24 February, 2002

Books, Icebergs, Austr. Web Site, Arctic Warming, Iceberg, Seals, Runway

From Karen Baker:

Note re: ongoing Palmer LTER Antarcitc Annual Cruise:

Stephanie Coronesi, aboard the ongoing LTER annual cruise, is journaling in collaboration with several East Coast school

classrooms. The journal is online at http://pal.lternet.edu/field/0102season/02jan/outreach

-Karen Baker, Pal LTER Information Manager

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From Sandy Shutey

"Neat Antarctic Picture:" <http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html>http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

and

Treasure trove of marine life found in Antarctica WELLINGTON, Feb 2 NZPA|Published: Saturday February 2, 8:26 AM

Fish without blood, with long goatees, and others resembling an eel-cod cross, are among startling new finds coming out of the Ross Sea in Antarctica.

For Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa, fish collection manager Andrew Stewart and his colleagues the by-catch hooked on Antarctic toothfish long lines are a biological treasure trove.

"We are finding several groups of fishes where there are problems with their identification," he said this week.

"Our questions are: what species is that, what name should it be called, how does it differ from other species that look similar?"

The research is part of a drive to improve understanding of New Zealand's marine biodiversity.

A Fisheries Ministry-led 41-day voyage in the western Ross Sea last year found a number of species new to science, a government report on biodiversity conservation said last week.

Mr Stewart said the Antarctic fauna was like "nothing you would see around New Zealand in some of the shapes and forms".

Moray cod resemble a cross between an eel and a cod. Plunder fishes have unusually long barbels hanging down from their jaws.

Ice cod, also known as Donald Duck fishes because of their beak-like snouts, lack blood cells. The cold water is so oxygen-rich the fish can absorb oxygen directly into their blood plasma.

The government biodiversity report said the Ross Sea seabed was rich in bottom fauna such as sponges and bryozoans, or aquatic invertebrates.

However, a New Zealand state of the environment report prepared for the Ross Sea last year said bottom fauna in McMurdo Sound was

affected by raw sewage and rubbish, mainly from the American base, McMurdo Station.

Sewage treatment plants planned for McMurdo Station and New Zealand's Scott Base, nearby, are expected to open during the 2002-03 summer season.

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From Gordon Bain

Just letting you know about a new Antarctic book, just released:

McGonigal, David & Woodworth, Lynn: Antarctica - The Complete Story. The Five Mile Press,Noble Park, Victoria, Australia 2001.

ISBN 1 86503 541 6

Forward by Sir Edmund Hillary

The The Spring edition of ANARE's Antarctic magazine has just been released. Signals from the south: Building the bigger picture with remote technology" is now available online and in print. This issue focuses on the use of remote technology in the Australian Antarctic programme. http://www.aad.gov.au/magazine/spring01/contents.asp

The The Antarctic Division has released a collection of Antarctic images suitable for use as 'wallpapers' on computers or simply as great images.With instructions for installing on both PC and Mac platforms. Go to: http://www.aad.gov.au/information/screens/default.asp

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Also from Gordon Bain:

The Antarctic Division's new web based learning package(Classroom Antarctica) is to be formally launched at 10.30am Friday Feb 15 at

AAD headquarters by Dr Sharman Stone, Parliamentary Secretary Responsible for the Antarctic. I have been invited and will let you know how things went; there will undoubtedly be some press coverage.

The website will be going live then - http://www.classroomantarctica.aad.gov.au

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Annnnnd from Gordon Bain:

Another development at the Division's website -

Keep up to date with the science programs on each station and visit the new 'Science update' pages on the AAD station pages:

Casey http://www.aad.gov.au/stations/casey/sitreps/default.asp Davis http://www.aad.gov.au/stations/davis/sitreps/default.asp Macquarie Island http://www.aad.gov.au/stations/macca/sitreps/default.asp Mawson will shortly follow suit.

