Antarctic Research
Our research in the Antarctic largely focuses on understanding how the Antarctic functions, and how that differs from the rest of the globe.
Much of our current work focus on the greenhouse gas methane. Methane exists in massive seafloor resevoirs. Where these reservoirs leak, microbes eat the methane as an energy source. This both creates an entire food web built on chemicals rather than sunlight, while at the same time keeping that methane out of the atmosphere.
An Ice-olated Continent
The Antarctic has been separated from the rest of the global oceans for more than 12 if not 27 million years. That has led to unique life and many taxa and processes that are unique to this icy wonderland.
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We study the microbes and ecosystem impact of methane everywhere on the globe, but one main question is how do the microbes and animals in Antarctica interact with leaky methane? Do they keep it out of the atmosphere?
Discovery
The biggest change to us studying these methane-fueled habitats in the Antarctic is that we haven't been able to find them here.
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So Exploration and Discovery - to understand how our global ocean's work including the oddity of the Antarctic is needed and what we do.
The Cinder Cones Seep
In 2011 we discovered a shallow methane seep in the farthest south corner of the Ross Sea. This site, known as Cinder Cones, has been a foci of research since the lat 1960s but just started releasing methane in 2011. We now aim to understand both who is eating the methane, but how they can adapt to a changing methane cycle.
Studying Process
Our research aims to go beyond who is there and understand how microbes and animals interact to cary out critical marine function.