{"dp_type": "Project", "free_text": "ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS"}
[{"awards": "2333917 Dong, Xiaoli", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((161 -77.5,161.1 -77.5,161.2 -77.5,161.3 -77.5,161.4 -77.5,161.5 -77.5,161.6 -77.5,161.7 -77.5,161.8 -77.5,161.9 -77.5,162 -77.5,162 -77.51,162 -77.52,162 -77.53,162 -77.53999999999999,162 -77.55,162 -77.56,162 -77.57,162 -77.58,162 -77.58999999999999,162 -77.6,161.9 -77.6,161.8 -77.6,161.7 -77.6,161.6 -77.6,161.5 -77.6,161.4 -77.6,161.3 -77.6,161.2 -77.6,161.1 -77.6,161 -77.6,161 -77.58999999999999,161 -77.58,161 -77.57,161 -77.56,161 -77.55,161 -77.53999999999999,161 -77.53,161 -77.52,161 -77.51,161 -77.5))", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Thu, 27 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Ecosystems worldwide are threatened by anthropogenic changes in climate. Lakes are widely regarded as sentinels of climate change and, among these, polar lakes are the most sensitive. Beneath meters of permanent ice and liquid water, many Antarctic lakes contain complex microbial communities that are already being transformed by climate change. The structurally complex spatial patterns that these microbes create provide the opportunity to pursue research questions about spatial ecology that cannot be addressed elsewhere. This project focuses on research that will advance understanding of the spatial structure of benthic communities in Antarctic lakes, their relationships with environmental conditions, and predictions for likely changes in the future. This project will also advance methods in integrating the morphology and spatial patterning of modern microbial communities in relationship to their biophysical and biochemical environments. The quantitative framework being developed has potential to refine understanding of controls on microbial community patterning and thus interpretation of both the effects of climate change and ancient fossil microbial communities in the geologic record. Such understanding will address key questions about Earth\u2019s evolutionary and environmental history and future. Lake Vanda in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctic, has modern microbial pinnacles covering its lake floor. Using existing datasets on spatial structure of benthic communities from 37 sites on the floor of Lake Vanda, the project team will apply recent theories from Spatial Ecology to investigate the mechanisms that give rise to spatial patterns of pinnacles formed by benthic microbes. The work addresses two questions: (1) What are the morphological and spatial patterns of pinnacles and how do they vary over developmental stages, along environment gradients, and from 2013 to 2023? And (2) what mechanisms give rise to the geometry of individual pinnacles and their spatial distribution? Lake Vanda provides an exceptional opportunity to address these questions. It features well characterized gradients in sedimentation, nutrients, irradiance, transport mechanism, and colonization history. Benthic communities at different locations in the lake manifest distinct spatial patterns, as they experience distinct conditions. Lake level has increased \u003e10 m in the past few decades, creating additional opportunities for a \u201cnatural experiment\u201d on pattern development by comparing relatively newly flooded substrates (pinnacles of 1 to 15 years old) with deeper, well-developed mats (\u003e 70 years old). Since microbial communities respond to environmental change rapidly, analyses can characterize changes in patterns in pinnacle spatial data collected 9 years apart (Dec 2013 and Jan 2023), providing the opportunity to directly assess responses of spatially self-organized ecosystems to environmental change. As such, Lake Vanda is a natural laboratory that allows research (1) to effectively sort out mechanisms of pattern formation affecting benthic microbial communities residing there; and (2) to test the theory of spatial self-organization: mechanisms of pattern formation and responses to perturbations, applicable to ecosystems worldwide. Research questions will be addressed by integrating existing datasets, spatial pattern analyses, Bayesian statistical models, and process-based numerical models. 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": 162.0, "geometry": "POINT(161.5 -77.55)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Lake Vanda; ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS", "locations": "Lake Vanda", "north": -77.5, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Dong, Xiaoli; Sumner, Dawn", "platforms": null, "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -77.6, "title": "Effects of Environmental Change on Microbial Self-organized Patterns in Antarctic Lakes", "uid": "p0010499", "west": 161.0}, {"awards": "2317995 Herman, Rachael", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-65 -61,-64 -61,-63 -61,-62 -61,-61 -61,-60 -61,-59 -61,-58 -61,-57 -61,-56 -61,-55 -61,-55 -61.5,-55 -62,-55 -62.5,-55 -63,-55 -63.5,-55 -64,-55 -64.5,-55 -65,-55 -65.5,-55 -66,-56 -66,-57 -66,-58 -66,-59 -66,-60 -66,-61 -66,-62 -66,-63 -66,-64 -66,-65 -66,-65 -65.5,-65 -65,-65 -64.5,-65 -64,-65 -63.5,-65 -63,-65 -62.5,-65 -62,-65 -61.5,-65 -61))", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Fri, 04 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) inhabit one of the fastest warming regions on Earth, the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP), where environmental shifts are measured in years, not decades. Despite this, the species is flourishing, growing in numbers and colonizing new habitats while sister species, such as Ad\u00e9lie penguins (P. adeliae), are declining in the region. This project will investigate to what extent epigenetics contributes to the success of gentoo penguins. Epigenetic variation is controlled by modifications to DNA or chromatin structure that affect the expression of genes, rather than changes to the underlying DNA sequence. This project will improve the understanding of gentoo penguin adaptation to climate change, and whether it is a result of increased flexibility in behavior and physiology driven by a greater capacity for epigenetic changes (i.e., epigenetic potential). The most studied form of epigenetic variation is the profiling of DNA methylation patterns. Environmental effects can trigger changes in DNA methylation that target specific tissues, allowing for localized gene expression shifts that result in modifications to the phenotype of an organism without any alteration to the underlying genotype. Given that epigenetic variation between populations often exceeds genetic variation, fine-scale genetic differentiation observed amongst gentoo penguin colonies suggests the possibility for local adaptation via even more divergent epigenetic changes and provides a framework for examining epigenetic variation across the gentoo penguin breeding range along multiple ecological axes. The researchers will test this by comprehensively characterizing the epigenomic profiles via patterns of DNA methylation in wild gentoo and Ad\u00e9lie penguins using cutting-edge high-resolution genomics techniques. Specifically, they will investigate whether gentoo penguins exhibit a greater degree of differences in DNA-methylation than underlying genetic differences, suggesting such epigenetic variation is driven by external environmental variables, potentially leading to improved capacity for local adaptation. This project will explore whether epigenetic potential may be selected for in individuals who disperse to new colony locations by comparing older, established colonies to new colonies at the range-edge. By implementing cutting-edge epigenetic methods in wild populations of gentoo penguins, this project will help address ecological questions on environmental plasticity that will impact conservation efforts and decisions on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) on the Antarctic Peninsula. 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": -55.0, "geometry": "POINT(-60 -63.5)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Gentoo Penguin; ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS; Adaptation; Methylation; Antarctic Peninsula; Climate Change; Epigenetic Variation; PENGUINS", "locations": "Antarctic Peninsula", "north": -61.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Post Doc/Travel", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Herman, Rachael", "platforms": null, "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -66.0, "title": "Postdoctoral Fellowship: OPP-PRF: Epigenetic Potential as a Driver of Local Adaptation in Gentoo Penguins (Pygoscelis Papua) along the Western Antarctic Peninsula", "uid": "p0010477", "west": -65.0}, {"awards": "2224760 Gooseff, Michael", "bounds_geometry": "POINT(162.87 -77)", "dataset_titles": "EDI Data Portal: McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200379", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "Environmental Data Initiative (EDI)", "science_program": null, "title": "EDI Data Portal: McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER", "url": "https://portal.edirepository.org/nis/browseServlet?searchValue=MCM"}], "date_created": "Tue, 14 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Non-technical Abstract The McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER seeks to understand how changes in the temporal variability of ecological connectivity interact with existing landscape legacies to alter the structure and functioning of this extreme polar desert ecosystem. This research has broad implications, as it will help us to understand how natural ecosystems respond to ongoing anthropogenic global change. At the same time, this project also serves an important educational and outreach function, providing immersive research and educational experiences to students and artists from diverse backgrounds, and helping to ensure a diverse and well-trained next generation of leaders in polar ecosystem science and stewardship. Ultimately, the results of this project will help us to better understand and prepare for the effects of climate change and develop scientific insights that are relevant far beyond Antarctic ecosystems. The McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDVs) make up an extreme polar desert ecosystem in the largest ice-free region of Antarctica. The organisms in this ecosystem are generally small. Bacteria, microinvertebrates, cyanobacterial mats, and phytoplankton can be found across the streams, soils, glaciers, and ice-covered lakes. These organisms have adapted to the cold and arid conditions that prevail outside of lakes for all but a brief period in the austral summer when the ecosystem is connected by liquid water. In the summer when air temperatures rise barely above freezing, soils warm and glacial meltwater flows through streams into the open moats of lakes. Most biological activity across the landscape occurs in summer. Through the winter, or polar night (6 months of darkness), glaciers, streams, and soil biota are inactive until sufficient light, heat, and liquid water return, while lake communities remain active all year. Over the past 30 years, the MDVs have been disturbed by cooling, heatwaves, floods, rising lake levels, as well as permafrost and lake ice thaw. Considering the clear ecological responses to this variation in physical drivers, and climate models predicting further warming and more precipitation, the MDV ecosystem sits at a threshold between the current extreme cold and dry conditions and an uncertain future. This project seeks to determine how important the legacy of past events and conditions versus current physical and biological interactions shape the current ecosystem. Four hypotheses will be tested, related to 1) whether the status of specific organisms are indicative ecosystem stability, 2) the relationship between legacies of past events to current ecosystem resilience (resistance to big changes), 3) carryover of materials between times of high ecosystem connectivity and activity help to maintain ecosystem stability, and 4) changes in disturbances affect how this ecosystem persists through the annual polar night (i.e., extended period of dark and cold). Technical Abstract In this iteration of the McMurdo LTER project (MCM6), the project team will test ecological connectivity and stability theory in a system subject to strong physical drivers (geological legacies, extreme seasonality, and contemporary climate change) and driven by microbial organisms. Since microorganisms regulate most of the world\u2019s critical biogeochemical functions, these insights will be relevant far beyond polar ecosystems and will inform understanding and expectations of how natural and managed ecosystems respond to ongoing anthropogenic global change. MCM6 builds on previous foundational research, both in Antarctica and within the LTER network, to consider the temporal aspects of connectivity and how it relates to ecosystem stability. The project will examine how changes in the temporal variability of ecological connectivity interact with the legacies of the existing landscape that have defined habitats and biogeochemical cycling for millennia. The project team hypothesizes that the structure and functioning of the MDV ecosystem is dependent upon legacies and the contemporary frequency, duration, and magnitude of ecological connectivity. This hypothesis will be tested with new and continuing monitoring, experiments, and analyses of long-term datasets to examine: 1) the stability of these ecosystems as reflected by sentinel taxa, 2) the relationship between ecological legacies and ecosystem resilience, 3) the importance of material carryover during periods of low connectivity to maintaining biological activity and community stability, and 4) how changes in disturbance dynamics disrupt ecological cycles through the polar night. Tests of these hypotheses will occur in field and modeling activities using new and long-term datasets already collected. New datasets resulting from field activities will be made freely available via widely-known online databases (MCM LTER and EDI). The project team has also developed six Antarctic Core Ideas that encompass themes from data literacy to polar food webs and form a consistent thread across the education and outreach activities. Building on past success, collaborations will be established with teachers and artists embedded within the science teams, who will work to develop educational modules with science content informed by direct experience and artistic expression. Undergraduate mentoring efforts will incorporate computational methods through a new data-intensive scientific training program for MCM REU students. The project will also establish an Antarctic Research Experience for Community College Students at CU Boulder, to provide an immersive educational and research experience for students from diverse backgrounds in community colleges. MCM LTER will continue its mission of training and mentoring students, postdocs, and early career scientists as the next generation of leaders in polar ecosystem science and stewardship. Historically underrepresented participation will be expanded at each level of the project. To aid in these efforts, the project has established Education \u0026 Outreach and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committees to lead, coordinate, support, and integrate these activities through all aspects of MCM6. 