USAP-DC

{"dp_type": "Project", "free_text": "ACTIVE LAYER"}

[{"awards": "2224760 Gooseff, Michael", "bounds_geometry": "POINT(162.87 -77)", "dataset_titles": "EDI Data Portal: McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200379", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "Environmental Data Initiative (EDI)", "science_program": null, "title": "EDI Data Portal: McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER", "url": "https://portal.edirepository.org/nis/browseServlet?searchValue=MCM"}], "date_created": "Tue, 14 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "In this iteration of the McMurdo LTER project (MCM6), the project team will test ecological connectivity and stability theory in a system subject to strong physical drivers (geological legacies, extreme seasonality, and contemporary climate change) and driven by microbial organisms. Since microorganisms regulate most of the world\u0027s critical biogeochemical functions, these insights will be relevant far beyond polar ecosystems and will inform understanding and expectations of how natural and managed ecosystems respond to ongoing anthropogenic global change. MCM6 builds on previous foundational research, both in Antarctica and within the LTER network, to consider the temporal aspects of connectivity and how it relates to ecosystem stability. The project will examine how changes in the temporal variability of ecological connectivity interact with the legacies of the existing landscape that have defined habitats and biogeochemical cycling for millennia. The project team hypothesizes that the structure and functioning of the MDV ecosystem is dependent upon legacies and the contemporary frequency, duration, and magnitude of ecological connectivity. This hypothesis will be tested with new and continuing monitoring, experiments, and analyses of long-term datasets to examine: 1) the stability of these ecosystems as reflected by sentinel taxa, 2) the relationship between ecological legacies and ecosystem resilience, 3) the importance of material carryover during periods of low connectivity to maintaining biological activity and community stability, and 4) how changes in disturbance dynamics disrupt ecological cycles through the polar night. Tests of these hypotheses will occur in field and modeling activities using new and long-term datasets already collected. New datasets resulting from field activities will be made freely available via widely-known online databases (MCM LTER and EDI). The project team has also developed six Antarctic Core Ideas that encompass themes from data literacy to polar food webs and form a consistent thread across the education and outreach activities. Building on past success, collaborations will be established with teachers and artists embedded within the science teams, who will work to develop educational modules with science content informed by direct experience and artistic expression. Undergraduate mentoring efforts will incorporate computational methods through a new data-intensive scientific training program for MCM REU students. The project will also establish an Antarctic Research Experience for Community College Students at CU Boulder, to provide an immersive educational and research experience for students from diverse backgrounds in community colleges. MCM 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 stewardship. Historically underrepresented participation will be expanded at each level of the project. To aid in these efforts, the project has established Education \u0026 Outreach and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committees to lead, coordinate, support, and integrate these activities through all aspects of MCM6.", "east": 162.87, "geometry": "POINT(162.87 -77)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "COMMUNITY DYNAMICS; ABLATION ZONES/ACCUMULATION ZONES; SOIL TEMPERATURE; DIATOMS; FIELD INVESTIGATION; PERMANENT LAND SITES; BUOYS; GROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS; SEDIMENTS; SNOW WATER EQUIVALENT; SPECIES/POPULATION INTERACTIONS; WATER-BASED PLATFORMS; FIXED OBSERVATION STATIONS; VIRUSES; PHYTOPLANKTON; ACTIVE LAYER; FIELD SURVEYS; RADIO TRANSMITTERS; DATA COLLECTIONS; ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS; LANDSCAPE; GROUND WATER; SNOW/ICE CHEMISTRY; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS; ANIMALS/INVERTEBRATES; ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS; HUMIDITY; GEOCHEMISTRY; SURFACE WINDS; RIVERS/STREAM; GLACIER MASS BALANCE/ICE SHEET MASS BALANCE; SNOW; LAND RECORDS; ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE; SURFACE TEMPERATURE; ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION; BACTERIA/ARCHAEA; AIR TEMPERATURE; GLACIERS; SNOW/ICE TEMPERATURE; SOIL CHEMISTRY; METEOROLOGICAL STATIONS; WATER QUALITY/WATER CHEMISTRY; TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS; MOORED; PROTISTS; STREAMFLOW STATION; Dry Valleys; LAKE/POND; LAKE ICE; SNOW DEPTH; AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS; SNOW DENSITY; FIELD SITES", "locations": "Dry Valleys", "north": -77.