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Media contact: February 7, 2002 Peter West NSF PR 02-11 (703) 292-8070/pwest@nsf.gov

Program contact:

Thomas Pyle

(703) 292-8030/tpyle@nsf.gov

NSF TO SUPPORT STUDY OF ENVIRONMENTAL WARMING IN THE ARCTIC Freshwater changes are initial research focus

The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced today it

will back a study of environmental changes in the Arctic that indicate a marked warming of the atmosphere.

In fiscal 2002, NSF designated $30 million to be allocated over five years for the Study of Environmental Arctic Change

(SEARCH) project. In addition, the agency has requested $1

million per year to start in fiscal 2003.

Scientists have found that in recent decades permafrost

zones have melted, the extent and thickness of sea ice have decreased, glaciers are melting more rapidly and air temperatures

are warmer. Other changes include different varieties of plant communities, warmer subsurface ocean currents and different precipitation patterns. All of these affect animal habitats and migration routes.

Native populations have also been affected. The environmental changes have been named Unaami, the Yu'pik word for tomorrow, because the rapidly changing environment makes it

difficult for native residents of the Arctic to predict their future living conditions.

The SEARCH project is intended as an interdisciplinary study of the interrelated atmospheric, oceanic and terrestrial changes

in the Arctic and their potential impacts on the environment, regional societies and economies. In funding the study, NSF is

acting on the Arctic Research Commission's recommendation for a long-term study of the causes and consequences of the changes.

Initially, NSF will support a five-year study of the freshwater cycle in the Arctic. Ten percent of the global

freshwater runoff runs into the Arctic Ocean, where it affects

the supply of nutrients and the overturn of ocean surface water that recycle nutrients. The volume of freshwater also helps to determine the volume of new sea ice created each year on the

broad continental shelves of Russia. The biological productivity of the region, in turn, supports fisheries and marine mammals,

while changes in the sea ice influence climate due to the ice's significant effect on the earth's heat budget.

This effort represents the first coordinated study of both the terrestrial and marine aspects of the freshwater cycle. NSF

will begin considering proposals on the freshwater cycle in mid 2002.

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February 14, 2001

NSF PR 02-12

Media Contacts:

Peter West, NSF

(703) <mailto:292-8070/pwest@nsf.gov>

292-8070/pwest@nsf.gov

Steve Koppes, University of Chicago

(773) <mailto:702-8366/s-koppes@uchicago.edu> 702-8366/s-koppes@uchicago.edu

ENORMOUS ICEBERG MAY BE IN ITS DEATH THROES

Collisions with another large berg may doom B-15A to a breakup

For perhaps the last time, a researcher has visited iceberg B-15A, an enormous fragment of ice that broke away from

Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf in March 2000.

During a one-hour visit on Jan. 29 (New Zealand time), Douglas MacAyeal of the University of Chicago upgraded the

software of an automated weather station on the enormous piece of ice that helps track the iceberg's position and reports on the microclimate of the ice surface. MacAyeal's work is supported by

the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the U.S. Antarctic Program.

MacAyeal and other researchers placed weather stations on

the iceberg a year ago. This year, MacAyeal flew twice to B-15A

on U.S. Coast Guard helicopters to update the software that

allows the weather stations to transmit data and to adjust the sensors that measure wind speed.

MacAyeal said that collisions between B-15A and a much smaller, though still impressive, iceberg, dubbed C-16, have

begun the process of breaking up the bigger berg. He suspects B- 15A will crumble into pieces and drift northward away from

McMurdo Sound when summer returns to Antarctica, almost a year

from now.

"B-15A is ripe" for a breakup, he said. "But it's a 'wait and-see' sort of thing."

During the flights to and from the iceberg from McMurdo Station, the main NSF research station in Antarctica, MacAyeal

pointed out enormous cracks developing on the berg's surface. He also noted areas where the two icebergs have ground together, generating as much as 4,000 pounds per square inch of pressure.

