Oscar Schofield, a Rutgers University professor who is also a coprincipal investigator (PI) for the Palmer Antarctica Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site, was on a research cruise off the West Antarctic peninsula in February 2020 when he first saw news of the increasingly rapid spread of the novel coronavirus. “We didn’t appreciate how big of an issue it was going to be at the time,” he remembered months later. But the end of the 2019–2020 austral (Southern Hemisphere) summer season was just a harbinger of the challenges to come. “It was a very difficult scenario getting the people out from Palmer station,” Schofield said. “At the end of the season, shutdowns had started happening, especially in a bunch of states, and so we felt very lucky to get everyone out.” Researchers at the site, on Anvers Island midway down the Antarctic Peninsula, study the polar marine biome. Field research in Antarctica always requires months of planning. Everyone has to go through a rigorous medical evaluation and researchers have to package up their equipment and ship it to designated ports for transport arranged by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The logistics are so complicated that Schofield says he is typically home from the field no more than 3 weeks before it is time to start planning the next season. But in March 2020, with the virus raging, Antarctic researchers knew they were in for more uncertainty and surprises than usual. Full article here.

By John Dos Passos Coggin This article continues Climate.gov’s series of interviews with current and former fellows in the NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Program about the nature of their research funded by NOAA and what career and education highlights preceded and followed it. Over the past 30 years, the Postdoctoral Program, funded by NOAA Climate Program Office, has hosted over 200 fellows. The Program’s purpose is to help create and train the next generation of researchers in climate science. Appointed fellows are hosted by mentoring scientists at U.S. universities and research institutions. Our interview is with Rebecca Jackson, a former NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow (2016-2018) and current assistant professor at Rutgers University’s Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences. Her research explores the interaction between the ocean and cryosphere. She is a physical oceanographer interested in ocean-glacier interaction, coastal dynamics, and polar processes. She investigates submarine melting of glaciers in Greenland and Alaska, and the effect of glacial meltwater on ocean circulation. Read the interview at Climate.gov.

Despite the current global COVID pandemic, RUCOOL is one of the few groups that has been able to maintain presence in in Antarctica. Rachael Young, a former Rutgers undergraduate, the lead for science operations for the National Science Foundation’s Palmer Station Long Term Ecological Research (PAL-LTER) program at Palmer Station. Since 1991, the 30-year-old PAL-LTER time series has studied how warming atmospheres and oceans along the Western Antarctic Peninsula is altering the ecosystem. The Schofield lab leads the phytoplankton component, capturing the seasonal and interannual variability of the bio-optical and physical water column properties and of the phytoplankton abundance, size, species, and photosynthetic efficiency using fluorometry, HPLC analysis, FIRe fluorometry, and an Imaging Flow Cytobot, a CTD, and radiometers. With only four LTER scientists on station this year (usually there are 12), the Palmer summer science season has still been incredibly productive. In addition to weekly phytoplankton water sampling – which captured a phytoplankton bloom in early January – Rachael has been hard at work collaborating with co-LTER member Dan Lowenstein, of the Ben Van Mooy lab from WHOI, and other science teams to help ensure successful science in this limited research season. Acoustic survey transects and net tows are being performed to map zooplankton abundance. The first net tows of the season showed the dominant zooplankton were two krill species, Euphausia superba and Thysanoessa macura. Predator surveys have been conducted and incubation experiments performed as well. Additionally, Codar HF-Radar and weather station maintenance was completed at the Joubin Islands along with a successful retrieval of a mooring for Josh Kohut’s Swarm project. Swarm is studying how physical ocean circulation drives the ecology of penguin colonies in the Palmer region. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, station population and operations are heavily reduced this year but that isn’t holding back the exciting science! To learn more about the PAL-LTER project, visit http://pal.lternet.edu/.

