Home

You are here: Home

Palmer Station Antarctica LTER

Studying the ecology of the Antarctic Peninsula for over 30 years

The Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) study area is located to the west of the Antarctic Peninsula extending South and North of the Palmer Basin from onshore to several hundred kilometers off shore. Palmer Station is one of the three United States research stations located in Antarctica. It is on Anvers Island midway down the Antarctic Peninsula at latitude 64.7 South, longitude 64.0 West.

The Palmer LTER studies a polar marine biome with research focused on the Antarctic pelagic marine ecosystem, including sea ice habitats, regional oceanography and terrestrial nesting sites of seabird predators. The Palmer LTER is one of more than 26 LTER research sites located throughout the United States, Puerto Rico and Tahiti; each focused on a specific ecosystem, that together constitute the LTER Network.

News from Palmer LTER

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…
,

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…
,

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…
,

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…

Palmer LTER Resources

The buildings of Palmer station a dusk
PAL Research Groups
Penguins on the beach near Palmer
PAL Datasets
Two people standing in front of a laptop on a stand with glaciers and water behind them
Education & Outreach