{"dp_type": "Project", "free_text": "Biodiversity"}
[{"awards": "2448649 Brooks, Cassandra", "bounds_geometry": null, "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Mon, 10 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Marine protected areas (MPAs) are protected areas of seas, oceans, and estuaries. They need coordinated research and monitoring for informed management to fulfill their conservation potential. Coordination is challenging, however, often due to knowledge gaps caused by inadequate access to data and resources, compounded by insufficient communication between scientists and managers. This Research Coordinating Network (RCN) uses the world\u2019s largest MPA in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, as a model system to create an international interdisciplinary network supporting policy-relevant research and monitoring that could be implemented in other remote, large-scale international MPAs. The first 10-year review of the Ross Sea MPA in 2027 will present a critical opportunity to coordinate across science, policy, and other partner communities to ensure the 2027 review (and subsequent reviews) are well grounded in robust scientific data, analyses, and streamlined inputs into policy. Many Antarctic research, policy, and conservation groups exist, some are even already focused on the Ross Sea, but there is not yet a formalized framework for coordination. Hence, the need for an RCN which can formalize connections among policy, research, and other communities focused specifically on research and monitoring of the Ross Sea region MPA. The RCN also provides an example of how to bring together diverse interdisciplinary participants towards an effective, integrated science-policy collaboration. To fulfill their conservation potential and provide safeguards for biodiversity, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) need coordinated research and monitoring for informed management through effective evaluation of ecosystem dynamics. The Ross Sea MPA in Antarctica is the world\u2019s largest MPA and the only one on the high seas. The Research Coordination Network (RCN) will connect three key components: (i) policy engagement, (ii) community partner engagement, and (iii) integrated science. The science component comprises three themes: data science and cyberinfrastructure; biophysical modeling; and observations that include monitoring and process studies. Guided by clear research questions across the three components, the RCN will lead to new knowledge about the barriers to science-policy engagement and strategies to overcome them; strategies for effectively engaging diverse community partners; and science needed to better understand the Ross Sea ecosystem structure and function, including strategies for international coordination. The three science themes inform understanding of the ecosystem, and thus, the potential efficacy of the Ross Sea region MPA. Data science and cyberinfrastructure provide essential structures for coordinated research. Biophysical modeling is critical for evaluating ecosystem metrics and can be illustrative for understanding changes in ecosystem structure and function. Observations and process studies are needed for addressing knowledge gaps and informing cyberinfrastructure tools and biophysical modeling efforts. The science integration component will advance knowledge while also advancing transformative interdisciplinary collaboration across data science, modeling, and observations. The RCN will build new connections and collaborations among scientists, policymakers and community partners, internationally and across disciplines, while integrating science and policy in novel ways. The RCN will operate through regular engagement across the network communities, including meetings and targeted activities with specific products and outcomes. The RCN increases diversity, science diplomacy, knowledge exchange, and conservation and five early- to mid-career researchers have leading roles. The contributions from this RCN will facilitate significant advances in the ability to understand high latitude marine ecosystems and how these systems respond to competing stressors, including climate change and fishing. Further, lessons learned through the RCN could offer guidance on how other large-scale international MPAs are monitored and assessed. This 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": null, "geometry": null, "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "BENTHIC; Southern Ocean; Ross Sea; AQUATIC SCIENCES; COMMUNITY DYNAMICS; ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS; Antarctica", "locations": "Ross Sea; Southern Ocean; Antarctica", "north": null, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Brooks, Cassandra", "platforms": null, "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": null, "title": "RCN: Building a Coordinated Network for Research and Monitoring in Large-Scale International Marine Protected Areas: The Ross Sea Region as a Model System", "uid": "p0010503", "west": null}, {"awards": "2029777 Matrai, Patricia", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-180 -60,-144 -60,-108 -60,-72 -60,-36 -60,0 -60,36 -60,72 -60,108 -60,144 -60,180 -60,180 -63,180 -66,180 -69,180 -72,180 -75,180 -78,180 -81,180 -84,180 -87,180 -90,144 -90,108 -90,72 -90,36 -90,0 -90,-36 -90,-72 -90,-108 -90,-144 -90,-180 -90,-180 -87,-180 -84,-180 -81,-180 -78,-180 -75,-180 -72,-180 -69,-180 -66,-180 -63,-180 -60))", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Fri, 07 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "This award provides funding in support of participation by U.S. graduate students and early career researchers for the 2019 Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) and Gordon Research Conference (GRC) Polar Marine Science meetings to be held in Ventura, CA May 22-28, 2021. The 2021 GRC event is entitled \u201cIntegrating Ocean Physics and Biogeochemistry to Assess Polar Ecosystem Sensitivity to Rapid Change\u201d. Gordon conferences on this topic are held every two years and provide a key forum to discuss cutting-edge and cross-disciplinary marine research highlighted as an international priority topic. The conference plan is designed to provide powerful insights into the present and future states of polar marine ecosystems, including the local and regional aspects of ocean circulation, sea ice dynamics, biogeochemical fluxes, biodiversity, ecosystem health and human well-being. This event will bring together an interdisciplinary group of students and young researchers from many fields working in Polar regions. Exchanges of this type are essential for ensuring that U.S. scientists and engineers maintain international research leadership in in polar regions. Participants will have an opportunity to present their work in the form of oral presentations or posters while interacting with some of the most eminent researchers in the field. The GRS and GRC will address fundamental aspects, which are related to the grand environmental and sustainability challenges facing mankind. Specific emphasis will be given to defining the next generation challenges in polar region research. The unique format of the Gordon Research Conferences with invited talks, limited attendance, and ample time for interactions will provide early career scientists with ample opportunities for discussions and networking. Particular emphasis will be placed on encouraging student and post-doc participation from a broad range of institutions. The GRC-PPS will be widely advertised in the community and the participation and application for travel support by junior scientists will be strongly encouraged. This 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": 180.0, "geometry": "POINT(0 -89.999)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Il Ciocco, Italy; Arctic; AQUATIC SCIENCES; SEA ICE; Polar; Atmosphere; MARINE SEDIMENTS; Ecology; Sea Ice; Antarctic", "locations": "Il Ciocco, Italy; Arctic; Antarctic; Polar", "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Matrai, Patricia; Babin, Marcel", "platforms": null, "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -90.0, "title": "2021 Polar Marine Science GRC and GRS", "uid": "p0010496", "west": -180.0}, {"awards": "2015878 O\u0027\u0027Brien, Kristin", "bounds_geometry": null, "dataset_titles": "Survey of US Antarctic biological collections", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601862", "doi": "10.15784/601862", "keywords": "Antarctica; Cryosphere", "people": "O\u0027Brien, Kristin", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Survey of US Antarctic biological collections", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601862"}], "date_created": "Tue, 03 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "This workshop will bring together Antarctic marine freshwater and terrestrial biologists, students, and experts in specimen curation to assess the value of, need for, and scope of a biological repository of Antarctic specimens, including tissue samples. Currently, some US collected Antarctic specimen collections are housed in various museums, repositories, and labs. These collections are not easily discoverable on the internet, and how well they represent the biodiversity of Antarctica is largely unknown. The workshop coordinators will advertise the conference broadly and recruit underrepresented groups to participate. Participants will assess current repositories and determine how to make Antarctica biological samples more accessible in a unified location (or through better coordination). This effort will benefit the broader community of biologists working with Antarctic organisms by providing opportunities to conduct Antarctic science by investigators and their students that might otherwise not be possible due to the logistical and budget challenges for deployments. Following workshop activities, a final report will be published on the outcomes of the efforts. This 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": null, "geometry": null, "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Antarctica; ANIMALS/INVERTEBRATES", "locations": "Antarctica", "north": null, "nsf_funding_programs": "Polar Cyberinfrastructure; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "O\u0027Brien, Kristin", "platforms": null, "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": null, "title": "Collaborative Research: A Workshop for Evaluating the Value and Scope of a Biological Repository of Antarctic Specimens", "uid": "p0010491", "west": null}, {"awards": "2325922 Couradeau, Estelle", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-73.783 4.679,-73.7827 4.679,-73.7824 4.679,-73.7821 4.679,-73.7818 4.679,-73.7815 4.679,-73.7812 4.679,-73.7809 4.679,-73.7806 4.679,-73.7803 4.679,-73.78 4.679,-73.78 4.6789,-73.78 4.6788,-73.78 4.6787,-73.78 4.6786,-73.78 4.6785,-73.78 4.6784,-73.78 4.6783,-73.78 4.6782,-73.78 4.6781,-73.78 4.678,-73.7803 4.678,-73.7806 4.678,-73.7809 4.678,-73.7812 4.678,-73.7815 4.678,-73.7818 4.678,-73.7821 4.678,-73.7824 4.678,-73.7827 4.678,-73.783 4.678,-73.783 4.6781,-73.783 4.6782,-73.783 4.6783,-73.783 4.6784,-73.783 4.6785,-73.783 4.6786,-73.783 4.6787,-73.783 4.6788,-73.783 4.6789,-73.783 4.679))", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Tue, 06 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "P\u00e1ramos are high-altitude tundra ecosystems nested at the heart of the Andes mountains. These cold and humid environments are home to a multitude of plants, animals, and insects. P\u00e1ramos are a critical water source for downstream urban centers, including Colombia\u0027s capital city, Bogota. Additionally, the P\u00e1ramos soils contain substantial organic carbon reserves due to slow rates of organic matter decomposition. Beyond being a pool of carbon sequestered away from the atmosphere, this large reservoir of organic matter controls the soils\u2019 hydraulic and fertility properties. The P\u00e1ramos\u2019 unique geographic location, at an elevation above 2,800 m above sea level, makes them highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In fact, these ecosystems\u2019 surface areas are projected to shrink by half within the next 50 years possibly causing loss of the essential services they provide. This project aims to characterize the microbial diversity in the P\u00e1ramos soils in Colombia and investigate how climate change will affect microbes\u2019 functions. The research is of high importance, considering that immediate and long-term changes in microbial metabolism could impact the ability of P\u00e1ramos soils to store organic carbon and regulate downstream water flow. To study the cascading effect of climate change on P\u00e1ramos ecosystems, this project will jumpstart collaborations among transdisciplinary experts that will integrate the research of below-ground microbial communities with above-ground vegetation functions. The project will also engage high school and undergraduate students that will work together to develop and deploy low-cost long-term soil monitoring data loggers in Chingaza National Natural Park, near the city of Bogota. This project will address the critical need to disentangle the effect of moisture and temperature on the fate of organic carbon in P\u00e1ramos soils while building a transdisciplinary team capable of expanding the scope of the research to an ecosystem level. The project includes establishing controlled soil mesocosms that will allow to independently vary moisture and temperature levels. Additionally, functions of the soil microbiome will be investigated using metagenomics and amplicon sequencing, and probes will be deployed to initiate long-term monitoring of the soil response to climate change in situ. This project will culminate in the organization of an international P\u00e1ramos symposium that will set up priorities for future systems research. The symposium will bring together scientists from diverse fields to discuss the linkages between above-ground and below-ground ecosystem functions and plan future collaborations in predicting P\u00e1ramos-wide effects of climate change. This 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": -73.78, "geometry": "POINT(-73.7815 4.6785)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS; Chingaza Paramos Colombia; ORGANIC MATTER; SOIL MECHANICS", "locations": "Chingaza Paramos Colombia", "north": 4.679, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Couradeau, Estelle; Maximova, Siela; Machado, Jose Luis", "platforms": null, "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": 4.678, "title": "Collaborative Research: BoCP-Design: Climate change alteration of soils functional biodiversity of the P\u00e1ramos, Colombia", "uid": "p0010445", "west": -73.783}, {"awards": "2138993 Gerken, Sarah; 2138994 Kocot, Kevin", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-180 -60,-144 -60,-108 -60,-72 -60,-36 -60,0 -60,36 -60,72 -60,108 -60,144 -60,180 -60,180 -63,180 -66,180 -69,180 -72,180 -75,180 -78,180 -81,180 -84,180 -87,180 -90,144 -90,108 -90,72 -90,36 -90,0 -90,-36 -90,-72 -90,-108 -90,-144 -90,-180 -90,-180 -87,-180 -84,-180 -81,-180 -78,-180 -75,-180 -72,-180 -69,-180 -66,-180 -63,-180 -60))", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Tue, 20 Sep 2022 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Part I: General description Cumaceans are small crustaceans, commonly known as comma shrimp, that live in muddy or sandy bottom environments in marine waters. Cumaceans are important for the diet of fish, birds, and even grey whales. This research program is assessing cumacean diversity and adaptation in different regions of Antarctica and evaluate this organisms adaptations using molecular methods to a changing Antarctic region. The research stands to significantly advance understanding of invertebrate adaptations to cold, stable habitats and responses to changes in those habitats. In addition, this project is advancing understanding of the biology of Cumacea, a globally diverse and biologically important group of animals. Targeted training of early career students and professionals in cumacean biology, molecular techniques, and bioinformatics is included as part of the program. A workshop at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum will also train 10 additional graduate students, with a focus on training for underrepresented groups. Project outreach also includes social media, outreach to schools in very diverse school districts in Anchorage, AK, and creation of museum events and an exhibit at the Alabama Museum of Natural History. Finally, engagement by the team in activities related to the National Ocean Science Bowl promotes broad engagement with high school students for Antarctic science learning. Part II: Technical Description The overarching goal of this research is to use cumaceans as a model system to explore invertebrate adaptations to the changing Antarctic. This project is leveraging integrative taxonomy, functional, comparative and evolutionary genomics, and phylogenetic comparative methods to understand the true diversity of Cumacea in the Antarctic. The team is identifying genes and gene families experiencing expansions, selection, or significant differential expression, generating a broadly sampled and robust phylogenetic framework for the Antarctic Cumacea based on transcriptomes and genomes, and exploring rates and timing of diversification. The project is providing important information related to gene gain/loss, positive selection, and differential gene expression as a function of adaptation of organisms to Antarctic habitats. Phylogenomic analyses is providing a robust phylogenetic framework for understudied Southern Ocean Cumacea. At the start of this project, only one Antarctic transcriptome was published for this organism. This project is generating sequenced genomes from 8 species, about 250 transcriptomes from about 70 species, and approximately 470 COI and 16S amplicon barcodes from about 100 species. Curated morphological reference collections will be deposited at the Smithsonian, Los Angeles County Natural History Museum and in the New Zealand National Water and Atmospheric Research collection at Greta Point to assist future researchers in identification of Antarctic cumaceans. Beyond the immediate scope of the current project, the genomic resources will be able to be leveraged by members of the polar biology and invertebrate zoology communities for diverse other uses ranging from PCR primer development to inference of ancestral population sizes. This 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": 180.0, "geometry": "POINT(0 -89.999)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Benthic; SHIPS; Antarctic Peninsula; Antarctica; Biodiversity; Peracarida; ARTHROPODS; East Antarctica; Chile; BENTHIC; Cumacea; Ross Sea; Crustacea", "locations": "Antarctica; East Antarctica; Chile; Ross Sea; Antarctic Peninsula", "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Polar Special Initiatives; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": "NOT APPLICABLE", "persons": "Gerken, Sarah; Kocot, Kevin", "platforms": "WATER-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e VESSELS \u003e SURFACE \u003e SHIPS", "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -90.0, "title": "Collaborative Research: ANT LIA: Cumacean -Omics to Measure Mode of Adaptation to Antarctica (COMMAA)", "uid": "p0010379", "west": -180.0}, {"awards": "2132641 Bik, Holly", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-180 -60,-144 -60,-108 -60,-72 -60,-36 -60,0 -60,36 -60,72 -60,108 -60,144 -60,180 -60,180 -62,180 -64,180 -66,180 -68,180 -70,180 -72,180 -74,180 -76,180 -78,180 -80,144 -80,108 -80,72 -80,36 -80,0 -80,-36 -80,-72 -80,-108 -80,-144 -80,-180 -80,-180 -78,-180 -76,-180 -74,-180 -72,-180 -70,-180 -68,-180 -66,-180 -64,-180 -62,-180 -60))", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Tue, 30 Aug 2022 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Non-technical Abstract: The long isolation and unique biodiversity of the Southern Ocean represents an important case study region for understanding the evolution and ecology of populations. This study uses modern -omics approaches to evaluate the biodiversity, evolution, and ecology of Antarctic marine nematodes and their host-associated microbiomes from a variety of habitats collected at different depths. The results are producing an important baseline dataset of Antarctic meiofaunal diversity. All genomic resources generated in this project will be publicly accessible as open-source datasets with the potential for long-term scientific reuse. This project supports diverse researchers from underrepresented backgrounds and produces a suite of Antarctic-focused digital public outreach products. Technical Abstract: Nematode worms are abundant and ubiquitous in marine sediment habitats worldwide, performing key functions such as nutrient cycling and sediment stability. However, study of this phylum suffers from a perpetual and severe taxonomic deficit, with less than 5,000 formally described marine species. Fauna from the Southern Ocean are especially poorly studied due to limited sampling and the general inaccessibility of the Antarctic benthos. This study is providing the first large-scale molecular-based investigation from marine nematodes in the Eastern Antarctic continental shelf, providing an important comparative dataset for the existing body of historical (morphological) taxonomic studies. This project uses a combination of classical taxonomy (microscopy) and modern -omics tools to achieve three overarching aims: 1) determine if molecular data supports high biodiversity and endemism of benthic meiofauna in Antarctic benthic ecosystems; 2) determine the proportion of marine nematode species that have a deep-sea versus shallow-water evolutionary origin on the Antarctic shelf, and assess patterns of cryptic speciation in the Southern Ocean; and 3) determine the most important drivers of the host-associated microbiome in Antarctic marine nematodes. This project is designed to rapidly advance knowledge of the evolutionary origins of Antarctic meiofauna, provide insight on population-level patterns within key indicator genera, and elucidate the potential ecological and environmental factors which may influence microbiome patterns. Broader Impacts activities include an intensive cruise- and land-based outreach program focusing on social media engagement and digital outreach products, raising awareness of Antarctic marine ecosystems and understudied microbial-animal relationships. The diverse research team includes female scientists, first-generation college students, and Latinx trainees. This 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": 180.0, "geometry": "POINT(0 -89.999)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "East Antarctica; BENTHIC", "locations": "East Antarctica", "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Bik, Holly", "platforms": null, "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -80.0, "title": "ANT LIA: Do Molecular Data Support High Endemism and Divergent Evolution of Antarctic Marine Nematodes and their Host-associated Microbiomes?", "uid": "p0010372", "west": -180.0}, {"awards": "1341429 Ball, Becky", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-68.205783 -60.706633,-65.9444531 -60.706633,-63.6831232 -60.706633,-61.4217933 -60.706633,-59.1604634 -60.706633,-56.8991335 -60.706633,-54.6378036 -60.706633,-52.3764737 -60.706633,-50.1151438 -60.706633,-47.8538139 -60.706633,-45.592484 -60.706633,-45.592484 -62.1204014,-45.592484 -63.5341698,-45.592484 -64.9479382,-45.592484 -66.3617066,-45.592484 -67.775475,-45.592484 -69.1892434,-45.592484 -70.6030118,-45.592484 -72.0167802,-45.592484 -73.4305486,-45.592484 -74.844317,-47.8538139 -74.844317,-50.1151438 -74.844317,-52.3764737 -74.844317,-54.6378036 -74.844317,-56.8991335 -74.844317,-59.1604634 -74.844317,-61.4217933 -74.844317,-63.6831232 -74.844317,-65.9444531 -74.844317,-68.205783 -74.844317,-68.205783 -73.4305486,-68.205783 -72.0167802,-68.205783 -70.6030118,-68.205783 -69.1892434,-68.205783 -67.775475,-68.205783 -66.3617066,-68.205783 -64.9479382,-68.205783 -63.5341698,-68.205783 -62.1204014,-68.205783 -60.706633))", "dataset_titles": "Climatic and environmental constraints on aboveground-belowground linkages and diversity across a latitudinal gradient in Antarctica", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200289", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "OSF - Center for Open Science", "science_program": null, "title": "Climatic and environmental constraints on aboveground-belowground linkages and diversity across a latitudinal gradient in Antarctica", "url": "https://osf.io/8xfrc/"}], "date_created": "Thu, 14 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The Antarctic Peninsula is experiencing rapid environmental changes, which will influence the community of organisms that live there. However, we know very little about the microscopic organisms living in the soil in this region. Soil biology (including bacteria, fungi, and invertebrates) are responsible for many important processes that sustain ecosystems, such as nutrient recycling. Without understanding the environmental conditions that influence soil biodiversity along the Antarctic Peninsula, our ability to predict the consequences of global change is strongly limited. This project will identify the soil community at many sites along the Antarctic Peninsula to discover how the community changes with environmental conditions from north to south. The project will also identify how the soil community at each site differs under different types of plants. Understanding more about the ways in which plant cover and climate conditions influence soil biodiversity will allow predictions of how communities will respond to future changes such as climate warming and invasive plant species. The project will also further the NSF goals of making scientific discoveries available to the general public and of training new generations of scientists. The investigators will engage with outreach to K-12 students and the general public both directly and through a blog and will participate in workshops for K-12 teachers. Additionally, the project will provide the opportunity for many undergraduate and graduate students of diverse backgrounds to be trained in interdisciplinary research. The investigators will determine the nature and strength of plant-soil linkages in influencing soil community composition and diversity over a latitudinal gradient of environmental and climatic conditions. The goals are to (1) increase our understanding of current biogeography and diversity by providing in-depth knowledge of soil community composition and complexity as it relates to environmental and climatic characteristics; and (2) determine the nature of aboveground-belowground community linkages over varying spatial scales. The team will identify the composition and diversity of soil communities under key habitat types (grass, moss, algae, etc.). Microbial communities (bacteria, fungi, archaea) will be investigated using pyrosequencing for community composition analysis and metagenomic sequencing to identify functional capabilities. Invertebrates (nematodes, tardigrades, rotifers, microarthropods) will be extracted and identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level. Soil chemistry (pH, nutrient content, soil moisture, etc.) and climate conditions will be measured to determine the relationship between soil communities and physical and chemical properties. Structural equation modeling will be used to identify aboveground-belowground linkage pathways and quantify link strengths under varying environmental conditions.", "east": -45.592484, "geometry": "POINT(-56.8991335 -67.775475)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "FUNGI; FIELD INVESTIGATION; AMD; Amd/Us; TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS; USA/NSF; ANIMALS/INVERTEBRATES; SOIL CHEMISTRY; BACTERIA/ARCHAEA; Antarctic Peninsula; ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS; USAP-DC", "locations": "Antarctic Peninsula", "north": -60.706633, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Ball, Becky; Van Horn, David", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD INVESTIGATION", "repo": "OSF - Center for Open Science", "repositories": "OSF - Center for Open Science", "science_programs": null, "south": -74.844317, "title": "Collaborative Research: Climatic and Environmental Constraints on Aboveground-Belowground Linkages and Diversity across a Latitudinal Gradient in Antarctica", "uid": "p0010314", "west": -68.205783}, {"awards": "1443557 