Directory

Start date:
Early November
End date:
Mid February
Locations:
Dry Valleys, Lake Miers, Lake Fryxell, Lake Hoare, Lake Bonney, F6, Commonwealth Stream, Onyx River, Garwood Valley
Principle Investigator:
Dr. Michael N Gooseff
Organisation:
University of Colorado Boulder
State
Colorado
Initially funded in 1980, the U.S. 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. Streams component researchers will continue to operate a network of 16 stream-flow gauges, collect water quality samples from 30 streams, and make hydrologic measurements. 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).
Streams and Geochemistry
Participants with the “stream team” will stay at the F6 camp and occasionally work out of Lake Hoare camp for a few days at a time. Field work will be conducted in Wright, Taylor, and Miers Valleys. The group will also conduct analyses in Crary Laboratory. Field sites will be accessed on foot and by helicopter day trips. Field activities may include: (1) maintaining a stream-gauge network; (2) collecting water-quality samples; (3) monitoring microbial mats in an abandoned channel in the Taylor Valley; (4) measuring dissolved oxygen in streams in the Lake Hoare and Lake Fryxell basins; (5) deploying and maintaining Aeolian sediment collectors across stream channels for over-winter collection of wind-blown material; (6) permafrost degradation experiments (PDE); and (7) glacier-stream-soil (GSS) studies.