A zone between the two bergs features both narrow ice canyons 30 meters (100 feet) deep and spacious bays, in which icebergs that ordinarily would be thought of as colossal seem insignificant in comparison with their larger neighbors. MacAyeal noted that few

human eyes have seen such phenomena.

The collisions, he said, accelerate the breakup of both

bergs and the movement of the remaining fragments out to sea.

By observing B-15A and C-16, "we've learned that collisions of this nature provide a force that helps propel an iceberg on

its track," MacAyeal said.

He added that it is possible that scientists may be

observing for the first time a cycle in which portions of the

Ross Ice Shelf break off and fall into the sea as giant icebergs. The National Ice Center, in Suitland, Md., reported that a new iceberg, dubbed C-17, broke away from the Ross Shelf on Feb. 7.

C17, which broke away from the Matusevich Glacier, is estimated

to be 58 square miles in area, or roughly the size of Manhattan Island.

For information about how the icebergs have affected Antarctic penguin colonies, see <http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/press/01/pr01108.htm>http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/press/01/pr01108.htm

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For more information on this initiative recently approved by the National Science Board on the Math and Science Partnership Program, see the following web site:

http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/mathandsciencepp.asp

IMPORTANT DATES:

Optional Letter of Intent due by e-mail (msp@nsf.gov): 15 March 2002

Proposals due at NSF through FastLane: 30 April 2002, 5:00 PM your local time

-----------------------------------------------

The Math and Science Partnership (MSP) Program

Optional Letter of Intent due by e-mail (msp@nsf.gov): 15 March 2002

Proposals due at NSF through FastLane: 30 April 2002, 5:00 PM your local time

The Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program, recently approved by the National Science Board, is part of the President's initiative -- No Child Left Behind -- to strengthen and reform preK-12 education. Continually updated information on the MSP program as well as directions to the guidelines for MSP proposals (the Program Solicitation) are available at http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/mathandsciencepp.asp. The MSP offers the mathematics, science, and engineering communities, as well as other partners, an opportunity to work with preK-12 educational systems to provide the requisites for learning to high standards in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. For the current fiscal year, $160 million is available with an anticipated $1 billion to be appropriated for MSP through fiscal year 2006. It also is expected that additional resources will be available during this initial year of the MSP through co-funding by the U.S. Department of Education and NSF. Proposals in response to the initial solicitation are due at the Foundation by 30 April 2002.

A National Workshop for those planning to submit MSP proposals will be held at NSF on 4 March 2002 with information on this conference available from the above web site.

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February 20, 2002

NSF PR 02-14

Media Contact:

Peter West

(703) <mailto:292-8070/pwest@nsf.gov>292-8070/pwest@nsf.gov

RUNWAY PROJECT CLEARS THE WAY

FOR IMPROVED ANTARCTIC AIRLIFT

The U.S. Air Force has certified a newly constructed glacial ice runway near Antarctica's McMurdo Station as capable of

handling large military cargo jets. The certification marks an important improvement in the U.S. Antarctic Program's (USAP)

ability to support science research for the National Science Foundation on Earth's southernmost continent.

A U.S. Air Force C-141 Starlifter cargo plane landed safely on the compacted snow pavement of the existing Pegasus runway

near the USAP's logistical hub at McMurdo on Jan. 29 (local

time). Among the aircraft's 103 passengers was Charles J. Swindells, the U.S. ambassador to New Zealand, on his way to

visit USAP installations and field camps. (U.S. Stations in Antarctica keep New Zealand time.)

Preparation of the runway pavement required the use of 100- ton pneumatic tire rollers to compact a thin snow cover, turning

the snow into white ice, a material sturdy enough to handle four engine military transport aircraft.