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": 162.87, "geometry": "POINT(162.87 -77)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "COMMUNITY DYNAMICS; ABLATION ZONES/ACCUMULATION ZONES; SOIL TEMPERATURE; DIATOMS; FIELD INVESTIGATION; PERMANENT LAND SITES; BUOYS; GROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS; SEDIMENTS; SNOW WATER EQUIVALENT; SPECIES/POPULATION INTERACTIONS; WATER-BASED PLATFORMS; FIXED OBSERVATION STATIONS; VIRUSES; PHYTOPLANKTON; ACTIVE LAYER; FIELD SURVEYS; RADIO TRANSMITTERS; DATA COLLECTIONS; ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS; LANDSCAPE; GROUND WATER; SNOW/ICE CHEMISTRY; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS; ANIMALS/INVERTEBRATES; ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS; HUMIDITY; GEOCHEMISTRY; SURFACE WINDS; RIVERS/STREAM; GLACIER MASS BALANCE/ICE SHEET MASS BALANCE; SNOW; LAND RECORDS; ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE; SURFACE TEMPERATURE; ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION; BACTERIA/ARCHAEA; AIR TEMPERATURE; GLACIERS; SNOW/ICE TEMPERATURE; SOIL CHEMISTRY; METEOROLOGICAL STATIONS; WATER QUALITY/WATER CHEMISTRY; TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS; MOORED; PROTISTS; STREAMFLOW STATION; Dry Valleys; LAKE/POND; LAKE ICE; SNOW DEPTH; AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS; SNOW DENSITY; FIELD SITES", "locations": "Dry Valleys", "north": -77.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Integrated System Science", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Gooseff, Michael N.; Adams, Byron; Barrett, John; Diaz, Melisa A.; Doran, Peter; Dugan, Hilary A.; Mackey, Tyler; Morgan-Kiss, Rachael; Salvatore, Mark; Takacs-Vesbach, Cristina; Zeglin, Lydia H.", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e DATA COLLECTIONS; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD INVESTIGATION; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD SURVEYS; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e RADIO TRANSMITTERS; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e PERMANENT LAND SITES; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e PERMANENT LAND SITES \u003e FIXED OBSERVATION STATIONS; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e PERMANENT LAND SITES \u003e GROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e PERMANENT LAND SITES \u003e METEOROLOGICAL STATIONS; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e PERMANENT LAND SITES \u003e STREAMFLOW STATION; WATER-BASED PLATFORMS; WATER-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e BUOYS; WATER-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e BUOYS \u003e MOORED; WATER-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e BUOYS \u003e MOORED \u003e BUOYS", "repo": "Environmental Data Initiative (EDI)", "repositories": "Environmental Data Initiative (EDI)", "science_programs": "LTER", "south": -77.0, "title": "LTER: MCM6 - The Roles of Legacy and Ecological Connectivity in a Polar Desert Ecosystem", "uid": "p0010440", "west": 162.87}, {"awards": "2231558 Smith, Nathan; 2231559 Tinto, Kirsteen", "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, 01 Sep 2023 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The unique Antarctic environment offers insight into processes and records not seen anywhere else on Earth, and is critical to understanding our planet\u2019s history and future. The remoteness and logistics of Antarctic science brings together researchers from diverse disciplines who otherwise wouldn\u2019t be presented with opportunities for collaboration, and often rarely attend the same academic conferences. The Interdisciplinary Antarctic Earth Science (IAES) conference is a biennial gathering that supports the collaboration of U.S. bio-, cryo-, geo-, and atmospheric science researchers working in the Antarctic. This proposal will support the next two IAES conferences to be held in 2022 and 2024, as well as a paired deep-field camp planning workshop. The IAES conference is important to the mission of the NSF in supporting interdisciplinary collaboration in the Antarctic Earth sciences, but also fulfills recommendations by the National Academy for improving cross-disciplinary awareness, data sharing, and early career researcher mentoring and development. The size and scope of the IAES conference allow it to serve as a hub for novel, interdisciplinary collaboration, as well as help develop the next generation of Antarctic Earth scientists. The goals of the IAES conference are to develop and deepen scientific collaborations across the Antarctic Earth science community, and create a framework for future deep-field, as well as non-field-based research. Across a 2.5 day hybrid conference, the IAES themes will include 1) connecting surficial processes, geology, and the deep earth; 2) landscape, ice sheet, ocean and atmospheric interactions; 3) exploring the hidden continent; and 4) evolution and ecology of ancient and modern organisms, ecosystems, and environments. The conference will share science through presentations of current research and keynote talks, broaden participation through welcoming new researchers from under-represented communities and disciplines, and deepen collaboration through interdisciplinary networking highlighting potential research connections, novel mentorship activities, and promoting data re-use, and application of remote sensing and modeling. Discussions resulting from the IAES conference will be used to develop white papers on future Antarctic collaborative research and deep-field camps based on community-driven research priorities. Community surveys and feedback will be solicited throughout the project to guide the future development of the IAES conference. 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": "GEOMORPHIC LANDFORMS/PROCESSES; GEOCHEMISTRY; California; ICE CORE RECORDS; ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS; GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS; PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTIONS", "locations": "California", "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences; Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Smith, Nathan; Tinto, Kirsty", "platforms": null, "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -90.0, "title": "Collaborative Research: Conference: Interdisciplinary Antarctic Earth Science Conference \u0026 Deep-Field Planning Workshop", "uid": "p0010432", "west": -180.0}, {"awards": "1932876 Ball, Becky", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-59.666116 -62.15,-59.5128377 -62.15,-59.3595594 -62.15,-59.2062811 -62.15,-59.0530028 -62.15,-58.8997245 -62.15,-58.7464462 -62.15,-58.5931679 -62.15,-58.4398896 -62.15,-58.2866113 -62.15,-58.133333 -62.15,-58.133333 -62.1731502,-58.133333 -62.1963004,-58.133333 -62.2194506,-58.133333 -62.2426008,-58.133333 -62.265751,-58.133333 -62.2889012,-58.133333 -62.3120514,-58.133333 -62.3352016,-58.133333 -62.3583518,-58.133333 -62.381502,-58.2866113 -62.381502,-58.4398896 -62.381502,-58.5931679 -62.381502,-58.7464462 -62.381502,-58.8997245 -62.381502,-59.0530028 -62.381502,-59.2062811 -62.381502,-59.3595594 -62.381502,-59.5128377 -62.381502,-59.666116 -62.381502,-59.666116 -62.3583518,-59.666116 -62.3352016,-59.666116 -62.3120514,-59.666116 -62.2889012,-59.666116 -62.265751,-59.666116 -62.2426008,-59.666116 -62.2194506,-59.666116 -62.1963004,-59.666116 -62.1731502,-59.666116 -62.15))", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Thu, 14 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Part I: Non-technical summary The Antarctic Peninsula warmed very rapidly in the late part of the 20th century, much faster than the global average, and this warming is predicted to resume and continue over the rest of the 21st century. One consequence of this rapid warming is the melting and subsequent retreat of glaciers, leading to an increase in newly-exposed land on the Peninsula that was previously covered with ice. Once new terrain is exposed, the process of ecological succession begins, with the arrival of early-colonizing plants, such as moss and lichens, and soil organisms - a process commonly referred to as the \u201cgreening\u201d of Antarctica. Early stages of succession will be an increasingly common feature on the Antarctic Peninsula, but the mechanisms by which they occur on the Antarctic continent is not well understood. Once the plants have established on the newly-exposed soil, they can change many important properties, such as water dynamics, nutrient recycling, soil development, and habitat for microscopic organisms, which will ultimately determine the structure and functioning of the future ecosystem as it develops. These relationships between vegetation, soil, and the associated microorganisms, referred to as \u201cplant-soil\u201d interactions, are something we know virtually nothing about. This project will be the first to make a comprehensive study of how the type of colonizing plant, and the expansion of those plants from climate change, will influence terrestrial ecosystems in Antarctica. Understanding these processes is critical to understanding how the greening Antarctica is occurring and how soil communities and processes are influenced by these expanding plant communities. Through this work the research team, will also be intensively training undergraduate and graduate students, including training of students from underrepresented groups and collaborative training of students from Chile and the US. Additionally, the research groups will continue their focus on scientific outreach with K-12 schools and the general public to expand awareness of the effects of climate change in Antarctica. Part II: Technical summary In this study, the researchers will use surveys across succession sites along the Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Arc as well as a manipulative field experiment at glacier succession sites to test how species-specific plant functional traits impact soil properties and associated microbial and invertebrate communities in a greening Antarctica. In doing so, they will pursue three integrated aims to understand how Antarctic plant functional traits alter their soil environment and soil communities during succession after glacial retreat. AIM 1) Characterize six fundamental plant functional traits (thermal conductivity, water holding capacity, albedo, decomposability, tissue nutrient content, and secondary chemistry) among diverse Antarctica flora; AIM 2) Measure the relative effects of fundamental plant functional traits on soil physical properties and soil biogeochemistry across glacial succession gradients in Antarctica; and AIM 3) Measure the relative effects of fundamental plant functional traits on soil microbial and invertebrate communities across glacial succession gradients in Antarctica. They will explore how early-colonizing plants, especially mosses and lichens, alter soil physical, biogeochemical, and biological components, potentially impacting later patterns of succession. The researhcers will use intensive surveys of plant-soil interactions across succession sites and a manipulative transplant experiment in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica to address their aims. The investigators will collect data on plant functional traits and their effects on soil physical properties, biogeochemistry, biotic abundance, and microbial metagenomics. The data collected will be the first comprehensive measures of the relative importance of plant functional types during glacial retreat and vegetative expansion from climate change in Antarctica, aiding our understanding of how plant functional group diversity and abundance are changing in a greening Antarctica. 