To do research at the extreme north or south of the planet, you need a good enough project to get funding from the National Science Foundation or another government agency. You also have to be organized, independent, and technically excellent.

鈥淵ou have to be able to work alone, be flexible, have a plan and be willing to change it,鈥� says Professor of Biology Will Ambrose, who studies life on the Arctic Ocean floor. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what I tell my students.鈥�

And they listen.

Before they attached video cameras to whales, drilled through 15 feet of ice to lakes below, or tracked ancient glaciers, the 乐播传媒 alumni who conducted Antarctic research in recent months benefited from the same education available to all 乐播传媒 biology and geology majors 鈥� one that involves plenty of fieldwork and close collaboration with professors who involve students in their own research.

乐播传媒 Professor of Biology Will Ambrose (center) and Kelton McMahon ’05 (right) ride with Gro Harlaug Olsen of the University of Tromso through Kongsfjorden in Svalbard, Norway. (Courtesy of Kelton McMahon)

鈥淚 had the opportunity to conduct some really amazing cutting-edge research with world-class researchers,鈥� says Kelton McMahon 鈥�05, an assistant professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island who traveled to Antarctica in 2016 and plans to return next year. 鈥淭hat is not common in a lot of universities for undergraduates.鈥�

McMahon, who鈥檚 developed chemical tools to answer biological questions, started studying at the intersection of biology and geochemistry at 乐播传媒. For a marine ecology course taught by Ambrose, he was assigned an independent research project.

Several of Ambrose鈥檚 former students, including Ari Friedlaender 鈥�96, Doug Krause 鈥�99, and Carolynn Harris 鈥�11, have gone on to conduct research in Antarctica. For Ambrose, gaining the skills to work independently is critical to success as a scientist. 聽

Professors Michael Retelle (left) and William Ambrose on the island of Ing酶ya, Norway. (Randall Hyman)

鈥淢y philosophy has always been that by the time students get to be seniors, they have to be functioning like a first-year grad student, or close,鈥� he says. 鈥溊植ゴ� students are bright, and that鈥檚 how I treat them.鈥�

McMahon鈥檚 interest in aspects of geochemistry also led him to take a course with Professor of Geology Beverly Johnson. He worked with both Ambrose and Johnson for his marine ecology project, which concerned the diets and movements of a killifish species in a Maine salt marsh. That turned into McMahon鈥檚 first published scientific paper.

Johnson, who also co-advised Carolynn Harris, is used to working closely with students.

Professor of Geology Beverly Johnson (right) joins her environmental geochemistry students to study the water quality of Lake Andrews. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

鈥淭hey drive the research that I do,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hey come in and often have their own questions, and are eager to get involved in some of the questions I鈥檓 pursuing for my own research.鈥�

Working closely with her students benefits both her and them, Johnson says. The students鈥� work turns up geochemical data that both student and professor can use 鈥� and because the data must be carefully collected in a specific way, students learn technical skills that can serve them well in graduate school and beyond.

Students also help Johnson think about her own research in new ways.

鈥淪tudents bring so much to a project, they really do,鈥� Johnson says. 鈥淭hey have different ways of thinking about things. They have different experiences at 乐播传媒 than I had as an undergraduate, so they鈥檒l bring in what they learned from other classes. I consider them more collaborators and colleagues.鈥�

“It’s training the next generation of scientists, if not polar scientists.”

Both Ambrose and Johnson again advised McMahon for his senior thesis, on ice algae and phytoplankton in the Arctic Ocean. He did fieldwork in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago above the Arctic Circle. It鈥檚 an area where scientists can see up close the rapid effects of climate change on the polar regions, and it鈥檚 a popular destination for 乐播传媒 students and faculty interested in polar science.

One of them is Professor of Geology Mike Retelle, who studies the movements of glaciers on the islands and usually brings students with him on his trips. While 乐播传媒 undergraduates work within the scope of Retelle鈥檚 ongoing research, they design and execute their own projects.

鈥淭hey help with the preparation before they go into the field, and they see the project right through the end,鈥� Retelle says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 how field science is done. It鈥檚 not a canned experiment.鈥�

The opportunity to work directly with students was what drew Retelle to 乐播传媒 in the first place, he says.

