The McMurdo Dry Valleys is a region of Antarctica that has been ice free for the past 4 million years.  Low temperatures, high winds, and no vegetation earn this ecosystem the name the harshest place on Earth.  However, temperatures do rise above freezing in the summer, which melt the glaciers to form ephemeral streams that feed lakes permanently covered by meters of ice.  At first glance, one might think this system is devoid of life, but a rich microbial food web exists that make this ecosystem the perfect place to study ecosystem function in the absence of higher organisms.  Because of the lack of vegetation and vertebrates, researchers have always referred to the McMurdo Dry Valleys as a relatively simple ecosystem, but the more it is studied, the clearer it becomes that this was a simple misconception.  At every turn, research in the dry valleys has surprised us and this lecture will detail a number of these unexpected findings.

 

 

 

Dr. Takacs-Vesbach is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at UNM.  She earned a BA in Biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1991 and a PhD in Biology (with a minor in Biochemistry) from Montana State University in 1999.  Dr. Takacs-Vesbach studies the microbial ecology of extreme environments and works in Yellowstone National Park and the Antarctic.  She first became involved in the International Polar Year as a member of the US National Committee to the IPY.