Antarctica Under the Microscope

On top of the ice lie penguins, seals and skuas in Antarctica. Under the ice are fields of sea stars, sponges, corals and nemertean worms. But what about under the seafloor? Here is a collage I put together from this season of many of the invertebrates that burrow and crawl around the sediment.

One of the types of collections we're doing during our SCUBA dives here are infaunal sediment cores. This means cores of the seafloor to look at the animals that live inside. We take multiple cores at different depths, sites, and levels of methane release.

I spend many hours under the microscope sorting through these rocks and gravel picking out all the animals to study which animals live there and how abundant they are.

These are the three most dominant animals: an anemone called Edwardsia meridionalis, a tube-building worm called Spiophanes tcherniai, and a protist called Gromia oviformis. The collage above showcases some of the other animals including amphipods, clams, snails, shrimp, ostracods, mites, kinorynchs, and other worms.

These may be animals that most people will never see as they're mostly smaller than 1 millimeter. However, they all play an important role in how nutrients and chemicals are cycled through the ocean. This work will help us decipher how the methane seeps we are studying impact the animals communities in McMurdo Sound.

Kowalski, we found humans!

This past week McMurdo Station got a surprise visit from Emperor Penguins, a flock of more than 50 individuals! In the middle of the day, just as we were about to head to the Dive Locker, time paused for everyone at the station. In less than 20 minutes, Andrew filed the field plan permit (eFoot Plan) and we were on our way on the sea ice just in time to receive them!

Words truly cannot describe our excitement of seeing penguins in Antarctica for the first time this season. As the curious emperor penguins made their way towards the entrance of the station, you could hear their calls to their friends to come and see the humans. From the sound of their steps in the snow, to their "thump" sound as they go in their bellies to slide around, these 3ft+ tall birds quickly became one of our core Antarctic season highlights.

As established in the Antarctic Treaty, we only approach them to no closer than 5m (15ft) to avoid disturbing them in any way. Keeping our distance allows us to also see them in their natural habitat and behavior!

If there should be a written rule about our team's daily plan, it is: there is always time for penguins! Antarctica is full of surprises, and each one of them has only brought us closer to nature and taught me the importance of being present in the moment.

Leave No Trace Halloween

One of my favorite aspects of life in Antarctica is the Antarctic Treaty—a deeply inspiring example of many countries coming together to commit to decommodification (the continent cannot be used for commercial purposes) and environmental conservation. An important element of that stewardship is the concept of “leave no trace.” 

The extremely cold, dry air in Antarctica means most things (like this thousand-plus year old seal mummy in the Dry Valleys) decompose very very slowly. Which makes it all the more important to leave no trace while there.

If you spend time in other wildernesses or protected areas, you are likely familiar with this concept of packing out one’s own waste and any other debris. In Antarctica, we commit so deeply to this concept that when we are off-station, we collect our urine in a “pee bottle” while we are out. Pee bottles are typically repurposed Nalgene drinking bottles (carefully labeled with the letter P to avoid any disturbing mix-ups) If we are in the field, the pee bottles are then emptied into a large barrel back at camp and ultimately transported by helicopter to station, and the put on a vessel back to the United States for proper sewage treatment. If we are just out on a day trip from the research station, we keep the bottle with us and empty it in the bathroom at the end of the day. They are then sanitized and re-used.

from left: Andrew Thurber as a scuba diving "down line" with flashers, Rob Robbins as an Anglerfish, Paola Santiago as Cody the Penguin from Surf's Up, Dexter Davis as an Ice Type Pokemon, me (Lily Simonson) as a pee bottle, Lauren Liggan as an Antarctic dragonfish

Another important Antarctic tradition is creatively putting together Halloween costumes with whatever spare parts and trash are lying around. I love the spirit of innovation that thrives at McMurdo, where you can’t just pop over to the Halloween store or order something online if you want a costume. 

So for Halloween this year, I wanted to pay tribute to both the Antarctic commitment to environmental stewardship, and the tradition of crafty innovation by making a pee bottle costume out of whatever I could find lying around the recycle dumpsters on station. So using cardboard, found rope, and a clear trash bag, (plus some blue paint from my makeshift studio) I cobbled together a pee bottle costume… and voila! Happy (belated) halloween!