Isbell, John", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-180 -85,-177.1 -85,-174.2 -85,-171.3 -85,-168.4 -85,-165.5 -85,-162.6 -85,-159.7 -85,-156.8 -85,-153.9 -85,-151 -85,-151 -85.2,-151 -85.4,-151 -85.6,-151 -85.8,-151 -86,-151 -86.2,-151 -86.4,-151 -86.6,-151 -86.8,-151 -87,-153.9 -87,-156.8 -87,-159.7 -87,-162.6 -87,-165.5 -87,-168.4 -87,-171.3 -87,-174.2 -87,-177.1 -87,180 -87,179 -87,178 -87,177 -87,176 -87,175 -87,174 -87,173 -87,172 -87,171 -87,170 -87,170 -86.8,170 -86.6,170 -86.4,170 -86.2,170 -86,170 -85.8,170 -85.6,170 -85.4,170 -85.2,170 -85,171 -85,172 -85,173 -85,174 -85,175 -85,176 -85,177 -85,178 -85,179 -85,-180 -85))", "dataset_titles": "A LITHOFACIES ANALYSIS OF A SOUTH POLAR GLACIATION IN THE EARLY PERMIAN: PAGODA FORMATION, SHACKLETON GLACIER REGION, ANTARCTICA; A new stratigraphic framework built on U-Pb single-zircon TIMS agesand implications for the timing ofthe penultimate icehouse (Paran\u00e1 Basin, Brazil); Constraining late Paleozoic ice extent in the Paganzo Basin of western Argentina utilizing U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology for the lower Paganzo Group strata; Coupled stratigraphic and U-Pb zircon age constraints on the late Paleozoic icehouse-to-greenhouse turnover in south-central Gondwana; Isotopes to ice: Constraining provenance of glacial deposits and ice centers in west-central Gondwana; Late Permian soil-forming paleoenvironments on Gondwana: A review; Provenance of late Paleozoic glacial/post-glacial deposits in the eastern Chaco-Paran\u00e1 Basin, Uruguay and southernmost Paran\u00e1 Basin, Brazil; Supplemental material: Nitrogen-fixing symbiosis inferred from stable isotope analysis of fossil tree rings from the Oligocene of Ethiopia; When does large woody debris influence ancient rivers? Dendrochronology\r\napplications in the Permian and Triassic, Antarctica", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200266", "doi": "10.2110/jsr.2021.004", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "Publication", "science_program": null, "title": "A LITHOFACIES ANALYSIS OF A SOUTH POLAR GLACIATION IN THE EARLY PERMIAN: PAGODA FORMATION, SHACKLETON GLACIER REGION, ANTARCTICA", "url": "https://www.sepm.org/publications"}, {"dataset_uid": "200274", "doi": "10.1130/G39213.1", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "Publication", "science_program": null, "title": "Supplemental material: Nitrogen-fixing symbiosis inferred from stable isotope analysis of fossil tree rings from the Oligocene of Ethiopia", "url": "https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-standard/45/8/687/207623/Nitrogen-fixing-symbiosis-inferred-from-stable"}, {"dataset_uid": "200273", "doi": "10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.04.020", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "Publication", "science_program": null, "title": "Isotopes to ice: Constraining provenance of glacial deposits and ice centers in west-central Gondwana", "url": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031018217309008?via%3Dihub"}, {"dataset_uid": "200272", "doi": "10.1016/j.jsames.2020.102899", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "Publication", "science_program": null, "title": "Constraining late Paleozoic ice extent in the Paganzo Basin of western Argentina utilizing U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology for the lower Paganzo Group strata", "url": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0895981120304429?via%3Dihub#mmc1"}, {"dataset_uid": "200271", "doi": "10.1016/j.palaeo.2019.109544", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "Publication", "science_program": null, "title": "When does large woody debris influence ancient rivers? Dendrochronology\r\napplications in the Permian and Triassic, Antarctica", "url": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031018219304006?via%3Dihub"}, {"dataset_uid": "200270", "doi": "10.1016/j.jsames.2020.102989", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "Publication", "science_program": null, "title": "Provenance of late Paleozoic glacial/post-glacial deposits in the eastern Chaco-Paran\u00e1 Basin, Uruguay and southernmost Paran\u00e1 Basin, Brazil", "url": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0895981120305320#mmc1"}, {"dataset_uid": "200269", "doi": "10.1130/G46740.1", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "Publication", "science_program": null, "title": "Coupled stratigraphic and U-Pb zircon age constraints on the late Paleozoic icehouse-to-greenhouse turnover in south-central Gondwana", "url": "https://gsapubs.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Supplemental_material_Coupled_stratigraphic_and_U-Pb_zircon_age_constraints_on_the_late_Paleozoic_icehouse-to-greenhouse_turnover_in_south-central_Gondwana/12542069"}, {"dataset_uid": "200268", "doi": "10.1130/B31775.1.", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "Publication", "science_program": null, "title": "A new stratigraphic framework built on U-Pb single-zircon TIMS agesand implications for the timing ofthe penultimate icehouse (Paran\u00e1 Basin, Brazil)", "url": "https://gsapubs.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Supplemental_material_A_new_stratigraphic_framework_built_on_U-Pb_single-zircon_TIMS_ages_and_implications_for_the_timing_of_the_penultimate_icehouse_Paran_Basin_Brazil_/12535916"}, {"dataset_uid": "200267", "doi": "10.1016/j.palaeo.2021.110762", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "Publication", "science_program": null, "title": "Late Permian soil-forming paleoenvironments on Gondwana: A review", "url": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031018221005472?via%3Dihub"}], "date_created": "Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The focus of this collaborative project is to collect fossil plants, wood, and sedimentary and chemical information from rocks in the Shackleton Glacier (SHK) area of Antarctica. This information will be used to reconstruct plant life and environments during the Permian and Triassic (~295-205 million years ago) in Antarctica. This time interval is important to study as Antarctica experienced a large glaciation in the Permian followed by deglaciation and recovery of plant and animal life, only to be subjected to the largest extinction in Earth history at the end of the Permian. After the extinction events, the climate in Antarctica continued to warm extensively and there were forests growing close to the paleo-South Pole. These ancient environments provide a natural laboratory in which to study the effects of climate change on plant life. The results of this project will advance the field in the areas of changing sedimentary patterns during global cooling and warming, as well as plant evolution during times following glaciation and during global warmth. This project will study the extent of the Gondwana glaciation in the SHK area, the invasion and subsequent flourishing of life following glacial retreat, and the eventual recovery of plant life after Late Permian extinction events. Only in Antarctica does a complete polar-to-near-polar succession occur across this climatic and biologic transition. The SHK area is an important one as it is one of the few regions in the world where the Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) is exposed within terrestrial rocks. The field and lab work for this project is organized around three hypotheses that address fundamental issues in Earth history, including changes in the extent and diversity of flora during the Permian build up to the Late Paleozoic Ice Age, the possible diachronous nature of the PTB, and that poor fossil preservation during the Early Triassic has given a false impression that Antarctica was devoid of plants during this time. The hypotheses will be tested by integrating various types of paleobotanical approaches with detailed sedimentology, stratigraphy, and geochemistry. Compression floras and petrified wood will be collected (constrained by stratigraphy) both quantitatively and qualitatively in order to obtain biodiversity and abundance data, and as a data source for paleoecological analysis. Standard sedimentologic and stratigraphic analyses will be performed, as well as paleosol analyses, including mineralogic and major- and trace-element geochemistry. Collections will also be made for U-Pb zircon geochronology to better constrain geologic and biotic events through time. Results of the project will be incorporated into educational and outreach activities that are designed to include women and under-represented groups in the excitement of Antarctic earth sciences and paleontology, including workshops in Kansas and Wisconsin, as well as links to science classes during fieldwork.", "east": 170.0, "geometry": "POINT(-170.5 -86)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Shackleton Glacier; SEDIMENTARY ROCKS; GLACIATION", "locations": "Shackleton Glacier", "north": -85.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Isbell, John", "platforms": null, "repo": "Publication", "repositories": "Publication", "science_programs": null, "south": -87.0, "title": "Collaborative Research: Permian and Triassic Icehouse to Greenhouse Paleoenvironments and Paleobotany in the Shackleton Glacier Area, Antarctica", "uid": "p0010287", "west": -151.0}, {"awards": "1916665 Mahon, Andrew; 1916661 Halanych, Kenneth; 2225144 Halanych, Kenneth", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-72 -61,-69.8 -61,-67.6 -61,-65.4 -61,-63.2 -61,-61 -61,-58.8 -61,-56.6 -61,-54.4 -61,-52.2 -61,-50 -61,-50 -61.8,-50 -62.6,-50 -63.4,-50 -64.2,-50 -65,-50 -65.8,-50 -66.6,-50 -67.4,-50 -68.2,-50 -69,-52.2 -69,-54.4 -69,-56.6 -69,-58.8 -69,-61 -69,-63.2 -69,-65.4 -69,-67.6 -69,-69.8 -69,-72 -69,-72 -68.2,-72 -67.4,-72 -66.6,-72 -65.8,-72 -65,-72 -64.2,-72 -63.4,-72 -62.6,-72 -61.8,-72 -61))", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Wed, 22 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Antarctica is among the most rapidly warming places on the planet, and some reports suggest the Antarctic environment is approaching, or possibly beyond, the tipping point for ice shelf collapse. The loss of ice around Antarctica is dramatically changing habitat availability for marine fauna, particularly benthic marine invertebrate species. Building on past studies, this research will provide insights into how changing climate impacts species distribution and community structure. Geological data suggests that during periods when ice extent was much reduced relative to modern levels, marine seaways connected the Ross and Weddell Seas on either side of Antarctica. However, most theories about the origins of current marine invertebrate distribution patterns fail to consider this transantarctic connection. This research will use molecular genomic tools to probe the DNA of Antarctic marine invertebrates and explore alternative hypotheses about factors that may have shaped current patterns of animal biodiversity in the Southern Ocean. Research will inform predictions about how species distributions may change as Antarctic ice sheets continue to deteriorate and provide critical information on how organisms adjust their ranges in response to environmental change. This work includes several specific outreach activities including presentations in K-8 classrooms, several short-format videos on Antarctic genomics and field work, and two 3-day workshops on bioinformatics approaches. A minimum of 4 graduate students, a postdoc and several undergraduates will also be trained during this project. The overarching goal of this research is to understand environmental factors that have shaped patterns of present-day diversity in Antarctic benthic marine invertebrates. Evidence from sediment cores and modeling suggests ice shelf collapses have occurred multiple times in the last few million years. During these periods, transantarctic seaways connected the Ross and Weddell Seas. This research will assess whether the presence of transantarctic waterways helps explain observed similarities between the Ross and Weddell Seas benthic marine invertebrate fauna better than other current hypotheses (e.g., dispersal by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, or expansion from common glacial refugia). Seven Antarctic benthic invertebrate taxa will be targeted to test alternative hypothesis about the origins of population genetic structure in the Southern Ocean using Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) markers that sample thousands of loci across the genome. Additionally, research will test the current paradigm that divergence between closely related, often cryptic, species is the result of population bottlenecks caused by glaciation. Specifically, SNP data will be mapped on to draft genomes of three of our target taxa to assess the degree of genetic divergence and look for signs of selection. Research findings may be applicable to other marine ecosystems around the planet. This 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": -50.0, "geometry": "POINT(-61 -65)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Marguerite Bay; USA/NSF; AMD; Weddell Sea; USAP-DC; FIELD SURVEYS; Amd/Us; MARINE ECOSYSTEMS; ANIMALS/INVERTEBRATES", "locations": "Weddell Sea; Marguerite Bay", "north": -61.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Halanych, Kenneth; Mahon, Andrew", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD SURVEYS", "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -69.0, "title": "Collaborative Research: Have transantarctic dispersal corridors impacted Antarctic marine biodiversity?", "uid": "p0010266", "west": -72.0}, {"awards": "2046437 Zitterbart, Daniel", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-60 -55,-53 -55,-46 -55,-39 -55,-32 -55,-25 -55,-18 -55,-11 -55,-4 -55,3 -55,10 -55,10 -57.5,10 -60,10 -62.5,10 -65,10 -67.5,10 -70,10 -72.5,10 -75,10 -77.5,10 -80,3 -80,-4 -80,-11 -80,-18 -80,-25 -80,-32 -80,-39 -80,-46 -80,-53 -80,-60 -80,-60 -77.5,-60 -75,-60 -72.5,-60 -70,-60 -67.5,-60 -65,-60 -62.5,-60 -60,-60 -57.5,-60 -55))", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Mon, 16 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Part I: Non-technical description: Understanding human-induced changes on biodiversity is one of the most important scientific challenges we face today. This is especially true for marine environments that are home to much of the world\u2019s biomass and biodiversity. A particularly effective approach to investigate the effects of climate change on marine ecosystems is to monitor top-predator populations such as seabirds or marine mammals. The food web in the Southern Ocean in relatively small and involves few species, therefore climate-induced variations at the prey species level directly affect the predator species level. For example, seabirds, like penguins, are ideal to detect and study these ecosystem changes. This study combines traditional methods to study emperor penguin population dynamics with the use of an autonomous vehicle to conduct the population dynamic measurements with less impact and higher accuracy. This project leverages an existing long-term emperor penguin observatory at the Atka Bay colony which hosts penguins living in the Weddell sea and the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. The study will kickstart the collection of a multi-decadal data set in an area of the Southern Ocean that has been understudied. It will fill important gaps in ecological knowledge on the state of the Emperor penguin and its adaptive capabilities within a changing world. Finally, the project supports NSF goals of training new generations of scientists through collaborative training of undergraduate students and the creation of a new class on robotics for ecosystem study. Emperor penguins are an iconic species that few people will ever see in the wild. Through the technology developed in this proposal, the public can be immersed in real-time into the life of an emperor penguin colony. Public outreach will be achieved by showcasing real-time video and audio footage of emperor penguins from the field as social media science and engineering-themed educational materials. Part II: Technical description: Polar ecosystems currently experience significant impacts due to global changes. Measurable negative effects on polar wildlife have already occurred, such as population decreases of numerous seabird species, including the complete loss of colonies of one of the most emblematic species of the Antarctic, the emperor penguin. These existing impacts on polar species are alarming, especially because many polar species still remain poorly studied due to technical and logistical challenges imposed by the harsh environment and extreme remoteness. Developing technologies and tools for monitoring such wildlife populations is, therefore, a matter of urgency. This project aims to help close major knowledge gaps about the emperor penguin, in particular about their adaptive capability to a changing environment, by the development of next-generation tools to remotely study entire colonies. Specifically, the main goal of this project is to implement and test an autonomous unmanned ground vehicle equipped with Radio-frequency identification (RFID) antennas and wireless mesh communication data-loggers to: 1) identify RFID-tagged emperor penguins during breeding to studying population dynamics without human presence; and 2) receive Global Positioning System-Time Domain Reflectometry (GPS-TDR) datasets from Very High Frequency VHF-GPS-TDR data-loggers without human presence to study animal behavior and distribution at sea. The autonomous vehicles navigation through the colony will be aided by an existing remote penguin observatory (SPOT). Properly implemented, this technology can be used to study of the life history of individual penguins, and therefore gather data for behavioral and population dynamic studies. The new data will contribute to intelligent establishment of marine protected areas in Antarctica. The education objectives of this CAREER project are designed to increase the interest in a STEM education for the next generation of scientists by combining the charisma of the emperor penguin with robotics research. Within this project, a new class on ecosystem robotics will be developed and taught, Robotics boot-camps will allow undergraduate students to remotely participate in Antarctic field trips, and an annual curriculum will be developed that allows K-12 students to follow the life of the emperor penguin during the breeding cycle, powered by real-time data obtained using the unmanned ground vehicle as well as the existing emperor penguin observatory. This 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": 10.0, "geometry": "POINT(-25 -67.5)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "AMD; Antarctica; Dronning Maud Land; FIELD SURVEYS; Amd/Us; Atka Bay; MARINE ECOSYSTEMS; USAP-DC; USA/NSF", "locations": "Atka Bay; Antarctica; Dronning Maud Land", "north": -55.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Zitterbart, Daniel", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD SURVEYS", "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -80.0, "title": "\r\nCAREER: Development of Unmanned Ground Vehicles for Assessing the Health of Secluded Ecosystems (ECHO)", "uid": "p0010245", "west": -60.0}, {"awards": "1341649 Johnson, Leah; 1740239 Johnson, Leah", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-180 -60,-144 -60,-108 -60,-72 -60,-36 -60,0 -60,36 -60,72 -60,108 -60,144 -60,180 -60,180 -63,180 -66,180 -69,180 -72,180 -75,180 -78,180 -81,180 -84,180 -87,180 -90,144 -90,108 -90,72 -90,36 -90,0 -90,-36 -90,-72 -90,-108 -90,-144 -90,-180 -90,-180 -87,-180 -84,-180 -81,-180 -78,-180 -75,-180 -72,-180 -69,-180 -66,-180 -63,-180 -60))", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Fri, 13 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Albatrosses (family Diomedeidae) are among the most threatened of bird species. Of the 22 species that are currently recognized, all are considered at least Threatened or Near-Threatened, and 9 are listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered. Because of the decline in albatross populations and the birds\u0027 role as a top predator in the pelagic ecosystem, it is vitally important to understand the factors affecting the population dynamics of these birds to better inform strategies for conservation and mitigating environmental change. The goal of this project is to answer the question: What are the population consequences of albatross bioenergetics and foraging strategies? The investigators will take a two pronged approach: 1) constructing, parameterizing, and validating an Individual Based Model (IBM) that rests on Dynamic Energy Budget theory and state dependent foraging theory; and 2) undertaking an in-depth meta-analysis of existing individual tracking and life history data from multiple albatross species across successive life stages. This theoretical work will be grounded with a unique and extensive data set on albatrosses provided by collaborator Richard Phillips from the British Antarctic Survey. The IBM approach will incorporate details such as adult energetic state, chick needs and energetics, reproductive stage, and spatial and temporal variation in prey availability within a single framework. This facilitates exploration of emergent patterns, allowing the investigators to explicitly link behavior, energetic, and population dynamics. Bioenergetics constrain a variety of behaviors. A more complete understanding of how individuals use energy can give insight into how behaviors from foraging to breeding and survival, and resulting population attributes, might change with environmental factors, due to anthropogenic and other drivers. This work will further a general understanding of how bioenergetics shapes behavior and drives population level processes, while providing an approach that can be used to guide conservation strategies for endangered populations. The research findings and activities will be made accessible to public audiences through websites and on a blog maintained for the project by a postdoctoral researcher. The project will involve undergraduate and high school researchers in the project, within formal laboratory groups and also through in-classroom presentations and activities. This project also involves outreach to local elementary schools, as the albatross-Antarctic bioenergetics system provides a charismatic and tangible teaching tool, for exploring a complex conservation issue, and demonstrating the utility of quantitative biological research approaches. All project publications will be open access, the resulting open source software will be released to the public, and metadata and analyses will be fully documented and made available through the Knowledge Network for Biodiversity, to promote further collaborative exploration of this system.", "east": 180.0, "geometry": "POINT(0 -89.999)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "BIRDS; Amd/Us; USAP-DC; AMD; USA/NSF; MODELS; United States Of America", "locations": "United States Of America", "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Johnson, Leah; Ryan, Sadie", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e MODELS \u003e MODELS", "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -90.0, "title": "Quantifying how Bioenergetics and Foraging Determine Population Dynamics in Threatened Antarctic Albatrosses", "uid": "p0010242", "west": -180.0}, {"awards": "1850988 Teets, Nicholas", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-64.366767 -62.68104,-63.9917036 -62.68104,-63.6166402 -62.68104,-63.2415768 -62.68104,-62.8665134 -62.68104,-62.49145 -62.68104,-62.1163866 -62.68104,-61.7413232 -62.68104,-61.3662598 -62.68104,-60.9911964 -62.68104,-60.616133 -62.68104,-60.616133 -62.9537037,-60.616133 -63.2263674,-60.616133 -63.4990311,-60.616133 -63.7716948,-60.616133 -64.0443585,-60.616133 -64.3170222,-60.616133 -64.5896859,-60.616133 -64.8623496,-60.616133 -65.1350133,-60.616133 -65.407677,-60.9911964 -65.407677,-61.3662598 -65.407677,-61.7413232 -65.407677,-62.1163866 -65.407677,-62.49145 -65.407677,-62.8665134 -65.407677,-63.2415768 -65.407677,-63.6166402 -65.407677,-63.9917036 -65.407677,-64.366767 -65.407677,-64.366767 -65.1350133,-64.366767 -64.8623496,-64.366767 -64.5896859,-64.366767 -64.3170222,-64.366767 -64.0443585,-64.366767 -63.7716948,-64.366767 -63.4990311,-64.366767 -63.2263674,-64.366767 -62.9537037,-64.366767 -62.68104))", "dataset_titles": "Belgica antarctica collection sites - Summer 2023/2024 field season; Cold and dehydration tolerance of Belgica antarctica from three distinct geographic locations; Cross-tolerance in Belgica antarctica near Palmer Peninsula; Data from Edgington, H., Pavinato, V.A.C., Spacht, D., Gantz, J.D., Convey, P., Lee, R.E., Denlinger, D.L., Michel, A., 2023. Genetic history, structure and gene flow among populations of Belgica antarctica, the only free-living insect in the western Antarctic Peninsula. Polar Science 36, 100945.; Data from microplastics exposure in Belgica antarctica; Fine\u2011scale variation in microhabitat conditions influences physiology and metabolism in an Antarctic insect; Information on 2023 collection sites for Belgica antarctica; LMG2002 Expedtition Data; Long-term recovery from freezing in Belgica antarctica; Multiple stress tolerance in the Antarctic midge; Simulated winter warming negatively impacts survival of Antarcticas only endemic insect; Stress tolerance in Belgica antarctica and Eretmoptera murphyi; Temporal and spatial variation in stress tolerance in Belgica antarctica populations from distinct islands", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200425", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Simulated winter warming negatively impacts survival of Antarcticas only endemic insect", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601694"}, {"dataset_uid": "601875", "doi": null, "keywords": "Antarctica; Cryosphere", "people": "Michel, Andrew; Teets, Nicholas; Hayward, Scott; Sousa Lima, Cleverson", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Belgica antarctica collection sites - Summer 2023/2024 field season", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601875"}, {"dataset_uid": "601873", "doi": null, "keywords": "Antarctica; Belgica Antarctica; Cryosphere; Population Genetics", "people": "Sousa Lima, Cleverson; Teets, Nicholas; Hayward, Scott; Michel, Andrew", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Temporal and spatial variation in stress tolerance in Belgica antarctica populations from distinct islands", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601873"}, {"dataset_uid": "200437", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Stress tolerance in Belgica antarctica and Eretmoptera murphyi", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601874"}, {"dataset_uid": "200438", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "NCBI", "science_program": null, "title": "Data from Edgington, H., Pavinato, V.A.C., Spacht, D., Gantz, J.D., Convey, P., Lee, R.E., Denlinger, D.L., Michel, A., 2023. Genetic history, structure and gene flow among populations of Belgica antarctica, the only free-living insect in the western Antarctic Peninsula. Polar Science 36, 100945.", "url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/PRJNA565153/"}, {"dataset_uid": "601872", "doi": "10.15784/601872", "keywords": "Antarctica; Belgica Antarctica; Cryosphere", "people": "Hayward, Scott; Sousa Lima, Cleverson; Michel, Andrew; Colinet, Herve; Teets, Nicholas", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Cross-tolerance in Belgica antarctica near Palmer Peninsula", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601872"}, {"dataset_uid": "601871", "doi": null, "keywords": "Antarctica; Belgica Antarctica; Cryosphere", "people": "Gantz, Josiah D.; Sousa Lima, Cleverson; Michel, Andrew; Devlin, Jack; Hayward, Scott; Teets, Nicholas; Aquilino, Monica; Kawarasaki, Yuta; Pavinato, Vitor", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Stress tolerance in Belgica antarctica and Eretmoptera murphyi", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601871"}, {"dataset_uid": "601867", "doi": null, "keywords": "Antarctica; Antarctic Peninsula; Cryosphere", "people": "Teets, Nicholas", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Multiple stress tolerance in the Antarctic midge", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601867"}, {"dataset_uid": "601866", "doi": null, "keywords": "Antarctica; Antarctic