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Integrated System Science", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Gooseff, Michael N.; Adams, Byron; Barrett, John; Diaz, Melisa A.; Doran, Peter; Dugan, Hilary A.; Mackey, Tyler; Morgan-Kiss, Rachael; Salvatore, Mark; Takacs-Vesbach, Cristina; Zeglin, Lydia H.", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e DATA COLLECTIONS; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD INVESTIGATION; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD SURVEYS; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e RADIO TRANSMITTERS; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e PERMANENT LAND SITES; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e PERMANENT LAND SITES \u003e FIXED OBSERVATION STATIONS; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e PERMANENT LAND SITES \u003e GROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e PERMANENT LAND SITES \u003e METEOROLOGICAL STATIONS; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e PERMANENT LAND SITES \u003e STREAMFLOW STATION; WATER-BASED PLATFORMS; WATER-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e BUOYS; WATER-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e BUOYS \u003e MOORED; WATER-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e BUOYS \u003e MOORED \u003e BUOYS", "repo": "Environmental Data Initiative (EDI)", "repositories": "Environmental Data Initiative (EDI)", "science_programs": "LTER", "south": -77.0, "title": "LTER: MCM6 - The Roles of Legacy and Ecological Connectivity in a Polar Desert Ecosystem", "uid": "p0010440", "west": 162.87}, {"awards": "2045880 Sokol, Eric; 2046260 Salvatore, Mark", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((161.88 -77.47,162.075 -77.47,162.27 -77.47,162.465 -77.47,162.66 -77.47,162.855 -77.47,163.05 -77.47,163.245 -77.47,163.44 -77.47,163.635 -77.47,163.83 -77.47,163.83 -77.501,163.83 -77.532,163.83 -77.563,163.83 -77.594,163.83 -77.625,163.83 -77.656,163.83 -77.687,163.83 -77.718,163.83 -77.749,163.83 -77.78,163.635 -77.78,163.44 -77.78,163.245 -77.78,163.05 -77.78,162.855 -77.78,162.66 -77.78,162.465 -77.78,162.27 -77.78,162.075 -77.78,161.88 -77.78,161.88 -77.749,161.88 -77.718,161.88 -77.687,161.88 -77.656,161.88 -77.625,161.88 -77.594,161.88 -77.563,161.88 -77.532,161.88 -77.501,161.88 -77.47))", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Thu, 21 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Part I: Non-technical description: \r\nWater is life and nowhere is it more notable than in deserts. Within the drylands on Earth, the Antarctic deserts, represented in this study by the McMurdo Dry Valleys, exemplify life in extreme environments with scarce water, low temperatures and long periods of darkness during the polar winter. There is a scarcity of methods to determine water availability, data necessary to predict which species are successful in the drylands, unless measurements are done manually or with field instruments. This project aims to develop a remote method of determining soil moisture and use the new data to identify locations suitable for life. Combining these habitats with known species distributions in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, results from this project will predict which species should be present, and also what is the expected species distribution in a changing environment. In this way the project takes advantage of a combination of methods, from recent remote sensing products, ecological models and 30 years of field collections to bring a prediction of how life might change in the McMurdo Dry Valleys in a warmer, and possibly, moister future climate. This project benefits the National Science Foundation goals of expanding fundamental knowledge of Antarctic biota and the processes that sustain life in extreme environments. The knowledge acquired in this project will be disseminated to other drylands through training in high-school curricular programming in Native American communities of the Southwest U.S. \r\nPart II: Technical description: \r\nTerrestrial environments in Antarctica are characterized