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": -58.133333, "geometry": "POINT(-58.8997245 -62.265751)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "AMD; FIELD SURVEYS; ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS; USA/NSF; SOIL CHEMISTRY; 25 De Mayo/King George Island; Antarctic Peninsula; PLANTS; Amd/Us; FUNGI; ANIMALS/INVERTEBRATES; USAP-DC; TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS; BACTERIA/ARCHAEA", "locations": "25 De Mayo/King George Island; Antarctic Peninsula", "north": -62.15, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Ball, Becky", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD SURVEYS", "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -62.381502, "title": "Collaborative Research: Exploring the Functional Role of Antarctic Plants during Terrestrial Succession", "uid": "p0010315", "west": -59.666116}, {"awards": "1951500 Jenouvrier, Stephanie", "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": "Data from: Individual life histories: Neither slow nor fast, just diverse; Evo-Demo Hyperstate Matrix Model Code Repository; Hyperstate matrix model reveals the influence of personality on demography; Individual life histories: neither slow nor fast, just diverse; Plastic Behaviour Buffers Climate Variability in the Wandering Albatross; Strong winds reduce foraging success in albatrosses; Subtropical anticyclone impacts life-history traits of a marine top predator; The impact of boldness on demographic rates and lifehistory outcomes in the wandering albatross", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200453", "doi": "10.5061/dryad.3bk3j9kpm", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "Dryad", "science_program": null, "title": "Data from: Individual life histories: Neither slow nor fast, just diverse", "url": "https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3bk3j9kpm"}, {"dataset_uid": "200457", "doi": " https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.10887354", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "ZENODO", "science_program": null, "title": "Plastic Behaviour Buffers Climate Variability in the Wandering Albatross", "url": "https://zenodo.org/records/14290546"}, {"dataset_uid": "200456", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "GITHUB", "science_program": null, "title": "Subtropical anticyclone impacts life-history traits of a marine top predator", "url": "https://github.com/fledge-whoi/Alba_Mascarene-High"}, {"dataset_uid": "200458", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3bk3j9kpm", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "DRYAD", "science_program": null, "title": "Individual life histories: neither slow nor fast, just diverse", "url": "https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6181063."}, {"dataset_uid": "601770", "doi": "10.15784/601770", "keywords": "Antarctica; Cryosphere; Demography; Sub-Antarctic", "people": "Jenouvrier, Stephanie; Joanie, Van de Walle", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "The impact of boldness on demographic rates and lifehistory outcomes in the wandering albatross", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601770"}, {"dataset_uid": "200459", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13881532", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "ZENODO", "science_program": null, "title": "Strong winds reduce foraging success in albatrosses", "url": "https://zenodo.org/records/13881532"}, {"dataset_uid": "200455", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "GITHUB", "science_program": null, "title": "Hyperstate matrix model reveals the influence of personality on demography", "url": "https://github.com/fledge-whoi/HyperstateWApopulationmodel"}, {"dataset_uid": "200454", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "GITHUB", "science_program": null, "title": "Evo-Demo Hyperstate Matrix Model Code Repository", "url": "https://github.com/fledge-whoi/Eco-EvoHyperstateModel"}], "date_created": "Wed, 08 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Part I: Nontechnical description: This award represents a collaborative geoscience research effort between US NSF and UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) researchers with efforts in each nation funded by their respective countries (Dear Colleague Letter NSF 16-132). The research will focus on understanding the links between behavior, ecology, and evolution in a Southern Ocean wandering albatross population in response to global changes in climate and in exploitation of natural resources. The most immediate response of animals to global change typically is behavioral, and this work will provide a more comprehensive understanding of how differences individual bird behavior affect evolution and adaptation for the population under changing environments. Characterization of albatross personality, life-history traits, and population dynamics collected over long time scales will be used to develop robust forecasting of species persistence in the face of future global changes. The results of this project will feed into conservation and management decisions for endangered Southern Ocean species. The work will also be used to provide specific research training at all levels, including a postdoctoral scholar, graduate students and K-12 students. It will also support education for the public about impacts from human-induced activities on our polar ecosystems using animations, public lectures, printed and web media. Part II: Technical description Past research has shown that individual animal personalities range over a continuum of behavior, such that some individuals are consistently more aggressive, more explorative, and bolder than others. How the phenotypic distributions of personality and foraging behavior types within a population is created and maintained by ecological (demographic and phenotypic plasticity) and evolutionary (heritability) processes remain an open question. Differences in personality traits determine how individuals acquire resources and how they allocate these to reproduction and survival. Although some studies have found different foraging behaviors or breeding performances between personality types, none have established the link between personality differences in foraging behaviors and life histories (both reproduction and survival, and their covariations) in the context of global change. Furthermore, plasticity in foraging behaviors is not considered in the pace-of-life syndrome, which has potentially hampered our ability to find covariation between personality and life history trade-off. This project will fill these knowledge gaps and develop an eco-evolutionary model of the complex interactions among individual personality and foraging plasticity, heritability of personality and foraging behaviors, life history strategies, population dynamics in a changing environment (fisheries and climate) using a long-term database consisting of ~1,800 tagged wandering albatross seabirds (Diomedea exulans) with defined individual personalities and life history traits breeding in the Southern Ocean. Climate projections from IPCC atmospheric-oceanic global circulation models will be used to provide projections of population structure under future global change conditions. Specifically, the team will (1) characterize the differences in life history strategies along the shy-bold continuum of personalities and across environmental conditions; (2) develop the link between phenotypic plasticity in foraging effort and personality; (3) characterize the heritability of personality and foraging behaviors; (4) develop a stochastic eco-evolutionary model to predict population growth rates in a changing environment. 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": "USAP-DC; NOT APPLICABLE; AMD; ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS; OCEAN TEMPERATURE; USA/NSF; Antarctica; SPECIES/POPULATION INTERACTIONS; PENGUINS; Amd/Us", "locations": "Antarctica", "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Integrated System Science", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Jenouvrier, Stephanie; Patrick, Samantha", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "repo": "Dryad", "repositories": "Dryad; DRYAD; GITHUB; USAP-DC; ZENODO", "science_programs": null, "south": -90.0, "title": "NSFGEO-NERC: Integrating Individual Personality Differences in the Evolutionary Ecology of a Seabird in the Rapidly Changing Polar Environment", "uid": "p0010283", "west": -180.0}, {"awards": "2037561 Jenouvrier, Stephanie", "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": "Code for \u015een et al. 2023; Detecting climate signals in populations: case of emperor penguin", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200373", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7803266", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "Zenodo", "science_program": null, "title": "Code for \u015een et al. 2023", "url": "https://zenodo.org/record/7803266"}, {"dataset_uid": "601491", "doi": "10.15784/601491", "keywords": "Antarctica", "people": "Jenouvrier, Stephanie", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Detecting climate signals in populations: case of emperor penguin", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601491"}], "date_created": "Wed, 08 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Many biogeochemical and biophysical processes are changing in the present and coming century. The mechanisms and the predictability of these processes are still poorly understood. Limits in understanding of these progress limits climate forecasting. Similarly, ecological forecasting remains a nascent discipline. Comparative assessments of predictability, both within and among species, are critically needed to understand the factors that allow (or prevent) useful ecological forecasts. This study will reveal the influence of climate system dynamics on ecological predictability across a range of scales, and will examine how this role differs among ecological processes, species and regions of Antarctic. The project research will examine the predictability of Antarctic climate and its influence on seabird demographic response, predictability at various temporal and spatial scales, using the longest datasets available for several polar species. Specifically, the PI will 1) identify the physical mechanisms giving rise to climate predictability in Antarctica, 2) identify the relationships between climate and ecological processes at a range of scales, and 3) reveal the factors controlling ecological predictability across a range of scales (e.g., those relevant for short-term adaptive management versus those relevant at end-of-century timescales). These objectives will be achieved using the analysis of existing climate data and century length time-scales, Atmosphere-Ocean Global Circulation Models (AOGCMs), with coupled analysis of existing long-term demographic data for multiple seabird species that span a range of ecological niches, life histories, and study sites across the continent. 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": "ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS; PENGUINS; Amd/Us; Antarctica; USA/NSF; SEA ICE; NOT APPLICABLE; USAP-DC; AMD", "locations": "Antarctica", "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Jenouvrier, Stephanie; Holland, Marika", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "repo": "Zenodo", "repositories": "USAP-DC; Zenodo", "science_programs": null, "south": -90.0, "title": "Integrating Antarctic Environmental and Biological Predictability to Obtain Optimal Forecasts", "uid": "p0010282", "west": -180.0}, {"awards": "1936530 Carbotte, Suzanne; 2230824 Nitsche, Frank", "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, 05 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Samples and data obtained by researchers working in Antarctica are valuable, unique assets which typically require a substantial and expensive logistical effort to acquire. Preservation of these data increases the return on the significant public investment for acquisition, enabling future re-use for new analyses, and ensure that data behind scientific publications are available for others to review. The US Antarctic Program Data Center (USAP-DC) will provide an open-disciplinary hybrid repository for project metadata and the diverse research data obtained from the Antarctic region by NSF funded researchers for which other data repositories do not exist. In addition, a Project Catalog will provide a single online resource for the US Antarctic scientific community to manage information about their research activities and will link project metadata to the various distributed repositories where Antarctic data resides. In doing so, the USAP-DC will follow community best practices and standards to ensure data are citable, shareable, and discoverable. It will also facilitate registration of data descriptions into the Antarctic Master Directory to meet US goals for data sharing under the International Antarctic Treaty. With full open access to interfaces to search for and download data, USAP-DC will make a wide range of data products resulting from NSF funded research in Antarctica available not only to the research community but also to the broader public. The data center is operated using community standards for metadata and data access which helps ensure data re-usability into the future. The new Project catalog, which is designed to support consolidation of information on research products of USAP awards over the lifetime of a project, will make it simpler for NSF program managers, but also for individual researchers and especially larger collaborative research groups to keep track of datasets and related information produced as part of their projects. Through tutorials and meetings at conferences USAP-DC will contribute to raise awareness and inform the research community, especially new investigators about data management best practices. 