Peninsula; Cryosphere", "people": "Teets, Nicholas; Devlin, Jack", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Data from microplastics exposure in Belgica antarctica", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601866"}, {"dataset_uid": "601865", "doi": "10.15784/601865", "keywords": "Antarctica; Antarctic Peninsula; Cryosphere; Seasonality", "people": "Gantz, Josiah D.; Teets, Nicholas; McCabe, Eleanor; Spacht, Drew; Devlin, Jack; Denlinger, David; Lee, Richard", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Fine\u2011scale variation in microhabitat conditions influences physiology and metabolism in an Antarctic insect", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601865"}, {"dataset_uid": "601864", "doi": "10.15784/601864", "keywords": "Antarctica; Antarctic Peninsula; Cryosphere", "people": "Teets, Nicholas; Kawarasaki, Yuta", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Cold and dehydration tolerance of Belgica antarctica from three distinct geographic locations", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601864"}, {"dataset_uid": "601687", "doi": "10.15784/601687", "keywords": "Antarctica; Antarctic Peninsula; Belgica Antarctica; Biota; Sample Location", "people": "Sousa Lima, Cleverson; Pavinato, Vitor; Gantz, Joseph; Kawarasaki, Yuta; Devlin, Jack; Teets, Nicholas; Michel, Andrew; Peter, Convey", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Information on 2023 collection sites for Belgica antarctica", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601687"}, {"dataset_uid": "601698", "doi": "10.15784/601698", "keywords": "Antarctica; Belgica Antarctica; Palmer Station", "people": "Lecheta, Melise; Devlin, Jack; Teets, Nicholas; Sousa Lima, Cleverson", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Long-term recovery from freezing in Belgica antarctica", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601698"}, {"dataset_uid": "200222", "doi": "10.7284/908802", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "R2R", "science_program": null, "title": "LMG2002 Expedtition Data", "url": "https://www.rvdata.us/search/cruise/LMG2002"}], "date_created": "Fri, 25 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The cold, dry terrestrial environments of Antarctica are inhospitable for insects, and only three midge species make Antarctica home. Of these, Belgica antarctica is the only species found exclusively in Antarctica, and it has been a resident of Antarctica since the continent split from South America ~30 million years ago. Thus, this species is an excellent system to model the biological history of Antarctica throughout its repeated glaciation events and shifts in climate. This insect is also a classic example of extreme adaptation, and much previous work has focused on identifying the genetic and physiological mechanisms that allow this species to survive where no other insect is capable. However, it has been difficult to pinpoint the unique evolutionary adaptations that are required to survive in Antarctica due to a lack of information from closely related Antarctic and sub-Antarctic species. This project will compare adaptations, genome sequences, and population characteristics of four midge species that span an environmental gradient from sub-Antarctic to Antarctic habitats. In addition to B. antarctica, these species include two species that are strictly sub-Antarctic and a third that is native to the sub-Antarctic but has invaded parts of Antarctica. The researchers, comprised of scientists from the US, UK, Chile, and France, will sample insects from across their geographic range and measure their ability to tolerate environmental stressors (i.e., cold and desiccation), quantify molecular responses to stress, and compare the makeup of the genome and patterns of genetic diversity. This research will contribute to a greater understanding of adaptation to extremes, to an understanding of biodiversity on the planet and to understanding and predicting changes accompanying environmental change. The project will train two graduate students and two postdoctoral researchers, and a K-12 educator will be a member of the field team and will assist with fieldwork and facilitate outreach with schools in the US. The project includes partnership activities with several STEM education organizations to deliver educational content to K-12 and secondary students. This is a project that is jointly funded by the National Science Foundation\u0027s Directorate of Geosciences (NSF/GEO) and the National Environment Research Council (NERC) of the United Kingdom (UK) via the NSF/GEO-NERC Lead Agency Agreement. This Agreement allows a single joint US/UK proposal to be submitted and peer-reviewed by the Agency whose investigator has the largest proportion of the budget. Each Agency funds the proportion of the budget and the investigators associated with its own country. UK participation in this project includes deploying scientists as part of the field team, supporting field and sampling logistics at remote Antarctic sites, and genome sequencing, annotation, and analyses. This project focuses on the key physiological adaptations and molecular processes that allow a select few insect species to survive in Antarctica. The focal species are all wingless with limited dispersal capacity, suggesting there is also significant potential to locally adapt to variable environmental conditions across the range of these species. The central hypothesis is that similar molecular mechanisms drive both population-level adaptation to local environmental conditions and macroevolutionary changes across species living in different environments. The specific aims of the project are to 1) Characterize conserved and species-specific adaptations to extreme environments through comparative physiology and transcriptomics, 2) Compare the genome sequences of these species to identify genetic signatures of extreme adaption, and 3) Investigate patterns of diversification and local adaptation across each species? range using population genomics. The project establishes an international collaboration of researchers from the US, UK, Chile, and France with shared interests and complementary expertise in the biology, genomics, and conservation of Antarctic arthropods. The Broader Impacts of the project include training students and partnering with the Living Arts and Science Center to design and implement educational content for K-12 students. This 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": -60.616133, "geometry": "POINT(-62.49145 -64.0443585)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Antarctic Peninsula; Livingston Island; Antarctica; USAP-DC; AMD; R/V LMG; USA/NSF; ARTHROPODS; Amd/Us; Anvers Island", "locations": "Antarctica; Antarctic Peninsula; Anvers Island; Livingston Island", "north": -62.68104, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Teets, Nicholas; Michel, Andrew", "platforms": "WATER-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e VESSELS \u003e SURFACE \u003e R/V LMG", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "NCBI; R2R; USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -65.407677, "title": "NSFGEO-NERC: Mechanisms of Adaptation to Terrestrial Antarctica through Comparative Physiology and Genomics of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic Insects", "uid": "p0010203", "west": -64.366767}, {"awards": "1341736 Adams, Byron", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-177.4099 -84.4661,-177.08229 -84.4661,-176.75468 -84.4661,-176.42707 -84.4661,-176.09946 -84.4661,-175.77185 -84.4661,-175.44424 -84.4661,-175.11663000000001 -84.4661,-174.78902 -84.4661,-174.46141 -84.4661,-174.1338 -84.4661,-174.1338 -84.56828,-174.1338 -84.67045999999999,-174.1338 -84.77264,-174.1338 -84.87482,-174.1338 -84.977,-174.1338 -85.07918,-174.1338 -85.18136,-174.1338 -85.28354,-174.1338 -85.38571999999999,-174.1338 -85.4879,-174.46141 -85.4879,-174.78902 -85.4879,-175.11663000000001 -85.4879,-175.44424 -85.4879,-175.77185 -85.4879,-176.09946 -85.4879,-176.42707 -85.4879,-176.75468 -85.4879,-177.08229 -85.4879,-177.4099 -85.4879,-177.4099 -85.38571999999999,-177.4099 -85.28354,-177.4099 -85.18136,-177.4099 -85.07918,-177.4099 -84.977,-177.4099 -84.87482,-177.4099 -84.77264,-177.4099 -84.67045999999999,-177.4099 -84.56828,-177.4099 -84.4661))", "dataset_titles": "Dataset DS-TAMS: Genetic diversity of Collembola from the Transantarctic Mountains; GenBank accession numbers MN619477 to MN619610; Meteoric 10Be data of soils from the Shackleton Glacier region; Shackleton Glacier region soil water-soluble geochemical data; Shackleton Glacier region water-soluble salt isotopes; Soil invertebrate surveys from the Shackleton Glacier region of Antarctica during the 2017-2018 austral summer", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601419", "doi": "10.15784/601419", "keywords": "Antarctica; Geochemistry; Nitrate; Shackleton Glacier; Stable Isotopes; Sulfate; Transantarctic Mountains", "people": "Gardner, Christopher B.; Lyons, W. Berry; Diaz, Melisa A.", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Shackleton Glacier region water-soluble salt isotopes", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601419"}, {"dataset_uid": "200174", "doi": "10.5883/DS-TAMS", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "Barcode of Life Datasystems (BOLD)", "science_program": null, "title": "Dataset DS-TAMS: Genetic diversity of Collembola from the Transantarctic Mountains", "url": "http://dx.doi.org/10.5883/DS-TAMS"}, {"dataset_uid": "200175", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "NCBI GenBank", "science_program": null, "title": "GenBank accession numbers MN619477 to MN619610", "url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MN619477"}, {"dataset_uid": "200258", "doi": "doi:10.6073/pasta/7959821e5f6f8d56d94bb6a26873b3ae", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "EDI", "science_program": null, "title": "Soil invertebrate surveys from the Shackleton Glacier region of Antarctica during the 2017-2018 austral summer", "url": "https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/7959821e5f6f8d56d94bb6a26873b3ae"}, {"dataset_uid": "601418", "doi": "10.15784/601418", "keywords": "Antarctica; Geochemistry; Shackleton Glacier", "people": "Diaz, Melisa A.; Lyons, W. Berry; Gardner, Christopher B.", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Shackleton Glacier region soil water-soluble geochemical data", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601418"}, {"dataset_uid": "601421", "doi": "10.15784/601421", "keywords": "Antarctica; Be-10; Beryllium-10; Cosmogenic Radionuclides; Geochemistry; Geomorphology; Shackleton Glacier; Surface Exposure Dates", "people": "Diaz, Melisa A.", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Meteoric 10Be data of soils from the Shackleton Glacier region", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601421"}], "date_created": "Mon, 02 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The project will characterize the functional, taxonomic, biotic and abiotic drivers of soil ecosystems in the Trans Antarctic Mountains (one of the most remote and harsh terrestrial landscapes on the planet). The work will utilize new high-throughput DNA and RNA sequencing technologies to identify members of the microbial communities and determine if the microbial community structures are independent of local environmental heterogeneities. In addition the project will determine if microbial diversity and function are correlated with time since the last glacial maximum (LGM). The expected results will greatly contribute to our knowledge regarding rates of microbial succession and help define the some of the limits to life and life-maintaining processes on Earth. The project will analyze genomes and RNA derived from these genomes to describe the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning from soils above and below LGM elevations and to correlate these with the environmental drivers associated with their development during the last ~18,000 years. The team will identify the taxonomic diversity and the functional genetic composition within a broad suite of soil biota and examine their patterns of assembly and distribution within the framework of their geological legacies. The project will mentor participants from undergraduate students to postdoctoral researchers and prepare them to effectively engage in research to meet their career aspirations. The project will contribute to ongoing public education efforts through relationships with K-12 teachers and administrators- to include University-Public School partnerships. Less formal activities include public lecture series and weblogs aimed at providing information on Antarctic polar desert ecosystems to the general public. Targeted classrooms near each PI\u0027s institution will participate in online, real-time discussions about current topics in Antarctic ecosystems research.", "east": -174.1338, "geometry": "POINT(-175.77185 -84.977)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "FIELD INVESTIGATION; LABORATORY; AMD; Amd/Us; USA/NSF; TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS; Transantarctic Mountains; USAP-DC", "locations": "Transantarctic Mountains", "north": -84.4661, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Adams, Byron; Fierer, Noah; Wall, Diana; Diaz, Melisa A.; Gardner, Christopher B.; Lyons, W. Berry", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD INVESTIGATION; OTHER \u003e PHYSICAL MODELS \u003e LABORATORY", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "Barcode of Life Datasystems (BOLD); EDI; NCBI GenBank; USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -85.4879, "title": "Collaborative Research: The Role of Glacial History on the Structure and Functioning of Ecological Communities in the Shackleton Glacier Region of the Transantarctic Mountains", "uid": "p0010140", "west": -177.4099}, {"awards": "1543347 Rosenheim, Brad; 1543396 Christner, Brent; 1543405 Leventer, Amy; 1543453 Lyons, W. Berry; 1543537 Priscu, John; 1543441 Fricker, Helen", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-163.611 -84.33543,-162.200034 -84.33543,-160.789068 -84.33543,-159.378102 -84.33543,-157.967136 -84.33543,-156.55617 -84.33543,-155.145204 -84.33543,-153.734238 -84.33543,-152.323272 -84.33543,-150.912306 -84.33543,-149.50134 -84.33543,-149.50134 -84.3659157,-149.50134 -84.3964014,-149.50134 -84.4268871,-149.50134 -84.4573728,-149.50134 -84.4878585,-149.50134 -84.5183442,-149.50134 -84.5488299,-149.50134 -84.5793156,-149.50134 -84.6098013,-149.50134 -84.640287,-150.912306 -84.640287,-152.323272 -84.640287,-153.734238 -84.640287,-155.145204 -84.640287,-156.55617 -84.640287,-157.967136 -84.640287,-159.378102 -84.640287,-160.789068 -84.640287,-162.200034 -84.640287,-163.611 -84.640287,-163.611 -84.6098013,-163.611 -84.5793156,-163.611 -84.5488299,-163.611 -84.5183442,-163.611 -84.4878585,-163.611 -84.4573728,-163.611 -84.4268871,-163.611 -84.3964014,-163.611 -84.3659157,-163.611 -84.33543))", "dataset_titles": "Antarctica - PI Continuous - GZ01-WIS_GroundingZone_01 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset; Antarctica - PI Continuous - GZ13-WIS_GroundingZone_13 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset; Antarctica - PI Continuous - LA02-WIS_LAKES_02 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset; Antarctica - PI Continuous - LA06-WIS_LAKES_06 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset; Antarctica - PI Continuous - LA07-WIS_LAKES_07 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset; Antarctica - PI Continuous - LA09-WIS_LAKES_09 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset; Bistatic Radar Sounding of Whillans Ice Stream, Antarctica and Store Glacier, Greenland; CTD data from Mercer Subglacial Lake and access borehole; Discrete bulk sediment properties data from Mercer Subglacial Lake; Isotopic data from Whillans Ice Stream grounding zone, West Antarctica; Mercer Subglacial Lake radiocarbon and stable isotope data ; Mercer Subglacial Lake (SLM) microbial composition: 16S rRNA genes (Sequence Read Archive; BioProject: PRJNA790995); Mercer Subglacial Lake (SLM) noble gas and isotopic data; Mercer Subglacial Lake water column viral metagenomic sequencing; Salsa sediment cores; Sediment porewater properties data from Mercer Subglacial Lake; Water column biogeochemical data from Mercer Subglacial Lake", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200342", "doi": null, "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "GenBank", "science_program": null, "title": "Mercer Subglacial Lake water column viral metagenomic sequencing", "url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/biosample/32811410"}, {"dataset_uid": "200214", "doi": "10.7283/YW8Z-TK03", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "UNAVCO", "science_program": null, "title": "Antarctica - PI Continuous - LA02-WIS_LAKES_02 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset", "url": "https://www.unavco.org/data/doi/10.7283/YW8Z-TK03"}, {"dataset_uid": "200246", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "OSU-MGR", "science_program": null, "title": "Salsa sediment cores", "url": "https://osu-mgr.org"}, {"dataset_uid": "200215", "doi": "10.7283/C503-KS23", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "UNAVCO", "science_program": null, "title": "Antarctica - PI Continuous - LA06-WIS_LAKES_06 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset", "url": "https://www.unavco.org/data/doi/10.7283/C503-KS23"}, {"dataset_uid": "601663", "doi": "10.15784/601663", "keywords": "Antarctica; Carbon; Cell Counts; Geochemistry; Glacier; Glaciers/ice Sheet; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Mercer Subglacial Lake; Microbes; Nutrients; SALSA; Stable Isotopes; Trace Elements; West Antarctic Ice Sheet", "people": "Priscu, John; Dore, John; Skidmore, Mark; Hawkings, Jon; Steigmeyer, August; Li, Wei; Barker, Joel; Tranter, Martyn; Science Team, SALSA", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Water column biogeochemical data from Mercer Subglacial Lake", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601663"}, {"dataset_uid": "200216", "doi": "10.7283/F8NH-CV04", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "UNAVCO", "science_program": null, "title": "Antarctica - PI Continuous - LA07-WIS_LAKES_07 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset", "url": "https://www.unavco.org/data/doi/10.7283/F8NH-CV04"}, {"dataset_uid": "601672", "doi": "10.15784/601672", "keywords": "Antarctica; Isotope; Mercer Subglacial Lake; Radiocarbon; Subglacial Lake", "people": "Rosenheim, Brad; Venturelli, Ryan", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Mercer Subglacial Lake radiocarbon and stable isotope data ", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601672"}, {"dataset_uid": "200213", "doi": "10.7283/F7BB-JH05", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "UNAVCO", "science_program": null, "title": "Antarctica - PI Continuous - GZ13-WIS_GroundingZone_13 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset", "url": "https://www.unavco.org/data/doi/10.7283/F7BB-JH05"}, {"dataset_uid": "200282", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "NCBI GenBank", "science_program": null, "title": "Mercer Subglacial Lake (SLM) microbial composition: 16S rRNA genes (Sequence Read Archive; BioProject: PRJNA790995)", "url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/?term=PRJNA790995"}, {"dataset_uid": "601661", "doi": "10.15784/601661", "keywords": "Antarctica; Carbon; Glacier; Glaciers/ice Sheet; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Iron; Mercer Subglacial Lake; Mineralogy; Particle Size; Physical Properties; SALSA; Sediment Core; Sulfur; West Antarctic Ice Sheet", "people": "Campbell, Timothy; Michaud, Alexander; Hawkings, Jon; Skidmore, Mark; Tranter, Martyn; Venturelli, Ryan A; Dore, John; Science Team, SALSA", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Discrete bulk sediment properties data from Mercer Subglacial Lake", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601661"}, {"dataset_uid": "200212", "doi": "10.7283/PT0Q-JB95", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "UNAVCO", "science_program": null, "title": "Antarctica - PI Continuous - GZ01-WIS_GroundingZone_01 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset", "url": "https://www.unavco.org/data/doi/10.7283/PT0Q-JB95"}, {"dataset_uid": "601360", "doi": "10.15784/601360", "keywords": "Antarctica; Radiocarbon; Sediment; Whillans Ice Stream", "people": "Venturelli, Ryan A", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": "WISSARD", "title": "Isotopic data from Whillans Ice Stream grounding zone, West Antarctica", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601360"}, {"dataset_uid": "601472", "doi": "10.15784/601472", "keywords": "Antarctica; Bistatic Radar; Glaciers/ice Sheet; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; GPS Data; Greenland; Lake Whillans; Radar; Store Glacier; Whillans Ice Stream; WISSARD", "people": "Schroeder, Dustin; Siegfried, Matthew; Peters, Sean; MacKie, Emma; Dawson, Eliza; Christoffersen, Poul; Bienert, Nicole", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": "WISSARD", "title": "Bistatic Radar Sounding of Whillans Ice Stream, Antarctica and Store Glacier, Greenland", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601472"}, {"dataset_uid": "601498", "doi": "10.15784/601498", "keywords": "Antarctica; Mercer Subglacial Lake; Noble Gas", "people": "Lyons, W. Berry; Gardner, Christopher B.", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Mercer Subglacial Lake (SLM) noble gas and isotopic data", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601498"}, {"dataset_uid": "601657", "doi": "10.15784/601657", "keywords": "Antarctica; Conductivity; CTD; Depth; Glaciers/ice Sheet; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; Hot Water Drill; Mercer Subglacial Lake; Physical Properties; SALSA; Subglacial Lake; Temperature", "people": "Leventer, Amy; Dore, John; Priscu, John; Rosenheim, Brad", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "CTD data from Mercer Subglacial Lake and access borehole", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601657"}, {"dataset_uid": "200217", "doi": "10.7283/3JMY-Y504", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "UNAVCO", "science_program": null, "title": "Antarctica - PI Continuous - LA09-WIS_LAKES_09 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset", "url": "https://www.unavco.org/data/doi/10.7283/3JMY-Y504"}, {"dataset_uid": "601664", "doi": "10.15784/601664", "keywords": "Antarctica; Gas; Geochemistry; Glacier; Glaciology; Mercer Subglacial Lake; Methane; SALSA; Sediment Core; West Antarctic Ice Sheet", "people": "Skidmore, Mark; Science Team, SALSA; Steigmeyer, August; Tranter, Martyn; Michaud, Alexander; Dore, John", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Sediment porewater properties data from Mercer Subglacial Lake", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601664"}], "date_created": "Thu, 16 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The Antarctic subglacial environment remains one of the least explored regions on Earth. This project will examine the physical and biological characteristics of Subglacial Lake Mercer, a lake that lies 1200m beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. This study will address key questions relating to the stability of the ice sheet, the subglacial hydrological system, and the deep-cold subglacial biosphere. The education and outreach component aims to widely disseminate results to the scientific community and to the general public through short films, a blog, and a website. Subglacial Lake Mercer is one of the larger hydrologically active lakes in the southern basin of the Whillans Ice Plain, West Antarctica. It receives about 25 percent of its water from East Antarctica with the remainder originating from West Antarctica, is influenced by drain/fill cycles in a lake immediately upstream (Subglacial Lake Conway), and lies about 100 km upstream of the present grounding line of the Ross Ice Shelf. This site will yield information on the history of the Whillans and Mercer Ice Streams, and on grounding line migration. The integrated study will include direct sampling of basal ice, water, and sediment from the lake in concert with surface geophysical surveys over a three-year period to define the hydrological connectivity among lakes on the Whillans Ice Plain and their flow paths to the sea. The geophysical surveys will furnish information on subglacial hydrology, aid the site selection for hot-water drilling, and provide spatial context for interpreting findings. The hot-water-drilled boreholes will be used to collect basal ice samples, provide access for direct measurement of subglacial physical, chemical, and biological conditions in the water column and sediments, and to explore the subglacial water cavities using a remotely operated vehicle equipped with sensors, cameras, and sampling equipment. Data collected from this study will address the overarching hypothesis \"Contemporary biodiversity and carbon cycling in hydrologically-active subglacial environments associated with the Mercer and Whillans ice streams are regulated by the mineralization and cycling of relict marine organic matter and through interactions among ice, rock, water, and sediments\". The project will be undertaken by a collaborative team of scientists, with expertise in microbiology, biogeochemistry, hydrology, geophysics, glaciology, marine geology, paleoceanography, and science communication.", "east": -149.50134, "geometry": "POINT(-156.55617 -84.4878585)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "SEDIMENTS; Antarctica; ISOTOPES; Subglacial Lake; USAP-DC; VIRUSES; PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTIONS; BACTERIA/ARCHAEA; LABORATORY; Radiocarbon; Whillans Ice Stream; AMD; SALSA; ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS; RADIOCARBON; FIELD INVESTIGATION; ICE MOTION; Mercer Ice Stream; Amd/Us; USA/NSF; GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS", "locations": "Antarctica; Mercer Ice Stream; Whillans Ice Stream", "north": -84.33543, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Glaciology; Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Instrumentation and Support; Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Glaciology; Antarctic Glaciology; Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Glaciology; Antarctic Glaciology; Antarctic Integrated System Science", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Rosenheim, Brad; Fricker, Helen; Priscu, John; Leventer, Amy; Dore, John; Lyons, W. Berry; Christner, Brent", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD INVESTIGATION; OTHER \u003e PHYSICAL MODELS \u003e LABORATORY", "repo": "GenBank", "repositories": "GenBank; NCBI GenBank; OSU-MGR; UNAVCO; USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -84.640287, "title": "Collaborative Research: Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access (SALSA): Integrated Study of Carbon Cycling in Hydrologically-active Subglacial Environments", "uid": "p0010119", "west": -163.611}, {"awards": "1443578 Schmidt, Steven", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((161.5 -77.5,161.7 -77.5,161.9 -77.5,162.1 -77.5,162.3 -77.5,162.5 -77.5,162.7 -77.5,162.9 -77.5,163.1 -77.5,163.3 -77.5,163.5 -77.5,163.5 -77.53,163.5 -77.56,163.5 -77.59,163.5 -77.62,163.5 -77.65,163.5 -77.68,163.5 -77.71,163.5 -77.74,163.5 -77.77,163.5 -77.8,163.3 -77.8,163.1 -77.8,162.9 -77.8,162.7 -77.8,162.5 -77.8,162.3 -77.8,162.1 -77.8,161.9 -77.8,161.7 -77.8,161.5 -77.8,161.5 -77.77,161.5 -77.74,161.5 -77.71,161.5 -77.68,161.5 -77.65,161.5 -77.62,161.5 -77.59,161.5 -77.56,161.5 -77.53,161.5 -77.5))", "dataset_titles": "16S and 18S amplicon sequencing of Antarctic cryoconite holes; Genomes of Antarctic ssDNA viruses (GenBank accession numbers MN311489-MN311492 and MN328267-MN328291); Metadata from samples (in the process of submitting to EDI; will update with DOI once completed); Microbial species-area relationships in Antarctic cryoconite holes; Soil microbial communities of a mountain landscape, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200084", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "NCBI GenBank", "science_program": null, "title": "Genomes of Antarctic ssDNA viruses (GenBank accession numbers MN311489-MN311492 and MN328267-MN328291)", "url": ""}, {"dataset_uid": "200279", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "GitHub", "science_program": null, "title": "Metadata from samples (in the process of submitting to EDI; will update with