{"id":115245,"date":"2018-05-03T15:24:13","date_gmt":"2018-05-03T19:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=115245"},"modified":"2023-01-20T15:43:57","modified_gmt":"2023-01-20T20:43:57","slug":"bates-club-of-antarctica-the-secrets-of-the-lakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2018\/05\/03\/bates-club-of-antarctica-the-secrets-of-the-lakes\/","title":{"rendered":"Bates Club of Antarctica: The secrets of the lakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Antarctica\u2019s geography is characterized by its mountains, desert climate, and, of course, all that ice. <\/span><\/p>\n

But it also has plenty of lakes \u2014 some under a few feet of ice in a landscape that resembles Mars, others filling the space between the earth and kilometers-thick glaciers, made liquid by sheer pressure.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Bates Club of Antarctica<\/h5>\n

This is Part 4 of a series about Bates alumni who spent this winter in Antarctica.<\/p>\n

Part 1: If glaciers could talk, what would they say?<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 2: If you give a seal a camera<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 3: Fossils and beach volleyball on a glacier<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 5: It\u2019s a whale\u2019s world<\/a><\/p>\n

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The lakes are what brought two Bates alumni, Carolynn Harris \u201911 and Billy Collins \u201914, to the southernmost continent. Both graduate students at Montana State University, they participated in separate projects aimed at accessing liquid water beneath the permanent ice cover and studying the microscopic life that might persist there. <\/span><\/p>\n

Studying what lives in the lakes, they say, can tell us how life persists in the most extreme conditions and gives us clues to what might be living beyond Earth\u2019s orbit.<\/span><\/p>\n

The people<\/h5>\n

Harris is a doctoral student in ecology and environmental science at Montana State. At Bates, for her senior thesis in biology, she analyzed fish bones from archaeological sites in Penobscot Bay, Maine. She had two thesis advisers: Professor of Geology Bev Johnson and Professor of Biology Will Ambrose.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Carolynn Harris ’11 takes a selfie in “the Labyrinth,” a seven-mile hike through canyons in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. “The topography here is so similar to Mars, NASA brought rovers here for testing,” Harris says. (Courtesy of Carolynn Harris)<\/p><\/div>\n

Harris continued to work at the intersection of biology and geology as a graduate student in marine science, then back at Bates as a research associate to Ambrose, before starting her doctoral program. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWithout getting that interdisciplinary exposure through my senior thesis experience, I wouldn\u2019t be where I am today,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Collins, meanwhile, is working toward a Master of Fine Arts in science and natural history filmmaking, also at Montana State. A Bates psychology major and avid outdoorsman, he explored his interest in filmmaking during a Short Term independent study with Lecturer in English Robert Strong, directing, shooting, and editing a film his friends wrote. Collins realized he could see himself doing this for a living.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Billy Collins ’14 poses for a photo shortly after arriving in Antarctica. (Courtesy of Billy Collins)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cHaving the freedom to spend a Short Term on one creative project was an incredible experience and really influenced my decision to pursue filmmaking as a career,\u201d he says. <\/span><\/p>\n

The places<\/h5>\n

Last Antarctic summer, which was Maine\u2019s winter, Harris worked in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, \u201cthe coldest, driest, and windiest desert on Earth,\u201d she says. Her research was part of the <\/span>McMurdo Long Term Ecological Research<\/span><\/a> project, which has been working in the Dry Valleys since 1992.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Solar panels, equipment sheds, and a camp hut sit on the shore of Lake Fryxell in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. “We cook our meals in the hut, which is equipped with propane heat and a propane stove,” Carolynn Harris says. “We sleep in tents on the lake shore.” (Courtesy of Carolynn Harris)<\/p><\/div>\n

Collins, meanwhile, is the education and outreach graduate appointee for the Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access Project, a large group of scientists and educators who study the life and ecology of subglacial lakes. <\/span><\/p>\n

In 2019, SALSA will drill through 1.2 kilometers of ice to study the biology and geology of Lake Mercer, on the Whillans Ice Plain. <\/span><\/p>\n

Closed, cold, and salty<\/h5>\n

Harris studies the nutrient dynamics of the lakes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. These bodies of water, capped with more than 10 feet of ice, are closed systems \u2014 water flows in from glacial-melt streams, but it doesn\u2019t flow out, Harris says. The lakes are also very salty and very cold. <\/span><\/p>\n

But despite those conditions, microbes call the lakes home. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe driving question is how they survive and persist in such a harsh environment,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Carolynn Harris, second from left, and her team hoist 12 feet of drill “flights,” used to drill through ice to reach the lakes below. Each flight is three feet long. “Lake Fryxell has the thickest ice of our field sites, almost 15 feet,” Harris says, “so it takes five drill flights to get down to the liquid water.” (Courtesy of Carolynn Harris)<\/p><\/div>\n

To find out, Harris\u2019 team drilled narrow holes through the ice capping several lakes and took samples of water and sediment. She’s analyzing the samples now.
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\u201cThe things that we learn about how the microbial part of the food web operates can tell us about other ecosystems, too,\u201d she says. <\/span><\/p>\n

Documenting the Traverse<\/h5>\n

Over on the ice plains, SALSA team members towed about a million pounds of equipment 600 miles across Antarctica to the ice above Lake Mercer, so that it will be set up and ready for the 2019 drill.<\/span><\/p>\n

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