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": "USA/NSF; Antarctica; Amd/Us; PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTIONS; GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS; COMPUTERS; ICE CORE RECORDS; SNOW/ICE; Database; ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS; USAP-DC; OCEAN CHEMISTRY; AMD", "locations": "Antarctica", "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Polar Cyberinfrastructure; Polar Cyberinfrastructure", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Carbotte, Suzanne; Tinto, Kirsty; Nitsche, Frank O.", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e MODELS \u003e COMPUTERS", "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -90.0, "title": "Supporting Antarctic Research with Ongoing Operations and Development of the USAP-DC Project Catalog and Data Repository", "uid": "p0010274", "west": -180.0}, {"awards": "1750903 Ingels, Jeroen; 1750888 Aronson, Richard; 1750630 Smith, Craig", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-64 -66,-63.3 -66,-62.6 -66,-61.9 -66,-61.2 -66,-60.5 -66,-59.8 -66,-59.1 -66,-58.4 -66,-57.7 -66,-57 -66,-57 -66.3,-57 -66.6,-57 -66.9,-57 -67.2,-57 -67.5,-57 -67.8,-57 -68.1,-57 -68.4,-57 -68.7,-57 -69,-57.7 -69,-58.4 -69,-59.1 -69,-59.8 -69,-60.5 -69,-61.2 -69,-61.9 -69,-62.6 -69,-63.3 -69,-64 -69,-64 -68.7,-64 -68.4,-64 -68.1,-64 -67.8,-64 -67.5,-64 -67.2,-64 -66.9,-64 -66.6,-64 -66.3,-64 -66))", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Mon, 21 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Worldwide publicity surrounding the calving of an iceberg the size of Delaware in July 2017 from the Larsen C Ice Shelf on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula presents a unique and time-sensitive opportunity for research and education on polar ecosystems in a changing climate. The goal of this project is to convene a workshop, drawing from the large fund of intellectual capital in the US and international Antarctic research communities. The two-day workshop will be held at Florida State University where a consortium of researchers with expertise in Antarctic biological, ecological, and ecosystem sciences will be gathered to share knowledge, identify important research knowledge gaps, and outline strategic plans for research. The workshop will help advance scientific and public understanding of the continent-wide changes that Antarctic ice shelves and surrounding ecosystems experience as ice shelves change. The primary products will be reports focusing on synthesizing, coordinating and integrating research efforts to understand the ecological impacts of ice-shelf collapses and large iceberg calving along the Antarctic Peninsula. The workshop will also provide an immediate, interactive experience for K-12 school children with a hands-on ?Saturday Polar Academy?, a children?s poster session, and question-answer session during the workshop. Children will have the opportunity to interact with Antarctic researchers and become familiar with Antarctic science, organisms, ecosystems and current issues, feeding their scientific curiosity. The calving of A-68, the 5,800-km2 iceberg shed in July 2017 from the Larsen C Ice Shelf presents a unique and time-sensitive research opportunity. The scientific momentum and public interest created by this most recent event will be leveraged to convene a workshop at the earliest opportunity, drawing from the large intellectual capital in the US and international Antarctic research communities. The two-day workshop will be held at Florida State University, Coastal and Marine Laboratory on the Gulf Coast organized by Jeroen Ingels (Florida State University; FSU), Richard Aronson (Florida Institute of Technology; FIT), and Craig Smith (University of Hawaii at Manoa; UHM). A consortium of researchers with a diversity of expertise in Antarctic biological, ecological, and ecosystem sciences will be gathered to share knowledge, identify important research priorities and knowledge gaps, and outline strategic plans for research to advance understanding of the continent-wide changes that Antarctic ice shelves and surrounding ecosystems experience as ice shelves change.", "east": -57.0, "geometry": "POINT(-60.5 -67.5)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "MARINE ECOSYSTEMS; USAP-DC; LABORATORY; AMD; Weddell Sea; GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS; ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS; USA/NSF; SEA ICE; Amd/Us; Antarctica", "locations": "Antarctica; Weddell Sea", "north": -66.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Ingels, Jeroen; Aronson, Richard; Smith, Craig", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e PHYSICAL MODELS \u003e LABORATORY", "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -69.0, "title": "Collaborative Research: RAPID/Workshop - Antarctic Ecosystem Research following Ice Shelf Collapse and Iceberg Calving Events", "uid": "p0010189", "west": -64.0}, {"awards": "1840058 Jenouvrier, Stephanie", "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": "Causes and consequences of pair-bond disruption in a sex-skewed population of a long-lived monogamous seabird: the wandering Albatross; Demographic outputs and their variances for three life history complexes for the Southern Fulmar across contrasted sea ice conditions.; Impact of Climate Change on Pair-Bond Dynamics of Snow Petrels (Pagodroma nivea); Supplementary material from \"Boldness predicts divorce rates in wandering albatrosses", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601518", "doi": "10.15784/601518", "keywords": "Antarctica; Biota; Wandering Albatross", "people": "Jenouvrier, Stephanie; Barbraud, Christophe; Delord, Karine; Sun, Ruijiao", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Causes and consequences of pair-bond disruption in a sex-skewed population of a long-lived monogamous seabird: the wandering Albatross", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601518"}, {"dataset_uid": "601832", "doi": "10.15784/601832", "keywords": "Antarctica; Climate Change; Cryosphere; Ile des Petrels, Pointe Geologie Archipelago (66\u25e640\u2032 S, 140\u25e601\u2032 106 E), Terre Adelie, Antarctica.", "people": "jenouvrier, stephanie", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Impact of Climate Change on Pair-Bond Dynamics of Snow Petrels (Pagodroma nivea)", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601832"}, {"dataset_uid": "601585", "doi": "10.15784/601585", "keywords": "Antarctica; Biota; Birds; East Antarctica; Southern Fulmar", "people": "Jenouvrier, Stephanie", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Demographic outputs and their variances for three life history complexes for the Southern Fulmar across contrasted sea ice conditions.", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601585"}, {"dataset_uid": "200372", "doi": "https://rs.figshare.com/collections/Supplementary_material_from_Boldness_predicts_divorce_rates_in_wandering_albatrosses_i_Diomedea_exulans_i_/6181063", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "https://rs.figshare.com/", "science_program": null, "title": "Supplementary material from \"Boldness predicts divorce rates in wandering albatrosses", "url": "https://rs.figshare.com/collections/Supplementary_material_from_Boldness_predicts_divorce_rates_in_wandering_albatrosses_i_Diomedea_exulans_i_/6181063"}], "date_created": "Wed, 01 Apr 2020 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Many animals, from crustaceans to humans, engage in long-term relationships. The demographic consequences of divorce or widowhood for monogamous species are poorly understood. This research seeks to advance understanding of the drivers of partner loss and quantify its resulting effects on individual fitness and population dynamics in polar species that form life-long relationships. The project will focus on pair disruption in two seabirds that form long-last pair bonds: the wandering albatross and the snow petrel. Unique long-term individual mark-recapture data sets exist for these iconic polar species, allowing for a comprehensive study of the rates, causes and consequences of pair disruption and how they may differ among Antarctic species. Insights might be gained regarding the effects of changing environmental regimes as well as by direct and indirect effects of fisheries as a by-product of this research. The aim of the project is to better understand the implications of different drivers of pair disruption and quantify its resulting effects on individual fitness components and population growth rate and structure for two procellariiformes breeding in the Southern Ocean. The project will focus on the wandering albatross and the snow petrel, which both form long-lasting pair bonds. The unique long-term individual mark-recapture data sets allow for a study of the rates, causes and consequences of pair disruption and how they differ among species with different life histories as well as expected differences in mechanisms and rates of pair disruptions. The study will result in a detailed analysis of the impact of social monogamy and long-term pair bonds on individual fitness components (vital rates: survival, recruitment and fecundity; life-history outcomes: life expectancy, age at 1st breeding and lifetime reproductive success; and occupancy times: duration of pair bond or widowhood) and population growth and structure (e.g, sex ratio of individuals available for mating). Specifically, the project will assess: 1. Variations in pair disruption rates, and if they are related to global change (by-catch in the case of albatross widowing, and climate in the case of petrel divorce) by developing a statistical multievent mark-recapture model. 2. Impacts of pair disruption on vital rates, specifically whether i) greater familiarity and better coordination within pairs improves breeding performance and survival, ii) mating costs reduce the probability of breeding and iii) divorce is more likely to occur after a breeding failure. 3. Impacts of pair disruption on life-history outcomes and occupancy times using Markov chain stochastic life cycle models. 4. Impacts of pair disruption on population dynamics by developing a novel non-linear two-sex matrix population model. The research will include sensitivity and Life Table Response Experiment analyses to examine the respective effects of fisheries, climate, vital rates, and pair-disruption rates on life-history outcomes, occupancy times, and population growth and structure, and their variations among year and species 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": "IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PHOTON/OPTICAL DETECTORS \u003e VISUAL OBSERVATIONS", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS; FIELD INVESTIGATION; East Antarctica; USAP-DC", "locations": "East Antarctica", "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Jenouvrier, Stephanie", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD INVESTIGATION", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "https://rs.figshare.com/; USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -90.0, "title": "Polar Seabirds with Long-term Pair Bonds: Effects of Mating on Individual Fitness and Population Dynamics", "uid": "p0010090", "west": -180.0}, {"awards": "1750630 Smith, Craig", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-64 -66,-63.3 -66,-62.6 -66,-61.9 -66,-61.2 -66,-60.5 -66,-59.8 -66,-59.1 -66,-58.4 -66,-57.7 -66,-57 -66,-57 -66.3,-57 -66.6,-57 -66.9,-57 -67.2,-57 -67.5,-57 -67.8,-57 -68.1,-57 -68.4,-57 -68.7,-57 -69,-57.7 -69,-58.4 -69,-59.1 -69,-59.8 -69,-60.5 -69,-61.2 -69,-61.9 -69,-62.6 -69,-63.3 -69,-64 -69,-64 -68.7,-64 -68.4,-64 -68.1,-64 -67.8,-64 -67.5,-64 -67.2,-64 -66.9,-64 -66.6,-64 -66.3,-64 -66))", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Fri, 15 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Worldwide publicity surrounding the calving of an iceberg the size of Delaware in July 2017 from the Larsen C Ice Shelf on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula presents a unique and time-sensitive opportunity for research and education on polar ecosystems in a changing climate. The goal of this project was to convene a workshop, drawing from the large fund of intellectual capital in the US and international Antarctic research communities. The two-day workshop was designed to bring scientists with expertise in Antarctic biological, ecological, and ecosystem sciences to Florida State University to share knowledge, identify important research knowledge gaps, and outline strategic plans for research. \r\n\r\nMajor outcomes from the project were as follows. The international workshop to share and review knowledge concerning the response of Antarctic ecosystems to ice-shelf collapse was held at the Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory (FSUCML) on 18-19 November 2017. Thirty-eight U.S. and international scientists attended the workshop, providing expertise in biological, ecological, geological, biogeographical, and glaciological sciences. Twenty-six additional scientists were either not able to attend or were declined because of having reached maximum capacity of the venue or for not responding to our invitation before the registration deadline.