The addition of this white ice pavement allows all-season landings of wheeled aircraft in the Antarctic for the first time

in history. Currently, ski-equipped LC-130 Hercules cargo

aircraft flown by the New York Air National Guard transport much

of the cargo and many of the passengers to Antarctica. The new runway greatly enhances airlift capabilities to support USAP activities.

The newly developed compaction process protects the runway from sun damage while having the structural strength necessary to withstand the stresses imposed by the landing of large aircraft

such as the C-5 Galaxy, one of the world's largest aircraft; the C-17 Globemaster, the newest air force cargo plane; and the older C-141s.

Without a cover of snow as protection, the warm temperatures and high sun angles during the height of the Antarctic summer

would have damaged the runway.

Prior to the U.S Air Force's certification of the Pegasus runway to handle the larger cargo aircraft, wheeled aircraft were

able to land on the continent only very early and very late in

the research season on runways that at other times of the year

are useable only by ski-equipped planes.

The principal austral summer research season begins in October and ends in February.

The National Science Foundation operates the U.S. Antarctic Program, which coordinates almost all U.S. scientific activity on

the continent.

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Call for contributors

Fitzroy Dearborn's Encyclopedia of the Arctic, edited by Mark Nuttall, is scheduled for publication in Spring 2003. A small number of entries remain unassigned and we are seeking authors for these so that the list of entries can be closed and we can proceed with the review and editorial phases.

Scientists, writers, academics, or residents of the Arctic who are interested in contributing some of the remaining unassigned entries should look at the project web site at: http://www.fitzroydearborn.com/london/arctic.htm, where they will find the list of unassigned entries grouped by topic (http://www.fitzroydearborn.com/london/arctic_unass.htm) as well as other useful information about the project. Contributors will receive a fee and be fully credited in the Encyclopedia.

Deadlines will be from 1 April, or by arrangement.

Offers to write entries should be emailed to the publishers, at arctic@fitzroydearborn.co.uk, or faxed to: +44-20/7636-6982, giving brief background details of academic position and research.

Encyclopedia of the Arctic

Fitzroy Dearborn

310 Regent Street

London W1B 3AX

Phone: +44-20/7467-1424 (direct line and voicemail)

Fax: +44-20/7636-6982

arctic@fitzroydearborn.co.uk http://www.fitzroydearborn.com/london/arctic.htm

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For more information about this concept design for the Alaska Region Research Vessel, see the web site at: http://www.unols.org/fic/#arrv

or to make comments, contact: Terry Whitledge, terry@ims.uaf.edu

Dear Colleagues,

You are invited to review and make comments on the final concept design for the Alaska Region Research Vessel (ARRV) that is available at the following web site: http://www.unols.org/fic/#arrv

The summary report is available for viewing as an htm document or Power Point.

Please send comments or questions to Terry Whitledge (terry@ims.uaf.edu) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The preliminary design phase and model testing for the ARRV has begun with an expected completion by summer 2002. The preliminary design phase is a critical step in determining the layout of the vessel and its overall operating and scientific capabilities. We request your help in making this the best vessel possible for science operations in the North Pacific including the seasonally ice covered of the Arctic.

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University of Calgary Press is pleased to announce the release of "Muskox Land: Ellesmere Island in the Age of Contact" by Lyle Dick.

MUSKOX LAND

ELLESMERE ISLAND IN THE AGE OF CONTACT

Lyle Dick

1-55238-050-5

6x9 in.

640 pp., 9 colour illustrations, 52 b/w illustrations, 19 maps, 5 graphs $34.95

Parks and Heritage series, No. 5

ISSN 1949-0426

This important book analyzes the history of Aboriginal-European relations in the Ellesmere Island region of the High Arctic in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Historian Lyle Dick presents an impressive treatment of European-Inuit contact in the High Arctic (the area of what is now Quttinirpaaq National Park of Canada), focusing on the roles of the natural environment and culture as factors in human history, as well as the charting of historical change arising from the interplay of cultures, the environment, and circumstance during the exploration era.