鈥淚t鈥檚 fun seeing them experience something you鈥檙e so passionate about,鈥� he says. 鈥淚mportantly, it鈥檚 training the next generation of scientists, if not polar scientists.鈥�

Professor of Geology Mike Retelle poses with Allie Balter ’14 and Greg de Wet ’11 at a field site in Svalbard, Norway, in 2013. Balter, now a graduate student at the University of Maine, conducted research in Antarctica in recent months. (Courtesy of Greg de Wet)

One of Retelle鈥檚 first students to catch what he calls the 鈥淎rctic bug鈥� was Brenda Hall 鈥�90. Now a professor in the School of Earth and Climate Sciences at the University of Maine, she studies glacial history and paleoclimatology. She鈥檚 made more than two dozen research trips to Antarctica.

As an undergraduate, Hall traveled with Retelle to Canada鈥檚 Resolute Island to research lakes.

鈥淗e鈥檚 really good at explaining things in the field especially,鈥� she says. 鈥淥ne of the things I like about fieldwork is that it鈥檚 fun, and Mike really managed to make the work interesting. That鈥檚 something that I鈥檝e kept with me.鈥�

Retelle later mentored Hall during her graduate school search and connected her with faculty at UMaine, where she earned a doctorate. Now herself a teacher and adviser to students 鈥� including Allie Balter 鈥�14, who traveled to Svalbard with Retelle as a 乐播传媒 student and went to Antarctica with Hall this year 鈥� she brings both undergraduate and graduate students into her research, early and often.

Brenda Hall 鈥�90 and UMaine undergraduates Laura Mattas and Tyler Pollock take notes about an Antarctic boulder they鈥檙e about to sample. (Courtesy of Allie Balter)

鈥淕etting students involved in research early is really critical,鈥� she says. 鈥淢ike did that with me, and I do that with my own students.鈥� 聽

After his own Arctic research experience, Kelton McMahon wrote a senior thesis that was also published as a scientific paper. He鈥檚 since collaborated with both Ambrose and Johnson on several projects as he moved through graduate school at the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography, postdoctoral positions at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and now in his faculty role at the University of Rhode Island.

Working with his advisers was 鈥渁 phenomenal opportunity to think transformatively, to learn how to think like a scientist,鈥� McMahon says.

鈥淚t gave me an incredible leg up as I got to graduate school 鈥� I had done oceanographic cruises, I鈥檇 published multiple papers, I鈥檇 presented at conferences, all because I had been able to work with these professors.鈥�

One day on a beach in North Carolina, someone asked Ari Friedlaender 鈥�96 if he鈥檇 like to go count whales in Antarctica.

Two decades and 32 trips later, he鈥檚 become an authority on Antarctic marine mammals, specifically minke and humpback whales, and how climate change affects them. Like fellow researcher Doug Krause 鈥�99, Friedlaender often gets to know his subjects by putting video cameras on their backs. 聽

Friedlaender reaches out to people as much as he reaches out to whales 鈥� his work has been featured extensively in , , 补苍诲听, just to name a few. The reason, he says, is that we鈥檙e more inclined to want to protect what we know.

The Researcher

Friedlaender is an associate researcher at the Institute of Marine Scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

In the gloom of a sudden snow squall, Ari Friedlander ’96 searches for minke whales in Andvord Bay in Antarctica. In that moment, “it was calm and smooth and a bit eerie.” (Carolyn Van Houten/National Geographic)

The Research

Friedlaender鈥檚 specialty is whales. He鈥檚 made a career out of tagging and tracking them in Antarctica, and his team also studies them off California, Cape Cod, and southeast Alaska.

At the moment, he鈥檚 focused on minke whales, the smallest of the baleen whales. His team tags them, sometimes attaching video cameras, to figure out how they eat, where they go, and how they interact.

Minke whales 鈥渆volved to live in sea ice,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e pretty cryptic, pretty elusive. They鈥檒l be most impacted by climate change, because one of the manifestations of that is that sea ice is decreasing.

鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to understand how they use the sea ice habitat and to predict what the future holds for them.鈥�

Antarctica on Repeat

Friedlaender has made 32 trips to Antarctica, totaling two to three months a year. 聽

A hexacopter drone documents four members of the 2018 minke expedition team as they look for whales in Charlotte Bay in the Antarctic Peninsula. (Duke Marine Robotics and Remote Sensing Lab)

From Here to There

鈥淚 grew up on the coast in New England, and I was always fascinated with the ocean,鈥� Friedlaender says. 鈥淔rom a young age, I was encouraged to go out and observe things in nature 鈥� in fact, my mom started me taking notes in a field notebook every time I went to the beach when I was young.