by low liquid water supply, sub-zero temperatures and the polar night in winter months. During summer, melting of snow patches, seasonal steams from glacial melt and vicinity to lakes provide a variety of environments that maintain life, not yet studied at landscape-scale level for habitat suitability and the processes that drive them. This project proposes to integrate remote sensing, hydrological models and ecological models to establish habitat suitability for species in the McMurdo Dry Valleys based on water availability. The approach is at a landscape level in order to establish present-day and future scenarios of species distribution. There are four main objectives: remote sensing development of moisture levels in soils, combining biological and soil data, building and calibrating models of habitat suitability by combining species distribution and environmental variability and applying statistical species distribution model. The field data needed to develop habitat suitability and calibration of models will leverage a the 30-year dataset collected by the McMurdo Long-Term Ecological Research program. Mechanistic models developed will be essential to predict species distribution in future climate scenarios. Training of post-doctoral researchers and a graduate student will prepare for the next generation of Antarctic scientists. Results from this project will train high-school students from Native American communities in the Southwestern U.S., where similar desert conditions exist.\r\n\r\nThis award reflects NSF\u0027s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation\u0027s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.", "east": 163.83, "geometry": "POINT(162.855 -77.625)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "ACTIVE LAYER; Taylor Valley; USAP-DC; Amd/Us; AMD; MODELS; USA/NSF", "locations": "Taylor Valley", "north": -77.47, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Salvatore, Mark; Gooseff, Michael N.; Sokol, Eric; Barrett, John", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e MODELS \u003e MODELS", "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -77.78, "title": "Collaborative Research: Moving Beyond the Margins: Modeling Water Availability and Habitable Terrestrial Ecosystems in the Polar Desert of the McMurdo Dry Valleys", "uid": "p0010316", "west": 161.88}, {"awards": "1745053 Salvatore, Mark; 1744785 Barrett, John; 1744849 Sokol, Eric", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((162.92 -77.56,162.971 -77.56,163.022 -77.56,163.073 -77.56,163.124 -77.56,163.175 -77.56,163.226 -77.56,163.277 -77.56,163.328 -77.56,163.379 -77.56,163.43 -77.56,163.43 -77.571,163.43 -77.582,163.43 -77.593,163.43 -77.604,163.43 -77.615,163.43 -77.626,163.43 -77.637,163.43 -77.648,163.43 -77.659,163.43 -77.67,163.379 -77.67,163.328 -77.67,163.277 -77.67,163.226 -77.67,163.175 -77.67,163.124 -77.67,163.073 -77.67,163.022 -77.67,162.971 -77.67,162.92 -77.67,162.92 -77.659,162.92 -77.648,162.92 -77.637,162.92 -77.626,162.92 -77.615,162.92 -77.604,162.92 -77.593,162.92 -77.582,162.92 -77.571,162.92 -77.56))", "dataset_titles": "McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER: Microbial mat biomass and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values from Lake Fryxell Basin, Antarctica, January 2018", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200344", "doi": "10.6073/pasta/9acbbde9abc1e013f8c9fd9c383327f4", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "EDI", "science_program": null, "title": "McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER: Microbial mat biomass and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values from Lake Fryxell Basin, Antarctica, January 2018", "url": "https://portal.edirepository.org/nis/mapbrowse?packageid=knb-lter-mcm.263.1"}], "date_created": "Wed, 03 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Microbial mats are found throughout the McMurdo Dry Valleys where summer snowmelt provides liquid water that allows these mats to flourish. Researchers have long studied the environmental conditions microbial mats need to grow. Despite these efforts, it has been difficult to develop a broad picture of these unique ecosystems. Recent advances in satellite technology now provide researchers an exciting new tool to study these special Antarctic ecosystems from space using the unique spectral signatures associated with microbial mats. This new technology not only offers the promise that microbial mats can be mapped and studied from space, this research will also help protect these delicate environments from potentially harmful human impacts that can occur when studying them from the ground. This project will use satellite imagery and spectroscopic techniques to identify and map microbial mat communities and relate their properties and distributions to both field and lab-based measurements. This research provides an exciting new tool to help document and understand the distribution of a major component of the Antarctic ecosystem in the McMurdo Dry Valleys.