Hamilton College has been awarded two related grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) that will support the work of Eugene Domack, the Joel W. Johnson Professor of Geosciences, and Assistant Professor of Biology Michael McCormick. Both grants will be applied to a series of research expeditions to Antarctica for which Domack will serve as chief scientist as part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) International Polar Year program.
Funding for Domack's international, multi-year, collaborative research project, "Collaborative Research in IPY: Abrupt Environmental Change in the Larsen Ice Shelf System, a Multidisciplinary Approach - Marine and Quaternary Geosciences," was confirmed in September by the NSF. His proposal received a $561,715 award that will allow him and a team of fellow researchers to address the changes occurring in the Antarctic Peninsula region as a consequence of the abrupt collapse of the Larsen
Ice Shelf System.
"Professor Domack's work is as exciting for its potential contribution to our understanding of the Antarctic Peninsula ecosystem as it is for the multidisciplinary methodology it employs and the international nature of the research cohort it has assembled to conduct its investigations," commented Dean of Faculty Joseph Urgo.
In describing the funded project Domack explained, "This is the first time that an international, interdisciplinary team will work together to address a significant regional problem with global change implications. This breaks the traditional mold of discipline-specific research. We will benefit from gathering observations from several different areas of research."
Marine geoscience researchers from Colgate University, University of Houston, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and Montclair State University will also join Domack. Representing other disciplines will be glaciologists, oceanographers and marine geologists from Argentine Antarctic Institute, Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research, National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Alaska, Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, The Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University, Universitat de Barcelona and Gent University in Belgium.
The project for which McCormick received funding is titled "Collaborative Research in IPY: Abrupt Environmental Change in the Larsen Ice Shelf System, a Multidisciplinary Approach - Marine Ecosystems." The award to Hamilton is $113,000. His collaborators are from Scripps Oceanographic Institute, Duke University and the University of Hawaii. They will also be a part of the expedition and will be investigating the profound transformation currently occurring within the marine ecosystem once covered by the Larsen B Ice Shelf. In 2005 Domack led a group, including students from Hamilton College, that discovered a chemotrophic ecosystem (a cold seep) on the ocean floor in that area, which has undergone significant change since that time.
This is the only planned Antarctic expedition of its kind that combines this breadth of disciplines on one vessel. By making use of a marine research platform as well as two helicopters and an undersea remotely operated vehicle (ROV), the team will work collaboratively to answer vital questions with regard to:
1) the stability of the Antarctic Peninsula ice sheet and the remainder of the Larsen Ice Shelf
2) the response, or contribution, of oceanographic systems to ice shelf disintegration
3) the climate history of the Peninsula as recorded in ice and sediment core samples and
4) the biogeography of life in extreme environments.
The helicopters will allow scientists to retrieve ice core samples and deploy geologists to the regional bedrock, all the while the ship will be generating swath maps of the sea floor. The undersea ROV will video and sample the ocean floor. The undersea ROV will video and record the ocean floor. Additional sediment core samples will be retrieved with equipment on the research ship.
The project will involve five expeditions from 2008 through 2013. Undergraduate students will have the opportunity to participate on some of these. "This is another chance for us to continue the Antarctic research tradition at Hamilton. It is a great testimony to the program that we have received this funding," said Domack.
Since 1987, Domack has been making almost yearly research trips to Antarctica. He has received continuous funding from the NSF.
Funding for Domack's international, multi-year, collaborative research project, "Collaborative Research in IPY: Abrupt Environmental Change in the Larsen Ice Shelf System, a Multidisciplinary Approach - Marine and Quaternary Geosciences," was confirmed in September by the NSF. His proposal received a $561,715 award that will allow him and a team of fellow researchers to address the changes occurring in the Antarctic Peninsula region as a consequence of the abrupt collapse of the Larsen
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| Michael McCormick |
"Professor Domack's work is as exciting for its potential contribution to our understanding of the Antarctic Peninsula ecosystem as it is for the multidisciplinary methodology it employs and the international nature of the research cohort it has assembled to conduct its investigations," commented Dean of Faculty Joseph Urgo.
In describing the funded project Domack explained, "This is the first time that an international, interdisciplinary team will work together to address a significant regional problem with global change implications. This breaks the traditional mold of discipline-specific research. We will benefit from gathering observations from several different areas of research."
Marine geoscience researchers from Colgate University, University of Houston, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and Montclair State University will also join Domack. Representing other disciplines will be glaciologists, oceanographers and marine geologists from Argentine Antarctic Institute, Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research, National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Alaska, Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, The Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University, Universitat de Barcelona and Gent University in Belgium.
The project for which McCormick received funding is titled "Collaborative Research in IPY: Abrupt Environmental Change in the Larsen Ice Shelf System, a Multidisciplinary Approach - Marine Ecosystems." The award to Hamilton is $113,000. His collaborators are from Scripps Oceanographic Institute, Duke University and the University of Hawaii. They will also be a part of the expedition and will be investigating the profound transformation currently occurring within the marine ecosystem once covered by the Larsen B Ice Shelf. In 2005 Domack led a group, including students from Hamilton College, that discovered a chemotrophic ecosystem (a cold seep) on the ocean floor in that area, which has undergone significant change since that time.
This is the only planned Antarctic expedition of its kind that combines this breadth of disciplines on one vessel. By making use of a marine research platform as well as two helicopters and an undersea remotely operated vehicle (ROV), the team will work collaboratively to answer vital questions with regard to:
1) the stability of the Antarctic Peninsula ice sheet and the remainder of the Larsen Ice Shelf
2) the response, or contribution, of oceanographic systems to ice shelf disintegration
3) the climate history of the Peninsula as recorded in ice and sediment core samples and
4) the biogeography of life in extreme environments.
The helicopters will allow scientists to retrieve ice core samples and deploy geologists to the regional bedrock, all the while the ship will be generating swath maps of the sea floor. The undersea ROV will video and sample the ocean floor. The undersea ROV will video and record the ocean floor. Additional sediment core samples will be retrieved with equipment on the research ship.
The project will involve five expeditions from 2008 through 2013. Undergraduate students will have the opportunity to participate on some of these. "This is another chance for us to continue the Antarctic research tradition at Hamilton. It is a great testimony to the program that we have received this funding," said Domack.
Since 1987, Domack has been making almost yearly research trips to Antarctica. He has received continuous funding from the NSF.
