A Graduate Training Program in Antarctica: Integrative Biology and Adaptation of Antarctic Marine Organisms

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Biological impacts of the ozone hole, debates about global warming and temperature adaptations, and the evolution of biological diversity in the cold biosphere are some of the important themes that are central to scientific investigations in Antarctica. Yet few students ever have the opportunity to study science on-site in Antarctica because of the obvious limitations resulting from the remoteness of this continent. This project will support a series of advanced level, graduate training courses that will be organized and taught on site in Antarctica. These courses will be open to Ph.D. students and postdoctoral-level scientists interested in the study of biological adaptations of Antarctic marine organisms. Each of the three austral summer courses will be offered for approximately twenty students over a five-year period in Antarctica, in January 2006, 2008 and 2010. These courses will be held at McMurdo Station, the major base in Antarctica of the United States Antarctic Program. This NSF-supported research station has well equipped laboratories for the kinds of educational and student research activities that will be undertaken in the proposed courses. The major goal of these courses is to introduce students and new postdoctoral-level investigators to Antarctic science through studies of the diversity of life forms and the mechanisms of biological adaptation of Antarctic marine organisms. The courses will introduce an international group of students to a wide range of Antarctic organisms, including vertebrates, invertebrates, algae and microbes. Lead instructors with considerable experience with organizing and teaching such advanced educational programs in Antarctica in the past will participate in the program A further aim of the proposed courses is to train all the participants in approaches to integrative biology, by having them study unique biological processes in the cold biosphere that span several different levels of biological organization. For instance, long-standing questions in evolution (e.g., cold adaptation) and ecology concerning the biology of Antarctic organisms will be examined with 1) physiological studies of whole organisms; 2) studies of isolated cells and tissues; 3) experiments on protein structure and function; and 4) molecular analysis of genetic systems. These Antarctic courses will have an educationally intense format similar to summer courses that have been offered in the past at US-based marine laboratories, an approach that has been very successful at introducing new students to important fields of biology. The general format of the Antarctic courses will consist of field collections and laboratory experiments, together with many lectures on polar science from course faculty and guest speakers. Some of the specific themes to be covered during the courses in Antarctica will include: biological diversity; biochemical adaptation; cold adaptation; energy metabolism; molecular phylogeny; and UV photobiology. These themes will be interwoven during the courses with independent, student-initiated research projects. Antarctica is a difficult place to do science. This is especially true for first-time, new investigators starting their careers. The proposed courses will introduce students to the hands-on "doing" of science under realistic Antarctic conditions. The major expectations from offering these training courses in Antarctica will be to introduce new researchers to the biological processes in that extreme environment and to train such students in modern research methods to understand the mechanisms that are unique to biology in Antarctica.