鈥淚 did a degree in biology and a minor in anthropology at 乐播传媒. 乐播传媒 gave me the opportunity to learn to be a scientist and gave me the tools to go into the world and start doing science on my own. [Professor of Biology] Will Ambrose was a really important person for me because he was incredibly encouraging of the things I was interested in.

鈥淗e taught me how to think. I think that was the most important lesson I learned at 乐播传媒 鈥� learning how to think like a scientist and how to ask questions.鈥� 聽

Baptism by Ice

After he graduated, Friedlaender went to North Carolina to study stranded whales. One day, as he was dissecting a dolphin on a beach, a researcher approached him and mentioned that the Australian Antarctic Division needed 鈥渟omeone to go to the Antarctic to count marine mammals.鈥�

Friedlaender accepted, flew to Australia, and boarded a ship.

鈥淚t takes about six days to get to the ice from Tasmania, and we had horrible seas,鈥� he recalls. 鈥淲e probably had 30 to 35-foot seas and 50 to 60-knot winds. The ship was rolling all over the place, but as soon as we got into the sea ice, everything calmed down.

A minke whale breaches in Antarctica’s Paradise Bay. (Ari Friedlaender/photo)

鈥淭he first month I went down there, the average air temperature was between minus 20 and minus 40, and we didn鈥檛 see very many whales at all. But just being in that environment and feeling the cold, you feel absolutely minuscule and unimportant. It鈥檚 also such a vibrant place and such an amazing natural wilderness that you can鈥檛 help but be overcome by it.

鈥淕etting off the ship, I said to the woman who had hired me, 鈥極kay, now you鈥檝e got to deal with me because I鈥檓 here and I鈥檝e got to go back.鈥欌��

What the Camera Shows

Friedlaender is one of the first scientists to study Antarctic marine mammals extensively 鈥� he was at the vanguard of the evolution from simply counting whales to tagging and tracking them, learning a tremendous amount about individual animals.

Putting video cameras on the bodies of minke whales 鈥� the process involves to the creatures on an inflatable boat, then using a long pole to suction-cup a video tag to their skin 鈥� has led to two important revelations, Friedlaender says.

The first is that minke whales are more social than scientists thought. 鈥淵ou can see five or six whales swimming really quickly to find krill and all feeding at the same time and going really fast in different directions,鈥� he says. 聽

The second is that they鈥檙e fast eaters 鈥� a 鈥渓unge鈥� to swallow a mass of tiny krill takes about 10 seconds. 鈥淭hey accelerate, open their mouths, and take in a huge gulp of water, and the tissue on the other side of their throat can expand to hold a huge amount of water,鈥� Friedlaender ways. 鈥淲ith their tongues they push the water out of their mouths, and the krill get stuck in their baleen.鈥�

Tourists and Science

Friedlaender spends most of his time in Antarctica on boats. Sometimes it鈥檚 a government research vessel. Other times it鈥檚 a tourist boat, taking visitors to the Antarctic Peninsula for a few weeks at a time.

鈥淲e utilize those platforms to do science, but also to engage and communicate with the public while we鈥檙e doing our science,鈥� he says.

The Sea Ice Problem

Minke whales live among sea ice, which offers both protection from killer whales and sources of krill, which grow up underneath pieces of sea ice and feed penguins, birds, and seals as well as whales. 聽

Melting ice, therefore, opens minke whales to predation and diminishes an important food source. (It鈥檚 actually good in the short term for another whale, the humpback, which does better in the open ocean 鈥� though in the long term, it鈥檚 bad for everyone.)

Minke whales are social creatures, feeding on krill in relatively large groups. (Ari Friedlaender/photo)

鈥淭hat lack of sea ice is going to decrease the amount of krill that鈥檚 available for all the animals there, and the system is going to change very dramatically,鈥� Friedlaender says.

Total Removal

Living and working in Antarctica 鈥渃an be the greatest thing in the world, but also extremely challenging,鈥� Friedlander says.

鈥淭he physical landscape is unbelievable and beautiful and hostile and very unforgiving. It鈥檚 completely void of human elements. To be in a place that鈥檚 very wild and truly natural is a real gift, but it鈥檚 remote. You鈥檙e on a small boat with a small number of people.

鈥淟uckily, we鈥檙e able to stay connected with people through phone and internet, but we鈥檙e definitely removed from things. You can immerse yourself in this environment.鈥�

Blue Ice

On some glaciers, falling snow gets compressed into the ice and air bubbles , which means that the ice, like the ocean, is blue.