\r\n\r\nThe goal of this project is to establish quantitative relationships between spectral signatures derived from orbit and the physiological status and biogeochemical properties of microbial mat communities in Taylor Valley, Antarctica, as measured by field and laboratory analyses on collected samples. The goal will be met by (1) refining atmospheric correction techniques using in situ radiometric rectification to derive accurate surface spectra; (2) collecting multispectral orbital images concurrent with in situ sampling and spectral measurements in the field to ensure temporal comparability; (3) measuring sediment, water, and microbial mat samples for organic and inorganic carbon content, essential biogeochemical nutrients, and chlorophyll-a to determine relevant mat characteristics; and (4) quantitatively associating these laboratory-derived characteristics with field-derived and orbital spectral signatures and parameters. The result of this work will be a more robust quantitative link between the distribution of microbial mat communities and their biogeochemical properties to landscape-scale spectral signatures.\r\n\r\nThis award reflects NSF\u0027s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation\u0027s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.", "east": 163.43, "geometry": "POINT(163.175 -77.615)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "RIVERS/STREAM; CYANOBACTERIA (BLUE-GREEN ALGAE); USAP-DC; Taylor Valley; INFRARED IMAGERY; WORLDVIEW-2; WORLDVIEW-3; Antarctica; FIELD INVESTIGATION; Amd/Us; ACTIVE LAYER", "locations": "Antarctica; Taylor Valley", "north": -77.56, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Salvatore, Mark; Barrett, John; Sokol, Eric", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD INVESTIGATION; SPACE-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e EARTH OBSERVATION SATELLITES \u003e WORLDVIEW \u003e WORLDVIEW-2; SPACE-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e EARTH OBSERVATION SATELLITES \u003e WORLDVIEW \u003e WORLDVIEW-3", "repo": "EDI", "repositories": "EDI", "science_programs": null, "south": -77.67, "title": "COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Remote Characterization of Microbial Mats in Taylor Valley, Antarctica, through In Situ Sampling and Spectral Validation", "uid": "p0010036", "west": 162.92}, {"awards": "1245749 Levy, Joseph; 1246203 Gooseff, Michael; 1246342 Fountain, Andrew", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((160.105465 -77.2119,160.7907435 -77.2119,161.476022 -77.2119,162.1613005 -77.2119,162.846579 -77.2119,163.5318575 -77.2119,164.217136 -77.2119,164.9024145 -77.2119,165.587693 -77.2119,166.2729715 -77.2119,166.95825 -77.2119,166.95825 -77.3189628,166.95825 -77.4260256,166.95825 -77.5330884,166.95825 -77.6401512,166.95825 -77.747214,166.95825 -77.8542768,166.95825 -77.9613396,166.95825 -78.0684024,166.95825 -78.1754652,166.95825 -78.282528,166.2729715 -78.282528,165.587693 -78.282528,164.9024145 -78.282528,164.217136 -78.282528,163.5318575 -78.282528,162.846579 -78.282528,162.1613005 -78.282528,161.476022 -78.282528,160.7907435 -78.282528,160.105465 -78.282528,160.105465 -78.1754652,160.105465 -78.0684024,160.105465 -77.9613396,160.105465 -77.8542768,160.105465 -77.747214,160.105465 -77.6401512,160.105465 -77.5330884,160.105465 -77.4260256,160.105465 -77.3189628,160.105465 -77.2119))", "dataset_titles": "2014-2015 lidar survey of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica; Active Layer Temperatures from Crescent Stream banks, Taylor Valley Antarctica", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "000209", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "OpenTopo", "science_program": null, "title": "2014-2015 lidar survey of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica", "url": "http://opentopo.sdsc.edu/datasetMetadata?otCollectionID=OT.112016.3294.1"}, {"dataset_uid": "601075", "doi": "10.15784/601075", "keywords": "Antarctica; Dry Valleys; Glaciology; Paleoclimate; Permafrost; Soil Temperature; Taylor Valley", "people": "Gooseff, Michael N.", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Active Layer Temperatures from Crescent Stream banks, Taylor