"Muskox Land" is a landmark contribution to the existing body of work on the history of the North. Dick brings together insights from various disciplines, such as historiography, Native Studies, geography, ecology, anthropology, and polar exploration history to provide readers with a more sensitive understanding of the High Arctic in the contact period.

The book was meticulously researched and documented through a comprehensive search of polar archival collections in Canada and the United States, as well as oral history with the Inuit of Grise Ford, Nunavut.

"...definitely makes a significant contribution to Arctic history and anthropology. I am sure that the Inuit of Canada and the Inughuit of Greeland will be pleased to see that their voices are finally being heard! There is no other work which delves with such depth into the subject matter."

- Rick Riewe, University of Manitoba

For more information on this book, or other University of Calgary Press titles, please contact Sharon Boyle at the University of Calgary Press: ph: (403) 220-5284

fx: (403) 282-0085

email: sboyle@ucalgary.ca

Canada

To order the book, please contact Raincoast Distribution Services ph: 1-800-663-5714

fx: 1-800-565-3770

email: custserv@raincoast.com

Outside of North America, U.K., and Europe

To order the book, please contact Raincoast Distribution Services ph: (604) 323-7100

fx: (604) 323-2600

email: custserv@raincoast.com

United States

To order the book, please contact Michigan State University Press ph: (517) 355-9543

fx: (517) 432-2611

email: msupress@msu.edu

U.K. and Europe

To order the book, please contact Gazelle Book Services

ph: 011 44 (0) 1524 68765

fx: 011 44 (0) 1524 63232

email: sales.gazelle@talk21.com

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Yale Univ Press blurbs include this note:

"Solomon Solomon is senior scientist at the Aeronomy Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder, Colorado. An acknowledged world leader in ozone depletion research, she was honored with the U.S. National Medal of Science in 1999 for 'key insights in explaining the cause of the Antarctic ozone hole.' Among her many other distinctions is an Antarctic glacier named in her honor."

IMHO, this one should bring her honors too: she takes data gathered over the past couple decades from automated met stations (some along Scott's route of march) to demonstrate that the Scott team encountered abnormally cold conditions during their return and Scott's own writings and those of his team and peers to show that he had, in fact, anticipated what the current met data suggests are normal temps in the region for that season.

I'm not a partisan of either side in the Scott-as-duffer vs. Scott-as-competent-

hero debate, but this is an interesting contribution.

THE COLDEST MARCH Scott's Fatal

Antarctic Expedition Susan Solomon

2001 Science Cloth ISBN 0-300-08967-8 $29.95

YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Read sample chapters from the book http://www.yale.edu/yup/chapters/089678chap.htm

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The Office of Legislative and Public Affairs of the National Science Foundation, in conjunction with the Office of Polar Programs, has produced a 366-page book entitled "Polar Press Clips 2001." This book highlights press coverage of both Arctic and Antarctic topics of scientific interest in such areas as astronomy, oceanography, glaciology, and atmospheric sciences. There are also interesting sections on Media Visitors, the Teachers Experiencing the Arctic and Antarctic (TEA) program, and International News, as well as Press Releases and Broadcast News.

This book is available free of charge to inquirers (limit two copies per inquiry please) by going to the following web site to order a copy. Go to: http://www.nsf.gov/home/orderpub.htm

You may order by the NSF number which is: NSF 01-132.

We encourage the arctic community to send any news clippings of interest and relevance for next year's edition of the book--in parcticular those that mention National Science Foundation support--to:

Polar Press Clippings

OLPA, Room 1245

National Science Foundation

4201 Wilson Boulevard

Arlington, Virginia 22230

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From NSF:

GIANT ICEBERGS, UNPRECEDENTED ICE CONDITIONS

THREATEN ANTARCTIC PENGUIN COLONIES

Enormous grounded icebergs and an unprecedented amount of sea ice in Antarctica's Ross Sea have nearly isolated one of the continent's most populous Adelie penguin colonies, making it difficult for the birds to return from their feeding grounds in the open sea, according to researchers funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The numbers of Adelie penguins at Cape Crozier, about 130,000 breeding pairs in most years, "are at the low side" of the normal range, said David Ainley of H.T. Harvey & Associates

of San Jose, California. A smaller colony of Adelies at Cape Royds will "fail totally" this year, he added.

