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Maria VernetMaria Vernet is a marine scientist from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. She has participated in various studies involving phytoplankton ecology and physiology including the effects of ultraviolet radiation on photosynthesis to the grazing by Antarctic krill on coastal phytoplankton. During winter 2008, she studied the ecology of phytoplankton and its role within the marine ecosystem at the Palmer Station Long-Term Ecological Research Network (LTER), and during spring 2009, she investigated the ecology of phytoplankton within the marine ecosystem surrounding floating icebergs. From January 2nd to March 1st, 2010 Maria will be on the icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer in the western Weddell Sea. Here she will collect plankton samples in an area where photosynthesis has occurred only during the last 7 years. During the previous 10,000 years, the area was covered by an ice sheet up to 200 meters thick. The breakup of the ice sheet not only provides sunlight to an area equal to 1.5 million of square kilometers, it gives access to investigate the biological communities in the sea floor and track how they are being altered by the phytoplankton sinking to the bottom.

Project Page: Shedding Light on an Ecosystem in the Dark

All Posts By Maria Vernet


The End of Our Cruise

PUNTA ARENAS, CHILE-- Late last night we arrived at Punta Arenas, Chile. This marks the end of our Iceberg 3 cruise. We have finished analyzing the samples, re-calibrating instruments and we are now ready to start packing... {Read More »}



Experiments with Phytoplankton Growing Close to Icebergs

ABOARD THE RVIB N. B. PALMER, ON THE SOUTHERN OCEAN– We are experimenting with iron additions to phytoplankton populations to see possible effects of icebergs as a source of iron... {Read More »}



Primary Productivity at an Iceberg Site

ABOARD THE RVIB N. B. PALMER, ON THE SOUTHERN OCEAN– Not only do we want to know about what type of phytoplankton grow close to icebergs but we also want to know how well they grow... {Read More »}



The Iceberg Alley

ABOARD THE RVIB N. B. PALMER, ON THE SOUTHERN OCEAN– Within 40 nautical miles southeast of C18A iceberg, we found an area known as the Iceberg Alley: a large concentration of icebergs in western Weddell Sea, moving in a north-northeast direction following the clockwise circulation around the Weddell Sea gyre. Hundreds of icebergs... {Read More »}



A Trip to the Ice Edge

ABOARD THE RVIB N. B. PALMER, ON THE SOUTHERN OCEAN– After a four day trek looking for other icebergs we might want to study, we came back to continue studying iceberg C18A... {Read More »}



It’s a Blue Ocean

ABOARD THE RVIB N. B. PALMER, ON THE SOUTHERN OCEAN-- We are all used to thinking of the ocean as blue. Sometimes greenish, if close to the coast, or brownish if a lot of sediments are delivered at a river’s mouth, but mostly it is blue; a clear blue close to coral reefs, a dark blue when seen from space or a grayish blue during a storm. Why is the ocean blue?... {Read More »}



Reproduction in Antarctic Diatoms

ABOARD THE RVIB N. B. PALMER, ON THE SOUTHERN OCEAN– As most unicellular phytoplankton algae, diatoms usually reproduce by division. One cell becomes two after mitosis; the two new algae are called “daughter cells”. Once in a long while diatoms go through sexual reproduction. What brings this phenomenon? {Read More »}



Diatoms Can Be Toxic

ABOARD THE RVIB N. B. PALMER, ON THE SOUTHERN OCEAN– Phytoplankton cells can become toxic under certain conditions. Still a mystery to scientists why they produce toxins, there has been a proliferation of large concentrations of toxic cells, or blooms, also called red tides, during the last 20 years... {Read More »}



Our First Iceberg

ABOARD THE RVIB N. B. PALMER, ON THE SOUTHERN OCEAN-- C18A is a large iceberg, rectangular, shaped almost like a surf board, 18 km long and 6 km wide. It takes us about 4 hours at 11 knots to navigate around it... {Read More »}



All Kinds of Diatoms

ABOARD THE RVIB N. B. PALMER, ON THE SOUTHERN OCEAN-- After 4 days in transit we arrived at Clarence Island near the South Shetlands. It is too windy to test our new instruments here. So we turn northeast and after 8 more hours we arrive at the C18A iceberg... {Read More »}