An iceberg near Marguerite Bay. (Ari Friedlaender/photo)

鈥淲e get a lot of overcast days down here, and even when it鈥檚 overcast, the ice is glowing,鈥� Friedlaender says. 鈥淚cebergs have this blue color that doesn鈥檛 fade.鈥�

Friendly Critters

鈥淭he number of penguins and whales and seals is remarkable,鈥� Friedlander says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e completely curious 鈥� they haven鈥檛 grown up with humans being a threat to them.

鈥淪eeing wildlife that hasn鈥檛 had that interference with people in a negative way is kind of refreshing.鈥�

Making Connections

Much of Friedlaender鈥檚 Antarctic work involves outreach. He frequently welcomes media outlets from around the world, he works with museums and educators, and he鈥檚 published a book of photography from the continent.

Ari Friedlaender deploys a multi-sensor suction cup tag on a humpback whale in Antarctica’s Wilhelmina Bay. (Courtesy of Ari Friedlaender)

鈥淚鈥檝e honestly grown to be less objective,鈥� Friedlaender says. 鈥淚 want to see people do better, and I want to see these animals survive and the ecosystems sustain themselves. It doesn鈥檛 affect how we do the work because science is science, but the connection that I have to the place and to the animals has grown immensely the more I learn about them.

鈥淧eople are more likely to want to protect things that they care about. I feel more of a responsibility to communicate and promote what we鈥檙e doing and learn about these animals broadly, because that鈥檚 what makes people care, and that鈥檚 what鈥檚 going to help change people鈥檚 behavior and allow these animals and ecosystems to survive.鈥�

Read more about 乐播传媒 alumni in Antarctica

乐播传媒 Club of Antarctica: If glaciers could talk, what would they say?

乐播传媒 Club of Antarctica: If you give a seal a camera

乐播传媒 Club of Antarctica: Fossils, and beach volleyball on a glacier

乐播传媒 Club of Antarctica: The secrets of the lakes

Antarctica鈥檚 geography is characterized by its mountains, desert climate, and, of course, all that ice.

But it also has plenty of lakes 鈥� 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.

The lakes are what brought two 乐播传媒 alumni, Carolynn Harris 鈥�11 and Billy Collins 鈥�14, 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.

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鈥檚 orbit.

The people

Harris is a doctoral student in ecology and environmental science at Montana State. At 乐播传媒, 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.

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)

Harris continued to work at the intersection of biology and geology as a graduate student in marine science, then back at 乐播传媒 as a research associate to Ambrose, before starting her doctoral program. 聽聽

鈥淲ithout getting that interdisciplinary exposure through my senior thesis experience, I wouldn鈥檛 be where I am today,鈥� she says.

Collins, meanwhile, is working toward a Master of Fine Arts in science and natural history filmmaking, also at Montana State. A 乐播传媒 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.

Billy Collins ’14 poses for a photo shortly after arriving in Antarctica. (Courtesy of Billy Collins)

鈥淗aving 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,鈥� he says.

The places

Last Antarctic summer, which was Maine鈥檚 winter, Harris worked in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, 鈥渢he coldest, driest, and windiest desert on Earth,鈥� she says. Her research was part of the project, which has been working in the Dry Valleys since 1992.

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)

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.

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.

Closed, cold, and salty

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 鈥� water flows in from glacial-melt streams, but it doesn鈥檛 flow out, Harris says. The lakes are also very salty and very cold.

But despite those conditions, microbes call the lakes home.

鈥淭he driving question is how they survive and persist in such a harsh environment,鈥� she says.

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)

To find out, Harris鈥� team drilled narrow holes through the ice capping several lakes and took samples of water and sediment. She’s analyzing the samples now.

鈥淭he things that we learn about how the microbial part of the food web operates can tell us about other ecosystems, too,鈥� she says.

Documenting the Traverse

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.

on Jan 26, 2018 at 1:35pm PST

Collins flew in with cameras and a drone to document 100 of those miles, filming and photographing the group as it used radar to chart a crevice-free path to the lake, made a snow runway for aircraft, and built berms for equipment.

鈥淭here were some days where I was able to do a lot of filming and photographing, and other days we were driving and I had short windows where I could go out with the drone,鈥� Collins says.

on Mar 5, 2018 at 2:27pm PST

Understanding what can live in the cold and darkness underneath the glaciers could have an impact beyond Earth鈥檚 atmosphere, Collins says.