Meanwhile, a small colony of about 1,200 Emperor penguins at Cape Crozier failed to raise chicks, according to Gerald Kooyman of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He said the birds probably abandoned efforts to breed when the icebergs, pushing southward, destroyed and closed off their usual breeding area. Those that did breed, and attempted to hatch the egg or

raise the chick in the area, failed during incubation or soon after hatching.

The icebergs are designated B-15A and C-16. Iceberg B-15A is 37 kilometers (20 nautical miles) wide and 87 kilometers (161 nautical miles) long. Berg C-16 is roughly 18.5 kilometers (10 nautical miles) wide by 55 kilometers (30 nautical miles) long. The icebergs broke away from the Ross Ice Shelf in March 2000 and gradually migrated west to a point northeast of McMurdo Sound, creating a barrier that altered wind and current patterns.

Early this season, the sea ice extended roughly 128 kilometers (80 miles) north of McMurdo Station, the main U.S. research station in Antarctica, located on Ross Island. At this

time of year, the ice edge typically extends between 24 and 32 kilometers (15 and 20 miles) north of the station. Recent storms have reduced the extent of the ice greatly; it now extends 61 kilometers (33 nautical miles) from McMurdo.

The extensive sea ice has increased the distance between the breeding colonies and food sources in the open sea. The birds must now walk rather than swim to their colonies. Their average walking speed is roughly 1 to 2 kilometers (.6 to 1.2 miles) per hour. They can swim at an average of 7 to 8 kilometers (4.3 to 4.9 miles) per hour.

The Adelie colony at Cape Crozier is the sixth largest in the world. The Emperor Penguin colony is one of the smallest for that species, at about 1200 pairs, but was the first discovered.

Members of explorer Robert Falcon Scott's expedition first visited the colony at the beginning of the 20th century.

A classic story of Antarctic science and adventure, "The Worst Journey in the World," by Apsley Cherry-Garrard includes a description of an attempt by three men of Scott's party to

collect the first Emperor penguin eggs from Cape Crozier. Early in the 20th century, the eggs were scientific curiosities because Emperor penguins were incorrectly thought to be a "missing link" between dinosaurs and birds. The researchers survived horrendous blizzards, confined for several days to a shelter they had erected in haste, in order to bring back the eggs.

The Adelie colony at Cape Royds is the longest-studied in Antarctica. Next to it is a hut erected by Ernest Shackleton during his first Antarctic expedition early in the 20th century.

The colony has been monitored annually since 1959 by scientists from Landcare Research NZ and, most recently, by Ainley's group.

The colony had been increasing in recent years because sea ice had been dissipating. It is the southernmost Adelie penguin colony in the world, and its existence is now in jeopardy.

Researchers supported by the U.S. Antarctic Program have banded Adelie penguins at Cape Crozier and elsewhere on Ross Island with individual numbers, allowing them to be identified at a later date. The penguins' response to the icebergs likely will provide major new insights into the biology, resolve and resilience of this species.

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http://www.antarctica2000.net/antarcticacd.html

You've never heard a compact disc like this. It's full of music and the musicians are Emperor Penguins, Weddell Seal, and their pups

Wind and Glaciers.

Douglas Quin is a sound recordist--an artist with a microphone. In 1996, Quin received a grant from the National Science Foundation as part of a program that sends artists and writers to Antarctica. He recorded magnificent sounds with an array of hydrophones (underwater microphones), in addition to recording some sounds above the ice. It is hard to imagine a soundscape as rich and as spectacular as the

one Quin has created.