Valley Antarctica", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601075"}], "date_created": "Wed, 20 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Collaborative Research: THE MCMURDO DRY VALLEYS: A Landscape on the Threshold of Change is supported by the Antarctic Integrated System Science (AISS) program in the Antarctic Sciences Section of the Division of Polar Programs within the Geosciences Directorate of the National Sciences Foundation (NSF). The funds will support the collection of state-of-the-art high resolution LIDAR (combining the terms light and radar) imagery of the Dry Valleys of Antarctica in the 2014/2015 Antarctic field season, with LIDAR data collection and processing being provided by the NSF-supported NCALM (National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping) facility. LIDAR images collected in 2014/2015 will be compared to images from 2001 in order to detect decadal change. Additional fieldwork will look at the distribution of buried massive ice, and the impacts that major changes like slumping are having on the biota. All field data will be used to improve models on energy balance, and hydrology.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eIntellectual Merit: There have been dramatic changes over the past decade in the McMurdo Dry Valleys: rivers are incising by more than three meters, and thermokarst slumps are appearing near several streams and lakes. These observations have all been made by researchers in the field, but none of the changes have been mapped on a valley-wide scale. This award will provide a new baseline map for the entire Dry Valley system, with high-resolution imagery provided for the valley floors, and lower resolution imagery available for the higher elevation areas that are undergoing less change. The project will test the idea that sediment-covered ice is associated with the most dramatic changes, due to differential impacts of the increased solar radiation on sediment-covered compared to clean ice, and despite the current trend of slightly cooling air temperatures within the Dry Valleys. Information collected on the topography, coupled with the GPR determined buried ice distributions, will also be incorporated into improved energy and hydrological models. In addition to providing the new high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM), the project will ultimately result in identification of areas that are susceptible to sediment-enhanced melt-driven change, providing a powerful prediction tool for the impacts of climate change.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eBroader Impacts: The new DEM will be immediately useful to a wide range of disciplines, and will provide a comprehensive new baseline against which future changes will be compared. The project will provide a tool for the whole community to use, and the investigators will work with the community to make them aware of the new assets via public presentations, and perhaps via a workshop. The map will have international interest, and will also serve as a tool for environmental managers to draw on as they consider conservation plans. Several undergraduate and graduate students will participate in the project, and one of the co-PIs is a new investigator. The imagery collected is expected to be of interest to the general public in addition to scientific researchers, and venues for outreach such as museum exhibits and the internet will be explored. The proposed work is synergistic with 1) the co-located McMurdo LTER program, and 2) the NCALM facility that is also funded by the Geosciences Directorate.", "east": 166.95825, "geometry": "POINT(163.5318575 -77.747214)", "instruments": "EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e ACTIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e ALTIMETERS \u003e LIDAR/LASER ALTIMETERS \u003e AIRBORNE LASER SCANNER", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "USAP-DC; Antarctica; Not provided; LANDFORMS; NOT APPLICABLE", "locations": "Antarctica", "north": -77.2119, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Integrated System Science", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Levy, Joseph; Gooseff, Michael N.; Fountain, Andrew", "platforms": "Not provided; OTHER \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "repo": "OpenTopo", "repositories": "OpenTopo; USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -78.282528, "title": "Collaborative Research: THE MCMURDO DRY VALLEYS: A landscape on the Threshold of Change", "uid": "p0000076", "west": 160.105465}, {"awards": "1045215 