鈥淭hey鈥檒l be looking for little microscopic life forms down there,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t could give clues to where life could exist in our solar system, like on the ice moons of Jupiter and Saturn.鈥� 聽

Antarctic living

Life on the SALSA traverse to Lake Mercer was on modules 鈥� 鈥渂asically trailers on skis,鈥� Collins says. One of them served as a kitchen, and another had bunk beds and windows that could be blacked out to make sleep possible in the 24-hour Antarctic summer sun.聽

鈥淚t was like being in the hull of a ship, but on ice,鈥� Collins says.

Stephen Zellerhoff, supervisor of SALSA Traverse and a colleague of Billy Collins ’13, stands in front of a Living Module. (Courtesy of Billy Collins)

Harris, in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, lived at a series of lakes, most of which had a permanent wooden hut with propane heat and a stove for cooking. Harris and her team slept in tents.

Water was readily available 鈥� they could chip lake ice or go to a glacier and collect fallen 鈥済lacier berries鈥� 鈥� but water conservation was still paramount.

鈥淥nce we melted the water and used it for cooking, or for the one shower you can take a week, all that wastewater has to be collected and shipped off the continent,鈥� she says.

The best hikes

Harris says her team鈥檚 equipment got around via helicopter, but the team itself often hiked from lake to lake.

And what made blackout curtains a necessity at night made hiking glorious by day. 鈥淚t was full sunlight all day, every day,鈥� she says. 聽

Three laboratory buildings at Lake Hoare in the McMurdo Dry Valleys serve different purposes: One is used for experiments involving radioactive chemicals, one houses data collection instruments, and one is known as the “‘lab lab,’ where we process water and sediment samples,” says Carolynn Harris. (Courtesy of Carolynn Harris)

鈥淚t was around two to four miles from one lake to the other, and it was some of the most beautiful hiking I鈥檝e ever done in my life.鈥�

Beware the static

Antarctica is the world鈥檚 largest desert, and its dryness means there鈥檚 a lot of static electricity. And static is not good for cameras.

鈥淚f you step away from the camera for 10 minutes, you can build up static in your body, and when you touch the camera it can fry the electronics,鈥� Collins says. 鈥淲hen you鈥檙e out in the field and dealing with electronics, you鈥檙e constantly trying to find metal things to touch鈥� to discharge the electricity.

The day before reaching Lake Mercer, SALSA equipment operator Kevin Williams tends to his tractor. (Courtesy of Billy Collins)

What鈥檚 next

Harris, currently analyzing samples, plans to return to Antarctica each year to conduct research for her doctorate.

Collins will be a camera assistant for the actual drilling to Lake Mercer in 2019. In the meantime, he runs SALSA鈥檚聽 补苍诲听, he鈥檚 created a documentary about SALSA鈥檚 journey to Lake Mercer, and he鈥檚 traveling around Montana, presenting his work to schoolchildren.

Billy Collins talks about Antarctica and SALSA to third-graders at Longfellow Elementary School in Bozeman, Mo. (Courtesy of Billy Collins)

鈥淲hat鈥檚 cool about this project is that it鈥檚 funded by taxpayer dollars, and the lead scientist believes that the scientists owe it to the public to get out as much information about what they do as possible,鈥� he says.

Read more about 乐播传媒 alumni in Antarctica

乐播传媒 Club of Antarctica: If glaciers could talk, what would they say?

乐播传媒 Club of Antarctica: If you give a seal a camera

乐播传媒 Club of Antarctica: Fossils, and beach volleyball on a glacier

乐播传媒 Club of Antarctica: It’s a whale’s world

聽Antarctica doesn’t have much in the way of life, other than microbes.

Away from the coast, 鈥渢here are no animals and no trees and vegetation,” says Allie Balter ’14, one of several alumni who conduct research on the southernmost continent. “It feels like you are on Mars.鈥�

That wasn’t always the case.

Hank Woolley ’13, a graduate student in paleontology, spent parts of November, December, and January on a glacier near the South Pole. There, he looked for the fossil remnants of the vast forests and large animals that lived and hunted among the trees.

Hank Woolley ’13 excavates a partial skeleton of a Procolophon, a burrowing reptile relative, on an unnamed ridge above the Gillespie Glacier. (Mike Lucibella/USAP, NSF)

His work adds to what’s known about animals who lived hundreds of millions of years ago 鈥� even before the dinosaurs 鈥� and how they survived one of Earth’s largest extinction events.

Learn more about Woolley’s research, and what you do with your free time on a glacier:

The mission

Find the 鈥渞efugees鈥� of the Great Permian Extinction.