-Bob Boilen, Director of "All Things Considered," National Public Radio "In the world of sound recordists, those specializing in natural sound form the smallest group. Among that tiny group, very few professionals stand out. And most of these will acknowledge in a heartbeat that of all the places in the world to record creature

life, the Antarctic is the most problematical. Where animal life is the least dense on the planet and the weather is generally awful, this polar region provides a test that only the best recordists will survive physically, creatively, and technically. Doug Quin is one of the rare few who has mastered the elements, the equipment and the poetic sense it takes to generate the fine sound art represented

here. The only way to hear the other-worldly voices of Weddell, leopard seals, and penguins underwater is with a hydrophone (underwater microphone). Previously, these creatures had been recorded many times. But it takes that special gift of creative imagination, combined witha knowledge of the technology to put together the multi-headed array of hydrophones that produced the stereo/surround events heard on this album. It didn't hurt that the weather gods smiled for Quin while on site. Just remember though, no one has used this type of stereo array in this manner before. And to create this kind of magic with natural sound takes time, enormous patience, perserverance, and a keen compositional sense to make lyrical the material heard on this album. Sounds from the Antarctic present the ultimate test."

-Bernie Krause

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From NSF:

PONDERING A CLIMATE CONUNDRUM IN ANTARCTICA

Unique, distinct cooling trend discovered on Earth's southernmost continent

Antarctica overall has cooled measurably during the last 35 years - despite a global average increase in air temperature of

0.06 degrees Celsius during the 20th century - making it unique among the Earth's continental landmasses, according to a paper published today in the online version of Nature.

Researchers with the National Science Foundation (NSF) Long term Ecological Research (LTER) site in Antarctica's Dry Valleys

- a perpetually snow-free, mountainous area adjacent to McMurdo Sound - argue in the paper that long-term data from weather

stations across the continent, coupled with a separate set of measurements from the Dry Valleys, confirm each other and

corroborate the continental cooling trend.

"Our 14-year continuous weather station record from the

shore of Lake Hoare reveals that seasonally averaged surface air temperature has decreased by 0.7 degrees Celsius per decade,"

they write. "The temperature decrease is most pronounced in

summer and autumn. Continental cooling, especially the

seasonality of cooling, poses challenges to models of climate and ecosystem change."

The findings are puzzling because many climate models indicate that the Polar regions should serve as bellwethers for

any global warming trend, responding first and most rapidly to an increase in temperatures. An ice sheet many kilometers thick in places perpetually covers almost all of Antarctica.

Temperature anomalies also exist in Greenland, the largest ice sheet in the Northern Hemisphere, with cooling in the interior concurrent with warming at the coast.

Peter Doran, of the University of Illinois at Chicago, the lead author of the paper, and his co-authors, acknowledge that

other studies conducted in Antarctica have deduced a warming

trend elsewhere in the continent. But they note that the data indicate that the warming occurred between 1958 and 1978. They

also note that the previous claims that Antarctic is warming may have been skewed because the measurements were taken largely on

the Antarctic Peninsula, which extends northwards toward South America. The Peninsula itself is warming dramatically, the

authors note, and there are many more weather stations on the Peninsula than elsewhere on the continent.

Averaging the temperature readings from the more numerous stations on the Peninsula has led to the misleading conclusion

that there is a net warming continent-wide. "Our approach shows that if you remove the Peninsula from the dataset, and look at

the spatial trend. The majority of the continent is cooling,"

said Doran.

He added that documentation of the continental cooling presents a challenge to climate modelers. "Although some do

predict areas of cooling, widespread cooling is a bit of a conundrum that the models need to start to account for," he

said."

The Dry Valleys are the largest ice-free area in Antarctica, a desert region that encompasses perennially ice-covered lakes, ephemeral streams, arid soils, exposed bedrock and alpine

glaciers. All life there is microscopic.

