In 1996 I was lucky enough to be selected as a parcticipant in the Teachers Experiencing Antarctica (TEA) program sponsored by the national Science Foundation, Education and Human Resources Directorate; Division of Elementary, Secondary and Informal Education in collaboration with the Office of Polar Programs. I was assigned to Dr. Robert Wharton, PI of the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program in the dry valley mountains of Antarctica. (Check out their web site at http://lternet.edu/) The LTER network of more than 20 research sites around the country and several sites in other countries, is funded for a potential of 4 six year cycles so that data can be collected during a long enough period of time to detect changes and answer long term research questions. Our work took place in the Taylor Valley at the Lake Hoare field camp where we worked with the most pristine watershed on the planet.
Check out Barb's previous TEA project!
Yeast in the Antarctic Dry Valleys: Biological role, distribution and evolution.
The soil community of Antarctic polar desert is composed of few endemic species of bacteria, fungi and invertebrates. Both filamentous and single cellular fungi have been isolated from a variety of Antarctic soil types, but only yeast appear to be endemic to the polar desert soils. Although the ecological roles of yeast in Antarctic soils are undefined, yeast may be the principal taxa available in the heterotrophic communities to synthesize sterols required by soil invertebrates. In addition, yeast may be involved in accumulating and mobilizing growth limiting nutrients such as phosphorus into the polar desert food web.
Industrial and agricultural yeasts have been well described, however, not much is known about their ecological roles. This proposed multidisciplinary research collaboration will characterize the roles of yeast in the McMurdo Dry Valley ecosystem in order to better understand polar deserts and other extreme environments, as well as provide a foundation for incorporating yeast into biogeochemical models of temperate environments. Soil microbiota mediate most of the terrestrial ecosystem processes such as decomposition, soil respiration, the uptake and fixation of micro and macro-nutrients, detoxification of heavy metals, and serve as major global carbon sinks. The complexity of soil communities in temperate regions pose difficulties in studying the relationships between biotic and abiotic parameters of ecosystem function and the factors controlling populations of soil microbiota remain poorly understood. The extreme climate and relatively simple community structure of the continental Antarctic desert regions offer a unique opportunity to define interactions between soil organisms that are central to many ecosystems processes.
Yeasts are widely distributed in soils along the length of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, even in areas of relatively high alkalinity and salinity as well as low moisture.
This project will provide additional opportunities for collaborative research. Both soil samples and extracted DNA will be shared with other interested labs and schools.
How will a soil ecosystem in your own local be different?
How do organisms use sterols? What role do they play in cells?
If most invertebrates get their sterols from eating plant material, then where do the Antarctic invertebrates get their sterols if there are no vascular plants living there?
Why might sterols be critically important to Antarctic soil organisms?
This research project offers a unique opportunity for interested students to join us in several ways. We will have a web site posted for our project and daily progress will be posted both on our site and the TEA web site. Students can ask similar questions of soils in their own communities and compare their data with ours. Students can read over our proposal, think about our hypotheses and propose some of their own for investigation. Students can also send e-mail questions directly to me while I am in the field offering suggestions and asking questions while we are making our collections and doing our lab work. Students can also send e-mail before I go to the ice with ideas and suggestions for collaborations.
Barb Schulz will begin her Antarctic journey at McMurdo Station.
The Dry Valleys (yellow) host unique ecosystems!
The Neussbaum Regel is the last transect where we will collect soil samples.