DOI once completed)", "url": "https://github.com/pacificasommers/Cryoconite-metadata"}, {"dataset_uid": "200280", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "NCBI GenBank", "science_program": null, "title": "Soil microbial communities of a mountain landscape, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica", "url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/PRJNA721735/"}, {"dataset_uid": "200281", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "NCBI GenBank", "science_program": null, "title": "Microbial species-area relationships in Antarctic cryoconite holes", "url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/PRJNA668398/"}, {"dataset_uid": "200081", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "NCBI GenBank", "science_program": null, "title": "16S and 18S amplicon sequencing of Antarctic cryoconite holes", "url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/PRJNA480849/"}], "date_created": "Fri, 01 Nov 2019 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Cryoconite holes are pockets of life completely encased in otherwise barren glacial ice. These pockets of life form when dust blown onto the ice melts a small, largely isolated hole that can function as its own tiny ecosystem. This dust can contain microorganisms such as bacteria, algae, or microscopic animals. The microorganisms within the hole interact and carry out functions typical of a larger ecosystem, such as a forest. Cryoconite holes are especially important in extreme cold environments such as the Antarctic Dry Valleys, where they function as repositories of life. Because cryoconite holes are mostly enclosed and persist for years, they can be tracked over time to test fundamental scientific questions about how communities of interacting organisms develop to become fully functioning ecosystems. This project will sample existing and experimentally created cryoconite holes to understand how these ecosystems develop and to what degree random processes (such as which organisms get there first) affect the final community composition and functioning. The results will not only improve our understanding of how microbial communities assemble and affect the functioning of microecosystems such as cryoconite holes, but also how the processes of community assembly affect functioning of larger ecosystems, such as forests. A better understanding of community establishment, development, and response to abiotic factors are essential to forecasting ecological responses to environmental change. It is essential to unravel the links between community assembly, biodiversity, and nutrient cycling across numerous ecosystems because these are critical factors determining ecological responses to environmental change. The unique, largely isolated nature of cryoconite holes provides an experimental system that will advance fundamental understanding of the processes (e.g., stochastic dynamics such as dispersal limitation, assembly order, and ecological drift) driving community assembly. This project will use a field sampling campaign and a number of manipulative experiments to test a hypothesis that unites theory in community and ecosystem ecology: the degree to which stochastic processes guide microbial community assembly and affects regional patterns in biodiversity and ecosystem processes. Cryoconite holes will be sampled to compare community composition, environmental factors, and ecosystem functioning between hydrologically connected and isolated holes. New cryoconite holes will also be constructed and monitored over the course of two growing seasons to specifically alter assembly order and community size, thereby pairing a unique manipulative experiment with field surveys to address questions with relevance to the Antarctic and beyond. Amplicon sequencing, metagenomics, microscopy, sensitive environmental chemistry methods, and photosynthesis and respiration measurements will be used to test a series of sub-hypotheses that relate stochasticity to patterns in regional biodiversity, heterogeneity in environmental factors, and ecosystem processes.", "east": 163.5, "geometry": "POINT(162.5 -77.65)", "instruments": "NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "GLACIERS; Antarctica; USAP-DC; FIELD INVESTIGATION", "locations": "Antarctica", "north": -77.5, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Schmidt, Steven; Cawley, Kaelin; Fountain, Andrew", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD INVESTIGATION", "repo": "NCBI GenBank", "repositories": "GitHub; NCBI GenBank", "science_programs": null, "south": -77.8, "title": "Collaborative Research: Stochasticity and Cryoconite Community Assembly and Function", "uid": "p0010063", "west": 161.5}, {"awards": "1443680 Smith, Craig; 1443733 Winsor, Peter; 1443705 Vernet, Maria", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-66 -64,-65.6 -64,-65.2 -64,-64.8 -64,-64.4 -64,-64 -64,-63.6 -64,-63.2 -64,-62.8 -64,-62.4 -64,-62 -64,-62 -64.1,-62 -64.2,-62 -64.3,-62 -64.4,-62 -64.5,-62 -64.6,-62 -64.7,-62 -64.8,-62 -64.9,-62 -65,-62.4 -65,-62.8 -65,-63.2 -65,-63.6 -65,-64 -65,-64.4 -65,-64.8 -65,-65.2 -65,-65.6 -65,-66 -65,-66 -64.9,-66 -64.8,-66 -64.7,-66 -64.6,-66 -64.5,-66 -64.4,-66 -64.3,-66 -64.2,-66 -64.1,-66 -64))", "dataset_titles": "Andvord Bay Glacier Timelapse; Andvord Bay sediment core data collected during the FjordEco project (LMG1510 and NBP1603); Expedition Data; Expedition data of LMG1702; FjordEco Phytoplankton Ecology Dataset in Andvord Bay ; Fjord-Eco Sediment OrgC OrgN Data - Craig Smith; LMG1510 Expedition data; NBP1603 Expedition data; Sediment macrofaunal abundance and family richness from inner Andvord Bay to the open continental shelf", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200040", "doi": "10.7284/907085", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "R2R", "science_program": null, "title": "LMG1510 Expedition data", "url": "https://www.rvdata.us/search/cruise/LMG1510"}, {"dataset_uid": "601158", "doi": "10.15784/601158", "keywords": "Antarctica; Antarctic Peninsula; Biota; Ecology; Fjord; Phytoplankton", "people": "Forsch, Kiefer; Vernet, Maria; Manck, Lauren; Pan, B. Jack", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": "FjordEco", "title": "FjordEco Phytoplankton Ecology Dataset in Andvord Bay ", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601158"}, {"dataset_uid": "601111", "doi": "10.15784/601111", "keywords": "Antarctica; Antarctic Peninsula; Glaciers/ice Sheet; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Iceberg; Photo; Photo/video; Photo/Video", "people": "Truffer, Martin; Winsor, Peter", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": "FjordEco", "title": "Andvord Bay Glacier Timelapse", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601111"}, {"dataset_uid": "002733", "doi": null, "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "R2R", "science_program": null, "title": "Expedition data of LMG1702", "url": "https://www.rvdata.us/search/cruise/LMG1702"}, {"dataset_uid": "200039", "doi": "10.7284/907205", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "R2R", "science_program": null, "title": "NBP1603 Expedition data", "url": "https://www.rvdata.us/search/cruise/NBP1603"}, {"dataset_uid": "601236", "doi": "10.15784/601236", "keywords": "Abundance; Andvord Bay; Antarctica; Antarctic Peninsula; Biota; Fjord; LMG1510; Marine Sediments; Oceans; Polychaete; Polychaete Family Richness; R/v Laurence M. Gould; Sediment Core Data; Sediment Macrofauna", "people": "Smith, Craig", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": "FjordEco", "title": "Sediment macrofaunal abundance and family richness from inner Andvord Bay to the open continental shelf", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601236"}, {"dataset_uid": "000402", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "R2R", "science_program": null, "title": "Expedition Data", "url": "https://www.rvdata.us/search/cruise/LMG1702"}, {"dataset_uid": "601193", "doi": "10.15784/601193", "keywords": "Antarctica; Geochronology; Grain Size; LMG1510; NBP1603; Sediment; Sediment Core Data", "people": "Nittrouer, Charles; Eidam, Emily; Homolka, Khadijah; Smith, Craig", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Andvord Bay sediment core data collected during the FjordEco project (LMG1510 and NBP1603)", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601193"}, {"dataset_uid": "001366", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "R2R", "science_program": null, "title": "Expedition Data", "url": "https://www.rvdata.us/search/cruise/LMG1702"}, {"dataset_uid": "601157", "doi": "10.15784/601157", "keywords": "Antarctica; Glaciers/ice Sheet; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; Snow/ice; Snow/Ice", "people": "Smith, Craig", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": "FjordEco", "title": "Fjord-Eco Sediment OrgC OrgN Data - Craig Smith", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601157"}], "date_created": "Wed, 13 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Marine communities along the western Antarctic Peninsula are highly productive ecosystems which support a diverse assemblage of charismatic animals such as penguins, seals, and whales as well as commercial fisheries such as that on Antarctic krill. Fjords (long, narrow, deep inlets of the sea between high cliffs) along the central coast of the Peninsula appear to be intense, potentially climate sensitive, hotspots of biological production and biodiversity, yet the structure and dynamics of these fjord ecosystems are very poorly understood. Because of this intense biological activity and the charismatic fauna it supports, these fjords are also major destinations for a large Antarctic tourism industry. This project is an integrated field and modeling program to evaluate physical oceanographic processes, glacial inputs, water column community dynamics, and seafloor bottom community structure and function in these important yet little understood fjord systems. These Antarctic fjords have characteristics that are substantially different from well-studied Arctic fjords, likely yielding much different responses to climate warming. This project will provide major new insights into the dynamics and climate sensitivity of Antarctic fjord ecosystems, highlighting contrasts with Arctic sub-polar fjords, and potentially transforming our understanding of the ecological role of fjords in the rapidly warming west Antarctic coastal marine landscape. The project will also further the NSF goal of training new generations of scientists, providing scientific training for undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students. This includes the unique educational opportunity for undergraduates to participate in research cruises in Antarctica and the development of a novel summer graduate course on fjord ecosystems. Internet based outreach activities will be enhanced and extended by the participation of a professional photographer who will produce magazine articles, websites, radio broadcasts, and other forms of public outreach on the fascinating Antarctic ecosystem. This project will involve a 15-month field program to test mechanistic hypotheses concerning oceanographic and glaciological forcing, and phytoplankton and benthic community response in the Antarctic fjords. Those efforts will be followed by a coupled physical/biological modeling effort to evaluate the drivers of biogeochemical cycles in the fjords and to explore their potential sensitivity to enhanced meltwater and sediment inputs. Fieldwork over two oceanographic cruises will utilize moorings, weather stations, and glacial, sea-ice and seafloor time-lapse cameras to obtain an integrated view of fjord ecosystem processes. The field team will also make multiple shipboard measurements and will use towed and autonomous underwater vehicles to intensively evaluate fjord ecosystem structure and function during spring/summer and autumn seasons. These integrated field and modeling studies are expected to elucidate fundamental properties of water column and sea bottom ecosystem structure and function in the fjords, and to identify key physical-chemical-glaciological forcing in these rapidly warming ecosystems.", "east": -62.0, "geometry": "POINT(-64 -64.5)", "instruments": "NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e CTD; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e CHEMICAL METERS/ANALYZERS \u003e FLUOROMETERS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e RECORDERS/LOGGERS \u003e AWS; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e POSITIONING/NAVIGATION \u003e GPS \u003e GPS; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e ACTIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e ACOUSTIC SOUNDERS \u003e ECHO SOUNDERS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e THERMOSALINOGRAPHS", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "OCEAN CURRENTS; Bellingshausen Sea; LMG1702; COMMUNITY DYNAMICS; FJORDS; R/V LMG; MARINE ECOSYSTEMS; USAP-DC; ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS; ANIMALS/INVERTEBRATES; SEDIMENTATION; NOT APPLICABLE; BENTHIC", "locations": "Bellingshausen Sea", "north": -64.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Winsor, Peter; Truffer, Martin; Smith, Craig; Powell, Brian; Merrifield, Mark; Vernet, Maria; Kohut, Josh", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE; WATER-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e VESSELS \u003e SURFACE \u003e R/V LMG", "repo": "R2R", "repositories": "R2R; USAP-DC", "science_programs": "FjordEco", "south": -65.0, "title": "Collaborative Research: Fjord Ecosystem Structure and Function on the West Antarctic Peninsula - Hotspots of Productivity and Biodiversity? (FjordEco)", "uid": "p0010010", "west": -66.0}, {"awards": "1704236 Karentz, Deneb", "bounds_geometry": null, "dataset_titles": "2017 SCAR Biology Symposium travel award data", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601155", "doi": "10.15784/601155", "keywords": "Antarctica; Human Dimensions", "people": "Karentz, Deneb", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "2017 SCAR Biology Symposium travel award data", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601155"}], "date_created": "Mon, 04 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The project will support US participation in the XIIth Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) International Biology Symposium. The theme of this meeting and ancillary workshops is Scale Matters. Meeting sessions will specifically address biodiversity and physiology spanning from molecular through ecosystem scales. The project will provide partial support (airfare and meeting registration) for up to 25 US participants enabling them to travel to Leuven, Belgium and attend the SCAR International Biology Symposium in July 2017. Preference will be given to applicants who are students and early career scientists. The call for applications will be broadly disseminated to encourage participation by underrepresented groups in the sciences. The SCAR International Biology Symposium is a unique opportunity for US scientists to present their work and learn about the most recent findings on all aspects of Antarctic organisms and ecosystems research, to establish and strengthen international contacts, and to be actively involved in the development of new directions and the establishment of new frontiers in polar biology.", "east": null, "geometry": null, "instruments": "NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS; North America; NOT APPLICABLE; USAP-DC", "locations": "North America", "north": null, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Karentz, Deneb", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": null, "title": "Group Travel Award: XIIth SCAR International Biology Symposium", "uid": "p0010006", "west": null}, {"awards": "1115245 McKnight, Diane", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((160.5 -77.35,160.83 -77.35,161.16 -77.35,161.49 -77.35,161.82 -77.35,162.15 -77.35,162.48 -77.35,162.81 -77.35,163.14 -77.35,163.47 -77.35,163.8 -77.35,163.8 -77.4,163.8 -77.45,163.8 -77.5,163.8 -77.55,163.8 -77.6,163.8 -77.65,163.8 -77.7,163.8 -77.75,163.8 -77.8,163.8 -77.85,163.47 -77.85,163.14 -77.85,162.81 -77.85,162.48 -77.85,162.15 -77.85,161.82 -77.85,161.49 -77.85,161.16 -77.85,160.83 -77.85,160.5 -77.85,160.5 -77.8,160.5 -77.75,160.5 -77.7,160.5 -77.65,160.5 -77.6,160.5 -77.55,160.5 -77.5,160.5 -77.45,160.5 -77.4,160.5 -77.35))", "dataset_titles": "McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER data at EDI Data Portal", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "000204", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "LTER", "science_program": null, "title": "McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER data at EDI Data Portal", "url": "https://portal.edirepository.org/nis/browseServlet?searchValue=MCM "}], "date_created": "Mon, 08 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) is a polar desert on the coast of East Antarctica, a region that has not yet experienced climate warming. The McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research (MCMLTER) project has documented the ecological responses of the glacier, soil, stream and lake ecosystems in the MDV during a cooling trend (from 1986 to 2000) which was associated with the depletion of atmospheric ozone. In the past decade, warming events with strong katabatic winds occurred during two summers and the resulting high streamflows and sediment deposition changed the dry valley landscape, possibly presaging conditions that will occur when the ozone hole recovers. In anticipation of future warming in Antarctica, the overarching hypothesis of the proposed project is: Climate warming in the McMurdo Dry Valley ecosystem will amplify connectivity among landscape units leading to enhanced coupling of nutrient cycles across landscapes, and increased biodiversity and productivity within the ecosystem. Warming in the MDV is hypothesized to act as a slowly developing, long-term press of warmer summers, upon which transient pulse events of high summer flows and strong katabatic winds will be overprinted. Four specific hypotheses address the ways in which pulses of water and wind will influence contemporary and future ecosystem structure, function and connectivity. Because windborne transport of biota is a key aspect of enhanced connectivity from katabatic winds, new monitoring will include high-resolution measurements of aeolian particle flux. Importantly, integrative genomics will be employed to understand the responses of specific organisms to the increased connectivity. The project will also include a novel social science component that will use environmental history to examine interactions between human activity, scientific research, and environmental change in the MDV over the past 100 years. To disseminate this research broadly, MCM scientists will participate in a wide array of outreach efforts ranging from presentations in K-12 classrooms to bringing undergraduates and teachers to the MDV to gain research experience. Planned outreach programs will build upon activities conducted during the International Polar Year (2007-2008), which include development of an interactive DVD for high school students and teachers and publication of a children\u0027s book in the LTER Schoolyard Book Series. A teacher\u0027s edition of the book with a CD containing lesson plans will be distributed. The project will develop programs for groups traditionally underrepresented in science arenas by publishing some outreach materials in Spanish.", "east": 163.8, "geometry": "POINT(162.15 -77.6)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Not provided", "locations": null, "north": -77.35, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Instrumentation and Support; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Integrated System Science", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "McKnight, Diane; Gooseff, Michael N.", "platforms": "Not provided", "repo": "LTER", "repositories": "LTER", "science_programs": "LTER", "south": -77.85, "title": "Increased Connectivity in a Polar Desert Resulting from Climate Warming: McMurdo Dry Valley LTER Program", "uid": "p0000301", "west": 160.5}, {"awards": "1103428 Thurber, Andrew", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((165 -77,165.5 -77,166 -77,166.5 -77,167 -77,167.5 -77,168 -77,168.5 -77,169 -77,169.5 -77,170 -77,170 -77.1,170 -77.2,170 -77.3,170 -77.4,170 -77.5,170 -77.6,170 -77.7,170 -77.8,170 -77.9,170 -78,169.5 -78,169 -78,168.5 -78,168 -78,167.5 -78,167 -78,166.5 -78,166 -78,165.5 -78,165 -78,165 -77.9,165 -77.8,165 -77.7,165 -77.6,165 -77.5,165 -77.4,165 -77.3,165 -77.2,165 -77.1,165 -77))", "dataset_titles": "McMurdo Spiophanes beds 16s V4 region community composition from sediment cores at McMurdo Station, Antarctia on Sept 9th, 2012 (McMurdo Benthos project); Stable isotopic composition of McMurdo Benthos", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "000202", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "BCO-DMO", "science_program": null, "title": "McMurdo Spiophanes beds 16s V4 region community composition from sediment cores at McMurdo Station, Antarctia on Sept 9th, 2012 (McMurdo Benthos project)", "url": "https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/716443"}, {"dataset_uid": "000201", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "BCO-DMO", "science_program": null, "title": "Stable isotopic composition of McMurdo Benthos", "url": "https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/716462"}], "date_created": "Tue, 10 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The biota of the world\u0027s seafloor is fueled by bursts of seasonal primary production. For food-limited sediment communities to persist, a balance must exist between metazoan consumption of and competition with bacteria, a balance which likely changes through the seasons. Polar marine ecosystems are ideal places to study such complex interactions due to stark seasonal shifts between heterotrophic and autotrophic communities, and temperatures that may limit microbial processing of organic matter. The research will test the following hypotheses: 1) heterotrophic bacteria compete with macrofauna for food; 2) as phytoplankton populations decline macrofauna increasingly consume microbial biomass to sustain their populations; and 3) in the absence of seasonal photosynthetic inputs, macrofaunal biodiversity will decrease unless supplied with microbially derived nutrition. Observational and empirical studies will test these hypotheses at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, where a high-abundance macro-infaunal community is adapted to this boom-and-bust cycle of productivity. The investigator will mentor undergraduates from a predominantly minority-serving institution, in the fields of invertebrate taxonomy and biogeochemistry. The general public and young scientists will be engaged through lectures at local K-12 venues and launch of an interactive website. The results will better inform scientists and managers about the effects of climate change on polar ecosystems and the mechanisms of changing productivity patterns on global biodiversity.", "east": 170.0, "geometry": "POINT(167.5 -77.5)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Not provided", "locations": null, "north": -77.0, "nsf_funding_programs": null, "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Thurber, Andrew", "platforms": "Not provided", "repo": "BCO-DMO", "repositories": "BCO-DMO", "science_programs": null, "south": -78.0, "title": "PostDoctoral Research Fellowship", "uid": "p0000416", "west": 165.0}, {"awards": "0943935 Isbell, John; 0943934 Taylor, Edith", "bounds_geometry": null, "dataset_titles": "Portal to search geologic sample collections, Polar Rock Repository, Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University; Portal to search paleobotanical collections, Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "001377", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "PRR", "science_program": null, "title": "Portal to search geologic sample collections, Polar Rock Repository, Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University", "url": "http://research.bpcrc.osu.edu/rr/"}, {"dataset_uid": "002567", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "PI website", "science_program": null, "title": "Portal to search paleobotanical collections, Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas", "url": "http://biodiversity.ku.edu/paleobotany/collections/collections-search"}, {"dataset_uid": "001402", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "PI website", "science_program": null, "title": "Portal to search paleobotanical collections, Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas", "url": "http://biodiversity.ku.edu/paleobotany/collections/collections-search"}], "date_created": "Tue, 23 Sep 2014 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Intellectual Merit:\u003cbr/\u003eThe focus of this proposal is to collect fossil plants and palynomorphs from Permian-Triassic (P-T) rocks of the central Transantarctic Mountains (CTM), together with detailed data on sedimentologic and paleoecologic depositional environments. Fossil plants are important climate proxies that offer a unique window into the past, and the CTM fossils are an important source of data on the ways that plants responded to a strongly seasonal, polar light regime during a time of global change. The proposed project uses paleobotanical expertise, integrated with detailed sedimentology and stratigraphy, to reconstruct Permian-Triassic plant communities and their paleoenvironments. This interdisciplinary approach could uncover details of Antarctica?s complex late Paleozoic and Mesozoic environmental and climatic history which included: 1) deglaciation, 2) development and evolution of a post-glacial landscape and biota, 3) environmental and biotic change associated with the end-Permian mass extinction, 4) environmental recovery in the earliest Triassic, 5) strong, possible runaway Triassic greenhouse, and 6) widespread orogenesis and development of a foreland basin system. The PIs will collect compression floras both quantitatively and qualitatively to obtain biodiversity and abundance data. Since silicified wood is also present, the PIs will analyze tree rings and growth in a warm, high-latitude environment for which there is no modern analogue. Fossil plants from the CTM can provide biological and environmental information to: 1) interpret paleoclimate when Gondwana moved from icehouse to greenhouse conditions; 2) trace floral evolution across the P-T boundary; 3) reconstruct Antarctic plant life; 4) further understanding of plant adaptations to high latitudes. The Intellectual Merit of the research includes: 1) tracing floral evolution after the retreat of glaciers; 2) examining floral composition and diversity across the PTB; and 3) obtaining data on the recovery of these ecosystems in the Early Triassic, as well as changes in floral cover and diversity in the Early-Middle Triassic. Antarctica is the only place on Earth that includes extensive outcrops of terrestrial rocks, combined with widespread and well-preserved plant fossils, which spans this crucial time period.