Gooseff, Michael", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((160 -77.25,160.5 -77.25,161 -77.25,161.5 -77.25,162 -77.25,162.5 -77.25,163 -77.25,163.5 -77.25,164 -77.25,164.5 -77.25,165 -77.25,165 -77.375,165 -77.5,165 -77.625,165 -77.75,165 -77.875,165 -78,165 -78.125,165 -78.25,165 -78.375,165 -78.5,164.5 -78.5,164 -78.5,163.5 -78.5,163 -78.5,162.5 -78.5,162 -78.5,161.5 -78.5,161 -78.5,160.5 -78.5,160 -78.5,160 -78.375,160 -78.25,160 -78.125,160 -78,160 -77.875,160 -77.75,160 -77.625,160 -77.5,160 -77.375,160 -77.25))", "dataset_titles": "Are the Dry Valleys Getting Wetter? A Preliminary Assessment of Wetness Across the McMurdo Dry Valleys Landscape", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "600131", "doi": "10.15784/600131", "keywords": "Antarctica; Climate; Critical Zone; Dry Valleys; Radar; Soil Moisture", "people": "Gooseff, Michael N.", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Are the Dry Valleys Getting Wetter? A Preliminary Assessment of Wetness Across the McMurdo Dry Valleys Landscape", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/600131"}], "date_created": "Tue, 01 Jul 2014 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Intellectual Merit: \u003cbr/\u003eUntil recently, wetted soils in the Dry Valleys were generally only found adjacent to streams and lakes. Since the warm austral summer of 2002, numerous ?wet spots? have been observed far from shorelines on relatively flat valley floor locations and as downslope fingers of flow on valley walls. The source of the water to wet these soils is unclear, as is the spatial and temporal pattern of occurrence from year to year. Their significance is potentially great as enhanced soil moisture may change the thermodynamics, hydrology, and erosion rate of surface soils, and facilitate transport of materials that had previously been stable. These changes to the soil active layer could significantly modify permafrost and ground ice stability within the Dry Valleys. The PIs seek to investigate these changes to address two competing hypotheses: that the source of water to these ?wet spots? is ground ice melt and that the source of this water is snowmelt. The PIs will document the spatiotemporal dynamics of these wet areas using high frequency remote sensing data from Quickbird and Wordview satellites to document the occurrence, dimensions, and growth of wet spots during the 2010-\u00c2\u00ad11 and 2011-\u00c2\u00ad12 austral summers. They will test their hypotheses by determining whether wet spots recur in the same locations in each season, and they will compare present to past distribution using archived imagery. They will also determine whether spatial snow accumulation patterns and temporal ablation patterns are coincident with wet spot formation. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eBroader impacts: \u003cbr/\u003eOne graduate student will be trained on this project. Findings will be reported at scientific meetings and published in peer reviewed journals. They will also develop a teaching module on remote sensing applications to hydrology for the Modular Curriculum for Hydrologic Advancement and an innovative prototype project designed to leverage public participation in mapping wet spots and snow patches across the Dry Valleys through the use of social media and mobile computing applications.", "east": 165.0, "geometry": "POINT(162.5 -77.875)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "USA/NSF; AMD; USAP-DC; ANALYTICAL LAB; Amd/Us", "locations": null, "north": -77.25, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Gooseff, Michael N.", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e PHYSICAL MODELS \u003e ANALYTICAL LAB", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -78.5, "title": "EAGER: Are the Dry Valleys Getting Wetter? A Preliminary Assessment of Wetness Across the McMurdo Dry Valleys Landscape", "uid": "p0000471", "west": 160.0}, {"awards": "0338267 Gooseff, Michael", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((161.6 -77.4,161.773 -77.4,161.946 -77.4,162.119 -77.4,162.292 -77.4,162.465 -77.4,162.638 -77.4,162.811 -77.4,162.984 -77.4,163.157 -77.4,163.33 -77.4,163.33 -77.435,163.33 -77.47,163.33 -77.505,163.33 -77.54,163.33 -77.575,163.33 -77.61,163.33 -77.645,163.33 -77.68,163.33 -77.715,163.33 -77.75,163.157 -77.75,162.984 -77.75,162.811 -77.75,162.638 -77.75,162.465 -77.75,162.292 -77.75,162.119 -77.75,161.946 -77.75,161.773 -77.75,161.6 -77.75,161.6 -77.715,161.6 -77.68,161.6 -77.645,161.6 -77.61,161.6 -77.575,161.6 -77.54,161.6 -77.505,161.6 -77.47,161.6 -77.435,161.6 -77.4))", "dataset_titles": "Antarctic Hydrologic Margin