Impact of Research Activities on McMurdo Dry Valley Lakes

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Diary Note OPP-0732029 Program staff recommend support of this workshop proposal, which is exempt from peer review per NSF Manual 10, 122.1.c.3.b. The proposal will support a workshop to address the impact of scientific research on the perennially ice- covered lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. The Environmental Officer, Joyce Jatko, was consulted as to the relevance of this workshop; she endorsed its funding. This invitational workshop will bring together about 35 experts from not only the polar limnology community but from the broader aquatic community. The workshop addresses important issues, which have been the focus of question or concern by the scientific community, program staff at NSF, the US non-governmental community and the international Antarctic community. The invited participant list is appropriately balanced by scientific discipline and includes the key international scientists. Program staff discussed the lack of gender balance in the proposed list of participants with the PIs, who have assured staff that a more appropriate balance will be achieved. The results of the workshop will be made available as a report, to be widely distributed. The report will be useful not only to scientists, but to managers of Antarctic programs who must ensure that activities conducted in Antarctica are reviewed to meet the intent of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty. 9732029 DORAN The perennially ice-covered lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys in southern Victoria Land, Antarctica, have been the object of study since their discovery by Robert Falcon Scott in 1903. These dry valley lakes are unique on Earth, and there is great interest within the scientific community to preserve their pristine nature to the maximum extent possible. This award will support an invitational workshop which will bring together about thirty-five scientists with expe rtise in aquatic environments. The purpose of the workshop is to assess the impact of past and current research activities in and around the dry valley lakes. The group will make recommendations on the establishment of acceptable levels of impact as well as on approaches to management of future research activities in an environmentally responsible manner. Given the uniqueness and scientifically valuable nature of these lakes, workshop participants will be chosen from the pool of Antarctic and Arctic scientists as well as from investigators in the broader aquatic sciences community. Workshop participants will address the potential impacts of research activities on the Antarctic lakes, including ice-hole melting, SCUBA diving, remotely-operated and autonomously-operated underwater vehicles, the use of chemical tracers, repetitive water sampling, waster removal and sediment coring. The impact of shore-based and glacier melt stream research activities on the dry valley lakes will also be explored. This serious approach to one aspect of the issue of human impact to the Earth's environment should provide critical information to help guide and direct future scientific activities.