\r\n\r\nThe latest results of ice-shelf research were presented, providing an overview of the current scientific knowledge and understanding of the biological, ecological,\r\ngeological and cryospheric processes associated with ice-shelf collapse and its\r\necosystem-level consequences. In addition, several presentations focused on future plans to investigate the impacts of the recent Larsen C collapse. The following presentations were given at the meeting:\r\n\r\n1) Cryospheric dynamics and ice-shelf collapse \u2013 past and future (M. Truffer,\r\nUniversity of Alaska, Fairbanks)\r\n2) The geological history and geological impacts of ice-shelf collapse on the Antarctic Peninsula (Scottt Ishman, Amy Leventer)\r\n3) Pelagic ecosystem responses to ice-shelf collapse (Mattias Cape, Amy Leventer)\r\n4) Benthic ecosystem response to ice-shelf collapse (Craig Smith, Pavica Sr\u0161en, Ann Vanreusel)\r\n5) Larsen C and biotic homogenization of the benthos (Richard Aronson, James\r\nMcClintock, Kathryn Smith, Brittany Steffel)\r\n6) British Antarctic Survey: plans for Larsen C investigations early 2018 and in the\r\nfuture (Huw Griffiths)\r\n7) Feedback on the workshop \u201cClimate change impacts on marine ecosystems:\r\nimplications for management of living resources and conservation\u201d held 19-22\r\nSeptember 2017, Cambridge, UK (Alex Rogers)\r\n8) Past research activities and plans for Larsen field work by the Alfred Wegener\r\nInstitute, Germany (Charlotte Havermans, Dieter Piepenburg.\r\n\r\nOne of the salient points emerging from the presentations and ensuing discussions was that, given our poor abilities to predict ecological outcomes of ice-shelf collapses, major cross-disciplinary efforts are needed on a variety of spatial and temporal scales to achieve a broader, predictive understanding of ecosystem\r\nconsequences of climatic warming and ice-shelf failure. As part of the workshop, the FSUCML Polar Academy Team\u2014Dr. Emily Dolan, Dr. Heidi Geisz, Barbara Shoplock, and Dr. Jeroen Ingels\u2014initiated AntICE: \"Antarctic Influences of Climate Change on Ecosystems\" (AntICE). They reached out to various groups of school children in the local area (and continue to do so). The AntICE Team have been interacting with these children at Wakulla High School and Wakulla Elementary in Crawfordville; children from the Cornerstone Learning Community, Maclay Middle School, Gilchrist Elementary, and the School of Arts and Sciences in Tallahassee; and the Tallahassee-area homeschooling community to educate them about Antarctic ecosystems and ongoing climate change. The underlying idea was to\r\nmake the children aware of climatic changes in the Antarctic and their effect on\r\necosystems so they, in turn, can spread this knowledge to their communities, family\r\nand friends \u2013 acting as \u2018Polar Ambassadors\u2019. We collaborated with the Polar-ICE\r\nproject, an NSF-funded educational project that established the Polar Literacy\r\nInitiative. This program developed the Polar Literacy Principles, which outline\r\nessential concepts to improve public understanding of Antarctic and Arctic\r\necosystems. In the Polar Academy work, we used the Polar Literacy principles, the\r\nPolar Academy Team\u2019s own Antarctic scientific efforts, and the experience of the FSU outreach and education program to engage with the children. We focused on the importance of Antarctic organisms and ecosystems, the uniqueness of its biota and the significance of its food webs, as well as how all these are changing and will\r\nchange further with climate change. Using general presentations, case studies,\r\nscientific methodology, individual experiences, interactive discussions and Q\u0026A\r\nsessions, the children were guided through the many issues Antarctic ecosystems\r\nare facing. Over 300 \u0027Polar ambassadors\u0027 attended the interactive lectures and\r\nafterwards took their creativity to high latitudes by creating welcome letters, displays, dioramas, sculptures, videos and online media to present at the scientific workshop. Over 50 projects were created by the children (Please see supporting files for images). We were also joined by a photographer, Ryan David Reines, to document the event. More information, media and links to online outreach products are available at https://marinelab.fsu.edu/labs/ingels/outreach/polar-academy/", "east": -57.0, "geometry": "POINT(-60.5 -67.5)", "instruments": "NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS; USAP-DC; ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS; NOT APPLICABLE; MARINE ECOSYSTEMS; Weddell Sea", "locations": "Weddell Sea", "north": -66.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Smith, Craig", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -69.0, "title": "Collaborative Research: RAPID/Workshop- Antarctic Ecosystem Research following Ice Shelf Collapse and Iceberg Calving Events", "uid": "p0010012", "west": -64.0}, {"awards": "1824677 Karentz, Deneb", "bounds_geometry": null, "dataset_titles": "2018 SCAR OSC Travel Award Data", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601156", "doi": "10.15784/601156", "keywords": "Antarctica; Human Dimensions", "people": "Karentz, Deneb", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "2018 SCAR OSC Travel Award Data", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601156"}], "date_created": "Wed, 06 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "This award supports attendance for up to 40 U.S. scientists at the 35th SCAR Open Science Conference (OSC) to enable them to present their scientific findings, develop new collaborations with international scientists and become involved in SCAR-related activities and SCAR specialists groups. In previous symposia, U.S. scientists have made important and significant contributions to the success of the SCAR Open Science Conferences. The SCAR-OSC provides a key platform for generating or augmenting international collaborations not generally available for graduate students and early-career researchers. The 35th SCAR-OSC meeting: Polar 2018 will bring together Antarctic and Arctic researchers for a unique bi-polar event and exchange of information in Davos, Switzerland, June 19-23, 2018. The scientific program for the SCAR Open Science Conference emphasizes interdisciplinary research that places Antarctica and the Southern Ocean in a global context, providing essential perspective for students and early-career researchers. In 2018 the meeting is being organized around 12 science themes that include polar (arctic and Antarctic) physical, biological, and social sciences. In addition, there are a myriad of side-meetings, activities, trainings, and workshops surrounding the main sessions. This support will allow a more diverse group of researchers to participate in defining the future direction of international Antarctic and polar research and will encourage global collaboration and cooperation. It will augment the training and development of graduate students and young investigators as they benefit from the opportunity to interact with the international community of Antarctic (and Arctic) researchers. Individuals at all levels (students to senior researchers) interested in engaging in international collaborative activities and, potentially, assuming active leadership roles in SCAR groups, will be targeted for support. The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS), an international organization that aims to facilitate interdisciplinary research collaborations and develop future leaders in polar research, education and outreach, will have a one-day career development workshop available for early-career researchers at the 35th SCAR Open Science Conference.", "east": null, "geometry": null, "instruments": "NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "USAP-DC; ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS; United States Of America; NOT APPLICABLE", "locations": "United States Of America", "north": null, "nsf_funding_programs": "Polar Special Initiatives; Antarctic Astrophysics and Geospace Sciences; Antarctic Instrumentation and Support; Antarctic Glaciology; Antarctic Instrumentation and Facilities; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences; Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Earth Sciences", "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: XXXVth SCAR Open Science Conference", "uid": "p0010008", "west": null}, {"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}]
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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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Effects of Environmental Change on Microbial Self-organized Patterns in Antarctic Lakes
|
2333917 |
2025-02-27 | Dong, Xiaoli; Sumner, Dawn | No dataset link provided | Ecosystems worldwide are threatened by anthropogenic changes in climate. Lakes are widely regarded as sentinels of climate change and, among these, polar lakes are the most sensitive. Beneath meters of permanent ice and liquid water, many Antarctic lakes contain complex microbial communities that are already being transformed by climate change. The structurally complex spatial patterns that these microbes create provide the opportunity to pursue research questions about spatial ecology that cannot be addressed elsewhere. This project focuses on research that will advance understanding of the spatial structure of benthic communities in Antarctic lakes, their relationships with environmental conditions, and predictions for likely changes in the future. This project will also advance methods in integrating the morphology and spatial patterning of modern microbial communities in relationship to their biophysical and biochemical environments. The quantitative framework being developed has potential to refine understanding of controls on microbial community patterning and thus interpretation of both the effects of climate change and ancient fossil microbial communities in the geologic record. Such understanding will address key questions about Earth’s evolutionary and environmental history and future. Lake Vanda in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctic, has modern microbial pinnacles covering its lake floor. Using existing datasets on spatial structure of benthic communities from 37 sites on the floor of Lake Vanda, the project team will apply recent theories from Spatial Ecology to investigate the mechanisms that give rise to spatial patterns of pinnacles formed by benthic microbes. The work addresses two questions: (1) What are the morphological and spatial patterns of pinnacles and how do they vary over developmental stages, along environment gradients, and from 2013 to 2023? And (2) what mechanisms give rise to the geometry of individual pinnacles and their spatial distribution? Lake Vanda provides an exceptional opportunity to address these questions. It features well characterized gradients in sedimentation, nutrients, irradiance, transport mechanism, and colonization history. Benthic communities at different locations in the lake manifest distinct spatial patterns, as they experience distinct conditions. Lake level has increased >10 m in the past few decades, creating additional opportunities for a “natural experiment” on pattern development by comparing relatively newly flooded substrates (pinnacles of 1 to 15 years old) with deeper, well-developed mats (> 70 years old). Since microbial communities respond to environmental change rapidly, analyses can characterize changes in patterns in pinnacle spatial data collected 9 years apart (Dec 2013 and Jan 2023), providing the opportunity to directly assess responses of spatially self-organized ecosystems to environmental change. As such, Lake Vanda is a natural laboratory that allows research (1) to effectively sort out mechanisms of pattern formation affecting benthic microbial communities residing there; and (2) to test the theory of spatial self-organization: mechanisms of pattern formation and responses to perturbations, applicable to ecosystems worldwide. Research questions will be addressed by integrating existing datasets, spatial pattern analyses, Bayesian statistical models, and process-based numerical models. 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((161 -77.5,161.1 -77.5,161.2 -77.5,161.3 -77.5,161.4 -77.5,161.5 -77.5,161.6 -77.5,161.7 -77.5,161.8 -77.5,161.9 -77.5,162 -77.5,162 -77.51,162 -77.52,162 -77.53,162 -77.53999999999999,162 -77.55,162 -77.56,162 -77.57,162 -77.58,162 -77.58999999999999,162 -77.6,161.9 -77.6,161.8 -77.6,161.7 -77.6,161.6 -77.6,161.5 -77.6,161.4 -77.6,161.3 -77.6,161.2 -77.6,161.1 -77.6,161 -77.6,161 -77.58999999999999,161 -77.58,161 -77.57,161 -77.56,161 -77.55,161 -77.53999999999999,161 -77.53,161 -77.52,161 -77.51,161 -77.5)) | POINT(161.5 -77.55) | false | false | |||||
Postdoctoral Fellowship: OPP-PRF: Epigenetic Potential as a Driver of Local Adaptation in Gentoo Penguins (Pygoscelis Papua) along the Western Antarctic Peninsula
|
2317995 |