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eBroader impacts:\u003cbr/\u003eThe broader impacts include public outreach; teaching, and mentoring of women and underrepresented students; mentoring graduate student, postdoctoral, and new faculty women; development of an inquiry-based workshop on Antarctic paleoclimate with the Division of Education, KU Natural History Museum; continuing support of workshops for middle school girls in science via the Expanding Your Horizons Program, Emporia State University, and the TRIO program, KU; exploring Antarctic geosciences through video/computer links from McMurdo Station and satellite phone conferences from the field with K-12 science classes in Wisconsin and Kansas, and through participation in the NSF Research Experiences for Teachers program at the University of Wisconsin.", "east": null, "geometry": null, "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": false, "keywords": "FIELD SURVEYS; LABORATORY; Transanatarctic Basin; Paleobotany; Fossil Plants; FIELD INVESTIGATION; Sedimentology; Late Paleozoic Ice Age; Not provided; Central Transantarctic Mountains; Beardmore Glacier", "locations": "Transanatarctic Basin; Central Transantarctic Mountains; Beardmore Glacier", "north": null, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences; Antarctic Instrumentation and Support; Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": "PHANEROZOIC \u003e PALEOZOIC \u003e PERMIAN; PHANEROZOIC \u003e MESOZOIC \u003e TRIASSIC; PHANEROZOIC \u003e PALEOZOIC \u003e PERMIAN; PHANEROZOIC \u003e MESOZOIC \u003e TRIASSIC", "persons": "Isbell, John", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD INVESTIGATION; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD SURVEYS; Not provided; OTHER \u003e PHYSICAL MODELS \u003e LABORATORY", "repo": "PRR", "repositories": "PI website; PRR", "science_programs": null, "south": null, "title": "Collaborative Research: Antarctic Ecosystems across the Permian-Triassic Boundary: Integrating Paleobotany, Sedimentology, and Paleoecology", "uid": "p0000372", "west": null}, {"awards": "0739779 Warren, Stephen; 1142963 Warren, Stephen", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((157 -76,158.1 -76,159.2 -76,160.3 -76,161.4 -76,162.5 -76,163.6 -76,164.7 -76,165.8 -76,166.9 -76,168 -76,168 -76.2,168 -76.4,168 -76.6,168 -76.8,168 -77,168 -77.2,168 -77.4,168 -77.6,168 -77.8,168 -78,166.9 -78,165.8 -78,164.7 -78,163.6 -78,162.5 -78,161.4 -78,160.3 -78,159.2 -78,158.1 -78,157 -78,157 -77.8,157 -77.6,157 -77.4,157 -77.2,157 -77,157 -76.8,157 -76.6,157 -76.4,157 -76.2,157 -76))", "dataset_titles": "Ice on the Oceans of Snowball Earth Project Data", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "000183", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "PI website", "science_program": null, "title": "Ice on the Oceans of Snowball Earth Project Data", "url": "https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/37320"}], "date_created": "Wed, 10 Jul 2013 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The climatic changes of late Precambrian time, 600-800 million years ago, included episodes of extreme glaciation, during which ice may have covered nearly the entire ocean for several million years, according to the Snowball Earth hypothesis. These episodes would hold an important place in Earth?s evolutionary history; they could have encouraged biodiversity by trapping life forms in small isolated ice-free areas, or they could have caused massive extinctions that cleared the path for new life forms to fill empty niches. What caused the Earth to become iced over, and what later caused the ice to melt? Scientific investigation of these questions will result in greater understanding of the climatic changes that the Earth can experience, and will enable better predictions of future climate. This project involves Antarctic field observations as well as laboratory studies and computer modeling. The aim of this project is not to prove or disprove the Snowball Earth hypothesis but rather to quantify processes that are important for simulating snowball events in climate models. The principal goal is to identify the types of ice that would have been present on the frozen ocean, and to determine how much sunlight they would reflect back to space. Reflection of sunlight by bright surfaces of snow and ice is what would maintain the cold climate at low latitudes. The melting of the ocean required buildup of greenhouse gases, but it was probably aided by deposition of desert dust and volcanic ash darkening the snow and ice. With so much ice on the Earth?s surface, even small differences in the amount of light that the ice absorbed or reflected could cause significant changes in climate. The properties of the ice would also determine where, and in what circumstances, photosynthetic life could have survived. Some kinds of ice that are rare on the modern Earth may have been pivotal in allowing the tropical ocean to freeze. The ocean surfaces would have included some ice types that now exist only in Antarctica: bare cold sea ice with precipitated salts, and \"blue ice\" areas of the Transantarctic Mountains that were exposed by sublimation and have not experienced melting. Field expeditions were mounted to examine these ice types, and the data analysis is underway. A third ice type, sea ice with a salt crust, is being studied in a freezer laboratory. Modeling will show how sunlight would interact with ice containing light-absorbing dust and volcanic ash. Aside from its reflection of sunlight, ice on the Snowball ocean would have been thick enough to flow under its own weight, invading all parts of the ocean. Yet evidence for the survival of photosynthetic life indicates that some regions of liquid water were maintained at the ocean surface. One possible refuge for photosynthetic organisms is a bay at the far end of a nearly enclosed tropical sea, formed by continental rifting and surrounded by desert, such as the modern Red Sea. A model of glacier flow is being developed to determine the dimensions of the channel, connecting the sea to the ocean, necessary to prevent invasion by the flowing ice yet maintain a water supply to replenish evaporation.", "east": 168.0, "geometry": "POINT(162.5 -77)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Not provided", "locations": null, "north": -76.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Integrated System Science", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Warren, Stephen; Light, Bonnie; Campbell, Adam; Carns, Regina; Dadic, Ruzica; Mullen, Peter; Brandt, Richard; Waddington, Edwin D.", "platforms": "Not provided", "repo": "PI website", "repositories": "PI website", "science_programs": null, "south": -78.0, "title": "Ocean Surfaces on Snowball Earth", "uid": "p0000402", "west": 157.0}, {"awards": "1043749 Rouse, Gregory", "bounds_geometry": null, "dataset_titles": "Expedition data of NBP1105", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "002659", "doi": null, "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "R2R", "science_program": null, "title": "Expedition data of NBP1105", "url": "https://www.rvdata.us/search/cruise/NBP1105"}], "date_created": "Mon, 24 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The west Antarctic Peninsula is warming rapidly, and continuing changes in the thermal regime will likely result in severe consequences for marine fauna, including potential extinction of strongly adapted stenotherms, and invasions from neighboring faunas. Initial impacts of climate change may result in changes in connectivity among populations of the same species. These changes may will be undetectable by direct observation, but may be assessed via genetic connectivity, i.e. differences in allele or haplotype frequencies among populations can be used to infer levels of gene flow. The proposed research will explore the role that the Scotia Arc plays in connecting populations from South America to Antarctica, a corridor identified as a likely entry route for invaders into Antarctica. It also will examine the way in which cryptic species may confound our knowledge of broad-scale distributions, and in doing so, make contributions towards understanding biodiversity and testing the paradigm of circumpolarity in Antarctica. The principal investigator will to collect multi-locus genetic data across \u0027species\u0027 from a broad suite of benthic marine invertebrate phyla, from multiple locations, in order to address hypotheses regarding speciation and connectivity, to estimate demographic population changes, and to identify the underlying processes that drive observed phylogeographic patterns. Comparative phylogeography is a particularly valuable approach because it enables the identification of long-term barriers and refugia common to groups of species and is consequently highly relevant to conservation planning. Moreover, this work will form a valuable baseline for detecting future changes in connectivity. The results of the research will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at conferences. In addition, the project will support the interdisciplinary training of a female graduate student, two undergraduate students, and host additional summer students through the STARS program at SIO, which helps minority students prepare for graduate school. This project will integrate research and education through conducting an interdisciplinary workshop that brings together Earth Science and Biology high school teachers. This workshop aims to assist teachers derive their own curricula uniting plate tectonics, ocean history and evolution, supporting a new high school earth sciences program. Information generated by this project will also directly feed into international efforts to design a series of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Antarctica.", "east": null, "geometry": null, "instruments": "IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e CHEMICAL METERS/ANALYZERS \u003e FLUOROMETERS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e MAGNETIC/MOTION SENSORS \u003e GRAVIMETERS \u003e GRAVIMETERS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e RECORDERS/LOGGERS \u003e AWS; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e POSITIONING/NAVIGATION \u003e GPS \u003e GPS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e XBT; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e ACTIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e ACOUSTIC SOUNDERS \u003e ECHO SOUNDERS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e ACOUSTIC SOUNDERS \u003e MBES; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e THERMOSALINOGRAPHS", "is_usap_dc": false, "keywords": "R/V NBP", "locations": null, "north": null, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Rouse, Gregory", "platforms": "WATER-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e VESSELS \u003e SURFACE \u003e R/V NBP", "repo": "R2R", "repositories": "R2R", "science_programs": null, "south": null, "title": "Using molecular data to test connectivity and the circumpolar paradigm for Antarctic marine invertebrates", "uid": "p0000847", "west": null}, {"awards": "0840979 Adams, Byron; 0840705 Wall, Diana", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((165.35155 -83.71592,166.143133 -83.71592,166.934716 -83.71592,167.726299 -83.71592,168.517882 -83.71592,169.309465 -83.71592,170.101048 -83.71592,170.892631 -83.71592,171.684214 -83.71592,172.475797 -83.71592,173.26738 -83.71592,173.26738 -83.894053,173.26738 -84.072186,173.26738 -84.250319,173.26738 -84.428452,173.26738 -84.606585,173.26738 -84.784718,173.26738 -84.962851,173.26738 -85.140984,173.26738 -85.319117,173.26738 -85.49725,172.475797 -85.49725,171.684214 -85.49725,170.892631 -85.49725,170.101048 -85.49725,169.309465 -85.49725,168.517882 -85.49725,167.726299 -85.49725,166.934716 -85.49725,166.143133 -85.49725,165.35155 -85.49725,165.35155 -85.319117,165.35155 -85.140984,165.35155 -84.962851,165.35155 -84.784718,165.35155 -84.606585,165.35155 -84.428452,165.35155 -84.250319,165.35155 -84.072186,165.35155 -83.894053,165.35155 -83.71592))", "dataset_titles": "Genetic Sequences: JN819273 tardsubmission.sqn 354_18S6 JN819274 tardsubmission.sqn 354_ITS JN819275 tardsubmission.sqn 553_18S5_and_18S6 JN819276 tardsubmission.sqn 556_18S6; McMurdo Dry Valleys Long-Term Ecological Research", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "000217", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "NCBI GenBank", "science_program": null, "title": "Genetic Sequences: JN819273 tardsubmission.sqn 354_18S6 JN819274 tardsubmission.sqn 354_ITS JN819275 tardsubmission.sqn 553_18S5_and_18S6 JN819276 tardsubmission.sqn 556_18S6", "url": "http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/"}, {"dataset_uid": "000157", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "LTER", "science_program": null, "title": "McMurdo Dry Valleys Long-Term Ecological Research", "url": "http://www.mcmlter.org/"}], "date_created": "Mon, 03 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Ice sheet models of the Last Glacial Maximum, and previous glaciation events in the Miocene, suggest that current low altitude, ice-free surfaces in Antarctica were completely covered with ice. If so, the terrestrial biota of Antarctica today would result from recolonization events after each glacial maximum. However, there is emerging evidence that much of the terrestrial Antarctic biota are of ancient origin and have somehow survived these glaciation events. The Transantarctic Mountains TRANsition Zone (TAM-TRANZ) plays a pivotal role in understanding the evolution and biogeographic history of today\u0027s Antarctic terrestrial biota, primarily because it contains numerous inland areas that could have served as refugia during glacial maxima. Due to its remote location, the TAM-TRANZ has not been systematically surveyed for animal biodiversity. Although an exhaustive survey of the region requires a multi-discipline, multi-year and multi-region effort, the research herein combines ecological, evolutionary and geophysical expertise to conduct an exploratory investigation of the extreme southern limits of biotic communities. The project will examine the historical geophysical requirements for the colonization and maintenance of functional ecosystems by multicellular organisms, and the feasibility and desirability to implement more systematic biogeographic studies in the future. Broader impacts include graduate and undergraduate student ownership of important subprojects that will provide research, presentation and publication opportunities. The investigators also will contribute to ongoing public education efforts through relationships with K-12 teachers and administrators in the public school districts where the project personnel reside. Finally, the project is leveraged by opportunistic collaboration with scientists associated with Antarctica New Zealand.", "east": 173.26738, "geometry": "POINT(169.309465 -84.606585)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Not provided", "locations": null, "north": -83.71592, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Adams, Byron; Wall, Diana", "platforms": "Not provided", "repo": "NCBI GenBank", "repositories": "LTER; NCBI GenBank", "science_programs": "LTER", "south": -85.49725, "title": "Collaborative Research: Limits and Drivers of Metazoan Distributions in the Transantarctic Mountains", "uid": "p0000517", "west": 165.35155}, {"awards": "0537143 Blanchette, Robert", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-69 -60,-68.3 -60,-67.6 -60,-66.9 -60,-66.2 -60,-65.5 -60,-64.8 -60,-64.1 -60,-63.4 -60,-62.7 -60,-62 -60,-62 -61,-62 -62,-62 -63,-62 -64,-62 -65,-62 -66,-62 -67,-62 -68,-62 -69,-62 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FJ235941, FJ235942, FJ235943, FJ235944, FJ235945, FJ235946, FJ235947, FJ235948, FJ235949, FJ235950, FJ235951, FJ235952, FJ235953, FJ235954, FJ235955, FJ235956, FJ235957, FJ235958, FJ235959, FJ235960, FJ235961, FJ235962, FJ235963, FJ235964, FJ235965, FJ235966, FJ235967, FJ235968, FJ235969, FJ235970, FJ235971, FJ235972, FJ235973, FJ235974, FJ235975, FJ235976, FJ235977, FJ235978, FJ235979, FJ235980, FJ235981, FJ235982, FJ235983, FJ235984, FJ235985, FJ235986, FJ235987, FJ235988, FJ235989, FJ235990, FJ235991, FJ235992, FJ235993, FJ235994, FJ235995, FJ235996, FJ235997, FJ235998, FJ235999, FJ236000, FJ236001, FJ236002, FJ236003, FJ236004, FJ236005, FJ236006, FJ236007, FJ236008, FJ236009, FJ236010, FJ236011, FJ236012, FJ236013, FJ236014 (Blanchette et al. 2010) GU212367, GU212368, GU212369, GU212370, GU212371, GU212372, GU212373, GU212374, GU212375, GU212376, GU212377, GU212378, GU212379, GU212380, GU212381, GU212382, GU212383, GU212384, GU212385, GU212386, GU212387, GU212388, GU212389, GU212390, GU212391, GU212392, GU212393, GU212394, GU212395, GU212396, GU212397, GU212398, GU212399, GU212400, GU212401, GU212402, GU212403, GU212404, GU212405, GU212406, GU212407, GU212408, GU212409, GU212410, GU212411, GU212412, GU212413, GU212414, GU212415, GU212416, GU212417, GU212418, GU212419, GU212420, GU212421, GU212422, GU212423, GU212424, GU212425, GU212426, GU212427, GU212428, GU212429, GU212430, GU212431, GU212432, GU212433, GU212434", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "000121", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "NCBI GenBank", "science_program": null, "title": "(Arenz et al. 2006) DQ317323, DQ317324, DQ317325, DQ317326, DQ317327, DQ317328, DQ317329, DQ317330, DQ317331, DQ317332, DQ317333, DQ317334, DQ317335, DQ317336, DQ317337, DQ317338, DQ317339, DQ317340, DQ317341, DQ317342, DQ317343, DQ317344, DQ317345, DQ317346, DQ317347, DQ317348, DQ317349, DQ317350, DQ317351, DQ317352, DQ317353, DQ317354, DQ317355, DQ317356, DQ317357, DQ317358, DQ317359, DQ317360, DQ317361, DQ317362, DQ317363, DQ317364, DQ317365, DQ317366, DQ317367, DQ317368, DQ317369, DQ317370, DQ317371, DQ317372, DQ317373, DQ317374, DQ317375, DQ317376, DQ317377, DQ317378, DQ317379, DQ317380, DQ317381, DQ317382, DQ317383, DQ317384, DQ317385, DQ317386, DQ317387, DQ317388, DQ317389 (Arenz and Blanchette 2009) FJ235934, FJ235935, FJ235936, FJ235937, FJ235938, FJ235939, FJ235940, FJ235941, FJ235942, FJ235943, FJ235944, FJ235945, FJ235946, FJ235947, FJ235948, FJ235949, FJ235950, FJ235951, FJ235952, FJ235953, FJ235954, FJ235955, FJ235956, FJ235957, FJ235958, FJ235959, FJ235960, FJ235961, FJ235962, FJ235963, FJ235964, FJ235965, FJ235966, FJ235967, FJ235968, FJ235969, FJ235970, FJ235971, FJ235972, FJ235973, FJ235974, FJ235975, FJ235976, FJ235977, FJ235978, FJ235979, FJ235980, FJ235981, FJ235982, FJ235983, FJ235984, FJ235985, FJ235986, FJ235987, FJ235988, FJ235989, FJ235990, FJ235991, FJ235992, FJ235993, FJ235994, FJ235995, FJ235996, FJ235997, FJ235998, FJ235999, FJ236000, FJ236001, FJ236002, FJ236003, FJ236004, FJ236005, FJ236006, FJ236007, FJ236008, FJ236009, FJ236010, FJ236011, FJ236012, FJ236013, FJ236014 (Blanchette et al. 2010) GU212367, GU212368, GU212369, GU212370, GU212371, GU212372, GU212373, GU212374, GU212375, GU212376, GU212377, GU212378, GU212379, GU212380, GU212381, GU212382, GU212383, GU212384, GU212385, GU212386, GU212387, GU212388, GU212389, GU212390, GU212391, GU212392, GU212393, GU212394, GU212395, GU212396, GU212397, GU212398, GU212399, GU212400, GU212401, GU212402, GU212403, GU212404, GU212405, GU212406, GU212407, GU212408, GU212409, GU212410, GU212411, GU212412, GU212413, GU212414, GU212415, GU212416, GU212417, GU212418, GU212419, GU212420, GU212421, GU212422, GU212423, GU212424, GU212425, GU212426, GU212427, GU212428, GU212429, GU212430, GU212431, GU212432, GU212433, GU212434", "url": "http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/"}], "date_created": "Mon, 24 May 2010 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Fungi in Antarctic ecosystems are major contributors to biodiversity and have great influence on many processes such as biodegradation and nutrient cycling. It is essential for biological surveys as well as genomic and proteomic studies to be completed so a better understanding of these organisms is obtained. Previous research has identified unique fungi associated with historic wooden structures brought to Antarctica by Robert F. Scott and Ernest Shackleton during the Heroic Era of exploration. Many of the fungi found are previously undescribed species that belong to the little known genus Cadophora. The research team will obtain important new information on the fungi present in the Ross Sea and Peninsula Regions of Antarctica, particularly their role in decomposition and nutrient recycling and their mechanisms and strategies for survival in the polar environment. New tools and methods include denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), real-time PCR, and proteomic profiling. These analyses will reveal key details of the physiological adaptations these fungi have evolved to carry out processes such as biodegradation and nutrient cycling under conditions that would inhibit other fungi. This work, coupled with the training and learning opportunities it provides, will be of value to many fields of study including microbial ecology, polar biology, wood microbiology, environmental science, soil science, geobiochemistry, and mycology as well as fungal phylogenetics, proteomics and genomics. Results obtained will have immediate applied use to help preserve and protect Antarctica\u0027s historic monuments. The investigations proposed are a continuation of research to identify the microbes attacking these historic structures and artifacts and to elucidate their biology and ecology in the polar environment. New research will also be done at the historic Cape Adare huts, the first wooden structures to be built in Antarctica and also at East Base, an American historic site on Stonington Island from the Admiral Byrd and Ronne Expeditions of 1939-1948. The research team will conduct vital studies needed to successfully conserve the wooden structures and artifacts at these sites and protect them for future generations", "east": -62.0, "geometry": "POINT(-65.5 -65)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Not provided", "locations": null, "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Blanchette, Robert", "platforms": "Not provided", "repo": "NCBI GenBank", "repositories": "NCBI GenBank", "science_programs": null, "south": -70.0, "title": "Studies of Antarctic Fungi: Adaptive Stratigies for Survival and Protecting Antarctica\u0027s Historic Structures", "uid": "p0000187", "west": -69.0}, {"awards": "9714299 Caron, David", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-179.9984 -43.56676,-143.99865 -43.56676,-107.9989 -43.56676,-71.99915 -43.56676,-35.9994 -43.56676,0.000349999999997 -43.56676,36.0001 -43.56676,71.99985 -43.56676,107.9996 -43.56676,143.99935 -43.56676,179.9991 -43.56676,179.9991 -47.057693,179.9991 -50.548626,179.9991 -54.039559,179.9991 -57.530492,179.9991 -61.021425,179.9991 -64.512358,179.9991 -68.003291,179.9991 -71.494224,179.9991 -74.985157,179.9991 -78.47609,143.99935 -78.47609,107.9996 -78.47609,71.99985 -78.47609,36.0001 -78.47609,0.000349999999997 -78.47609,-35.9994 -78.47609,-71.99915 -78.47609,-107.9989 -78.47609,-143.99865 -78.47609,-179.9984 -78.47609,-179.9984 -74.985157,-179.9984 -71.494224,-179.9984 -68.003291,-179.9984 -64.512358,-179.9984 -61.021425,-179.9984 -57.530492,-179.9984 -54.039559,-179.9984 -50.548626,-179.9984 -47.057693,-179.9984 -43.56676))", "dataset_titles": "Expedition Data", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "002003", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "R2R", "science_program": null, "title": "Expedition Data", "url": "https://www.rvdata.us/search/cruise/NBP9901"}], "date_created": "Tue, 04 May 2010 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "*** Caron 9714299 The analysis of microbial biodiversity of extreme environments is difficult because traditional methods for examining diversity are often ineffective for assessing species richness within these communities. Additional difficulties arise due to the difficulties of recreating and maintaining pertinent environmental features during sample collection and procession. This study focuses on the protistan assemblages (algae and protozoa) in the sea ice, sediment and ocean environments of the Ross Sea, Antarctica. The identification of protistan species in natural assemblages traditionally has entailed direct microscopical analyses as well as enrichment and culture techniques for assessing biodiversity. Determination of diversity for these assemblages in therefore susceptible to biases as a consequence of sampling, enrichment and culture, as well as selective losses due to sample preservation and concentration for microscopy. The goals of this project are: (1) to develop and apply molecular biological approaches to assess species diversity of small protists (algae and protozoa smaller than 100 micrometers) in ocean water, sea ice and sediment environments and (2) to obtain baseline physiological information on the growth rates, feeding rates and growth efficiencies of cultured protozoa under pertinent temperature regimes. Molecular biological studies will involve the use of PCR-based protocols to examine small subunit ribosomal RNA gene (srDNA) diversity. Approaches and techniques developed will be applicable to any other water body or sediment and would provide a means to examine the representativeness of protistan cultures in extant culture collections. ***", "east": 179.9991, "geometry": "POINT(0 -89.999)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": false, "keywords": "R/V NBP", "locations": null, "north": -43.56676, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Caron, David; Jeffries, Martin", "platforms": "WATER-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e VESSELS \u003e SURFACE \u003e R/V NBP", "repo": "R2R", "repositories": "R2R", "science_programs": null, "south": -78.47609, "title": "LEXEN: Protistan Biodiversity in Antarctic Marine Ecosystems: Molecular Biological and Traditional Approaches", "uid": "p0000625", "west": -179.9984}, {"awards": "0436190 Eastman, Joseph", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-180 -60,-144 -60,-108 -60,-72 -60,-36 -60,0 -60,36 -60,72 -60,108 -60,144 -60,180 -60,180 -63,180 -66,180 -69,180 -72,180 -75,180 -78,180 -81,180 -84,180 -87,180 -90,144 -90,108 -90,72 -90,36 -90,0 -90,-36 -90,-72 -90,-108 -90,-144 -90,-180 -90,-180 -87,-180 -84,-180 -81,-180 -78,-180 -75,-180 -72,-180 -69,-180 -66,-180 -63,-180 -60))", "dataset_titles": "Biodiversity, Buoyancy and Morphological Studies of Non-Antarctic Notothenioid Fishes", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "600038", "doi": "10.15784/600038", "keywords": "Biota; NBP0404; Oceans; R/v Nathaniel B. Palmer; Southern Ocean", "people": "Eastman, Joseph", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Biodiversity, Buoyancy and Morphological Studies of Non-Antarctic Notothenioid Fishes", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/600038"}], "date_created": "Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Patterns of biodiversity, as revealed by basic research in organismal biology, may be derived from ecological and evolutionary processes expressed in unique settings, such as Antarctica. The polar regions and their faunas are commanding increased attention as declining species diversity, environmental change, commercial fisheries, and resource management are now being viewed in a global context. Commercial fishing is known to have a direct and pervasive effect on marine biodiversity, and occurs in the Southern Ocean as far south as the Ross Sea. \u003cbr/\u003eThe nature of fish biodiversity in the Antarctic is different than in all other ocean shelf areas. Waters of the Antarctic continental shelf are ice covered for most of the year and water temperatures are nearly constant at -1.5 C. In these waters components of the phyletically derived Antarctic clade of Notothenioids dominate fish diversity. In some regions, including the southwestern Ross Sea, Notothenioids are overwhelmingly dominant in terms of number of species, abundance, and biomass. Such dominance by a single taxonomic group is unique among shelf faunas of the world. In the absence of competition from a taxonomically diverse fauna, Notothenioids underwent a habitat or depth related diversification keyed to the utilization of unfilled niches in the water column, especially pelagic or partially pelagic zooplanktivory and piscivory. This has been accomplished in the absence of a swim bladder for buoyancy control. They also may form a special type of adaptive radiation known as a species flock, which is an assemblage of a disproportionately high number of related species that have evolved rapidly within a defined area where most species are endemic. Diversification in buoyancy is the hallmark of the notothenioid radiation. Buoyancy is the feature of notothenioid biology that determines whether a species lives on the substrate, in the water column or both. Buoyancy also influences other key aspects of life history including swimming, feeding and reproduction and thus has implications for the role of the species in the ecosystem. \u003cbr/\u003eWith similarities to classic evolutionary hot spots, the Antarctic shelf and its Notothenioid radiation merit further exploration. The 2004 \"International Collaborative Expedition to collect and study Fish Indigenous to Sub-Antarctic Habitats,\" or, \"ICEFISH,\" provided a platform for collection of notothenioid fishes from sub-Antarctic waters between South America and Africa, which will be examined in this project. This study will determine buoyancy for samples of all notothenioid species captured during the ICEFISH cruise. This essential aspect of the biology is known for only 19% of the notothenioid fauna. Also, the gross and microscopic anatomy of brains and sense organs of the phyletically basal families Bovichtidae, Eleginopidae, and of the non-Antarctic species of the primarily Antarctic family Nototheniidae will be examined. The fish biodiversity and endemicity in poorly known localities along the ICEFISH cruise track, seamounts and deep trenches will be quantified. Broader impacts include improved information for comprehending and conserving biodiversity, a scientific and societal priority.", "east": 180.0, "geometry": "POINT(0 -89.999)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Not provided", "locations": null, "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Eastman, Joseph", "platforms": "Not provided", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -90.0, "title": "Biodiversity, Buoyancy and Morphological Studies of Non-Antarctic Notothenioid Fishes", "uid": "p0000106", "west": -180.0}, {"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": "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"}, {"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"}], "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": "PI website", "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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Project Title/Abstract/Map | NSF Award(s) | Date Created | PIs / Scientists | Dataset Links and Repositories | Abstract | Bounds Geometry | Geometry | Selected | Visible | |||||||||||