The people

Woolley is a doctoral student in paleontology at the University of Southern California and a graduate student-in-residence at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. For his first trip to Antarctica, he joined a team of paleontologists, geochemists, and a mountaineer.

Different types of history

鈥淚 graduated from 乐播传媒 with BAs in history and French,鈥� Woolley says. 鈥淎fter volunteering on a dinosaur dig in southern Utah with the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, I decided to pursue my childhood passion for fossils and paleontology and enrolled at the University of Colorado Boulder to obtain another undergraduate degree, this time in geology.鈥�

Hank Woolley ’13 uses a diamond-bladed rock saw to excavate the pig-sized, mammal-like reptile Lystrosaurus, fossilized in a vertical rock face 1,500 feet above the Shackleton Glacier. (Courtesy of Hank Woolley)

The place

Woolley and his team camped on Shackleton Glacier, about 340 miles from the South Pole.

Antarctic living

“We had running water for handwashing and washing dishes. We had a full kitchen, a cook and a head chef, beautiful meals. We had lobster tail for New Year鈥檚 Eve. We had electrical outlets and generators.

“We had a lot of amenities that made being out on a glacier in the middle of nowhere quite easy.”

At the Shackleton Glacier camp, leisure activities might include softball, jogging, or beach volleyball. (Mike Lucibella/USAP, NSF)

The work

Each morning, a helicopter known as the “Shackleton Uber” flew the team to a new site, where they would prospect for fossils.

“We collected over 200 different fossil skeletons and bones and about 4,500 pounds of rocks,鈥� Woolley says.聽

Hank Woolley ’13, mountaineer Peter Braddock, and paleontologist Akiko Shinya prepare to catch a helicopter ride back to camp after prospecting for fossils in the Cumulus Hills. (Mike Lucibella, USAP/NSF)

Our ancestors鈥� ancestors

Two hundred fifty-two million years ago, a conifer-like forest covered the continent. Ferns blanketed the forest floor and large animals, precursors to modern-day mammals and reptiles, made the continent their home.

鈥淵ou have these animals walking around and burrowing,鈥� Woolley says. 鈥淢aybe some of them are climbing big trees. At the same time, you have summers where it鈥檚 light 24 hours a day and winters where the sun never rises. It鈥檚 a completely unique ecosystem that we don鈥檛 really have today.鈥�

With a hammer shown for scale, the skeleton of a badger-sized, burrowing early mammal relative called a Thrinaxodon is embedded in a 250 million-year-old red sandstone formation. (Courtesy of Hank Woolley)

Global warming, ancient and current

The end of the Permian geologic period was marked by a huge extinction event that wiped out about 80 percent of all life on Earth. (The dinosaurs emerged during the following Triassic period).

Woolley and his team hypothesize that some species survived the extinction by migrating close to the South Pole.聽

“They were fleeing from lower latitudes and hotter temperatures,” he says. “It was an extreme global warming event. It鈥檚 what we鈥檙e scared might happen to our planet today. That鈥檚 what鈥檚 so great about studying these mass extinctions 鈥� we can predict what will happen from past events.”

Read more about 乐播传媒 alumni in Antarctica:

乐播传媒 Club of Antarctica: If glaciers could talk, what would they say?

乐播传媒 Club of Antarctica: If you give a seal a camera

乐播传媒 Club of Antarctica: The secrets of the lakes

乐播传媒 Club of Antarctica: It’s a whale’s world

Doug Krause 鈥�99 is all about leopard seals. A research biologist, he goes to Antarctica鈥檚 South Shetland Islands each year to study those grizzly bear-sized marine mammals (as well as a few other animals).

The work involves a lot of catching, tagging, and releasing, as well as using drones and even attaching cameras to seals鈥� backs. What Krause finds can tell us a lot about the ecology of the Antarctic Peninsula, and how climate change affects it.聽

The question

How do leopard seals get their food?

The researcher

Krause is a research biologist with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries. When he’s not in Antarctica, he’s based in southern California.

Doug Krause ’99 operates a drone to track leopard seals off the Antarctic Peninsula. (Courtesy of Doug Krause)

An Old Hat

Krause has made 12 trips to Antarctica since 2002.

The 乐播传媒 connection

鈥淢y degree was in biology,鈥� Krause says. 鈥淚 had a professor, Will Ambrose, who was doing active research in the Arctic. That was very captivating to me; polar research and polar exploration were on my mind from that stage.