2024-10-04 | Herman, Rachael | No dataset link provided | Gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) inhabit one of the fastest warming regions on Earth, the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP), where environmental shifts are measured in years, not decades. Despite this, the species is flourishing, growing in numbers and colonizing new habitats while sister species, such as Adélie penguins (P. adeliae), are declining in the region. This project will investigate to what extent epigenetics contributes to the success of gentoo penguins. Epigenetic variation is controlled by modifications to DNA or chromatin structure that affect the expression of genes, rather than changes to the underlying DNA sequence. This project will improve the understanding of gentoo penguin adaptation to climate change, and whether it is a result of increased flexibility in behavior and physiology driven by a greater capacity for epigenetic changes (i.e., epigenetic potential). The most studied form of epigenetic variation is the profiling of DNA methylation patterns. Environmental effects can trigger changes in DNA methylation that target specific tissues, allowing for localized gene expression shifts that result in modifications to the phenotype of an organism without any alteration to the underlying genotype. Given that epigenetic variation between populations often exceeds genetic variation, fine-scale genetic differentiation observed amongst gentoo penguin colonies suggests the possibility for local adaptation via even more divergent epigenetic changes and provides a framework for examining epigenetic variation across the gentoo penguin breeding range along multiple ecological axes. The researchers will test this by comprehensively characterizing the epigenomic profiles via patterns of DNA methylation in wild gentoo and Adélie penguins using cutting-edge high-resolution genomics techniques. Specifically, they will investigate whether gentoo penguins exhibit a greater degree of differences in DNA-methylation than underlying genetic differences, suggesting such epigenetic variation is driven by external environmental variables, potentially leading to improved capacity for local adaptation. This project will explore whether epigenetic potential may be selected for in individuals who disperse to new colony locations by comparing older, established colonies to new colonies at the range-edge. By implementing cutting-edge epigenetic methods in wild populations of gentoo penguins, this project will help address ecological questions on environmental plasticity that will impact conservation efforts and decisions on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) on the Antarctic Peninsula. 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((-65 -61,-64 -61,-63 -61,-62 -61,-61 -61,-60 -61,-59 -61,-58 -61,-57 -61,-56 -61,-55 -61,-55 -61.5,-55 -62,-55 -62.5,-55 -63,-55 -63.5,-55 -64,-55 -64.5,-55 -65,-55 -65.5,-55 -66,-56 -66,-57 -66,-58 -66,-59 -66,-60 -66,-61 -66,-62 -66,-63 -66,-64 -66,-65 -66,-65 -65.5,-65 -65,-65 -64.5,-65 -64,-65 -63.5,-65 -63,-65 -62.5,-65 -62,-65 -61.5,-65 -61)) | POINT(-60 -63.5) | false | false | |||||
LTER: MCM6 - The Roles of Legacy and Ecological Connectivity in a Polar Desert Ecosystem
|
2224760 |
2023-11-14 | Gooseff, Michael N.; Adams, Byron; Barrett, John; Diaz, Melisa A.; Doran, Peter; Dugan, Hilary A.; Mackey, Tyler; Morgan-Kiss, Rachael; Salvatore, Mark; Takacs-Vesbach, Cristina; Zeglin, Lydia H. |
|
Non-technical Abstract The McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER seeks to understand how changes in the temporal variability of ecological connectivity interact with existing landscape legacies to alter the structure and functioning of this extreme polar desert ecosystem. This research has broad implications, as it will help us to understand how natural ecosystems respond to ongoing anthropogenic global change. At the same time, this project also serves an important educational and outreach function, providing immersive research and educational experiences to students and artists from diverse backgrounds, and helping to ensure a diverse and well-trained next generation of leaders in polar ecosystem science and stewardship. Ultimately, the results of this project will help us to better understand and prepare for the effects of climate change and develop scientific insights that are relevant far beyond Antarctic ecosystems. The McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDVs) make up an extreme polar desert ecosystem in the largest ice-free region of Antarctica. The organisms in this ecosystem are generally small. Bacteria, microinvertebrates, cyanobacterial mats, and phytoplankton can be found across the streams, soils, glaciers, and ice-covered lakes. These organisms have adapted to the cold and arid conditions that prevail outside of lakes for all but a brief period in the austral summer when the ecosystem is connected by liquid water. In the summer when air temperatures rise barely above freezing, soils warm and glacial meltwater flows through streams into the open moats of lakes. Most biological activity across the landscape occurs in summer. Through the winter, or polar night (6 months of darkness), glaciers, streams, and soil biota are inactive until sufficient light, heat, and liquid water return, while lake communities remain active all year. Over the past 30 years, the MDVs have been disturbed by cooling, heatwaves, floods, rising lake levels, as well as permafrost and lake ice thaw. Considering the clear ecological responses to this variation in physical drivers, and climate models predicting further warming and more precipitation, the MDV ecosystem sits at a threshold between the current extreme cold and dry conditions and an uncertain future. This project seeks to determine how important the legacy of past events and conditions versus current physical and biological interactions shape the current ecosystem. Four hypotheses will be tested, related to 1) whether the status of specific organisms are indicative ecosystem stability, 2) the relationship between legacies of past events to current ecosystem resilience (resistance to big changes), 3) carryover of materials between times of high ecosystem connectivity and activity help to maintain ecosystem stability, and 4) changes in disturbances affect how this ecosystem persists through the annual polar night (i.e., extended period of dark and cold). Technical Abstract In this iteration of the McMurdo LTER project (MCM6), the project team will test ecological connectivity and stability theory in a system subject to strong physical drivers (geological legacies, extreme seasonality, and contemporary climate change) and driven by microbial organisms. Since microorganisms regulate most of the world’s critical biogeochemical functions, these insights will be relevant far beyond polar ecosystems and will inform understanding and expectations of how natural and managed ecosystems respond to ongoing anthropogenic global change. MCM6 builds on previous foundational research, both in Antarctica and within the LTER network, to consider the temporal aspects of connectivity and how it relates to ecosystem stability. The project will examine how changes in the temporal variability of ecological connectivity interact with the legacies of the existing landscape that have defined habitats and biogeochemical cycling for millennia. The project team hypothesizes that the structure and functioning of the MDV ecosystem is dependent upon legacies and the contemporary frequency, duration, and magnitude of ecological connectivity. This hypothesis will be tested with new and continuing monitoring, experiments, and analyses of long-term datasets to examine: 1) the stability of these ecosystems as reflected by sentinel taxa, 2) the relationship between ecological legacies and ecosystem resilience, 3) the importance of material carryover during periods of low connectivity to maintaining biological activity and community stability, and 4) how changes in disturbance dynamics disrupt ecological cycles through the polar night. Tests of these hypotheses will occur in field and modeling activities using new and long-term datasets already collected. New datasets resulting from field activities will be made freely available via widely-known online databases (MCM LTER and EDI). The project team has also developed six Antarctic Core Ideas that encompass themes from data literacy to polar food webs and form a consistent thread across the education and outreach activities. Building on past success, collaborations will be established with teachers and artists embedded within the science teams, who will work to develop educational modules with science content informed by direct experience and artistic expression. Undergraduate mentoring efforts will incorporate computational methods through a new data-intensive scientific training program for MCM REU students. The project will also establish an Antarctic Research Experience for Community College Students at CU Boulder, to provide an immersive educational and research experience for students from diverse backgrounds in community colleges. MCM LTER will continue its mission of training and mentoring students, postdocs, and early career scientists as the next generation of leaders in polar ecosystem science and stewardship. Historically underrepresented participation will be expanded at each level of the project. To aid in these efforts, the project has established Education & Outreach and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committees to lead, coordinate, support, and integrate these activities through all aspects of MCM6. 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. | POINT(162.87 -77) | POINT(162.87 -77) | false | false | |||||
Collaborative Research: Conference: Interdisciplinary Antarctic Earth Science Conference & Deep-Field Planning Workshop
|
2231558 2231559 |
2023-09-01 | Smith, Nathan; Tinto, Kirsty | No dataset link provided | The unique Antarctic environment offers insight into processes and records not seen anywhere else on Earth, and is critical to understanding our planet’s history and future. The remoteness and logistics of Antarctic science brings together researchers from diverse disciplines who otherwise wouldn’t be presented with opportunities for collaboration, and often rarely attend the same academic conferences. The Interdisciplinary Antarctic Earth Science (IAES) conference is a biennial gathering that supports the collaboration of U.S. bio-, cryo-, geo-, and atmospheric science researchers working in the Antarctic. This proposal will support the next two IAES conferences to be held in 2022 and 2024, as well as a paired deep-field camp planning workshop. The IAES conference is important to the mission of the NSF in supporting interdisciplinary collaboration in the Antarctic Earth sciences, but also fulfills recommendations by the National Academy for improving cross-disciplinary awareness, data sharing, and early career researcher mentoring and development. The size and scope of the IAES conference allow it to serve as a hub for novel, interdisciplinary collaboration, as well as help develop the next generation of Antarctic Earth scientists. The goals of the IAES conference are to develop and deepen scientific collaborations across the Antarctic Earth science community, and create a framework for future deep-field, as well as non-field-based research. Across a 2.5 day hybrid conference, the IAES themes will include 1) connecting surficial processes, geology, and the deep earth; 2) landscape, ice sheet, ocean and atmospheric interactions; 3) exploring the hidden continent; and 4) evolution and ecology of ancient and modern organisms, ecosystems, and environments. The conference will share science through presentations of current research and keynote talks, broaden participation through welcoming new researchers from under-represented communities and disciplines, and deepen collaboration through interdisciplinary networking highlighting potential research connections, novel mentorship activities, and promoting data re-use, and application of remote sensing and modeling. Discussions resulting from the IAES conference will be used to develop white papers on future Antarctic collaborative research and deep-field camps based on community-driven research priorities. Community surveys and feedback will be solicited throughout the project to guide the future development of the IAES conference. 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: Exploring the Functional Role of Antarctic Plants during Terrestrial Succession
|
1932876 |