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RCN: Building a Coordinated Network for Research and Monitoring in Large-Scale International Marine Protected Areas: The Ross Sea Region as a Model System
|
2448649 |
2025-03-10 | Brooks, Cassandra | No dataset link provided | Marine protected areas (MPAs) are protected areas of seas, oceans, and estuaries. They need coordinated research and monitoring for informed management to fulfill their conservation potential. Coordination is challenging, however, often due to knowledge gaps caused by inadequate access to data and resources, compounded by insufficient communication between scientists and managers. This Research Coordinating Network (RCN) uses the world’s largest MPA in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, as a model system to create an international interdisciplinary network supporting policy-relevant research and monitoring that could be implemented in other remote, large-scale international MPAs. The first 10-year review of the Ross Sea MPA in 2027 will present a critical opportunity to coordinate across science, policy, and other partner communities to ensure the 2027 review (and subsequent reviews) are well grounded in robust scientific data, analyses, and streamlined inputs into policy. Many Antarctic research, policy, and conservation groups exist, some are even already focused on the Ross Sea, but there is not yet a formalized framework for coordination. Hence, the need for an RCN which can formalize connections among policy, research, and other communities focused specifically on research and monitoring of the Ross Sea region MPA. The RCN also provides an example of how to bring together diverse interdisciplinary participants towards an effective, integrated science-policy collaboration. To fulfill their conservation potential and provide safeguards for biodiversity, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) need coordinated research and monitoring for informed management through effective evaluation of ecosystem dynamics. The Ross Sea MPA in Antarctica is the world’s largest MPA and the only one on the high seas. The Research Coordination Network (RCN) will connect three key components: (i) policy engagement, (ii) community partner engagement, and (iii) integrated science. The science component comprises three themes: data science and cyberinfrastructure; biophysical modeling; and observations that include monitoring and process studies. Guided by clear research questions across the three components, the RCN will lead to new knowledge about the barriers to science-policy engagement and strategies to overcome them; strategies for effectively engaging diverse community partners; and science needed to better understand the Ross Sea ecosystem structure and function, including strategies for international coordination. The three science themes inform understanding of the ecosystem, and thus, the potential efficacy of the Ross Sea region MPA. Data science and cyberinfrastructure provide essential structures for coordinated research. Biophysical modeling is critical for evaluating ecosystem metrics and can be illustrative for understanding changes in ecosystem structure and function. Observations and process studies are needed for addressing knowledge gaps and informing cyberinfrastructure tools and biophysical modeling efforts. The science integration component will advance knowledge while also advancing transformative interdisciplinary collaboration across data science, modeling, and observations. The RCN will build new connections and collaborations among scientists, policymakers and community partners, internationally and across disciplines, while integrating science and policy in novel ways. The RCN will operate through regular engagement across the network communities, including meetings and targeted activities with specific products and outcomes. The RCN increases diversity, science diplomacy, knowledge exchange, and conservation and five early- to mid-career researchers have leading roles. The contributions from this RCN will facilitate significant advances in the ability to understand high latitude marine ecosystems and how these systems respond to competing stressors, including climate change and fishing. Further, lessons learned through the RCN could offer guidance on how other large-scale international MPAs are monitored and assessed. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. | None | None | false | false | |||||||||||
2021 Polar Marine Science GRC and GRS
|
2029777 |
2025-02-07 | Matrai, Patricia; Babin, Marcel | No dataset link provided | This award provides funding in support of participation by U.S. graduate students and early career researchers for the 2019 Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) and Gordon Research Conference (GRC) Polar Marine Science meetings to be held in Ventura, CA May 22-28, 2021. The 2021 GRC event is entitled “Integrating Ocean Physics and Biogeochemistry to Assess Polar Ecosystem Sensitivity to Rapid Change”. Gordon conferences on this topic are held every two years and provide a key forum to discuss cutting-edge and cross-disciplinary marine research highlighted as an international priority topic. The conference plan is designed to provide powerful insights into the present and future states of polar marine ecosystems, including the local and regional aspects of ocean circulation, sea ice dynamics, biogeochemical fluxes, biodiversity, ecosystem health and human well-being. This event will bring together an interdisciplinary group of students and young researchers from many fields working in Polar regions. Exchanges of this type are essential for ensuring that U.S. scientists and engineers maintain international research leadership in in polar regions. Participants will have an opportunity to present their work in the form of oral presentations or posters while interacting with some of the most eminent researchers in the field. The GRS and GRC will address fundamental aspects, which are related to the grand environmental and sustainability challenges facing mankind. Specific emphasis will be given to defining the next generation challenges in polar region research. The unique format of the Gordon Research Conferences with invited talks, limited attendance, and ample time for interactions will provide early career scientists with ample opportunities for discussions and networking. Particular emphasis will be placed on encouraging student and post-doc participation from a broad range of institutions. The GRC-PPS will be widely advertised in the community and the participation and application for travel support by junior scientists will be strongly encouraged. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. | POLYGON((-180 -60,-144 -60,-108 -60,-72 -60,-36 -60,0 -60,36 -60,72 -60,108 -60,144 -60,180 -60,180 -63,180 -66,180 -69,180 -72,180 -75,180 -78,180 -81,180 -84,180 -87,180 -90,144 -90,108 -90,72 -90,36 -90,0 -90,-36 -90,-72 -90,-108 -90,-144 -90,-180 -90,-180 -87,-180 -84,-180 -81,-180 -78,-180 -75,-180 -72,-180 -69,-180 -66,-180 -63,-180 -60)) | POINT(0 -89.999) | false | false | |||||||||||
Collaborative Research: A Workshop for Evaluating the Value and Scope of a Biological Repository of Antarctic Specimens
|
2015878 |
2024-12-03 | O'Brien, Kristin |
|
This workshop will bring together Antarctic marine freshwater and terrestrial biologists, students, and experts in specimen curation to assess the value of, need for, and scope of a biological repository of Antarctic specimens, including tissue samples. Currently, some US collected Antarctic specimen collections are housed in various museums, repositories, and labs. These collections are not easily discoverable on the internet, and how well they represent the biodiversity of Antarctica is largely unknown. The workshop coordinators will advertise the conference broadly and recruit underrepresented groups to participate. Participants will assess current repositories and determine how to make Antarctica biological samples more accessible in a unified location (or through better coordination). This effort will benefit the broader community of biologists working with Antarctic organisms by providing opportunities to conduct Antarctic science by investigators and their students that might otherwise not be possible due to the logistical and budget challenges for deployments. Following workshop activities, a final report will be published on the outcomes of the efforts. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. | None | None | false | false | |||||||||||
Collaborative Research: BoCP-Design: Climate change alteration of soils functional biodiversity of the Páramos, Colombia
|
2325922 |
2024-02-06 | Couradeau, Estelle; Maximova, Siela; Machado, Jose Luis | No dataset link provided | Páramos are high-altitude tundra ecosystems nested at the heart of the Andes mountains. These cold and humid environments are home to a multitude of plants, animals, and insects. Páramos are a critical water source for downstream urban centers, including Colombia's capital city, Bogota. Additionally, the Páramos soils contain substantial organic carbon reserves due to slow rates of organic matter decomposition. Beyond being a pool of carbon sequestered away from the atmosphere, this large reservoir of organic matter controls the soils’ hydraulic and fertility properties. The Páramos’ unique geographic location, at an elevation above 2,800 m above sea level, makes them highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In fact, these ecosystems’ surface areas are projected to shrink by half within the next 50 years possibly causing loss of the essential services they provide. This project aims to characterize the microbial diversity in the Páramos soils in Colombia and investigate how climate change will affect microbes’ functions. The research is of high importance, considering that immediate and long-term changes in microbial metabolism could impact the ability of Páramos soils to store organic carbon and regulate downstream water flow. To study the cascading effect of climate change on Páramos ecosystems, this project will jumpstart collaborations among transdisciplinary experts that will integrate the research of below-ground microbial communities with above-ground vegetation functions. The project will also engage high school and undergraduate students that will work together to develop and deploy low-cost long-term soil monitoring data loggers in Chingaza National Natural Park, near the city of Bogota. This project will address the critical need to disentangle the effect of moisture and temperature on the fate of organic carbon in Páramos soils while building a transdisciplinary team capable of expanding the scope of the research to an ecosystem level. The project includes establishing controlled soil mesocosms that will allow to independently vary moisture and temperature levels. Additionally, functions of the soil microbiome will be investigated using metagenomics and amplicon sequencing, and probes will be deployed to initiate long-term monitoring of the soil response to climate change in situ. This project will culminate in the organization of an international Páramos symposium that will set up priorities for future systems research. The symposium will bring together scientists from diverse fields to discuss the linkages between above-ground and below-ground ecosystem functions and plan future collaborations in predicting Páramos-wide effects of climate change. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. | POLYGON((-73.783 4.679,-73.7827 4.679,-73.7824 4.679,-73.7821 4.679,-73.7818 4.679,-73.7815 4.679,-73.7812 4.679,-73.7809 4.679,-73.7806 4.679,-73.7803 4.679,-73.78 4.679,-73.78 4.6789,-73.78 4.6788,-73.78 4.6787,-73.78 4.6786,-73.78 4.6785,-73.78 4.6784,-73.78 4.6783,-73.78 4.6782,-73.78 4.6781,-73.78 4.678,-73.7803 4.678,-73.7806 4.678,-73.7809 4.678,-73.7812 4.678,-73.7815 4.678,-73.7818 4.678,-73.7821 4.678,-73.7824 4.678,-73.7827 4.678,-73.783 4.678,-73.783 4.6781,-73.783 4.6782,-73.783 4.6783,-73.783 4.6784,-73.783 4.6785,-73.783 4.6786,-73.783 4.6787,-73.783 4.6788,-73.783 4.6789,-73.783 4.679)) | POINT(-73.7815 4.6785) | false | false | |||||||||||
Collaborative Research: ANT LIA: Cumacean -Omics to Measure Mode of Adaptation to Antarctica (COMMAA)
|
2138993 2138994 |
2022-09-20 | Gerken, Sarah; Kocot, Kevin | No dataset link provided | Part I: General description Cumaceans are small crustaceans, commonly known as comma shrimp, that live in muddy or sandy bottom environments in marine waters. Cumaceans are important for the diet of fish, birds, and even grey whales. This research program is assessing cumacean diversity and adaptation in different regions of Antarctica and evaluate this organisms adaptations using molecular methods to a changing Antarctic region. The research stands to significantly advance understanding of invertebrate adaptations to cold, stable habitats and responses to changes in those habitats. In addition, this project is advancing understanding of the biology of Cumacea, a globally diverse and biologically important group of animals. Targeted training of early career students and professionals in cumacean biology, molecular techniques, and bioinformatics is included as part of the program. A workshop at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum will also train 10 additional graduate students, with a focus on training for underrepresented groups. Project outreach also includes social media, outreach to schools in very diverse school districts in Anchorage, AK, and creation of museum events and an exhibit at the Alabama Museum of Natural History. Finally, engagement by the team in activities related to the National Ocean Science Bowl promotes broad engagement with high school students for Antarctic science learning. Part II: Technical Description The overarching goal of this research is to use cumaceans as a model system to explore invertebrate adaptations to the changing Antarctic. This project is leveraging integrative taxonomy, functional, comparative and evolutionary genomics, and phylogenetic comparative methods to understand the true diversity of Cumacea in the Antarctic. The team is identifying genes and gene families experiencing expansions, selection, or significant differential expression, generating a broadly sampled and robust phylogenetic framework for the Antarctic Cumacea based on transcriptomes and genomes, and exploring rates and timing of diversification. The project is providing important information related to gene gain/loss, positive selection, and differential gene expression as a function of adaptation of organisms to Antarctic habitats. Phylogenomic analyses is providing a robust phylogenetic framework for understudied Southern Ocean Cumacea. At the start of this project, only one Antarctic transcriptome was published for this organism. This project is generating sequenced genomes from 8 species, about 250 transcriptomes from about 70 species, and approximately 470 COI and 16S amplicon barcodes from about 100 species. Curated morphological reference collections will be deposited at the Smithsonian, Los Angeles County Natural History Museum and in the New Zealand National Water and Atmospheric Research collection at Greta Point to assist future researchers in identification of Antarctic cumaceans. Beyond the immediate scope of the current project, the genomic resources will be able to be leveraged by members of the polar biology and invertebrate zoology communities for diverse other uses ranging from PCR primer development to inference of ancestral population sizes. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. | POLYGON((-180 -60,-144 -60,-108 -60,-72 -60,-36 -60,0 -60,36 -60,72 -60,108 -60,144 -60,180 -60,180 -63,180 -66,180 -69,180 -72,180 -75,180 -78,180 -81,180 -84,180 -87,180 -90,144 -90,108 -90,72 -90,36 -90,0 -90,-36 -90,-72 -90,-108 -90,-144 -90,-180 -90,-180 -87,-180 -84,-180 -81,-180 -78,-180 -75,-180 -72,-180 -69,-180 -66,-180 -63,-180 -60)) | POINT(0 -89.999) | false | false | |||||||||||
ANT LIA: Do Molecular Data Support High Endemism and Divergent Evolution of Antarctic Marine Nematodes and their Host-associated Microbiomes?
|
2132641 |
2022-08-30 | Bik, Holly | No dataset link provided | Non-technical Abstract: The long isolation and unique biodiversity of the Southern Ocean represents an important case study region for understanding the evolution and ecology of populations. This study uses modern -omics approaches to evaluate the biodiversity, evolution, and ecology of Antarctic marine nematodes and their host-associated microbiomes from a variety of habitats collected at different depths. The results are producing an important baseline dataset of Antarctic meiofaunal diversity. All genomic resources generated in this project will be publicly accessible as open-source datasets with the potential for long-term scientific reuse. This project supports diverse researchers from underrepresented backgrounds and produces a suite of Antarctic-focused digital public outreach products. Technical Abstract: Nematode worms are abundant and ubiquitous in marine sediment habitats worldwide, performing key functions such as nutrient cycling and sediment stability. However, study of this phylum suffers from a perpetual and severe taxonomic deficit, with less than 5,000 formally described marine species. Fauna from the Southern Ocean are especially poorly studied due to limited sampling and the general inaccessibility of the Antarctic benthos. This study is providing the first large-scale molecular-based investigation from marine nematodes in the Eastern Antarctic continental shelf, providing an important comparative dataset for the existing body of historical (morphological) taxonomic studies. This project uses a combination of classical taxonomy (microscopy) and modern -omics tools to achieve three overarching aims: 1) determine if molecular data supports high biodiversity and endemism of benthic meiofauna in Antarctic benthic ecosystems; 2) determine the proportion of marine nematode species that have a deep-sea versus shallow-water evolutionary origin on the Antarctic shelf, and assess patterns of cryptic speciation in the Southern Ocean; and 3) determine the most important drivers of the host-associated microbiome in Antarctic marine nematodes. This project is designed to rapidly advance knowledge of the evolutionary origins of Antarctic meiofauna, provide insight on population-level patterns within key indicator genera, and elucidate the potential ecological and environmental factors which may influence microbiome patterns. Broader Impacts activities include an intensive cruise- and land-based outreach program focusing on social media engagement and digital outreach products, raising awareness of Antarctic marine ecosystems and understudied microbial-animal relationships. The diverse research team includes female scientists, first-generation college students, and Latinx trainees. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. | POLYGON((-180 -60,-144 -60,-108 -60,-72 -60,-36 -60,0 -60,36 -60,72 -60,108 -60,144 -60,180 -60,180 -62,180 -64,180 -66,180 -68,180 -70,180 -72,180 -74,180 -76,180 -78,180 -80,144 -80,108 -80,72 -80,36 -80,0 -80,-36 -80,-72 -80,-108 -80,-144 -80,-180 -80,-180 -78,-180 -76,-180 -74,-180 -72,-180 -70,-180 -68,-180 -66,-180 -64,-180 -62,-180 -60)) | POINT(0 -89.999) | false | false | |||||||||||
Collaborative Research: Climatic and Environmental Constraints on Aboveground-Belowground Linkages and Diversity across a Latitudinal Gradient in Antarctica
|
1341429 |
2022-04-14 | Ball, Becky; Van Horn, David |
|
The Antarctic Peninsula is experiencing rapid environmental changes, which will influence the community of organisms that live there. However, we know very little about the microscopic organisms living in the soil in this region. Soil biology (including bacteria, fungi, and invertebrates) are responsible for many important processes that sustain ecosystems, such as nutrient recycling. Without understanding the environmental conditions that influence soil biodiversity along the Antarctic Peninsula, our ability to predict the consequences of global change is strongly limited. This project will identify the soil community at many sites along the Antarctic Peninsula to discover how the community changes with environmental conditions from north to south. The project will also identify how the soil community at each site differs under different types of plants. Understanding more about the ways in which plant cover and climate conditions influence soil biodiversity will allow predictions of how communities will respond to future changes such as climate warming and invasive plant species. The project will also further the NSF goals of making scientific discoveries available to the general public and of training new generations of scientists. The investigators will engage with outreach to K-12 students and the general public both directly and through a blog and will participate in workshops for K-12 teachers. Additionally, the project will provide the opportunity for many undergraduate and graduate students of diverse backgrounds to be trained in interdisciplinary research. The investigators will determine the nature and strength of plant-soil linkages in influencing soil community composition and diversity over a latitudinal gradient of environmental and climatic conditions. The goals are to (1) increase our understanding of current biogeography and diversity by providing in-depth knowledge of soil community composition and complexity as it relates to environmental and climatic characteristics; and (2) determine the nature of aboveground-belowground community linkages over varying spatial scales. The team will identify the composition and diversity of soil communities under key habitat types (grass, moss, algae, etc.). Microbial communities (bacteria, fungi, archaea) will be investigated using pyrosequencing for community composition analysis and metagenomic sequencing to identify functional capabilities. Invertebrates (nematodes, tardigrades, rotifers, microarthropods) will be extracted and identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level. Soil chemistry (pH, nutrient content, soil moisture, etc.) and climate conditions will be measured to determine the relationship between soil communities and physical and chemical properties. Structural equation modeling will be used to identify aboveground-belowground linkage pathways and quantify link strengths under varying environmental conditions. | POLYGON((-68.205783 -60.706633,-65.9444531 -60.706633,-63.6831232 -60.706633,-61.4217933 -60.706633,-59.1604634 -60.706633,-56.8991335 -60.706633,-54.6378036 -60.706633,-52.3764737 -60.706633,-50.1151438 -60.706633,-47.8538139 -60.706633,-45.592484 -60.706633,-45.592484 -62.1204014,-45.592484 -63.5341698,-45.592484 -64.9479382,-45.592484 -66.3617066,-45.592484 -67.775475,-45.592484 -69.1892434,-45.592484 -70.6030118,-45.592484 -72.0167802,-45.592484 -73.4305486,-45.592484 -74.844317,-47.8538139 -74.844317,-50.1151438 -74.844317,-52.3764737 -74.844317,-54.6378036 -74.844317,-56.8991335 -74.844317,-59.1604634 -74.844317,-61.4217933 -74.844317,-63.6831232 -74.844317,-65.9444531 -74.844317,-68.205783 -74.844317,-68.205783 -73.4305486,-68.205783 -72.0167802,-68.205783 -70.6030118,-68.205783 -69.1892434,-68.205783 -67.775475,-68.205783 -66.3617066,-68.205783 -64.9479382,-68.205783 -63.5341698,-68.205783 -62.1204014,-68.205783 -60.706633)) | POINT(-56.8991335 -67.775475) | false | false | |||||||||||
Collaborative Research: Permian and Triassic Icehouse to Greenhouse Paleoenvironments and Paleobotany in the Shackleton Glacier Area, Antarctica
|
1443557 |
2021-12-31 | Isbell, John | The focus of this collaborative project is to collect fossil plants, wood, and sedimentary and chemical information from rocks in the Shackleton Glacier (SHK) area of Antarctica. This information will be used to reconstruct plant life and environments during the Permian and Triassic (~295-205 million years ago) in Antarctica. This time interval is important to study as Antarctica experienced a large glaciation in the Permian followed by deglaciation and recovery of plant and animal life, only to be subjected to the largest extinction in Earth history at the end of the Permian. After the extinction events, the climate in Antarctica continued to warm extensively and there were forests growing close to the paleo-South Pole. These ancient environments provide a natural laboratory in which to study the effects of climate change on plant life. The results of this project will advance the field in the areas of changing sedimentary patterns during global cooling and warming, as well as plant evolution during times following glaciation and during global warmth. This project will study the extent of the Gondwana glaciation in the SHK area, the invasion and subsequent flourishing of life following glacial retreat, and the eventual recovery of plant life after Late Permian extinction events. Only in Antarctica does a complete polar-to-near-polar succession occur across this climatic and biologic transition. The SHK area is an important one as it is one of the few regions in the world where the Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) is exposed within terrestrial rocks. The field and lab work for this project is organized around three hypotheses that address fundamental issues in Earth history, including changes in the extent and diversity of flora during the Permian build up to the Late Paleozoic Ice Age, the possible diachronous nature of the PTB, and that poor fossil preservation during the Early Triassic has given a false impression that Antarctica was devoid of plants during this time. The hypotheses will be tested by integrating various types of paleobotanical approaches with detailed sedimentology, stratigraphy, and geochemistry. Compression floras and petrified wood will be collected (constrained by stratigraphy) both quantitatively and qualitatively in order to obtain biodiversity and abundance data, and as a data source for paleoecological analysis. Standard sedimentologic and stratigraphic analyses will be performed, as well as paleosol analyses, including mineralogic and major- and trace-element geochemistry. Collections will also be made for U-Pb zircon geochronology to better constrain geologic and biotic events through time. Results of the project will be incorporated into educational and outreach activities that are designed to include women and under-represented groups in the excitement of Antarctic earth sciences and paleontology, including workshops in Kansas and Wisconsin, as well as links to science classes during fieldwork. | POLYGON((-180 -85,-177.1 -85,-174.2 -85,-171.3 -85,-168.4 -85,-165.5 -85,-162.6 -85,-159.7 -85,-156.8 -85,-153.9 -85,-151 -85,-151 -85.2,-151 -85.4,-151 -85.6,-151 -85.8,-151 -86,-151 -86.2,-151 -86.4,-151 -86.6,-151 -86.8,-151 -87,-153.9 -87,-156.8 -87,-159.7 -87,-162.6 -87,-165.5 -87,-168.4 -87,-171.3 -87,-174.2 -87,-177.1 -87,180 -87,179 -87,178 -87,177 -87,176 -87,175 -87,174 -87,173 -87,172 -87,171 -87,170 -87,170 -86.8,170 -86.6,170 -86.4,170 -86.2,170 -86,170 -85.8,170 -85.6,170 -85.4,170 -85.2,170 -85,171 -85,172 -85,173 -85,174 -85,175 -85,176 -85,177 -85,178 -85,179 -85,-180 -85)) | POINT(-170.5 -86) | false | false | ||||||||||||
Collaborative Research: Have transantarctic dispersal corridors impacted Antarctic marine biodiversity?
