Background
Antarctica, which is one and a half times the size of the U.S. is one of the
most remote, environmentally hostile of all the continents. With 90 percent
of the world's ice, it is the planet's cooling system, regulating temperatures
worldwide. The coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth -- minus 128 degrees
Fahrenheit -- was in Antarctica (Moss 1988).
So, as you can imagine, traveling around Antarctica isn't easy with
unforgiving weather conditions. In her quest to share more about the wonders
of that end of the earth, Maria Vernet has participated in over 14 field
seasons along the Western Antarctic peninsula (WAP) with a destination to
Palmer Station
- a polar research facility located on the western peninsula.
It is one of three United States research stations located in Antarctica.
The Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) project is one of more than
two-dozen LTER research sites located throughout the United States, each
focused on a specific ecosystem, but together constituting the
LTER Network.
By contrasting and comparing deserts, mountains, warm and cold systems they
expect to reach a new understanding of how Nature works. Maria's research
with the Palmer LTER concentrates on the ecology and physiology of polar
phytoplankton and the long-term effects of climate change on phytoplankton
communities along the Western Antarctic peninsula.
This material is based on work supported by the National Science
Foundation under Grant No. DRL-0733048. Any opinions, findings
and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are
those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the
National Science Foundation.
Palmer Blog