THE MCMURDO DRY VALLEYS AND CLIMATE CHANGE: INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE FORGES NEW UNDERSTANDING

In the Ross Sea region of Antarctica, the NSF McMurdo Dry Valley Long Term Ecological Research (MCM LTER) site at Taylor Valley has been a successful example of collaborative ecological research in the LTER network. Research has focused at understanding how biodiversity links to ecosystem function and the physical factors that control the biodiversity particularly in response to shifts in hydrology. Much of the scientific team began their work as individual scientists working in the Dry Valley region and through rigorous, hypothesis driven research, soon realized that understanding the functioning of this terrestrial ecosystem was best addressed through collaborative research. W. Berry Lyons through his strong and effective leadership of the MCM LTER encouraged the best science from collaborators and connected us to the LTER network as well as science internationally. My talk will highlight some of the findings and highlights of the McMurdo Dry Valley LTER and Berry’s remarkable role in increasing our knowledge of ecosystem science research and affecting management of the Dry Valleys in Antarctica.