鈥淎fter graduation, I had the opportunity to take a position as a field biologist in the Antarctic. It was supposed to be only for a couple of years starting in 2002, but I got down there and fell in love with it.鈥�

The place

Cape Shirreff on Livingston Island, about 600 miles south of Chile.

Image via Google Maps

Why leopard seals are just the coolest

As Krause told the , 鈥淚 can say, being completely unbiased, that leopard seals are the single most interesting marine mammal, or possibly animal, anywhere in the world.鈥�

A leopard seal rests on an ice flow. (Courtesy of Doug Krause)

That鈥檚 because they鈥檙e at the top of the food chain, and they鈥檙e the only seals that eat other seals. They鈥檙e torpedo-shaped and streamlined like gray seals and harbor seals, but they鈥檙e also maneuverable like sea lions. 聽

Why study leopard seals?

Leopard seals are 鈥渋ndicator species,鈥� meaning you can learn a lot about the ecosystem by studying them.

鈥淥ur job is to understand the health of the whole marine ecosystem. Our work is mostly focused on antarctic krill 鈥� they are a crucial part near the base of the food web, and many other things depend on them as food: fish, whales, seals, penguins, birds.

鈥淲e track the populations of these indicator species, where they go, what they鈥檙e eating, and how hard they鈥檙e working to get that food. Understanding how hard they have to work and how they鈥檙e doing it gives us a better understanding of the krill itself.鈥�

How he does it

Krause and his team use photography, including drone photography, and tagging to track populations and the seals’ diets.聽

鈥淲e track what they鈥檙e eating using a few technologies,鈥� he says. 鈥淥ne is stable isotope analysis, where we take a bit of tissue and figure out what they鈥檝e been eating from that. We also sift through their scats, which is really glamorous.鈥�

What they found

Lately, the team has put cameras on the seals鈥� backs to record how they get their food. The resulting footage, which has been featured on National Geographic TV and , shows for the first time that leopard seals spend much of their time hunting, and they have individual hunting patterns. (In the below, a leopard seal ambushes an Antarctic fur seal pup).聽

鈥淲e learned that individuals have their own hunting strategy, and that is really important when you try to relate this back to ecosystem impact,鈥� Krause says.

Antarctic living

Krause and his team live in cabin-like buildings with a shared kitchen. They take showers once a week using rainwater or melted snow, and communications are limited. An October snowstorm might mean a 35-minute dig to the outhouse.

When he’s in Antarctica, Krause stays at the NOAA field camp on Cape Shirreff. (Courtesy of Doug Krause)

There are some upsides. 鈥淓very year, the exact same thing happens about two weeks after I get there,鈥� Krause says. 鈥淚 will get a bit of chest congestion and have some mucus for about a day, then it disappears. That process is essentially my body shedding the pollution that I鈥檝e taken on a very regular basis in Southern California.鈥�

Climate connection

The temperature in the Antarctic Peninsula has shot up as much as 7 degrees Celsius since the 1950s, leading to receding glaciers and rapid ecological change.

That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 so important to study leopard seals and what they eat, Krause says. 鈥淲atching how these ecosystems and how groups of animals respond to rapid change will provide valuable information for the ecological community on what effects we can expect throughout the rest of the globe.鈥�

Following the Law

The Marine Mammal Protection Act limits capturing, killing, or harassing marine mammals in U.S. waters. It also applies to U.S. citizens working in international waters. Krause, being the latter, took his leopard seal photos and video聽in accordance with MMPA permit nos.聽16472 and 20599.

Learn more

and both featured Krause鈥檚 work with leopard seals.

Read more about 乐播传媒 alumni in Antarctica

乐播传媒 Club of Antarctica: If glaciers could talk, what would they say?

乐播传媒 Club of Antarctica: Fossils, and beach volleyball on a glacier

乐播传媒 Club of Antarctica: The secrets of the lakes

乐播传媒 Club of Antarctica: It’s a whale’s world

This year, at least seven 乐播传媒 alumni traveled to Antarctica to conduct or document research.

They spent the Antarctic summer, which is Maine鈥檚 winter, taking samples, transporting hundreds of tons of gear, or sticking cameras on the backs of seals. In doing so, they hope to uncover the secrets of Antarctica鈥檚 glaciers, fossils, and living mammals; what they find might teach us more about our world and beyond.

Each week in this series, we鈥檒l introduce you to different alumni and their projects, asking what it鈥檚 like to live and work on the bottom of the world.

Up first:聽Glaciers move, advance, and retreat over time. How does temperature affect their travel, and what can the last ice age tell us about today鈥檚 climate change?