2022-04-14 | Ball, Becky | No dataset link provided | Part I: Non-technical summary The Antarctic Peninsula warmed very rapidly in the late part of the 20th century, much faster than the global average, and this warming is predicted to resume and continue over the rest of the 21st century. One consequence of this rapid warming is the melting and subsequent retreat of glaciers, leading to an increase in newly-exposed land on the Peninsula that was previously covered with ice. Once new terrain is exposed, the process of ecological succession begins, with the arrival of early-colonizing plants, such as moss and lichens, and soil organisms - a process commonly referred to as the “greening” of Antarctica. Early stages of succession will be an increasingly common feature on the Antarctic Peninsula, but the mechanisms by which they occur on the Antarctic continent is not well understood. Once the plants have established on the newly-exposed soil, they can change many important properties, such as water dynamics, nutrient recycling, soil development, and habitat for microscopic organisms, which will ultimately determine the structure and functioning of the future ecosystem as it develops. These relationships between vegetation, soil, and the associated microorganisms, referred to as “plant-soil” interactions, are something we know virtually nothing about. This project will be the first to make a comprehensive study of how the type of colonizing plant, and the expansion of those plants from climate change, will influence terrestrial ecosystems in Antarctica. Understanding these processes is critical to understanding how the greening Antarctica is occurring and how soil communities and processes are influenced by these expanding plant communities. Through this work the research team, will also be intensively training undergraduate and graduate students, including training of students from underrepresented groups and collaborative training of students from Chile and the US. Additionally, the research groups will continue their focus on scientific outreach with K-12 schools and the general public to expand awareness of the effects of climate change in Antarctica. Part II: Technical summary In this study, the researchers will use surveys across succession sites along the Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Arc as well as a manipulative field experiment at glacier succession sites to test how species-specific plant functional traits impact soil properties and associated microbial and invertebrate communities in a greening Antarctica. In doing so, they will pursue three integrated aims to understand how Antarctic plant functional traits alter their soil environment and soil communities during succession after glacial retreat. AIM 1) Characterize six fundamental plant functional traits (thermal conductivity, water holding capacity, albedo, decomposability, tissue nutrient content, and secondary chemistry) among diverse Antarctica flora; AIM 2) Measure the relative effects of fundamental plant functional traits on soil physical properties and soil biogeochemistry across glacial succession gradients in Antarctica; and AIM 3) Measure the relative effects of fundamental plant functional traits on soil microbial and invertebrate communities across glacial succession gradients in Antarctica. They will explore how early-colonizing plants, especially mosses and lichens, alter soil physical, biogeochemical, and biological components, potentially impacting later patterns of succession. The researhcers will use intensive surveys of plant-soil interactions across succession sites and a manipulative transplant experiment in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica to address their aims. The investigators will collect data on plant functional traits and their effects on soil physical properties, biogeochemistry, biotic abundance, and microbial metagenomics. The data collected will be the first comprehensive measures of the relative importance of plant functional types during glacial retreat and vegetative expansion from climate change in Antarctica, aiding our understanding of how plant functional group diversity and abundance are changing in a greening Antarctica. 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((-59.666116 -62.15,-59.5128377 -62.15,-59.3595594 -62.15,-59.2062811 -62.15,-59.0530028 -62.15,-58.8997245 -62.15,-58.7464462 -62.15,-58.5931679 -62.15,-58.4398896 -62.15,-58.2866113 -62.15,-58.133333 -62.15,-58.133333 -62.1731502,-58.133333 -62.1963004,-58.133333 -62.2194506,-58.133333 -62.2426008,-58.133333 -62.265751,-58.133333 -62.2889012,-58.133333 -62.3120514,-58.133333 -62.3352016,-58.133333 -62.3583518,-58.133333 -62.381502,-58.2866113 -62.381502,-58.4398896 -62.381502,-58.5931679 -62.381502,-58.7464462 -62.381502,-58.8997245 -62.381502,-59.0530028 -62.381502,-59.2062811 -62.381502,-59.3595594 -62.381502,-59.5128377 -62.381502,-59.666116 -62.381502,-59.666116 -62.3583518,-59.666116 -62.3352016,-59.666116 -62.3120514,-59.666116 -62.2889012,-59.666116 -62.265751,-59.666116 -62.2426008,-59.666116 -62.2194506,-59.666116 -62.1963004,-59.666116 -62.1731502,-59.666116 -62.15)) | POINT(-58.8997245 -62.265751) | false | false | |||||
NSFGEO-NERC: Integrating Individual Personality Differences in the Evolutionary Ecology of a Seabird in the Rapidly Changing Polar Environment
|
1951500 |
2021-12-08 | Jenouvrier, Stephanie; Patrick, Samantha | Part I: Nontechnical description: This award represents a collaborative geoscience research effort between US NSF and UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) researchers with efforts in each nation funded by their respective countries (Dear Colleague Letter NSF 16-132). The research will focus on understanding the links between behavior, ecology, and evolution in a Southern Ocean wandering albatross population in response to global changes in climate and in exploitation of natural resources. The most immediate response of animals to global change typically is behavioral, and this work will provide a more comprehensive understanding of how differences individual bird behavior affect evolution and adaptation for the population under changing environments. Characterization of albatross personality, life-history traits, and population dynamics collected over long time scales will be used to develop robust forecasting of species persistence in the face of future global changes. The results of this project will feed into conservation and management decisions for endangered Southern Ocean species. The work will also be used to provide specific research training at all levels, including a postdoctoral scholar, graduate students and K-12 students. It will also support education for the public about impacts from human-induced activities on our polar ecosystems using animations, public lectures, printed and web media. Part II: Technical description Past research has shown that individual animal personalities range over a continuum of behavior, such that some individuals are consistently more aggressive, more explorative, and bolder than others. How the phenotypic distributions of personality and foraging behavior types within a population is created and maintained by ecological (demographic and phenotypic plasticity) and evolutionary (heritability) processes remain an open question. Differences in personality traits determine how individuals acquire resources and how they allocate these to reproduction and survival. Although some studies have found different foraging behaviors or breeding performances between personality types, none have established the link between personality differences in foraging behaviors and life histories (both reproduction and survival, and their covariations) in the context of global change. Furthermore, plasticity in foraging behaviors is not considered in the pace-of-life syndrome, which has potentially hampered our ability to find covariation between personality and life history trade-off. This project will fill these knowledge gaps and develop an eco-evolutionary model of the complex interactions among individual personality and foraging plasticity, heritability of personality and foraging behaviors, life history strategies, population dynamics in a changing environment (fisheries and climate) using a long-term database consisting of ~1,800 tagged wandering albatross seabirds (Diomedea exulans) with defined individual personalities and life history traits breeding in the Southern Ocean. Climate projections from IPCC atmospheric-oceanic global circulation models will be used to provide projections of population structure under future global change conditions. Specifically, the team will (1) characterize the differences in life history strategies along the shy-bold continuum of personalities and across environmental conditions; (2) develop the link between phenotypic plasticity in foraging effort and personality; (3) characterize the heritability of personality and foraging behaviors; (4) develop a stochastic eco-evolutionary model to predict population growth rates in a changing environment. 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 | ||||||
Integrating Antarctic Environmental and Biological Predictability to Obtain Optimal Forecasts
|
2037561 |
2021-12-08 | Jenouvrier, Stephanie; Holland, Marika |
|
This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Many biogeochemical and biophysical processes are changing in the present and coming century. The mechanisms and the predictability of these processes are still poorly understood. Limits in understanding of these progress limits climate forecasting. Similarly, ecological forecasting remains a nascent discipline. Comparative assessments of predictability, both within and among species, are critically needed to understand the factors that allow (or prevent) useful ecological forecasts. This study will reveal the influence of climate system dynamics on ecological predictability across a range of scales, and will examine how this role differs among ecological processes, species and regions of Antarctic. The project research will examine the predictability of Antarctic climate and its influence on seabird demographic response, predictability at various temporal and spatial scales, using the longest datasets available for several polar species. Specifically, the PI will 1) identify the physical mechanisms giving rise to climate predictability in Antarctica, 2) identify the relationships between climate and ecological processes at a range of scales, and 3) reveal the factors controlling ecological predictability across a range of scales (e.g., those relevant for short-term adaptive management versus those relevant at end-of-century timescales). These objectives will be achieved using the analysis of existing climate data and century length time-scales, Atmosphere-Ocean Global Circulation Models (AOGCMs), with coupled analysis of existing long-term demographic data for multiple seabird species that span a range of ecological niches, life histories, and study sites across the continent. 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 | |||||
Supporting Antarctic Research with Ongoing Operations and Development of the USAP-DC Project Catalog and Data Repository
|
1936530 2230824 |
2021-11-05 | Carbotte, Suzanne; Tinto, Kirsty; Nitsche, Frank O. | No dataset link provided | Samples and data obtained by researchers working in Antarctica are valuable, unique assets which typically require a substantial and expensive logistical effort to acquire. Preservation of these data increases the return on the significant public investment for acquisition, enabling future re-use for new analyses, and ensure that data behind scientific publications are available for others to review. The US Antarctic Program Data Center (USAP-DC) will provide an open-disciplinary hybrid repository for project metadata and the diverse research data obtained from the Antarctic region by NSF funded researchers for which other data repositories do not exist. In addition, a Project Catalog will provide a single online resource for the US Antarctic scientific community to manage information about their research activities and will link project metadata to the various distributed repositories where Antarctic data resides. In doing so, the USAP-DC will follow community best practices and standards to ensure data are citable, shareable, and discoverable. It will also facilitate registration of data descriptions into the Antarctic Master Directory to meet US goals for data sharing under the International Antarctic Treaty. With full open access to interfaces to search for and download data, USAP-DC will make a wide range of data products resulting from NSF funded research in Antarctica available not only to the research community but also to the broader public. The data center is operated using community standards for metadata and data access which helps ensure data re-usability into the future. The new Project catalog, which is designed to support consolidation of information on research products of USAP awards over the lifetime of a project, will make it simpler for NSF program managers, but also for individual researchers and especially larger collaborative research groups to keep track of datasets and related information produced as part of their projects. Through tutorials and meetings at conferences USAP-DC will contribute to raise awareness and inform the research community, especially new investigators about data management best practices. 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: RAPID/Workshop - Antarctic Ecosystem Research following Ice Shelf Collapse and Iceberg Calving Events
|
1750903 1750888 1750630 |