Microbiology and Biogeochemistry - data; Hydrologic Margins Research Project, 2004-2008, McMurdo Dry Valleys", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "600016", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": "Gooseff, Michael N.", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Hydrologic Margins Research Project, 2004-2008, McMurdo Dry Valleys", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/600016"}, {"dataset_uid": "000238", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "PI website", "science_program": null, "title": "Antarctic Hydrologic Margin Microbiology and Biogeochemistry - data", "url": "http://water.engr.psu.edu/gooseff/web_antarctica/data.html"}], "date_created": "Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Aquatic-terrestrial transition zones are crucial environments in understanding the biogeochemistry of landscapes. In temperate watersheds, these areas are generally dominated by riparian zones, which have been identified as regions of special interest for biogeochemistry because of the increased microbial activity in these locations, and because of the importance of these hydrological margins in facilitating and buffering hydrologic and biogeochemical exchanges between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. In the Antarctic Dry Valleys, terrestrial-aquatic transition zones are intriguing landscape features because of the vast importance of water in this polar desert, and because the material and energy budgets of dry valley ecosystems are linked by hydrology. Hydrological margins in aquatic-terrestrial transition zones will be studied in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica to answer two overarching questions: (1) what are the major controls over hydrologic and biogeochemical exchange across aquaticterrestrial transition zones and (2) to what extent do trends in nutrient cycling (e.g. nitrogen cycling) across these transition zones reflect differences in microbial communities or function vs. differences in the physical and chemical environment (e.g., redox potential)? The hydrologic gradients that define these interfaces provide the opportunity to assess the relative influence of physical conditions and microbial biodiversity and functioning upon biogeochemical cycling. Coordinated hydrologic, biogeochemical, and molecular microbial studies will be executed within hydrologic margins with the following research objectives: to determine the role of sediment characteristics, permafrost and active layer dynamics, and topography on sub-surface water content and distribution in hydrologic margins, to determine the extent to which transformations of nitrogen in hydrological margins are influenced by physical conditions (i.e., moisture, redox potential and pH) or by the presence of specific microbial communities (e.g., denitrifiers), and to characterize the microbial community structure and function of saturated zones.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eThis proposed research will provide an improved understanding of the interaction of liquid water, soils, microbial communities, and biogeochemistry within the important hydrologic margin landscape units of the dry valleys. Dry valleys streams and lakes are unique because there is no influence of higher vegetation on the movement of water and may therefore provide a model system for understanding physical and hydrological influences on microbial ecology and biogeochemistry. Hence the findings will contribute to Antarctic science as well as the broader study of riparian zones and hydrologic margins worldwide. Graduate students and undergraduate students will be involved with fieldwork and research projects. Information will be disseminated through a project web site, and outreach activities will include science education in local elementary, middle and high schools near the three universities involved.", "east": 163.33, "geometry": "POINT(162.465 -77.575)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": false, "keywords": "Not provided", "locations": null, "north": -77.4, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Gooseff, Michael N.; Barrett, John; Takacs-Vesbach, Cristina", "platforms": "Not provided", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "PI website; USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -77.75, "title": "Collaborative Research: Hydrologic Controls over Biogeochemistry and Microbial Community Structure and Function across Terrestrial/Aquatic Interfaces in a Polar Desert", "uid": "p0000340", "west": 161.6}]

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