In December and January, Brenda Hall 鈥�90 and Allie Balter 鈥�14 set off into a remote spot in the Transantarctic Mountains to find out. They spent weeks taking samples of rock and algae in an effort to figure out where the glaciers of 20,000 years ago went.

The question

鈥淲e鈥檙e interested in how the ice sheets there have changed in the past and how that relates to changes in climate over time,鈥� Balter says.

The team

Brenda Hall 鈥�90, a professor in the University of Maine School of Earth and Climate Sciences; Allie Balter 鈥�14, a graduate student in the same school; and two UMaine undergraduates, Laura Mattas and Tyler Pollock.

The 乐播传媒 connection

Allie Balter ’14 samples a boulder using a hammer and chisel in the Royal Society Range during the 2016鈥�17 season. (Courtesy of Allie Balter)

Balter became interested in the Arctic when Professor of Geology Mike Retelle took her on a research trip to Svalbard, above the Arctic Circle. The frozen Arctic sparked something: 鈥淚 decided I really loved glaciers and how climate has changed in the past.鈥�

Number of trips to Antarctica

For Balter, two. For Hall, 28.

The place

Image via Google Maps

The team set up three camps in the Royal Society Range in the Transantarctic Mountains, south of Australia and New Zealand. It鈥檚 one of the few places on Antarctica not covered by kilometers-thick layers of ice 鈥� but it used to be.

How to get there

University of Maine student Laura Mattas takes a selfie after a helicopter dropped off her team following a day trip. (Courtesy of Allie Balter)

Says Balter:聽鈥淔irst go you first go to Christchurch, New Zealand. You get your extreme cold weather gear, a big puffy red jacket and fleece pants.

鈥淭hen, you get on a plane along with other scientists. You go to McMurdo Station, the biggest U.S. research station. It鈥檚 kind of like a little town; there are a cafeteria, dorms, and places to get all your field equipment, tents, sampling equipment, and sleeping bags. You spend about a week there getting your gear for the field ready to go. There鈥檚 a bunch of trainings.

鈥淵ou then take a helicopter to the site in the mountains.鈥�

The research

Brenda Hall ’90 and UMaine undergraduates Laura Mattas and Tyler Pollock take notes about a boulder they’re about to sample. (Courtesy of Allie Balter)

Retreating glaciers are like conveyor belts, Balter says: Rocks and algae slide to the end of the glacier and are deposited in its trail, leaving records of where the glacier was. 鈥�9,000-year-old algae embedded in the sand give you a good idea of where the glacier used to be.鈥� By taking samples, the UMaine team hopes to determine how far a particular glacier advanced during the last ice age and how temperature correlates to the glacier鈥檚 movement.

The implication

鈥淭he end of the last ice age is a particularly good example of rapid global warming, and it may give us a better indication of what may happen to the ice sheet as our climate warms today,鈥� says Balter.

Antarctic living

The UMaine team’s campsite at Roaring Valley in the Royal Society Range. On the left is a cook tent; on the right a Scott tent, whose design dates back to the early 20th century. (Courtesy of Allie Balter)

The group slept in Scott tents, a style of tent that dates back to the first South Pole expeditions in 1912.

鈥淲e鈥檇 wake up at maybe 7 in the morning, make oatmeal for breakfast on our cookstove, and hike anywhere between two and 12 miles to take rock and algae samples,鈥� Balter says. 鈥淎t the end of the day, we鈥檒l carry all those back to our tent, and for dinner we鈥檇 have frozen meats and cheese and pasta.鈥�

The sound of silence

Mattas and Pollock walk at the edge of Trough Lake towards the margin of Koettlitz Glacier. (Courtesy of Allie Balter)

鈥淚f the wind鈥檚 not blowing, there鈥檚 no noise at all,鈥� Balter says. 鈥淭here are no animals and no trees and vegetation. It feels like you are on Mars.鈥�

And in some places, it鈥檚 not all that cold; temperatures hover at or above freezing during the Antarctic summer. 鈥淚t鈥檚 warmer there in January than it is in Maine,鈥� says Hall.

Learn more

Balter curates a聽聽of the team鈥檚 research.

Read more about 乐播传媒 alumni in Antarctica

乐播传媒 Club of Antarctica: If you give a seal a camera

乐播传媒 Club of Antarctica: Fossils, and beach volleyball on a glacier

乐播传媒 Club of Antarctica: The secrets of the lakes

乐播传媒 Club of Antarctica: It’s a whale’s world