FSML: Minding the Gap - Improving Year-Round Data Collection to Support Continued and Expanded Biological Research in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica
2114156
Grant
Peter McCartney
$272,858.00
Peter T Doran
[email protected] (Principal Investigator)
Michael N Gooseff (Co-Principal Investigator)
Renee F Brown (Co-Principal Investigator)
Louisiana State University
202 Himes Hall
Baton Rouge
LA
708032701
The United States Antarctic Program (USAP) supports field research (i.e., sampling, experimental studies, and networks of long-term monitoring stations) in the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDVs) with five summer-only camps located throughout Taylor Valley. The Climate and Stream Monitoring Networks were started more than 30 years ago to support individual science projects. In 1993, the McMurdo Long-Term Ecological Research (MCM LTER) project was established and, with direct support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), took over maintenance and upkeep of these pre-existing monitoring networks. Today, much of the technology that underpins this infrastructure, especially the dataloggers that make up the backbone of these sensor networks, is outdated. Moreover, the MDVs are inaccessible by researchers outside of the austral summer (and also sometimes as a result of unforeseen complications like Covid-19), necessitating improvements in remote acquisition infrastructure to overcome the gap in onsite presence. A recent decadal strategic vision for NSF-supported research in Antarctica called for more automated field measurements. New, robust chemical and biological sensors have been developed to support expanded biological research in this harsh environment – technology that would enable researchers working in the MDVs to better constrain the carbon cycle as well as metabolism (gross primary productivity and ecosystem respiration) in streams, moats (edges of the permanently ice-covered lakes that melt out each summer), and lakes. The project will enhance fundamental biological research by: 1) upgrading data acquisition infrastructure, 2) adding new sensor instrumentation, and 3) improving remote data acquisition year-round, thereby building capacity to enhance biological monitoring and discovery in the MDVs
The project will expand data acquisition infrastructure (dataloggers, telemetry) to overcome the gap in onsite presence in the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDVs) of east Antarctica. This aim also directly responds to the recent decadal strategic vision for NSF research in Antarctica, which recommends pursuit of opportunities for better coordinating and strategically augmenting existing terrestrial observation networks. New robust chemical/biological sensors are now able to support expanded biological research in this harsh environment, enabling better constraint of the carbon cycle and metabolism in streams, moats (edges of our permanently ice-covered lakes that melt out each summer), and lakes. Consequently, they will enhance fundamental biological research by upgrading data acquisition infrastructure, adding new sensor instrumentation, and improving remote data acquisition year-round, thereby building capacity to enhance biological monitoring and discovery in the MDVs. The proposed infrastructure will provide biologically-relevant data from this difficult to reach area, to be used by others in research proposals and papers, conducting primary research, and/or data synthesis efforts. High-frequency data will be streamed in near real-time, and immediately visible to the public via interactive web-based data visualization dashboards. All data will be freely available via the Environmental Data Initiative (EDI) Repository as well as Antarctic specific data repositories (USAP Data Center, Antarctic Master Directory). Short educational virtual field trip outreach videos associated with each of the four monitoring networks will be produced and made publicly available through the OBFS Virtual Field project, the MCM LTER website, and project-specific social media accounts (e.g., YouTube). Outreach videos, along with real-time dashboards of biological, climatological, and hydrological data from the MDVs, will also be shown on wall-mounted high-definition screens (enabled by this project) in McMurdo Station and elsewhere. An REU student and a number of graduate students will be mentored and trained over the course of this project.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.