Entries by Sage Lichtenwalner

Fast Company on the Five-Sigma Event

Earlier this summer (for those of us in the northern hemisphere), as Antarctica reached it’s peak winter season, scientists observed what came to be known as a “five-sigma event” in Antarctic Sea Ice. This referred to the unprecedented record low maximum sea ice extent observed this year, which far surpassed previous records. Oscar Schofield, the […]

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Associated Press: Antarctic Krill Fishing

This month, PAL LTER scientists Deborah Steinberg, Logan Pallin, Ari Friedlaender, and Joe Cope were featured in a story by the Associated Press. Factory fishing in Antarctica for krill targets the cornerstone of a fragile ecosystemBy Joshua Goodman and David Keyton, October 13, 2023 Here is a snippet… Jars of krill line the windowsills in […]

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Palmer penguins featured on WHYY’s The Pulse

In April, the podcast series The Pulse from WHYY in Philadelphia featured an episode about Taking the Temperature of Climate Science. One segment featured our own Megan Cimino and her work studying the Adélie penguin population around Palmer Station. Also featured were Mark Moline and Matthew Breece from the University of Delaware, who are using […]

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New Paper: Influence of seasonally varying sea-ice concentration and subsurface ocean heat on sea-ice thickness and sea-ice seasonality for a ‘warm-shelf’ region in Antarctica

Do you love 1-D ocean-sea ice models? Then check out the latest paper by Ben, Darren, Scott, Doug and Sharon. Kudos to the team! For more, check out the abstract and citation below. Processes driving changes in sea-ice seasonality and sea-ice thickness were explored for a ‘warm-shelf’ region along the West Antarctic Peninsula using vertically […]

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New Paper: Depth drives the distribution of microbial ecological functions in the coastal western Antarctic Peninsula

Congrats to Avishek Dutta and the team for their recent paper in Frontiers in Microbiology. Here’s the abstract… The Antarctic marine environment is a dynamic ecosystem where microorganisms play an important role in key biogeochemical cycles. Despite the role that microbes play in this ecosystem, little is known about the genetic and metabolic diversity of […]

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2023 PAL-LTER, SWARM, and Friends Workshop

Four years is a long time to wait, but last week, the waiting was over, as we held the first in-person PAL-LTER and Friends Science Workshop since 2019. On Tuesday, the PI team met to discuss the latest field season and to prepare for the challenges of next one. And then on Wednesday and Thursday, […]

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An Adélie Penguin on the cover of Ecosphere

Kudos to PAL researcher Darren Roberts, whose photo of an Adélie Penguin was featured on the March 2023 issue of Ecosphere, the journal of the Ecological Society of America. The photo was chosen to feature a recent paper, Long-term patterns in ecosystem phenology near Palmer Station, Antarctica, from the perspective of the Adélie penguin, by […]

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Record Low Antarctic Sea Ice Extent in 2023

Last month, the amount of sea ice around Antarctic broke a new record low, according to the National Snow & Ice Data Center. This year’s minimum extent is the lowest recorded since 1979, and it broke the previous record low set just last year. Following the low, and the peak of austral summer, the sea […]

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2023 Palmer School Outreach Programs Underway

It’s hard to believe the 2023 PAL field season is halfway over, and the main research cruise is already back at port. But that doesn’t mean our outreach work is done. Far from it, we’re just getting started! The goal of the PAL outreach team is to bring Antarctic research to classrooms across the country, […]

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