A classroom participates in a live video call with researchers in Antarctica
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2025 Palmer LTER Video Teleconferences

Educators: Join Polar Scientists on a Research Expedition to Palmer Station, Antarctica  We are recruiting 12-18 educators and their students to participate in the 2025 LTER field season in Antarctica! This unique opportunity will…
Dr. Ben Van Mooy standing in his lab, surrounded by equipment.

Benjamin Van Mooy named a 2024 MacArthur Fellow

Congratulations to PAL Co-PI Benjamin Van Mooy, who was named a 2024 MacArthur Fellow! MacArthur Foundation Fellowships, often colloquially referred to as the MacArthur Genius Award, celebrate and inspire the creative potential of individuals…
A collage of two pictures showing an Antarctic Dragonfish on top, and the R/V Gould at sea.
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New Species of Antarctic Dragonfish Discovered

A new species of Antarctic dragonfish, Akarotaxis gouldae or Banded Dragonfish, has been discovered in waters off the western Antarctic Peninsula by researchers at VIMS and William & Mary's Batten School of Coastal & Marine…

Oscar Schofield named a Marine Technology Society Fellow

Earlier this month, PAL Principle Investigator Dr. Oscar Schofield was officially named a Fellow of the Marine Technology Society (MTS), in recognition of his many years of service to the marine technology community at Rutgers and beyond. In…

Former PAL Undergrad About to Launch into Space

Zena Cardman as a NASA Astronaut Candidate in 2017. (NASA/Bill Stafford) Zena Cardman was an undergrad when she first sailed with the PAL LTER as part of Hugh Ducklow’s team in 2009. And now, next month, Zena will serve as spacecraft…
Overview of fish and top predator presence and activity patterns in the Palmer Station region. Top predator occupancy patterns are estimated from visual sightings, Palmer Station monthly reports, and literature reviews (caveats are discussed in the text).

Seasonal shifts: Phenology events at the bottom of the world

Kudos to PAL Co-PI Megan Cimino whose 2023 paper "Long‐term patterns in ecosystem phenology near Palmer Station, Antarctica, from the perspective of the Adélie penguin" was recently featured as news story on the NSF website.

Farewell R/V Gould

This year, the R/V Laurence M. Gould completed its 27-year run as the Antarctic Research and Supply Vessel (ARSV) for the National Science Foundation. In that time, the ship spent nearly 6,300 days at sea, with over 1,000 supporting Palmer…
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New ADCP Backscatter Visualization Tool

Have you ever wondered what lies below the waters along the West Antarctic Peninsula? Now, you can use a new interactive map tool developed by former PAL graduate student Amanda Lohmann (now a PostDoc at the University of Virginia), to…

Melting Point: Where is the Antarctic Sea Ice?

For World Penguin Day last month, PAL Co-PI Dr. Sharon Stammerjohn was featured in a video produced by the Wilson Center on the recent changes in Antarctic sea ice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWwYi_2Oyd8 The above video was…
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Unexpected Connection: Palmer researchers featured in Sandpoint Idaho magazine

From the file of unexpected places you can find stories about Palmer LTER... Two of our penguin research technicians, Darren and Megan Roberts, were recently featured in their local community paper, the Sandpoint Magazine, published in…
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New paper: Watching the Sunrise on our Ocean Planet

PAL PI Oscar Schofield was recently asked to provide a "senior scientist view of the world" as part of the Food for Thought series in the ICES Journal of Marine Science. In this retrospective, Oscar recounts how he ended up as an oceanographer,…
Fig. 11. Conceptual diagram illustrating past conditions vs. present conditions in the marginal ice zone west of the Antarctic Peninsula in the spring season (October to November). Spring conditions are inherently light-limited due to low solar zenith angles (SZA). Past conditions with lower wind speeds and shallower mixed layer depth (MLD) provided more favorable conditions for spring surface phytoplankton accumulation compared to present conditions.

New paper on changing phytoplankton phenology along the Antarctic Peninsula

In a recent paper, Jessica Turner, a PAL collaborator and Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Connecticut, found that phytoplankton blooms are starting later rather than earlier over time, likely driven by increased wind mixing. Her…