Directory

Start date:
Late October
End date:
Late January
Locations:
Dry Valleys, Taylor Valley, Lake Fryxell, Lake Hoare, Lake Bonney, Miers Valley, Lake Miers
Principle Investigator:
Dr John Priscu
Organisation:
Montana State University Bozeman
State
Montana
Initially funded in 1980, the U.S. Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) network is a collaborative effort of more than 1,800 scientists and students. The McMurdo LTER program is a multi-disciplinary aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems study in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. It is one of 26 LTER sites where researchers study ecological processes over long temporal and broad spatial scales. Researchers focusing on lakes will continue their long-term measurements of biological, chemical, and physical limnological properties of Dry Valley lakes and lake ice, with special emphasis on LTER core research areas. This six-year award cycle comprises seven collaborative projects: C-504-M (Gooseff), C-505-M (Priscu), C-506-M (Gooseff), C-507-M (Adams), C-508-M (Takacs-Vesbach), C-509-M (Gooseff), and C-511-M (Doran).
Six participants will deploy between 20 October and 25 January. The group will rotate twice through Dry Valleys field camps (Fryxell, Miers, Hoare, Bonney) from early November through mid-December, with a final stay at Lake Hoare in early January. A Polarhaven will be set at five locations: Lakes Fryxell, Hoare, Bonney (East and West lobes), and Miers. The team will drill and melt holes in lake ice underneath these structures and in other areas of lakes to access the water. They will use radioisotopes at field sites (in Polarhavens), at the field camps, and in Crary Laboratory. Between field rotations, the team will be based in Crary Laboratory.