet.edu/biblio
16. Myers, K. F., Doran, P. T., Tulaczyk, S. M., Foley, N. T., Bording, T. S., Auken, E., … Virginia, R. A. (2020). Thermal legacy of a large paleolake in Taylor Valley, East Antarctica as evidenced by an airborne electromagnetic survey. (doi:10.5194/tc-2020-241)
17. Power, S. N., Salvatore, M. R., Sokol, E. R., Stanish, L. F., & Barrett, J. E. (2020). Estimating microbial mat biomass in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica using satellite imagery and ground surveys. Polar Biology. (doi:10.1007/s00300-020-02742-y)
18. Sokol, E. R., Barrett, J. E., Kohler, T. J., McKnight, D. M., Salvatore, M. R., & Stanish, L. F. (2020). Evaluating Alternative Metacommunity Hypotheses for Diatoms in the McMurdo Dry Valleys Using Simulations and Remote Sensing Data. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 8. (doi:10.3389/fevo.2020.521668)
19. Bergstrom, A., Gooseff, M. N., Singley, J. G., Cohen, M. J., & Welch, K. A. (2020). Nutrient Uptake in the Supraglacial Stream Network of an Antarctic Glacier. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 125(9). (doi:10.1029/2020jg005679)
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33. Bergstrom, A., Welch, K. A., & Gooseff, M. N. (2023). Spatial Patterns of Major Ions and Their Relationship to Sediment Concentration in Near Surface Glacier Ice, Taylor Valley Antarctica. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 128(3). Portico. (doi:10.1029/2022jf006980)
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