|
1916665 1916661 2225144 |
2021-09-22 | Halanych, Kenneth; Mahon, Andrew | No dataset link provided | Antarctica is among the most rapidly warming places on the planet, and some reports suggest the Antarctic environment is approaching, or possibly beyond, the tipping point for ice shelf collapse. The loss of ice around Antarctica is dramatically changing habitat availability for marine fauna, particularly benthic marine invertebrate species. Building on past studies, this research will provide insights into how changing climate impacts species distribution and community structure. Geological data suggests that during periods when ice extent was much reduced relative to modern levels, marine seaways connected the Ross and Weddell Seas on either side of Antarctica. However, most theories about the origins of current marine invertebrate distribution patterns fail to consider this transantarctic connection. This research will use molecular genomic tools to probe the DNA of Antarctic marine invertebrates and explore alternative hypotheses about factors that may have shaped current patterns of animal biodiversity in the Southern Ocean. Research will inform predictions about how species distributions may change as Antarctic ice sheets continue to deteriorate and provide critical information on how organisms adjust their ranges in response to environmental change. This work includes several specific outreach activities including presentations in K-8 classrooms, several short-format videos on Antarctic genomics and field work, and two 3-day workshops on bioinformatics approaches. A minimum of 4 graduate students, a postdoc and several undergraduates will also be trained during this project. The overarching goal of this research is to understand environmental factors that have shaped patterns of present-day diversity in Antarctic benthic marine invertebrates. Evidence from sediment cores and modeling suggests ice shelf collapses have occurred multiple times in the last few million years. During these periods, transantarctic seaways connected the Ross and Weddell Seas. This research will assess whether the presence of transantarctic waterways helps explain observed similarities between the Ross and Weddell Seas benthic marine invertebrate fauna better than other current hypotheses (e.g., dispersal by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, or expansion from common glacial refugia). Seven Antarctic benthic invertebrate taxa will be targeted to test alternative hypothesis about the origins of population genetic structure in the Southern Ocean using Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) markers that sample thousands of loci across the genome. Additionally, research will test the current paradigm that divergence between closely related, often cryptic, species is the result of population bottlenecks caused by glaciation. Specifically, SNP data will be mapped on to draft genomes of three of our target taxa to assess the degree of genetic divergence and look for signs of selection. Research findings may be applicable to other marine ecosystems around the planet. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. | POLYGON((-72 -61,-69.8 -61,-67.6 -61,-65.4 -61,-63.2 -61,-61 -61,-58.8 -61,-56.6 -61,-54.4 -61,-52.2 -61,-50 -61,-50 -61.8,-50 -62.6,-50 -63.4,-50 -64.2,-50 -65,-50 -65.8,-50 -66.6,-50 -67.4,-50 -68.2,-50 -69,-52.2 -69,-54.4 -69,-56.6 -69,-58.8 -69,-61 -69,-63.2 -69,-65.4 -69,-67.6 -69,-69.8 -69,-72 -69,-72 -68.2,-72 -67.4,-72 -66.6,-72 -65.8,-72 -65,-72 -64.2,-72 -63.4,-72 -62.6,-72 -61.8,-72 -61)) | POINT(-61 -65) | false | false | |||||||||||
CAREER: Development of Unmanned Ground Vehicles for Assessing the Health of Secluded Ecosystems (ECHO)
|
2046437 |
2021-08-16 | Zitterbart, Daniel | No dataset link provided | Part I: Non-technical description: Understanding human-induced changes on biodiversity is one of the most important scientific challenges we face today. This is especially true for marine environments that are home to much of the world’s biomass and biodiversity. A particularly effective approach to investigate the effects of climate change on marine ecosystems is to monitor top-predator populations such as seabirds or marine mammals. The food web in the Southern Ocean in relatively small and involves few species, therefore climate-induced variations at the prey species level directly affect the predator species level. For example, seabirds, like penguins, are ideal to detect and study these ecosystem changes. This study combines traditional methods to study emperor penguin population dynamics with the use of an autonomous vehicle to conduct the population dynamic measurements with less impact and higher accuracy. This project leverages an existing long-term emperor penguin observatory at the Atka Bay colony which hosts penguins living in the Weddell sea and the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. The study will kickstart the collection of a multi-decadal data set in an area of the Southern Ocean that has been understudied. It will fill important gaps in ecological knowledge on the state of the Emperor penguin and its adaptive capabilities within a changing world. Finally, the project supports NSF goals of training new generations of scientists through collaborative training of undergraduate students and the creation of a new class on robotics for ecosystem study. Emperor penguins are an iconic species that few people will ever see in the wild. Through the technology developed in this proposal, the public can be immersed in real-time into the life of an emperor penguin colony. Public outreach will be achieved by showcasing real-time video and audio footage of emperor penguins from the field as social media science and engineering-themed educational materials. Part II: Technical description: Polar ecosystems currently experience significant impacts due to global changes. Measurable negative effects on polar wildlife have already occurred, such as population decreases of numerous seabird species, including the complete loss of colonies of one of the most emblematic species of the Antarctic, the emperor penguin. These existing impacts on polar species are alarming, especially because many polar species still remain poorly studied due to technical and logistical challenges imposed by the harsh environment and extreme remoteness. Developing technologies and tools for monitoring such wildlife populations is, therefore, a matter of urgency. This project aims to help close major knowledge gaps about the emperor penguin, in particular about their adaptive capability to a changing environment, by the development of next-generation tools to remotely study entire colonies. Specifically, the main goal of this project is to implement and test an autonomous unmanned ground vehicle equipped with Radio-frequency identification (RFID) antennas and wireless mesh communication data-loggers to: 1) identify RFID-tagged emperor penguins during breeding to studying population dynamics without human presence; and 2) receive Global Positioning System-Time Domain Reflectometry (GPS-TDR) datasets from Very High Frequency VHF-GPS-TDR data-loggers without human presence to study animal behavior and distribution at sea. The autonomous vehicles navigation through the colony will be aided by an existing remote penguin observatory (SPOT). Properly implemented, this technology can be used to study of the life history of individual penguins, and therefore gather data for behavioral and population dynamic studies. The new data will contribute to intelligent establishment of marine protected areas in Antarctica. The education objectives of this CAREER project are designed to increase the interest in a STEM education for the next generation of scientists by combining the charisma of the emperor penguin with robotics research. Within this project, a new class on ecosystem robotics will be developed and taught, Robotics boot-camps will allow undergraduate students to remotely participate in Antarctic field trips, and an annual curriculum will be developed that allows K-12 students to follow the life of the emperor penguin during the breeding cycle, powered by real-time data obtained using the unmanned ground vehicle as well as the existing emperor penguin observatory. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. | POLYGON((-60 -55,-53 -55,-46 -55,-39 -55,-32 -55,-25 -55,-18 -55,-11 -55,-4 -55,3 -55,10 -55,10 -57.5,10 -60,10 -62.5,10 -65,10 -67.5,10 -70,10 -72.5,10 -75,10 -77.5,10 -80,3 -80,-4 -80,-11 -80,-18 -80,-25 -80,-32 -80,-39 -80,-46 -80,-53 -80,-60 -80,-60 -77.5,-60 -75,-60 -72.5,-60 -70,-60 -67.5,-60 -65,-60 -62.5,-60 -60,-60 -57.5,-60 -55)) | POINT(-25 -67.5) | false | false | |||||||||||
Quantifying how Bioenergetics and Foraging Determine Population Dynamics in Threatened Antarctic Albatrosses
|
1341649 1740239 |
2021-08-13 | Johnson, Leah; Ryan, Sadie | No dataset link provided | Albatrosses (family Diomedeidae) are among the most threatened of bird species. Of the 22 species that are currently recognized, all are considered at least Threatened or Near-Threatened, and 9 are listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered. Because of the decline in albatross populations and the birds' role as a top predator in the pelagic ecosystem, it is vitally important to understand the factors affecting the population dynamics of these birds to better inform strategies for conservation and mitigating environmental change. The goal of this project is to answer the question: What are the population consequences of albatross bioenergetics and foraging strategies? The investigators will take a two pronged approach: 1) constructing, parameterizing, and validating an Individual Based Model (IBM) that rests on Dynamic Energy Budget theory and state dependent foraging theory; and 2) undertaking an in-depth meta-analysis of existing individual tracking and life history data from multiple albatross species across successive life stages. This theoretical work will be grounded with a unique and extensive data set on albatrosses provided by collaborator Richard Phillips from the British Antarctic Survey. The IBM approach will incorporate details such as adult energetic state, chick needs and energetics, reproductive stage, and spatial and temporal variation in prey availability within a single framework. This facilitates exploration of emergent patterns, allowing the investigators to explicitly link behavior, energetic, and population dynamics. Bioenergetics constrain a variety of behaviors. A more complete understanding of how individuals use energy can give insight into how behaviors from foraging to breeding and survival, and resulting population attributes, might change with environmental factors, due to anthropogenic and other drivers. This work will further a general understanding of how bioenergetics shapes behavior and drives population level processes, while providing an approach that can be used to guide conservation strategies for endangered populations. The research findings and activities will be made accessible to public audiences through websites and on a blog maintained for the project by a postdoctoral researcher. The project will involve undergraduate and high school researchers in the project, within formal laboratory groups and also through in-classroom presentations and activities. This project also involves outreach to local elementary schools, as the albatross-Antarctic bioenergetics system provides a charismatic and tangible teaching tool, for exploring a complex conservation issue, and demonstrating the utility of quantitative biological research approaches. All project publications will be open access, the resulting open source software will be released to the public, and metadata and analyses will be fully documented and made available through the Knowledge Network for Biodiversity, to promote further collaborative exploration of this system. | POLYGON((-180 -60,-144 -60,-108 -60,-72 -60,-36 -60,0 -60,36 -60,72 -60,108 -60,144 -60,180 -60,180 -63,180 -66,180 -69,180 -72,180 -75,180 -78,180 -81,180 -84,180 -87,180 -90,144 -90,108 -90,72 -90,36 -90,0 -90,-36 -90,-72 -90,-108 -90,-144 -90,-180 -90,-180 -87,-180 -84,-180 -81,-180 -78,-180 -75,-180 -72,-180 -69,-180 -66,-180 -63,-180 -60)) | POINT(0 -89.999) | false | false | |||||||||||
NSFGEO-NERC: Mechanisms of Adaptation to Terrestrial Antarctica through Comparative Physiology and Genomics of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic Insects
|
1850988 |
2021-06-25 | Teets, Nicholas; Michel, Andrew | The cold, dry terrestrial environments of Antarctica are inhospitable for insects, and only three midge species make Antarctica home. Of these, Belgica antarctica is the only species found exclusively in Antarctica, and it has been a resident of Antarctica since the continent split from South America ~30 million years ago. Thus, this species is an excellent system to model the biological history of Antarctica throughout its repeated glaciation events and shifts in climate. This insect is also a classic example of extreme adaptation, and much previous work has focused on identifying the genetic and physiological mechanisms that allow this species to survive where no other insect is capable. However, it has been difficult to pinpoint the unique evolutionary adaptations that are required to survive in Antarctica due to a lack of information from closely related Antarctic and sub-Antarctic species. This project will compare adaptations, genome sequences, and population characteristics of four midge species that span an environmental gradient from sub-Antarctic to Antarctic habitats. In addition to B. antarctica, these species include two species that are strictly sub-Antarctic and a third that is native to the sub-Antarctic but has invaded parts of Antarctica. The researchers, comprised of scientists from the US, UK, Chile, and France, will sample insects from across their geographic range and measure their ability to tolerate environmental stressors (i.e., cold and desiccation), quantify molecular responses to stress, and compare the makeup of the genome and patterns of genetic diversity. This research will contribute to a greater understanding of adaptation to extremes, to an understanding of biodiversity on the planet and to understanding and predicting changes accompanying environmental change. The project will train two graduate students and two postdoctoral researchers, and a K-12 educator will be a member of the field team and will assist with fieldwork and facilitate outreach with schools in the US. The project includes partnership activities with several STEM education organizations to deliver educational content to K-12 and secondary students. This is a project that is jointly funded by the National Science Foundation's Directorate of Geosciences (NSF/GEO) and the National Environment Research Council (NERC) of the United Kingdom (UK) via the NSF/GEO-NERC Lead Agency Agreement. This Agreement allows a single joint US/UK proposal to be submitted and peer-reviewed by the Agency whose investigator has the largest proportion of the budget. Each Agency funds the proportion of the budget and the investigators associated with its own country. UK participation in this project includes deploying scientists as part of the field team, supporting field and sampling logistics at remote Antarctic sites, and genome sequencing, annotation, and analyses. This project focuses on the key physiological adaptations and molecular processes that allow a select few insect species to survive in Antarctica. The focal species are all wingless with limited dispersal capacity, suggesting there is also significant potential to locally adapt to variable environmental conditions across the range of these species. The central hypothesis is that similar molecular mechanisms drive both population-level adaptation to local environmental conditions and macroevolutionary changes across species living in different environments. The specific aims of the project are to 1) Characterize conserved and species-specific adaptations to extreme environments through comparative physiology and transcriptomics, 2) Compare the genome sequences of these species to identify genetic signatures of extreme adaption, and 3) Investigate patterns of diversification and local adaptation across each species? range using population genomics. The project establishes an international collaboration of researchers from the US, UK, Chile, and France with shared interests and complementary expertise in the biology, genomics, and conservation of Antarctic arthropods. The Broader Impacts of the project include training students and partnering with the Living Arts and Science Center to design and implement educational content for K-12 students. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. | POLYGON((-64.366767 -62.68104,-63.9917036 -62.68104,-63.6166402 -62.68104,-63.2415768 -62.68104,-62.8665134 -62.68104,-62.49145 -62.68104,-62.1163866 -62.68104,-61.7413232 -62.68104,-61.3662598 -62.68104,-60.9911964 -62.68104,-60.616133 -62.68104,-60.616133 -62.9537037,-60.616133 -63.2263674,-60.616133 -63.4990311,-60.616133 -63.7716948,-60.616133 -64.0443585,-60.616133 -64.3170222,-60.616133 -64.5896859,-60.616133 -64.8623496,-60.616133 -65.1350133,-60.616133 -65.407677,-60.9911964 -65.407677,-61.3662598 -65.407677,-61.7413232 -65.407677,-62.1163866 -65.407677,-62.49145 -65.407677,-62.8665134 -65.407677,-63.2415768 -65.407677,-63.6166402 -65.407677,-63.9917036 -65.407677,-64.366767 -65.407677,-64.366767 -65.1350133,-64.366767 -64.8623496,-64.366767 -64.5896859,-64.366767 -64.3170222,-64.366767 -64.0443585,-64.366767 -63.7716948,-64.366767 -63.4990311,-64.366767 -63.2263674,-64.366767 -62.9537037,-64.366767 -62.68104)) | POINT(-62.49145 -64.0443585) | false | false | ||||||||||||
Collaborative Research: The Role of Glacial History on the Structure and Functioning of Ecological Communities in the Shackleton Glacier Region of the Transantarctic Mountains
|
1341736 |
2020-11-02 | Adams, Byron; Fierer, Noah; Wall, Diana; Diaz, Melisa A.; Gardner, Christopher B.; Lyons, W. Berry | The project will characterize the functional, taxonomic, biotic and abiotic drivers of soil ecosystems in the Trans Antarctic Mountains (one of the most remote and harsh terrestrial landscapes on the planet). The work will utilize new high-throughput DNA and RNA sequencing technologies to identify members of the microbial communities and determine if the microbial community structures are independent of local environmental heterogeneities. In addition the project will determine if microbial diversity and function are correlated with time since the last glacial maximum (LGM). The expected results will greatly contribute to our knowledge regarding rates of microbial succession and help define the some of the limits to life and life-maintaining processes on Earth. The project will analyze genomes and RNA derived from these genomes to describe the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning from soils above and below LGM elevations and to correlate these with the environmental drivers associated with their development during the last ~18,000 years. The team will identify the taxonomic diversity and the functional genetic composition within a broad suite of soil biota and examine their patterns of assembly and distribution within the framework of their geological legacies. The project will mentor participants from undergraduate students to postdoctoral researchers and prepare them to effectively engage in research to meet their career aspirations. The project will contribute to ongoing public education efforts through relationships with K-12 teachers and administrators- to include University-Public School partnerships. Less formal activities include public lecture series and weblogs aimed at providing information on Antarctic polar desert ecosystems to the general public. Targeted classrooms near each PI's institution will participate in online, real-time discussions about current topics in Antarctic ecosystems research. | POLYGON((-177.4099 -84.4661,-177.08229 -84.4661,-176.75468 -84.4661,-176.42707 -84.4661,-176.09946 -84.4661,-175.77185 -84.4661,-175.44424 -84.4661,-175.11663000000001 -84.4661,-174.78902 -84.4661,-174.46141 -84.4661,-174.1338 -84.4661,-174.1338 -84.56828,-174.1338 -84.67045999999999,-174.1338 -84.77264,-174.1338 -84.87482,-174.1338 -84.977,-174.1338 -85.07918,-174.1338 -85.18136,-174.1338 -85.28354,-174.1338 -85.38571999999999,-174.1338 -85.4879,-174.46141 -85.4879,-174.78902 -85.4879,-175.11663000000001 -85.4879,-175.44424 -85.4879,-175.77185 -85.4879,-176.09946 -85.4879,-176.42707 -85.4879,-176.75468 -85.4879,-177.08229 -85.4879,-177.4099 -85.4879,-177.4099 -85.38571999999999,-177.4099 -85.28354,-177.4099 -85.18136,-177.4099 -85.07918,-177.4099 -84.977,-177.4099 -84.87482,-177.4099 -84.77264,-177.4099 -84.67045999999999,-177.4099 -84.56828,-177.4099 -84.4661)) | POINT(-175.77185 -84.977) | false | false | ||||||||||||
Collaborative Research: Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access (SALSA): Integrated Study of Carbon Cycling in Hydrologically-active Subglacial Environments
|
1543347 1543396 1543405 1543453 1543537 1543441 |
2020-07-16 | Rosenheim, Brad; Fricker, Helen; Priscu, John; Leventer, Amy; Dore, John; Lyons, W. Berry; Christner, Brent | The Antarctic subglacial environment remains one of the least explored regions on Earth. This project will examine the physical and biological characteristics of Subglacial Lake Mercer, a lake that lies 1200m beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. This study will address key questions relating to the stability of the ice sheet, the subglacial hydrological system, and the deep-cold subglacial biosphere. The education and outreach component aims to widely disseminate results to the scientific community and to the general public through short films, a blog, and a website. Subglacial Lake Mercer is one of the larger hydrologically active lakes in the southern basin of the Whillans Ice Plain, West Antarctica. It receives about 25 percent of its water from East Antarctica with the remainder originating from West Antarctica, is influenced by drain/fill cycles in a lake immediately upstream (Subglacial Lake Conway), and lies about 100 km upstream of the present grounding line of the Ross Ice Shelf. This site will yield information on the history of the Whillans and Mercer Ice Streams, and on grounding line migration. The integrated study will include direct sampling of basal ice, water, and sediment from the lake in concert with surface geophysical surveys over a three-year period to define the hydrological connectivity among lakes on the Whillans Ice Plain and their flow paths to the sea. The geophysical surveys will furnish information on subglacial hydrology, aid the site selection for hot-water drilling, and provide spatial context for interpreting findings. The hot-water-drilled boreholes will be used to collect basal ice samples, provide access for direct measurement of subglacial physical, chemical, and biological conditions in the water column and sediments, and to explore the subglacial water cavities using a remotely operated vehicle equipped with sensors, cameras, and sampling equipment. Data collected from this study will address the overarching hypothesis "Contemporary biodiversity and carbon cycling in hydrologically-active subglacial environments associated with the Mercer and Whillans ice streams are regulated by the mineralization and cycling of relict marine organic matter and through interactions among ice, rock, water, and sediments". The project will be undertaken by a collaborative team of scientists, with expertise in microbiology, biogeochemistry, hydrology, geophysics, glaciology, marine geology, paleoceanography, and science communication. | POLYGON((-163.611 -84.33543,-162.200034 -84.33543,-160.789068 -84.33543,-159.378102 -84.33543,-157.967136 -84.33543,-156.55617 -84.33543,-155.145204 -84.33543,-153.734238 -84.33543,-152.323272 -84.33543,-150.912306 -84.33543,-149.50134 -84.33543,-149.50134 -84.3659157,-149.50134 -84.3964014,-149.50134 -84.4268871,-149.50134 -84.4573728,-149.50134 -84.4878585,-149.50134 -84.5183442,-149.50134 -84.5488299,-149.50134 -84.5793156,-149.50134 -84.6098013,-149.50134 -84.640287,-150.912306 -84.640287,-152.323272 -84.640287,-153.734238 -84.640287,-155.145204 -84.640287,-156.55617 -84.640287,-157.967136 -84.640287,-159.378102 -84.640287,-160.789068 -84.640287,-162.200034 -84.640287,-163.611 -84.640287,-163.611 -84.6098013,-163.611 -84.5793156,-163.611 -84.5488299,-163.611 -84.5183442,-163.611 -84.4878585,-163.611 -84.4573728,-163.611 -84.4268871,-163.611 -84.3964014,-163.611 -84.3659157,-163.611 -84.33543)) | POINT(-156.55617 -84.4878585) | false | false | ||||||||||||
Collaborative Research: Stochasticity and Cryoconite Community Assembly and Function
|
1443578 |
2019-11-01 | Schmidt, Steven; Cawley, Kaelin; Fountain, Andrew |
|
Cryoconite holes are pockets of life completely encased in otherwise barren glacial ice. These pockets of life form when dust blown onto the ice melts a small, largely isolated hole that can function as its own tiny ecosystem. This dust can contain microorganisms such as bacteria, algae, or microscopic animals. The microorganisms within the hole interact and carry out functions typical of a larger ecosystem, such as a forest. Cryoconite holes are especially important in extreme cold environments such as the Antarctic Dry Valleys, where they function as repositories of life. Because cryoconite holes are mostly enclosed and persist for years, they can be tracked over time to test fundamental scientific questions about how communities of interacting organisms develop to become fully functioning ecosystems. This project will sample existing and experimentally created cryoconite holes to understand how these ecosystems develop and to what degree random processes (such as which organisms get there first) affect the final community composition and functioning. The results will not only improve our understanding of how microbial communities assemble and affect the functioning of microecosystems such as cryoconite holes, but also how the processes of community assembly affect functioning of larger ecosystems, such as forests. A better understanding of community establishment, development, and response to abiotic factors are essential to forecasting ecological responses to environmental change. It is essential to unravel the links between community assembly, biodiversity, and nutrient cycling across numerous ecosystems because these are critical factors determining ecological responses to environmental change. The unique, largely isolated nature of cryoconite holes provides an experimental system that will advance fundamental understanding of the processes (e.g., stochastic dynamics such as dispersal limitation, assembly order, and ecological drift) driving community assembly. This project will use a field sampling campaign and a number of manipulative experiments to test a hypothesis that unites theory in community and ecosystem ecology: the degree to which stochastic processes guide microbial community assembly and affects regional patterns in biodiversity and ecosystem processes. Cryoconite holes will be sampled to compare community composition, environmental factors, and ecosystem functioning between hydrologically connected and isolated holes. New cryoconite holes will also be constructed and monitored over the course of two growing seasons to specifically alter assembly order and community size, thereby pairing a unique manipulative experiment with field surveys to address questions with relevance to the Antarctic and beyond. Amplicon sequencing, metagenomics, microscopy, sensitive environmental chemistry methods, and photosynthesis and respiration measurements will be used to test a series of sub-hypotheses that relate stochasticity to patterns in regional biodiversity, heterogeneity in environmental factors, and ecosystem processes. | POLYGON((161.5 -77.5,161.7 -77.5,161.9 -77.5,162.1 -77.5,162.3 -77.5,162.5 -77.5,162.7 -77.5,162.9 -77.5,163.1 -77.5,163.3 -77.5,163.5 -77.5,163.5 -77.53,163.5 -77.56,163.5 -77.59,163.5 -77.62,163.5 -77.65,163.5 -77.68,163.5 -77.71,163.5 -77.74,163.5 -77.77,163.5 -77.8,163.3 -77.8,163.1 -77.8,162.9 -77.8,162.7 -77.8,162.5 -77.8,162.3 -77.8,162.1 -77.8,161.9 -77.8,161.7 -77.8,161.5 -77.8,161.5 -77.77,161.5 -77.74,161.5 -77.71,161.5 -77.68,161.5 -77.65,161.5 -77.62,161.5 -77.59,161.5 -77.56,161.5 -77.53,161.5 -77.5)) | POINT(162.5 -77.65) | false | false | |||||||||||
Collaborative Research: Fjord Ecosystem Structure and Function on the West Antarctic Peninsula - Hotspots of Productivity and Biodiversity? (FjordEco)
|
1443680 1443733 1443705 |
2019-02-13 | Winsor, Peter; Truffer, Martin; Smith, Craig; Powell, Brian; Merrifield, Mark; Vernet, Maria; Kohut, Josh | Marine communities along the western Antarctic Peninsula are highly productive ecosystems which support a diverse assemblage of charismatic animals such as penguins, seals, and whales as well as commercial fisheries such as that on Antarctic krill. Fjords (long, narrow, deep inlets of the sea between high cliffs) along the central coast of the Peninsula appear to be intense, potentially climate sensitive, hotspots of biological production and biodiversity, yet the structure and dynamics of these fjord ecosystems are very poorly understood. Because of this intense biological activity and the charismatic fauna it supports, these fjords are also major destinations for a large Antarctic tourism industry. This project is an integrated field and modeling program to evaluate physical oceanographic processes, glacial inputs, water column community dynamics, and seafloor bottom community structure and function in these important yet little understood fjord systems. These Antarctic fjords have characteristics that are substantially different from well-studied Arctic fjords, likely yielding much different responses to climate warming. This project will provide major new insights into the dynamics and climate sensitivity of Antarctic fjord ecosystems, highlighting contrasts with Arctic sub-polar fjords, and potentially transforming our understanding of the ecological role of fjords in the rapidly warming west Antarctic coastal marine landscape. The project will also further the NSF goal of training new generations of scientists, providing scientific training for undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students. This includes the unique educational opportunity for undergraduates to participate in research cruises in Antarctica and the development of a novel summer graduate course on fjord ecosystems. Internet based outreach activities will be enhanced and extended by the participation of a professional photographer who will produce magazine articles, websites, radio broadcasts, and other forms of public outreach on the fascinating Antarctic ecosystem. This project will involve a 15-month field program to test mechanistic hypotheses concerning oceanographic and glaciological forcing, and phytoplankton and benthic community response in the Antarctic fjords. Those efforts will be followed by a coupled physical/biological modeling effort to evaluate the drivers of biogeochemical cycles in the fjords and to explore their potential sensitivity to enhanced meltwater and sediment inputs. Fieldwork over two oceanographic cruises will utilize moorings, weather stations, and glacial, sea-ice and seafloor time-lapse cameras to obtain an integrated view of fjord ecosystem processes. The field team will also make multiple shipboard measurements and will use towed and autonomous underwater vehicles to intensively evaluate fjord ecosystem structure and function during spring/summer and autumn seasons. These integrated field and modeling studies are expected to elucidate fundamental properties of water column and sea bottom ecosystem structure and function in the fjords, and to identify key physical-chemical-glaciological forcing in these rapidly warming ecosystems. | POLYGON((-66 -64,-65.6 -64,-65.2 -64,-64.8 -64,-64.4 -64,-64 -64,-63.6 -64,-63.2 -64,-62.8 -64,-62.4 -64,-62 -64,-62 -64.1,-62 -64.2,-62 -64.3,-62 -64.4,-62 -64.5,-62 -64.6,-62 -64.7,-62 -64.8,-62 -64.9,-62 -65,-62.4 -65,-62.8 -65,-63.2 -65,-63.6 -65,-64 -65,-64.4 -65,-64.8 -65,-65.2 -65,-65.6 -65,-66 -65,-66 -64.9,-66 -64.8,-66 -64.7,-66 -64.6,-66 -64.5,-66 -64.4,-66 -64.3,-66 -64.2,-66 -64.1,-66 -64)) | POINT(-64 -64.5) | false | false | ||||||||||||