2021-06-21 | Ingels, Jeroen; Aronson, Richard; Smith, Craig | No dataset link provided | Worldwide publicity surrounding the calving of an iceberg the size of Delaware in July 2017 from the Larsen C Ice Shelf on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula presents a unique and time-sensitive opportunity for research and education on polar ecosystems in a changing climate. The goal of this project is to convene a workshop, drawing from the large fund of intellectual capital in the US and international Antarctic research communities. The two-day workshop will be held at Florida State University where a consortium of researchers with expertise in Antarctic biological, ecological, and ecosystem sciences will be gathered to share knowledge, identify important research knowledge gaps, and outline strategic plans for research. The workshop will help advance scientific and public understanding of the continent-wide changes that Antarctic ice shelves and surrounding ecosystems experience as ice shelves change. The primary products will be reports focusing on synthesizing, coordinating and integrating research efforts to understand the ecological impacts of ice-shelf collapses and large iceberg calving along the Antarctic Peninsula. The workshop will also provide an immediate, interactive experience for K-12 school children with a hands-on ?Saturday Polar Academy?, a children?s poster session, and question-answer session during the workshop. Children will have the opportunity to interact with Antarctic researchers and become familiar with Antarctic science, organisms, ecosystems and current issues, feeding their scientific curiosity. The calving of A-68, the 5,800-km2 iceberg shed in July 2017 from the Larsen C Ice Shelf presents a unique and time-sensitive research opportunity. The scientific momentum and public interest created by this most recent event will be leveraged to convene a workshop at the earliest opportunity, drawing from the large intellectual capital in the US and international Antarctic research communities. The two-day workshop will be held at Florida State University, Coastal and Marine Laboratory on the Gulf Coast organized by Jeroen Ingels (Florida State University; FSU), Richard Aronson (Florida Institute of Technology; FIT), and Craig Smith (University of Hawaii at Manoa; UHM). A consortium of researchers with a diversity of expertise in Antarctic biological, ecological, and ecosystem sciences will be gathered to share knowledge, identify important research priorities and knowledge gaps, and outline strategic plans for research to advance understanding of the continent-wide changes that Antarctic ice shelves and surrounding ecosystems experience as ice shelves change. | POLYGON((-64 -66,-63.3 -66,-62.6 -66,-61.9 -66,-61.2 -66,-60.5 -66,-59.8 -66,-59.1 -66,-58.4 -66,-57.7 -66,-57 -66,-57 -66.3,-57 -66.6,-57 -66.9,-57 -67.2,-57 -67.5,-57 -67.8,-57 -68.1,-57 -68.4,-57 -68.7,-57 -69,-57.7 -69,-58.4 -69,-59.1 -69,-59.8 -69,-60.5 -69,-61.2 -69,-61.9 -69,-62.6 -69,-63.3 -69,-64 -69,-64 -68.7,-64 -68.4,-64 -68.1,-64 -67.8,-64 -67.5,-64 -67.2,-64 -66.9,-64 -66.6,-64 -66.3,-64 -66)) | POINT(-60.5 -67.5) | false | false | |||||
Polar Seabirds with Long-term Pair Bonds: Effects of Mating on Individual Fitness and Population Dynamics
|
1840058 |
2020-04-01 | Jenouvrier, Stephanie | Many animals, from crustaceans to humans, engage in long-term relationships. The demographic consequences of divorce or widowhood for monogamous species are poorly understood. This research seeks to advance understanding of the drivers of partner loss and quantify its resulting effects on individual fitness and population dynamics in polar species that form life-long relationships. The project will focus on pair disruption in two seabirds that form long-last pair bonds: the wandering albatross and the snow petrel. Unique long-term individual mark-recapture data sets exist for these iconic polar species, allowing for a comprehensive study of the rates, causes and consequences of pair disruption and how they may differ among Antarctic species. Insights might be gained regarding the effects of changing environmental regimes as well as by direct and indirect effects of fisheries as a by-product of this research. The aim of the project is to better understand the implications of different drivers of pair disruption and quantify its resulting effects on individual fitness components and population growth rate and structure for two procellariiformes breeding in the Southern Ocean. The project will focus on the wandering albatross and the snow petrel, which both form long-lasting pair bonds. The unique long-term individual mark-recapture data sets allow for a study of the rates, causes and consequences of pair disruption and how they differ among species with different life histories as well as expected differences in mechanisms and rates of pair disruptions. The study will result in a detailed analysis of the impact of social monogamy and long-term pair bonds on individual fitness components (vital rates: survival, recruitment and fecundity; life-history outcomes: life expectancy, age at 1st breeding and lifetime reproductive success; and occupancy times: duration of pair bond or widowhood) and population growth and structure (e.g, sex ratio of individuals available for mating). Specifically, the project will assess: 1. Variations in pair disruption rates, and if they are related to global change (by-catch in the case of albatross widowing, and climate in the case of petrel divorce) by developing a statistical multievent mark-recapture model. 2. Impacts of pair disruption on vital rates, specifically whether i) greater familiarity and better coordination within pairs improves breeding performance and survival, ii) mating costs reduce the probability of breeding and iii) divorce is more likely to occur after a breeding failure. 3. Impacts of pair disruption on life-history outcomes and occupancy times using Markov chain stochastic life cycle models. 4. Impacts of pair disruption on population dynamics by developing a novel non-linear two-sex matrix population model. The research will include sensitivity and Life Table Response Experiment analyses to examine the respective effects of fisheries, climate, vital rates, and pair-disruption rates on life-history outcomes, occupancy times, and population growth and structure, and their variations among year and species 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: RAPID/Workshop- Antarctic Ecosystem Research following Ice Shelf Collapse and Iceberg Calving Events
|
1750630 |
2019-02-15 | Smith, Craig | No dataset link provided | Worldwide publicity surrounding the calving of an iceberg the size of Delaware in July 2017 from the Larsen C Ice Shelf on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula presents a unique and time-sensitive opportunity for research and education on polar ecosystems in a changing climate. The goal of this project was to convene a workshop, drawing from the large fund of intellectual capital in the US and international Antarctic research communities. The two-day workshop was designed to bring scientists with expertise in Antarctic biological, ecological, and ecosystem sciences to Florida State University to share knowledge, identify important research knowledge gaps, and outline strategic plans for research. Major outcomes from the project were as follows. The international workshop to share and review knowledge concerning the response of Antarctic ecosystems to ice-shelf collapse was held at the Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory (FSUCML) on 18-19 November 2017. Thirty-eight U.S. and international scientists attended the workshop, providing expertise in biological, ecological, geological, biogeographical, and glaciological sciences. Twenty-six additional scientists were either not able to attend or were declined because of having reached maximum capacity of the venue or for not responding to our invitation before the registration deadline. The latest results of ice-shelf research were presented, providing an overview of the current scientific knowledge and understanding of the biological, ecological, geological and cryospheric processes associated with ice-shelf collapse and its ecosystem-level consequences. In addition, several presentations focused on future plans to investigate the impacts of the recent Larsen C collapse. The following presentations were given at the meeting: 1) Cryospheric dynamics and ice-shelf collapse – past and future (M. Truffer, University of Alaska, Fairbanks) 2) The geological history and geological impacts of ice-shelf collapse on the Antarctic Peninsula (Scottt Ishman, Amy Leventer) 3) Pelagic ecosystem responses to ice-shelf collapse (Mattias Cape, Amy Leventer) 4) Benthic ecosystem response to ice-shelf collapse (Craig Smith, Pavica Sršen, Ann Vanreusel) 5) Larsen C and biotic homogenization of the benthos (Richard Aronson, James McClintock, Kathryn Smith, Brittany Steffel) 6) British Antarctic Survey: plans for Larsen C investigations early 2018 and in the future (Huw Griffiths) 7) Feedback on the workshop “Climate change impacts on marine ecosystems: implications for management of living resources and conservation” held 19-22 September 2017, Cambridge, UK (Alex Rogers) 8) Past research activities and plans for Larsen field work by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany (Charlotte Havermans, Dieter Piepenburg. One of the salient points emerging from the presentations and ensuing discussions was that, given our poor abilities to predict ecological outcomes of ice-shelf collapses, major cross-disciplinary efforts are needed on a variety of spatial and temporal scales to achieve a broader, predictive understanding of ecosystem consequences of climatic warming and ice-shelf failure. As part of the workshop, the FSUCML Polar Academy Team—Dr. Emily Dolan, Dr. Heidi Geisz, Barbara Shoplock, and Dr. Jeroen Ingels—initiated AntICE: "Antarctic Influences of Climate Change on Ecosystems" (AntICE). They reached out to various groups of school children in the local area (and continue to do so). The AntICE Team have been interacting with these children at Wakulla High School and Wakulla Elementary in Crawfordville; children from the Cornerstone Learning Community, Maclay Middle School, Gilchrist Elementary, and the School of Arts and Sciences in Tallahassee; and the Tallahassee-area homeschooling community to educate them about Antarctic ecosystems and ongoing climate change. The underlying idea was to make the children aware of climatic changes in the Antarctic and their effect on ecosystems so they, in turn, can spread this knowledge to their communities, family and friends – acting as ‘Polar Ambassadors’. We collaborated with the Polar-ICE project, an NSF-funded educational project that established the Polar Literacy Initiative. This program developed the Polar Literacy Principles, which outline essential concepts to improve public understanding of Antarctic and Arctic ecosystems. In the Polar Academy work, we used the Polar Literacy principles, the Polar Academy Team’s own Antarctic scientific efforts, and the experience of the FSU outreach and education program to engage with the children. We focused on the importance of Antarctic organisms and ecosystems, the uniqueness of its biota and the significance of its food webs, as well as how all these are changing and will change further with climate change. Using general presentations, case studies, scientific methodology, individual experiences, interactive discussions and Q&A sessions, the children were guided through the many issues Antarctic ecosystems are facing. Over 300 'Polar ambassadors' attended the interactive lectures and afterwards took their creativity to high latitudes by creating welcome letters, displays, dioramas, sculptures, videos and online media to present at the scientific workshop. Over 50 projects were created by the children (Please see supporting files for images). We were also joined by a photographer, Ryan David Reines, to document the event. More information, media and links to online outreach products are available at https://marinelab.fsu.edu/labs/ingels/outreach/polar-academy/ | POLYGON((-64 -66,-63.3 -66,-62.6 -66,-61.9 -66,-61.2 -66,-60.5 -66,-59.8 -66,-59.1 -66,-58.4 -66,-57.7 -66,-57 -66,-57 -66.3,-57 -66.6,-57 -66.9,-57 -67.2,-57 -67.5,-57 -67.8,-57 -68.1,-57 -68.4,-57 -68.7,-57 -69,-57.7 -69,-58.4 -69,-59.1 -69,-59.8 -69,-60.5 -69,-61.2 -69,-61.9 -69,-62.6 -69,-63.3 -69,-64 -69,-64 -68.7,-64 -68.4,-64 -68.1,-64 -67.8,-64 -67.5,-64 -67.2,-64 -66.9,-64 -66.6,-64 -66.3,-64 -66)) | POINT(-60.5 -67.5) | false | false | |||||
Group Travel Award: XXXVth SCAR Open Science Conference
|
1824677 |
2019-02-06 | Karentz, Deneb |
|
This award supports attendance for up to 40 U.S. scientists at the 35th SCAR Open Science Conference (OSC) to enable them to present their scientific findings, develop new collaborations with international scientists and become involved in SCAR-related activities and SCAR specialists groups. In previous symposia, U.S. scientists have made important and significant contributions to the success of the SCAR Open Science Conferences. The SCAR-OSC provides a key platform for generating or augmenting international collaborations not generally available for graduate students and early-career researchers. The 35th SCAR-OSC meeting: Polar 2018 will bring together Antarctic and Arctic researchers for a unique bi-polar event and exchange of information in Davos, Switzerland, June 19-23, 2018. The scientific program for the SCAR Open Science Conference emphasizes interdisciplinary research that places Antarctica and the Southern Ocean in a global context, providing essential perspective for students and early-career researchers. In 2018 the meeting is being organized around 12 science themes that include polar (arctic and Antarctic) physical, biological, and social sciences. In addition, there are a myriad of side-meetings, activities, trainings, and workshops surrounding the main sessions. This support will allow a more diverse group of researchers to participate in defining the future direction of international Antarctic and polar research and will encourage global collaboration and cooperation. It will augment the training and development of graduate students and young investigators as they benefit from the opportunity to interact with the international community of Antarctic (and Arctic) researchers. Individuals at all levels (students to senior researchers) interested in engaging in international collaborative activities and, potentially, assuming active leadership roles in SCAR groups, will be targeted for support. The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS), an international organization that aims to facilitate interdisciplinary research collaborations and develop future leaders in polar research, education and outreach, will have a one-day career development workshop available for early-career researchers at the 35th SCAR Open Science Conference. | None | None | 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 |