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Biology & Medicine
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Dr. Polly Penhale
Program Manager
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B-420-M
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NSF/OPP Award 98-10219
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Station:
McMurdo Station
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RPSC POC:
Jessie Crain
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Research Site(s):
Lake Hoare, Lake Fryxell, Dry Valleys
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Dates in Antarctica:
Early October to mid February
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McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER (Long Term Ecological Research)
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McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research (LTER): The role of natural legacy on ecosystem structure and function in a polar desert
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Deploying Team Members:
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Peter Cable
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Kelly Foley
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Katherine Jennifer Harris
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Alfred Kaltenbach
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W. Berry Lyons
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Kathleen Ann Welch
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Research Objectives:
The McMurdo LTER lakes program is focused on understanding the environmental conditions and ecological processes of former and present lakes in the dry valleys. The main objective is to provide general background information on the physical, chemical, and biological activity in Lakes Bonney (east and west lobes), Hoare, and Fryxell. Studies are being done to monitor lakes and streams in order to detect changes through time, and relate these to changes in physical parameters, e.g., climate, hydrology. Monitoring of the lakes and streams is also being done to collect data for water, major solute, and nutrient budgets of the lakes.
This group is responsible for monitoring the inorganic geochemistry of waters collected from the glaciers, streams, ponds and lakes of the Dry Valleys. As part of the LTER project, team members will collect rock samples to study inorganic carbon dynamics in soils, specifically calcite formations. They will study the upland seeps and ponds for a better understanding of their hydrologic and geochemical controls. They will continue to work with co-PI's involved with the LTER lake and stream sampling programs in the Dry Valleys. One team member will continue a study of chemical weathering in the hyporheic zone of the streams using major ions, Silicon, Uranium decay series elements and trace elements.
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