The team argues that the cooling trend could adversely

affect the unique ecosystems in the region, which live in a niche where a delicate balance between freezing and warmer temperatures allows them to survive and where liquid water is only available

during the very brief summer. They argue that a net cooling of

the continent could drastically upset that balance.

"We present data from the Dry Valleys representing the first evidence of rapid terrestrial ecosystem response to climate

cooling in Antarctica, including decreased lake primary productivity and declining soil invertebrates," they write.

Their data, they argue, are "the first to highlight the cascade of ecological consequences that result from the recent

summer cooling."

Editors: For available photography and b-roll, call Dena Headlee, (703) 292-8070/dheadlee@nsf.gov

For more information about the Dry Valleys LTER, see: http://huey.colorado.edu/LTER/

For more information about NSF's network of LTER sites, see: http://lternet.edu/

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From NSF:

SCIENTISTS USE SEALS AS "UNDERWATER EYES"

Technology provides rare glimpse of rare fish species

By employing one underwater species to "spy" on two others through novel use of technology, Antarctic researchers have

gained new insights into two little-known fish species. The team expanded their knowledge base by equipping Weddell seals to

follow the fish and record their behavior.

The fieldwork by an eight-member team at McMurdo Station in Antarctica provides a rare glimpse into the habits of two very important Southern Ocean species, the Antarctic silverfish and

the Antarctic toothfish, which is prized by commercial fishing fleets. It could also have wider applications in studying other species that thrive at great depths, the researchers argue.

The results of the work, supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) were reported in the online version of the

journal Marine Biology. The paper will appear in print in the March edition of the publication.

To obtain the images and data, Lee Fuiman of the University of Texas at Austin, Randall Davis of Texas A&M University, Galveston, and Terrie Williams of the University of California,

Santa Cruz, equipped 15 Weddell seals over the course of three Antarctic summers with a video camera, infrared LED's and data recorders to track both their movements from their breathing

holes through the water and their interactions with their prey.

"This use of a marine predator as a guided, high-speed sampling device for its midwater prey provided clarification and

new insights into the behavior, interactions, and ecology of species that have been especially difficult to study," they

write. "This new information expands the base of knowledge of

two of the most important fish species in Antarctica and

indicates that some existing notions about their distribution and behavior may need to be revised."

Much that is known about these key fish species comes from a variety of indirect evidence such as trawl catches, catches on

hooks and from the stomach content of predators. But the camera and data recorders allowed these scientists to "accompany" the

seal as surrogates on their hunts and to record firsthand what

the seals and their prey were seeing and doing.

For the silverfish, this meant that the majority of the 336 fish were observed at depths greater than 160 meters (524 feet),

with a few being watched at a depth of 414 meters (1358 feet).

In the case of the toothfish, most encounters began at approximately 180 meters (590 feet).

The team's findings shed new light on the behaviors of the two species. For example, the researchers now believe, based on

the "seal cam" data, that the silverfish migrate from deeper to shallower water using ambient light, even in the absence of a

sunset during the Antarctic summer, as a cue.

"Nevertheless," they write, "our few observations of [silverfish] under the thicker permanent ice shelf suggest that

light intensity may not be the only determinant of vertical position." More observation, they say, is needed to see if other factors, such as the distribution of predators or prey, which

also may respond to the amount of ambient light, may also play a role in species distribution. The data also indicate that

toothfish may be more common at depths less than 200 meters (656 feet) than previously thought.

Although their data were gathered in Antarctic waters and

the researchers acknowledge that all data sampling techniques

have their limitations, the "seal cam" technique, they argue, is promising and "could be used to study other pelagic and deepwater fishes and invertebrates that are otherwise impossible to observe

in their natural environment."

Editors: For b-roll of Weddell seals equipped with cameras,

contact Dena Headlee, (703) 292-8070/dheadlee@nsf.gov