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This document has been archived.
NSF PR 00-07 - February 23, 2000
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Marine Biology Course Uses Antarctica as its Classroom
Commuting to class on the world's southernmost continent
isn't easy. But the campus, located a few hundred
miles from the South Pole and on the edge of a unique
marine ecosystem, offers unparalleled opportunities
to explore biology's frigid frontiers.
The National Science Foundation (NSF), which manages
the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP), annually opens
its facilities at McMurdo Station on Ross Island to
host an unusual graduate-level course in marine biology.
McMurdo is the largest U.S. scientific station in
Antarctica and is the site of the Albert P. Crary
Science and Engineering Center, a state-of-the-art
laboratory complex, which the students use as their
classroom.
This year, 24 students -- the majority from the United
States but also others from the United Kingdom, Spain,
Germany, Canada, and the Netherlands -- traveled to
Antarctica to study creatures unique to the Southern
Ocean and their strategies for surviving at the extreme
limits of life on earth. "This is one of the frontiers
left in biology," noted instructor Adam Marsh, of
the University of Southern California, in an opening
lecture. "There are a lot of interesting questions
still unanswered about how these organisms live at
these margins."
The brainchild of Donal Manahan, who heads the Department
of Biological Sciences at the University of Southern
California, and NSF's Polly Penhale, who oversees
biological and medical research for the Antarctic
Program, the course is designed to provide graduate
students with an education that approximates the working
conditions of the hundreds of scientists who travel
to Antarctica every year under NSF's auspices. "The
idea was to offer a field and laboratory course that
would introduce students to the complexity and diversity
of biological adaptations found in extreme polar environments,"
noted Manahan.
Penhale added that the course "not only fosters international
collaborations, but directly meets NSF's goal to integrate
research and education."
Lectures on subjects ranging from the geography of
Antarctica to the safe handling of low-level radioactive
materials are held in the Crary lab. Students also
make presentations to their peers about their research
as part of the classroom portion of the course. But
in the same way that NSF-supported scientists go out
into the field to conduct their Antarctic research,
students also use snowmobiles to travel to holes drilled
in the sea ice to conduct sampling. They also are
helicoptered to remote sites to sample macroalgae
and work with a scuba diver to collect marine animals.
Although seemingly remote from the rest of the world
and strikingly different, the course emphasizes that
Antarctica and its surrounding waters play a major
role in global climate. The Southern Ocean, which
forms a barrier around the Antarctica, for example,
helps regulate global temperatures as its supercooled
water drive global ocean currents. "The Southern Ocean
is perhaps the world's largest marine ecosystem,"
noted Wade Jeffrey, of the University of West Florida.
Because of Antarctica's effects on global currents,
he added, "what goes on in the Antarctic circulation
does indeed effect what goes on in the rest of the
world."
After a month of study in Antarctica, students will
return home this month.
Note to Editors: For B-roll and 300 dpi still
images of students in Antarctica, contact the media
officer listed above.
Attachment: List of students
Attachment
Antarctic Biology Course Students (1999-2000 Season)
NAME |
INSTITUTION |
Carol Arnosti |
University of North Carolina-Chapel
Hill |
Eric Allen |
Scripps Institution of Oceanography |
Maria Altamirano |
University of Malaga (Spain) |
Gregorio Benavides |
California State University
-- North Ridge |
James Blake |
University of Maine |
Heather Boyle |
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
|
Lionel Camus |
University of Plymouth (UK) |
Susan Clearwater |
University of Wyoming |
Valerie Franck |
University of California -
Santa Barbara |
Eric Gaidos |
California Institute of Technology
|
Erica Goldman |
University of Washington |
Joe Grzymski |
Rutgers University |
Philip Harriman |
National Science Foundation
|
Joseph Hoffman |
University of Cambridge (UK) |
Yannick Huot |
Dalhousie University (Canada) |
Christian Knoblach |
Max Planck Institute (Germany) |
Thomas Matheson |
University of Cambridge (UK)
|
Scott Rifkin |
Yale University |
Karin Romisch |
University of Cambridge (UK)
|
Gerard Sellek |
University of Bath (UK) |
Cecelia Sheridan |
State University of New York
at Stony Brook |
Monica Sole |
Museum Barcelona (Spain) |
Petra Visser |
University of Amsterdam (Netherlands) |
Kenia Whitehead |
University of Washington |
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