Icy inverts

National Science Foundation
Office of Polar Programs
4201 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22230

Posted December 8, 2020

Travel vicariously (and learn some exciting ocean science on the way) by following the adventures of the NSF funded Icy Inverts team on their voyage to Antarctica. The team’s 14-week mission is to travel to Antarctica and conduct research on the worms, crabs, sponges, and other invertebrates that live in these waters – many of which unique to these waters and are often gigantic because of the cold, deep-sea environment.

Students, staff, and professors from Auburn University, the University of Alabama, Central Michigan University, Texas A&M University, the University of Alaska, Anchorage, and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences are sailing onboard the research vessel R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer to the Weddell Sea, where they’ll be collecting oceanographic data from up to a mile below the surface, and collecting specimens for study. The weird and wonderful marine species they collect will be analyzed when they return home, as they investigate the genetic diversity and processes of evolution for invertebrates in polar waters.

The science and adventures of the Icy Inverts team can be found at https://www.icyinverts.com/shipboard-blog.