We have a new member to our scientific team now, who arrived by helicopter a few days ago. Ian Hawes is an aquatic ecologist from New Zealand who has extensively studied the underwater communities of the lakes here in the Dry Valleys. He also has done many projects under the sea ice near McMurdo as well as research in other parts of the world, like the islands of the South Pacific and Greenland.
Aquatic ecologist and diver Ian Hawes.
While talking to Ian, I get a very strong sense of the collaborative nature of science. He works at the University of Canterbury, in Christchurch, New Zealand, but he has worked with the science team from U.C. Davis on numerous occasions. This happens all the time within the scientific community. In this case, one of the main reasons for the collaboration is that both Tyler and Ian are trained and certified to dive here in Antarctica, which is a not a common skill to have. Because two divers are needed for any diving, they really need each other if they are to investigate their different questions about the underwater environment.
While Ian collects some data for Tyler on the dives, he also has his own set of questions that he's exploring that are slightly different from Tyler's. Ian's main question for this field season concerns the role of photosynthesis in the microbial communities. He thinks that photosynthesis could be causing the pH to get higher, which in turn would cause minerals to precipitate. (Precipitation is when minerals are deposited in solid mass from what had been dissolved in the water.)
Ian Hawes getting ready to dive.
Before joining us here at Lake Joyce, Ian was a part of another, very fascinating project on the sea ice near McMurdo Station. The team of scientists were researching the algae growing on the underside of the sea ice. It's quite variable and very hard to measure accurately just by drilling holes in the ice and sampling what can be reached from the holes. This team actually used a remotely operated under-ice vehicle to map out the algae from below. The vehicle was measuring light that comes through the ice and algae as a way of determining the distribution of algae over larger territories. This, in turn, will help us understand the role of algae as a primary producer in a complicated and rich antarctic food web. The project also highlights the collaborative nature of science. The team represents three different universities from New Zealand, Australia, and Denmark, with each contingent bringing their own specialities.