Directory

Start date:
Mid October
End date:
Late January
Locations:
Dry Valleys, Taylor Valley, Lake Fryxell, Lake Hoare, Lake Bonney, Miers Valley, Lake Miers, Wright Valley, Victoria Valley
Principle Investigator:
Dr Peter Doran
Organisation:
Louisiana State University Baton Rouge
State
Louisiana
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 are studying ecological processes over long temporal and broad spatial scales. Researchers on this project will focus on the physical limnology of the McMurdo Dry Valleys' lakes. They will maintain long-term automated lake-monitoring equipment, monitor meteorological stations, and carry out manual measurements of lake properties. 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).
Five participants will deploy between 15 October and 30 January in two periods; first from mid-October to mid-December, and next from late December to late January. One participant (Doran) will double-deploy to be present in both periods. The team will work out of camps Fryxell, Bonney, and Hoare, with a stay at Lake Miers, and they will also make some day trips to Wright and Victoria Valleys. The team will conduct diving operations in Lake Fryxell in January, focusing on the moats and under the lake ice near the moats. Field sites will be accessed on foot and by helicopter day trips. The group will use Dry Valleys laboratory facilities, and laboratory space at Crary Laboratory.