Assistant Professor Grace Saba was one of several collaborative experts that published this comprehensive assessment of the status quo and future of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean that surrounds it. See the press release from Alfred Wegener Institute (here) and the paper now published in Biological Reviews: https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12679. The decade from 2010 to 2020 has been by far the most successful in gaining evidence-based knowledge on ecological processes in the Antarctic. This applies to novel as well as traditional topics. Of particular interest are the reactions of life to climate change and their contributions to global carbon budgets. Equally relevant are evolutionary adaptations to the extremely polar conditions, which under climate change determines the survival or extinction of species. 25 experts met in Coimbra (Portugal) in 2019, synthesized hundreds of individual results from the past ten years and publish now 10 main and 31 detailed messages. In summary, it must be stated that the ecosystems on land and in the ocean are under specific environmental stress and are subject to change in various forms and intensity. And this takes place in ecosystems that are either geographically isolated from the rest of the world and, thus, globally unique, or, alternatively, are more closely linked to adjacent habitats than previously thought. Both are good reasons why in all assessments of global biodiversity and biogeochemical cycles such results from the Antarctic must be considered. The results show how life in the Antarctic responds differently, but also similarly, to environmental changes, in particular climate-induced warming and ice melting. This refers to species, communities and ecosystems on land, in lakes, under the inland, shelf and sea ice and in the open ocean. Particular challenges are long-term and large-scale observations that can contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the response of key ecological species and processes to climate change, ocean acidification and pollution. They are especially important in a time when climate change seems to affect the entire Antarctic, including areas that have been quite environmentally stable so far.

Travel down to the West Antarctic Peninsula, one of the fastest warming locations on Earth. The rising temperatures are decreasing the amount of sea ice present and changes are now rippling through the food web. We discuss the findings of a 30-year effort to document the changing ecology of this region and reflect on how it provides a picture of the future of polar regions on our warming planet. Oscar Schofield, Professor of Marine and Coastal Sciences presenting. This event is sponsored by the SEBS Office of Academic Programs and the SEBS Office of Alumni and Community Engagement. When Tuesday, September 22, 2020 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Original article from SEBS

The Palmer Station Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program is focused on conducting a long term study on the warming West Antarctica Peninsula. For 30 years this project has been documenting how melting glaciers and reduced sea ice are altering the marine food web spanning from plankton to penguins.  The project consists of 6 month surveys at Palmer Station sampling over seasonal scales and a month long ship expedition surveying a spatial area the size of Oklahoma. The cruise for 2020 is just being completed, marking the end of the field season.  The team surveyed sea ice regions in the South to warmer locations to the north.  The multi-University effort samples the ocean physics, chemistry, bacteria, phytoplankton, zooplankton, sea birds, and whales.  The data collected will be synthesized for the rest of the year.  This was a particularly warm ocean year, with a warm atmosphere, significant rain, and several gale-force storms. Despite the weather, the researchers accomplished all the goals that had been set by the science team.  Prof. Oscar Schofield acted as Chief scientist for the effort, and was accompanied by Dr. Steve Ackleson (Naval Research Laboratory), two Rutgers graduate students (Jacqueline Veatch and Quintin DiouCass) and two Rutgers undergraduates (Gabrielle Rosenthal and Laura Wiltsee).  Science research continues at Palmer Station through March, so there will be more updates to come from the LTER and Josh Kohut’s efforts with Project Swarm.

The Antarctic summer research effort is in full swing. This year, there are two joint National Science Foundation projects underway which are called SWARM and the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research (LTER). SWARM is studying how physical circulation structures the ecology of the penguins living in vicinity of the Palmer Station.  In this region there are a several species of penguins (Adelie [polar penguin], as well as Gentoos & Chinstrap [subpolar]). SWARM will use a wide array of cutting technology ranging from underwater robotic gliders, shore based radars and moorings. This large effort involves researchers from Rutgers, University of Delaware, University of Alaska, Polar Oceans Research Group, Old Dominion University, NOAA’s Applied Marine Research Lab and Oregon State University.   SWARM is complemented by the Palmer LTER program that is conducting its 30th year tracking how long term change is leading to wholesale changes in the ecosystem, from microscopic algae to whales.