Project Title

LTER: MCM6: The Roles of Legacy and Ecological Connectivity in a Polar Desert Ecosystem

Summary

Event Number:
C-511-M
NSF / OPP Award 2224760

Program Director:
Dr. William Ambrose

ASC POC/Implementer:
Ryan Steiner / Jenny Cunningham

Principal Investigator(s)

Dr. Hilary Anne Bawden Dugan
hdugan@wisc.edu
University of Wisconsin Madison
Madison, Wisconsin

Project Web Site:
https://mcm.lternet.edu/

Location

Supporting Stations: McMurdo Station
Research Locations: Lake Hoare, Lake Bonney, McMurdo Dry Valleys

Description

In this iteration of the McMurdo Long-Term Ecological Research (MCM-LTER) project (MCM6), the science team will test ecological connectivity and stability theory in a system subject to strong physical drivers (e.g., geological legacies, extreme seasonality) and driven by microbial organisms. The team hypothesizes that the structure and functioning of the McMurdo Dry Valleys ecosystem depends on 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.

Field Season Overview

Three participants will deploy between early November 2026 and mid-January 2027, basing out of Lake Bonney and Lake Hoare camps to maintain long-term automated lake monitoring equipment and meteorological stations in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. The team will also carry out manual measurements of lake properties and perform seismic surveys near Explorer's Cove and (with assistance from an Antarctic Support Contract mountaineer) Taylor Glacier. Helicopters will support access to field sites. In early December, C-508-M team members will help the C-511-M project retrieve and redeploy under-ice instrumentation in the Bonney Narrows.

Deploying Team Members