Hassan is part of the glaciology team for the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research site (LTER for short), which is led by Andrew Fountain of Portland State. The LTER Network includes 26 sites mostly in the US, and includes ecosystems from the poles to the tropics. Scientists study the areas from many angles, combining their research to give a broad view of how ecosystems work. (Video by Lisa Strong-Aufhauser)

Canada Glacier with frozen Lake Hoare in the background.

Summer melting from the Canada Glacier feeds a stream that flows into Lake Hoare.

The Dry Valleys are dry because very little snow falls here, the average water content is less than a centimeter. Yet a fully functioning ecosystem exists here, in the ice-covered lakes and the soils of the valley floor. Even though the ecosystem is all but invisible to the naked eye, it still has a basic food web: primary producers (mats of moss and algae in the lakes, bacteria, yeast, fungi and other microbial life in the soils ), grazers (microscopic invertebrates called rotifers and tardigrades), with the top of the food chain consisting of tiny nematode worms. Curiously, there are no known predators in the Dry Valleys soils. These valleys constitute a Long-Range Ecological Research (LTER) study site and represent what scientists believe might be a model for life on Mars if it exists.

Lisa Strong on a hike with Canada Glacier behind her.

The origins of Seuss Glacier pouring through a mountain pass in the Dry Valleys.

Lisa and I went for a walk up the Taylor Valley to see whether we could uncover any evidence of life and saw little, except for a couple of long-dead seal mummies (why they traveled so far from the sea ice is anyone’s guess) and some algae-covered rocks and brown floating scum, looking for all the world like whipped chocolate mousse. We did see plenty of wind-scoured rocks and glaciers pouring through gaps in the surrounding mountains.

Bones and skin of a seal mummy that perished hundreds or thousands of years ago.

Biological scum on Lake Chad.

For easier walking, I tried to cross the moat between land and solid (white) lake ice. What I thought was thick ice wasn’t and I broke through up to my knees for my own version of the polar plunge. After changing into dry pants and socks, we continued on our walk but the only macroscopic life we saw was a lone skua winging up the valley.

Mary after breaking through lake ice.

I knew I needed to dig deeper, so I’ll turn to the LTER scientists studying the different parts of this ecosystem from the glaciers that feed life-giving water to the lakes and soils, to the ice-covered lake waters that support microbial life, to the soils that provide habitat to bacteria, yeast and fungi, and invertebrate creatures that make up “charasmatic megafauna” of the Dry Valleys. Look for upcoming video interviews with these LTER scientists.

Glaciologist Hassan Basagic of Portland State University explaining the dynamic of Canada Glacier to Lisa.

Map of Antarctica’s Dry Valleys.

The Commonwealth Glacier flows through a mountain pass down into Taylor Dry Valley.

The Dry Valleys are an Antarctic anomaly. While most of the continent is covered in a thick layer of ice, the dry, frigid Valleys are almost entirely ice-free, an arid expanse of mostly dirt, small rocks, and big boulders. The Valleys are dotted with a few frozen lakes, and, during the austral summer, are etched with short-lived streams that link the lakes with surrounding glaciers, some of which reach the Valley floors. This is not what you’d expect to see in Antarctica.

Why are the large Dry Valleys (Taylor, Wright, and Victoria) so different from the rest of the continent? The answer lies in the mile-high Transantarctic Mountains. The Valleys are nestled between the mountains, which serve as a barrier, largely blocking them from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Several tongue-like glaciers creep through the gaps, but any ice that breaks off of the glaciers quickly sublimates (goes from solid to vapor, bypassing the liquid stage) in the arid atmosphere.

The Valleys have their own brand of fierce weather, too. They’re bitter cold (temperatures have dropped to as low as –90 degrees Fahrenheit, or about –68° C). The air is extremely dry. Katabatic (high-speed) winds dip down over the ice at the edges of the Valleys, and rip through them at speeds as high as 200 miles (about 322 km) per hour. Along the way, wind and the gritty groundcover mix, and together sculpt some of the rocks into smooth, oddly shaped formations called ventifacts. The dynamic duo of wind and grit also sandblast the mummified remains of seals that strayed too far inland—some of them thousands of years old.

Not surprisingly, explorer Robert Scott, who discovered the Valleys in 1903, looked over one of them and called it “a valley of death.” This was, of course, before scientists arrived. Today, we know that Scott was wrong.

Researchers have discovered that the Dry Valleys are home to a variety of extremophiles (organisms that live in extreme environments). Among them are lichen and mosses, communities of microbes (including cyanobacteria), and nematodes (microscopic worms). Researchers continue to find and study these and other organisms and their adaptations, which allow them to survive in one of the most punishing environments on the planet.

A ventifact, or wind- and dirt-sculpted rock, is a common sight in Antarctica’s Dry Valleys.

A seal sandblasted down to the skeleton.

Cyanobacteria on the shores of Lake Chad.

Many scientists working here are part of the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) team. LTER is network of sites in Antarctica, the Arctic (Toolik Lake, Barrow, and Palmer), and other places worldwide. The goal of this National Science Foundation-supported program is to provide the scientific community, policy makers, and society with the understanding necessary to conserve, protect, and manage the nation’s ecosystems, their biodiversity, and the services they provide. In the Dry Valleys, the LTER program is a multidisciplinary (and interdisciplinary) study of the organisms that live or grow in water, as well as research about terrestrial ecosystems.

Research has shown that the Dry Valleys offer scientists more than a laboratory for studying Earth. The Valleys are Earth’s closest equivalent to Mars. Both planets have polar caps, valleys, rivers, and lakes, and the coldest temperatures in the Valleys come close to temperatures on Mars. The two places have a lot in common.

What can the Valleys teach us about Mars? There are lots of questions scientists are pursuing, but perhaps the most intriguing is whether or not we’ll find life there. Researchers in the Dry Valleys know that water flows there and disappears, leaving microorganisms behind in the remaining sediment; Mars may have a similar setup. And if we do find life on Mars, does that mean we share a common origin? These are just a few of the many questions scientists are pursuing as they explore Antarctica’s otherworldly Dry Valleys.

We will compare the plant community composition (or variety and abundance of different plant species) of the initial survey to the data we are collecting now. This allows us to see how the quantity and variety of plants here have changed over the past decades. We will monitor these changes in groups of plants such as shrubs, herbs, grasses and lichens.

To inventory the vegetation we use the ‘point-frame method’, where a one square meter frame is placed above the plot on legs sunk deep into the tundra. The point-frame contains a grid of fishing line that forms 100 points placed every 5 centimeters. At each of these points, we identify the top and bottom plant species, the plant height, whether the plant is living, and, for woody plants, if the part of the plant at that point is vegetative or woody. Occasionally, we must diverge from the task to identify unknown plants.

In this video meet my field partners, Joel and Sayuri, as they proceed with the inventory amidst the rolling tundra, mosquitoes and a resident Lapland Longspur.