Spring in Antarctica heralds new U.S. science efforts on several
fronts: a series of cruises in the Southern Ocean to trace carbon
cycling associated with plankton blooms; drilling to assess the
stability of the massive ice sheets; and an expedition to search for
more meteorites on the continent that yielded ALH84001, the now-famous
meteorite from Mars that may contain fossil life.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is supporting approximately
145 Antarctic investigations, based mainly out of three research
stations during Antarctica's summer, from now through February.
The bulk of the research -- astronomy and astrophysics, earth
science, glaciology, oceanography, atmospheric science, and biology --
is supported out of NSF's McMurdo Station, located on Ross Island, and
at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, inland on the heights of the ice
cap. Other projects are based at Palmer Station on the Antarctic
Peninsula and on two research vessels.
Antarctic research highlights this season:
- Carbon and Climate in the Southern Ocean
Scientists led by Robert Anderson of Columbia University and
Walker Smith of the University of Tennessee are mounting a major
effort to understand the role of the Southern Ocean in the global
cycle of carbon, and ultimately to predict the ocean's response to
climate change. As the southern component of the decade-long Joint
Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS), a study of carbon in the world's
oceans, thirteen cruises aboard two ships -- the National Science
Foundation's icebreaking research vessel, the Nathaniel B. Palmer, and
the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System ship Thomas G.
Thompson -- will take place from September, 1996 through March, 1998.
This field season's cruises will center mainly on the Ross Sea,
starting with a cruise embarking in early October to study
Antarctica's largest and most predictable spring bloom of
phytop
'"/>
Contact: Lynn Simarski
lsimarsk@nsf.gov
703-306-1070
National Science Foundation 31-Oct-1996Page: 1 2 3 4 5 Related biology news :1.
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