Group Travel Award: XIIth SCAR International Biology Symposium
|
1704236 |
2019-02-04 | Karentz, Deneb |
|
The project will support US participation in the XIIth Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) International Biology Symposium. The theme of this meeting and ancillary workshops is Scale Matters. Meeting sessions will specifically address biodiversity and physiology spanning from molecular through ecosystem scales. The project will provide partial support (airfare and meeting registration) for up to 25 US participants enabling them to travel to Leuven, Belgium and attend the SCAR International Biology Symposium in July 2017. Preference will be given to applicants who are students and early career scientists. The call for applications will be broadly disseminated to encourage participation by underrepresented groups in the sciences. The SCAR International Biology Symposium is a unique opportunity for US scientists to present their work and learn about the most recent findings on all aspects of Antarctic organisms and ecosystems research, to establish and strengthen international contacts, and to be actively involved in the development of new directions and the establishment of new frontiers in polar biology. | None | None | false | false | |||||||||||
Increased Connectivity in a Polar Desert Resulting from Climate Warming: McMurdo Dry Valley LTER Program
|
1115245 |
2018-01-08 | McKnight, Diane; Gooseff, Michael N. |
|
The McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) is a polar desert on the coast of East Antarctica, a region that has not yet experienced climate warming. The McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research (MCMLTER) project has documented the ecological responses of the glacier, soil, stream and lake ecosystems in the MDV during a cooling trend (from 1986 to 2000) which was associated with the depletion of atmospheric ozone. In the past decade, warming events with strong katabatic winds occurred during two summers and the resulting high streamflows and sediment deposition changed the dry valley landscape, possibly presaging conditions that will occur when the ozone hole recovers. In anticipation of future warming in Antarctica, the overarching hypothesis of the proposed project is: Climate warming in the McMurdo Dry Valley ecosystem will amplify connectivity among landscape units leading to enhanced coupling of nutrient cycles across landscapes, and increased biodiversity and productivity within the ecosystem. Warming in the MDV is hypothesized to act as a slowly developing, long-term press of warmer summers, upon which transient pulse events of high summer flows and strong katabatic winds will be overprinted. Four specific hypotheses address the ways in which pulses of water and wind will influence contemporary and future ecosystem structure, function and connectivity. Because windborne transport of biota is a key aspect of enhanced connectivity from katabatic winds, new monitoring will include high-resolution measurements of aeolian particle flux. Importantly, integrative genomics will be employed to understand the responses of specific organisms to the increased connectivity. The project will also include a novel social science component that will use environmental history to examine interactions between human activity, scientific research, and environmental change in the MDV over the past 100 years. To disseminate this research broadly, MCM scientists will participate in a wide array of outreach efforts ranging from presentations in K-12 classrooms to bringing undergraduates and teachers to the MDV to gain research experience. Planned outreach programs will build upon activities conducted during the International Polar Year (2007-2008), which include development of an interactive DVD for high school students and teachers and publication of a children's book in the LTER Schoolyard Book Series. A teacher's edition of the book with a CD containing lesson plans will be distributed. The project will develop programs for groups traditionally underrepresented in science arenas by publishing some outreach materials in Spanish. | POLYGON((160.5 -77.35,160.83 -77.35,161.16 -77.35,161.49 -77.35,161.82 -77.35,162.15 -77.35,162.48 -77.35,162.81 -77.35,163.14 -77.35,163.47 -77.35,163.8 -77.35,163.8 -77.4,163.8 -77.45,163.8 -77.5,163.8 -77.55,163.8 -77.6,163.8 -77.65,163.8 -77.7,163.8 -77.75,163.8 -77.8,163.8 -77.85,163.47 -77.85,163.14 -77.85,162.81 -77.85,162.48 -77.85,162.15 -77.85,161.82 -77.85,161.49 -77.85,161.16 -77.85,160.83 -77.85,160.5 -77.85,160.5 -77.8,160.5 -77.75,160.5 -77.7,160.5 -77.65,160.5 -77.6,160.5 -77.55,160.5 -77.5,160.5 -77.45,160.5 -77.4,160.5 -77.35)) | POINT(162.15 -77.6) | false | false | |||||||||||
PostDoctoral Research Fellowship
|
1103428 |
2017-10-10 | Thurber, Andrew | The biota of the world's seafloor is fueled by bursts of seasonal primary production. For food-limited sediment communities to persist, a balance must exist between metazoan consumption of and competition with bacteria, a balance which likely changes through the seasons. Polar marine ecosystems are ideal places to study such complex interactions due to stark seasonal shifts between heterotrophic and autotrophic communities, and temperatures that may limit microbial processing of organic matter. The research will test the following hypotheses: 1) heterotrophic bacteria compete with macrofauna for food; 2) as phytoplankton populations decline macrofauna increasingly consume microbial biomass to sustain their populations; and 3) in the absence of seasonal photosynthetic inputs, macrofaunal biodiversity will decrease unless supplied with microbially derived nutrition. Observational and empirical studies will test these hypotheses at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, where a high-abundance macro-infaunal community is adapted to this boom-and-bust cycle of productivity. The investigator will mentor undergraduates from a predominantly minority-serving institution, in the fields of invertebrate taxonomy and biogeochemistry. The general public and young scientists will be engaged through lectures at local K-12 venues and launch of an interactive website. The results will better inform scientists and managers about the effects of climate change on polar ecosystems and the mechanisms of changing productivity patterns on global biodiversity. | POLYGON((165 -77,165.5 -77,166 -77,166.5 -77,167 -77,167.5 -77,168 -77,168.5 -77,169 -77,169.5 -77,170 -77,170 -77.1,170 -77.2,170 -77.3,170 -77.4,170 -77.5,170 -77.6,170 -77.7,170 -77.8,170 -77.9,170 -78,169.5 -78,169 -78,168.5 -78,168 -78,167.5 -78,167 -78,166.5 -78,166 -78,165.5 -78,165 -78,165 -77.9,165 -77.8,165 -77.7,165 -77.6,165 -77.5,165 -77.4,165 -77.3,165 -77.2,165 -77.1,165 -77)) | POINT(167.5 -77.5) | false | false | ||||||||||||
Collaborative Research: Antarctic Ecosystems across the Permian-Triassic Boundary: Integrating Paleobotany, Sedimentology, and Paleoecology
|
0943935 0943934 |
2014-09-23 | Isbell, John | Intellectual Merit:<br/>The focus of this proposal is to collect fossil plants and palynomorphs from Permian-Triassic (P-T) rocks of the central Transantarctic Mountains (CTM), together with detailed data on sedimentologic and paleoecologic depositional environments. Fossil plants are important climate proxies that offer a unique window into the past, and the CTM fossils are an important source of data on the ways that plants responded to a strongly seasonal, polar light regime during a time of global change. The proposed project uses paleobotanical expertise, integrated with detailed sedimentology and stratigraphy, to reconstruct Permian-Triassic plant communities and their paleoenvironments. This interdisciplinary approach could uncover details of Antarctica?s complex late Paleozoic and Mesozoic environmental and climatic history which included: 1) deglaciation, 2) development and evolution of a post-glacial landscape and biota, 3) environmental and biotic change associated with the end-Permian mass extinction, 4) environmental recovery in the earliest Triassic, 5) strong, possible runaway Triassic greenhouse, and 6) widespread orogenesis and development of a foreland basin system. The PIs will collect compression floras both quantitatively and qualitatively to obtain biodiversity and abundance data. Since silicified wood is also present, the PIs will analyze tree rings and growth in a warm, high-latitude environment for which there is no modern analogue. Fossil plants from the CTM can provide biological and environmental information to: 1) interpret paleoclimate when Gondwana moved from icehouse to greenhouse conditions; 2) trace floral evolution across the P-T boundary; 3) reconstruct Antarctic plant life; 4) further understanding of plant adaptations to high latitudes. The Intellectual Merit of the research includes: 1) tracing floral evolution after the retreat of glaciers; 2) examining floral composition and diversity across the PTB; and 3) obtaining data on the recovery of these ecosystems in the Early Triassic, as well as changes in floral cover and diversity in the Early-Middle Triassic. Antarctica is the only place on Earth that includes extensive outcrops of terrestrial rocks, combined with widespread and well-preserved plant fossils, which spans this crucial time period.<br/><br/>Broader impacts:<br/>The broader impacts include public outreach; teaching, and mentoring of women and underrepresented students; mentoring graduate student, postdoctoral, and new faculty women; development of an inquiry-based workshop on Antarctic paleoclimate with the Division of Education, KU Natural History Museum; continuing support of workshops for middle school girls in science via the Expanding Your Horizons Program, Emporia State University, and the TRIO program, KU; exploring Antarctic geosciences through video/computer links from McMurdo Station and satellite phone conferences from the field with K-12 science classes in Wisconsin and Kansas, and through participation in the NSF Research Experiences for Teachers program at the University of Wisconsin. | None | None | false | false | ||||||||||||
Ocean Surfaces on Snowball Earth
|
0739779 1142963 |
2013-07-10 | Warren, Stephen; Light, Bonnie; Campbell, Adam; Carns, Regina; Dadic, Ruzica; Mullen, Peter; Brandt, Richard; Waddington, Edwin D. |
|
The climatic changes of late Precambrian time, 600-800 million years ago, included episodes of extreme glaciation, during which ice may have covered nearly the entire ocean for several million years, according to the Snowball Earth hypothesis. These episodes would hold an important place in Earth?s evolutionary history; they could have encouraged biodiversity by trapping life forms in small isolated ice-free areas, or they could have caused massive extinctions that cleared the path for new life forms to fill empty niches. What caused the Earth to become iced over, and what later caused the ice to melt? Scientific investigation of these questions will result in greater understanding of the climatic changes that the Earth can experience, and will enable better predictions of future climate. This project involves Antarctic field observations as well as laboratory studies and computer modeling. The aim of this project is not to prove or disprove the Snowball Earth hypothesis but rather to quantify processes that are important for simulating snowball events in climate models. The principal goal is to identify the types of ice that would have been present on the frozen ocean, and to determine how much sunlight they would reflect back to space. Reflection of sunlight by bright surfaces of snow and ice is what would maintain the cold climate at low latitudes. The melting of the ocean required buildup of greenhouse gases, but it was probably aided by deposition of desert dust and volcanic ash darkening the snow and ice. With so much ice on the Earth?s surface, even small differences in the amount of light that the ice absorbed or reflected could cause significant changes in climate. The properties of the ice would also determine where, and in what circumstances, photosynthetic life could have survived. Some kinds of ice that are rare on the modern Earth may have been pivotal in allowing the tropical ocean to freeze. The ocean surfaces would have included some ice types that now exist only in Antarctica: bare cold sea ice with precipitated salts, and "blue ice" areas of the Transantarctic Mountains that were exposed by sublimation and have not experienced melting. Field expeditions were mounted to examine these ice types, and the data analysis is underway. A third ice type, sea ice with a salt crust, is being studied in a freezer laboratory. Modeling will show how sunlight would interact with ice containing light-absorbing dust and volcanic ash. Aside from its reflection of sunlight, ice on the Snowball ocean would have been thick enough to flow under its own weight, invading all parts of the ocean. Yet evidence for the survival of photosynthetic life indicates that some regions of liquid water were maintained at the ocean surface. One possible refuge for photosynthetic organisms is a bay at the far end of a nearly enclosed tropical sea, formed by continental rifting and surrounded by desert, such as the modern Red Sea. A model of glacier flow is being developed to determine the dimensions of the channel, connecting the sea to the ocean, necessary to prevent invasion by the flowing ice yet maintain a water supply to replenish evaporation. | POLYGON((157 -76,158.1 -76,159.2 -76,160.3 -76,161.4 -76,162.5 -76,163.6 -76,164.7 -76,165.8 -76,166.9 -76,168 -76,168 -76.2,168 -76.4,168 -76.6,168 -76.8,168 -77,168 -77.2,168 -77.4,168 -77.6,168 -77.8,168 -78,166.9 -78,165.8 -78,164.7 -78,163.6 -78,162.5 -78,161.4 -78,160.3 -78,159.2 -78,158.1 -78,157 -78,157 -77.8,157 -77.6,157 -77.4,157 -77.2,157 -77,157 -76.8,157 -76.6,157 -76.4,157 -76.2,157 -76)) | POINT(162.5 -77) | false | false | |||||||||||
Using molecular data to test connectivity and the circumpolar paradigm for Antarctic marine invertebrates
|
1043749 |
2013-06-24 | Rouse, Gregory |
|
The west Antarctic Peninsula is warming rapidly, and continuing changes in the thermal regime will likely result in severe consequences for marine fauna, including potential extinction of strongly adapted stenotherms, and invasions from neighboring faunas. Initial impacts of climate change may result in changes in connectivity among populations of the same species. These changes may will be undetectable by direct observation, but may be assessed via genetic connectivity, i.e. differences in allele or haplotype frequencies among populations can be used to infer levels of gene flow. The proposed research will explore the role that the Scotia Arc plays in connecting populations from South America to Antarctica, a corridor identified as a likely entry route for invaders into Antarctica. It also will examine the way in which cryptic species may confound our knowledge of broad-scale distributions, and in doing so, make contributions towards understanding biodiversity and testing the paradigm of circumpolarity in Antarctica. The principal investigator will to collect multi-locus genetic data across 'species' from a broad suite of benthic marine invertebrate phyla, from multiple locations, in order to address hypotheses regarding speciation and connectivity, to estimate demographic population changes, and to identify the underlying processes that drive observed phylogeographic patterns. Comparative phylogeography is a particularly valuable approach because it enables the identification of long-term barriers and refugia common to groups of species and is consequently highly relevant to conservation planning. Moreover, this work will form a valuable baseline for detecting future changes in connectivity. The results of the research will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at conferences. In addition, the project will support the interdisciplinary training of a female graduate student, two undergraduate students, and host additional summer students through the STARS program at SIO, which helps minority students prepare for graduate school. This project will integrate research and education through conducting an interdisciplinary workshop that brings together Earth Science and Biology high school teachers. This workshop aims to assist teachers derive their own curricula uniting plate tectonics, ocean history and evolution, supporting a new high school earth sciences program. Information generated by this project will also directly feed into international efforts to design a series of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Antarctica. | None | None | false | false | |||||||||||
Collaborative Research: Limits and Drivers of Metazoan Distributions in the Transantarctic Mountains
|
0840979 0840705 |
2011-10-03 | Adams, Byron; Wall, Diana | Ice sheet models of the Last Glacial Maximum, and previous glaciation events in the Miocene, suggest that current low altitude, ice-free surfaces in Antarctica were completely covered with ice. If so, the terrestrial biota of Antarctica today would result from recolonization events after each glacial maximum. However, there is emerging evidence that much of the terrestrial Antarctic biota are of ancient origin and have somehow survived these glaciation events. The Transantarctic Mountains TRANsition Zone (TAM-TRANZ) plays a pivotal role in understanding the evolution and biogeographic history of today's Antarctic terrestrial biota, primarily because it contains numerous inland areas that could have served as refugia during glacial maxima. Due to its remote location, the TAM-TRANZ has not been systematically surveyed for animal biodiversity. Although an exhaustive survey of the region requires a multi-discipline, multi-year and multi-region effort, the research herein combines ecological, evolutionary and geophysical expertise to conduct an exploratory investigation of the extreme southern limits of biotic communities. The project will examine the historical geophysical requirements for the colonization and maintenance of functional ecosystems by multicellular organisms, and the feasibility and desirability to implement more systematic biogeographic studies in the future. Broader impacts include graduate and undergraduate student ownership of important subprojects that will provide research, presentation and publication opportunities. The investigators also will contribute to ongoing public education efforts through relationships with K-12 teachers and administrators in the public school districts where the project personnel reside. Finally, the project is leveraged by opportunistic collaboration with scientists associated with Antarctica New Zealand. | POLYGON((165.35155 -83.71592,166.143133 -83.71592,166.934716 -83.71592,167.726299 -83.71592,168.517882 -83.71592,169.309465 -83.71592,170.101048 -83.71592,170.892631 -83.71592,171.684214 -83.71592,172.475797 -83.71592,173.26738 -83.71592,173.26738 -83.894053,173.26738 -84.072186,173.26738 -84.250319,173.26738 -84.428452,173.26738 -84.606585,173.26738 -84.784718,173.26738 -84.962851,173.26738 -85.140984,173.26738 -85.319117,173.26738 -85.49725,172.475797 -85.49725,171.684214 -85.49725,170.892631 -85.49725,170.101048 -85.49725,169.309465 -85.49725,168.517882 -85.49725,167.726299 -85.49725,166.934716 -85.49725,166.143133 -85.49725,165.35155 -85.49725,165.35155 -85.319117,165.35155 -85.140984,165.35155 -84.962851,165.35155 -84.784718,165.35155 -84.606585,165.35155 -84.428452,165.35155 -84.250319,165.35155 -84.072186,165.35155 -83.894053,165.35155 -83.71592)) | POINT(169.309465 -84.606585) | false | false | ||||||||||||
Studies of Antarctic Fungi: Adaptive Stratigies for Survival and Protecting Antarctica's Historic Structures
|
0537143 |
2010-05-24 | Blanchette, Robert | Fungi in Antarctic ecosystems are major contributors to biodiversity and have great influence on many processes such as biodegradation and nutrient cycling. It is essential for biological surveys as well as genomic and proteomic studies to be completed so a better understanding of these organisms is obtained. Previous research has identified unique fungi associated with historic wooden structures brought to Antarctica by Robert F. Scott and Ernest Shackleton during the Heroic Era of exploration. Many of the fungi found are previously undescribed species that belong to the little known genus Cadophora. The research team will obtain important new information on the fungi present in the Ross Sea and Peninsula Regions of Antarctica, particularly their role in decomposition and nutrient recycling and their mechanisms and strategies for survival in the polar environment. New tools and methods include denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), real-time PCR, and proteomic profiling. These analyses will reveal key details of the physiological adaptations these fungi have evolved to carry out processes such as biodegradation and nutrient cycling under conditions that would inhibit other fungi. This work, coupled with the training and learning opportunities it provides, will be of value to many fields of study including microbial ecology, polar biology, wood microbiology, environmental science, soil science, geobiochemistry, and mycology as well as fungal phylogenetics, proteomics and genomics. Results obtained will have immediate applied use to help preserve and protect Antarctica's historic monuments. The investigations proposed are a continuation of research to identify the microbes attacking these historic structures and artifacts and to elucidate their biology and ecology in the polar environment. New research will also be done at the historic Cape Adare huts, the first wooden structures to be built in Antarctica and also at East Base, an American historic site on Stonington Island from the Admiral Byrd and Ronne Expeditions of 1939-1948. The research team will conduct vital studies needed to successfully conserve the wooden structures and artifacts at these sites and protect them for future generations | POLYGON((-69 -60,-68.3 -60,-67.6 -60,-66.9 -60,-66.2 -60,-65.5 -60,-64.8 -60,-64.1 -60,-63.4 -60,-62.7 -60,-62 -60,-62 -61,-62 -62,-62 -63,-62 -64,-62 -65,-62 -66,-62 -67,-62 -68,-62 -69,-62 -70,-62.7 -70,-63.4 -70,-64.1 -70,-64.8 -70,-65.5 -70,-66.2 -70,-66.9 -70,-67.6 -70,-68.3 -70,-69 -70,-69 -69,-69 -68,-69 -67,-69 -66,-69 -65,-69 -64,-69 -63,-69 -62,-69 -61,-69 -60)) | POINT(-65.5 -65) | false | false | ||||||||||||
LEXEN: Protistan Biodiversity in Antarctic Marine Ecosystems: Molecular Biological and Traditional Approaches
|
9714299 |
2010-05-04 | Caron, David; Jeffries, Martin |
|
*** Caron 9714299 The analysis of microbial biodiversity of extreme environments is difficult because traditional methods for examining diversity are often ineffective for assessing species richness within these communities. Additional difficulties arise due to the difficulties of recreating and maintaining pertinent environmental features during sample collection and procession. This study focuses on the protistan assemblages (algae and protozoa) in the sea ice, sediment and ocean environments of the Ross Sea, Antarctica. The identification of protistan species in natural assemblages traditionally has entailed direct microscopical analyses as well as enrichment and culture techniques for assessing biodiversity. Determination of diversity for these assemblages in therefore susceptible to biases as a consequence of sampling, enrichment and culture, as well as selective losses due to sample preservation and concentration for microscopy. The goals of this project are: (1) to develop and apply molecular biological approaches to assess species diversity of small protists (algae and protozoa smaller than 100 micrometers) in ocean water, sea ice and sediment environments and (2) to obtain baseline physiological information on the growth rates, feeding rates and growth efficiencies of cultured protozoa under pertinent temperature regimes. Molecular biological studies will involve the use of PCR-based protocols to examine small subunit ribosomal RNA gene (srDNA) diversity. Approaches and techniques developed will be applicable to any other water body or sediment and would provide a means to examine the representativeness of protistan cultures in extant culture collections. *** | POLYGON((-179.9984 -43.56676,-143.99865 -43.56676,-107.9989 -43.56676,-71.99915 -43.56676,-35.9994 -43.56676,0.000349999999997 -43.56676,36.0001 -43.56676,71.99985 -43.56676,107.9996 -43.56676,143.99935 -43.56676,179.9991 -43.56676,179.9991 -47.057693,179.9991 -50.548626,179.9991 -54.039559,179.9991 -57.530492,179.9991 -61.021425,179.9991 -64.512358,179.9991 -68.003291,179.9991 -71.494224,179.9991 -74.985157,179.9991 -78.47609,143.99935 -78.47609,107.9996 -78.47609,71.99985 -78.47609,36.0001 -78.47609,0.000349999999997 -78.47609,-35.9994 -78.47609,-71.99915 -78.47609,-107.9989 -78.47609,-143.99865 -78.47609,-179.9984 -78.47609,-179.9984 -74.985157,-179.9984 -71.494224,-179.9984 -68.003291,-179.9984 -64.512358,-179.9984 -61.021425,-179.9984 -57.530492,-179.9984 -54.039559,-179.9984 -50.548626,-179.9984 -47.057693,-179.9984 -43.56676)) | POINT(0 -89.999) | false | false | |||||||||||
Biodiversity, Buoyancy and Morphological Studies of Non-Antarctic Notothenioid Fishes
|
0436190 |
2009-03-30 | Eastman, Joseph |
|
Patterns of biodiversity, as revealed by basic research in organismal biology, may be derived from ecological and evolutionary processes expressed in unique settings, such as Antarctica. The polar regions and their faunas are commanding increased attention as declining species diversity, environmental change, commercial fisheries, and resource management are now being viewed in a global context. Commercial fishing is known to have a direct and pervasive effect on marine biodiversity, and occurs in the Southern Ocean as far south as the Ross Sea. <br/>The nature of fish biodiversity in the Antarctic is different than in all other ocean shelf areas. Waters of the Antarctic continental shelf are ice covered for most of the year and water temperatures are nearly constant at -1.5 C. In these waters components of the phyletically derived Antarctic clade of Notothenioids dominate fish diversity. In some regions, including the southwestern Ross Sea, Notothenioids are overwhelmingly dominant in terms of number of species, abundance, and biomass. Such dominance by a single taxonomic group is unique among shelf faunas of the world. In the absence of competition from a taxonomically diverse fauna, Notothenioids underwent a habitat or depth related diversification keyed to the utilization of unfilled niches in the water column, especially pelagic or partially pelagic zooplanktivory and piscivory. This has been accomplished in the absence of a swim bladder for buoyancy control. They also may form a special type of adaptive radiation known as a species flock, which is an assemblage of a disproportionately high number of related species that have evolved rapidly within a defined area where most species are endemic. Diversification in buoyancy is the hallmark of the notothenioid radiation. Buoyancy is the feature of notothenioid biology that determines whether a species lives on the substrate, in the water column or both. Buoyancy also influences other key aspects of life history including swimming, feeding and reproduction and thus has implications for the role of the species in the ecosystem. <br/>With similarities to classic evolutionary hot spots, the Antarctic shelf and its Notothenioid radiation merit further exploration. The 2004 "International Collaborative Expedition to collect and study Fish Indigenous to Sub-Antarctic Habitats," or, "ICEFISH," provided a platform for collection of notothenioid fishes from sub-Antarctic waters between South America and Africa, which will be examined in this project. This study will determine buoyancy for samples of all notothenioid species captured during the ICEFISH cruise. This essential aspect of the biology is known for only 19% of the notothenioid fauna. Also, the gross and microscopic anatomy of brains and sense organs of the phyletically basal families Bovichtidae, Eleginopidae, and of the non-Antarctic species of the primarily Antarctic family Nototheniidae will be examined. The fish biodiversity and endemicity in poorly known localities along the ICEFISH cruise track, seamounts and deep trenches will be quantified. Broader impacts include improved information for comprehending and conserving biodiversity, a scientific and societal priority. | POLYGON((-180 -60,-144 -60,-108 -60,-72 -60,-36 -60,0 -60,36 -60,72 -60,108 -60,144 -60,180 -60,180 -63,180 -66,180 -69,180 -72,180 -75,180 -78,180 -81,180 -84,180 -87,180 -90,144 -90,108 -90,72 -90,36 -90,0 -90,-36 -90,-72 -90,-108 -90,-144 -90,-180 -90,-180 -87,-180 -84,-180 -81,-180 -78,-180 -75,-180 -72,-180 -69,-180 -66,-180 -63,-180 -60)) | POINT(0 -89.999) | false | false | |||||||||||
Collaborative Research: Hydrologic Controls over Biogeochemistry and Microbial Community Structure and Function across Terrestrial/Aquatic Interfaces in a Polar Desert
|
0338267 |
2008-09-11 | Gooseff, Michael N.; Barrett, John; Takacs-Vesbach, Cristina |
|
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.<br/><br/>This 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. | 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)) | POINT(162.465 -77.575) | false | false |