@article {4940, title = {McMurdo Dry Valley lake edge {\textquoteleft}moats{\textquoteright}: The ecological intersection between terrestrial and aquatic polar desert habitat}, journal = {Antarctic Science}, year = {2024}, month = {04/2024}, pages = {1 - 17}, abstract = {

Aquatic ecosystems - lakes, ponds and streams - are hotspots of biodiversity in the cold and arid environment of Continental Antarctica. Environmental change is expected to increasingly alter Antarctic aquatic ecosystems and modify the physical characteristics and interactions within the habitats that they support. Here, we describe physical and biological features of the peripheral \‘moat\’ of a closed-basin Antarctic lake. These moats mediate connectivity amongst streams, lake and soils. We highlight the cyclical moat transition from a frozen winter state to an active open-water summer system, through refreeze as winter returns. Summer melting begins at the lakebed, initially creating an ice-constrained lens of liquid water in November, which swiftly progresses upwards, creating open water in December. Conversely, freezing progresses slowly from the water surface downwards, with water at 1 m bottom depth remaining liquid until May. Moats support productive, diverse benthic communities that are taxonomically distinct from those under the adjacent permanent lake ice. We show how ion ratios suggest that summer exchange occurs amongst moats, streams, soils and sub-ice lake water, perhaps facilitated by within-moat density-driven convection. Moats occupy a small but dynamic area of lake habitat, are disproportionately affected by recent lake-level rises and may thus be particularly vulnerable to hydrological change.

}, keywords = {LTER-MCM, connectivity, ecosystem, ice, microbial mats, transition}, issn = {0954-1020}, doi = {10.1017/S0954102024000087}, url = {https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antarctic-science/article/mcmurdo-dry-valley-lake-edge-moats-the-ecological-intersection-between-terrestrial-and-aquatic-polar-desert-habitats/31D94DD51E651603482A3AE6E8A52A57}, author = {Stone, Michael S. and Devlin, Shawn and Ian Hawes and Kathleen A. Welch and Michael N. Gooseff and Cristina D. Takacs-Vesbach and Rachael M. Morgan-Kiss and Byron Adams and John E. Barrett and John C. Priscu and Peter T. Doran} } @article {5002, title = {Measuring and modelling functional moat area in perennially ice-covered Lake Fryxell, Antarctica}, journal = {Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research}, volume = {56}, year = {2024}, month = {10/2024}, abstract = {

The perennially ice-covered lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDVs), Antarctica, are an important reservoir of liquid water in an arid and largely frozen environment. During the austral summer, the margins of these ice covers melt, forming a \“moat\” of liquid water and thin ice, allowing exchange between lake waters and the atmosphere to occur and serving as an interface between lake, soil, and stream ecosystems. The size of these moats varies from year to year. Here, we have established the first published record of moat area changes at MDVs\’ Lake Fryxell through time using manual traces of the moat as observed via satellite imagery. We have also tested a semi-automated approach for measuring moat area and found that it consistently underestimated the manual record, which we suspect may be due to the lower spatial resolution of images used in this versus the manual approach. Finally, we developed a predictive model based on readily available climate data, allowing moat area to be predicted beyond the limits of the satellite-based records. We found that functional moat area varies annually, potentially influencing ecosystem processes in the moats.

}, keywords = {LTER-MCM, Lake Fryxell, lake ice, McMurdo Dry Valleys, moat, NDWI, predictive model}, issn = {1523-0430}, doi = {10.1080/15230430.2024.2406626}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15230430.2024.2406626}, author = {Stone, Michael S. and Salvatore, Mark R. and Hilary A. Dugan and Myers, Madeline and Peter T. Doran} } @article {4732, title = {The magnitude and climate sensitivity of isotopic fractionation from ablation of Antarctic Dry Valley lakes}, journal = {Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research}, volume = {53}, year = {2021}, month = {12/2021}, pages = {352 - 371}, abstract = {

There has been extensive research on the effects of evaporation on the isotopic ratio of lacustrine and marine water bodies; however, there are limited data on how ablation or sublimation from lake or sea ice influences the isotopic ratio of the residual water body. This is a challenging problem because there remains uncertainty on the magnitude of fractionation during sublimation and because ablation can involve mixed-phase processes associated with simultaneous sublimation, melting, evaporation, and refreezing. This uncertainty limits the ability to draw quantitative inferences on changing hydrological budgets from stable isotope records in arctic, Antarctic, and alpine lakes. Here, we use in situ measurements of the isotopic ratio of water vapor along with the gradient diffusion method to constrain the isotopic ratio of the ablating ice from two lakes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. We find that during austral summer, the isotopic fractionation of ablation was insignificant during periods of boundary layer instability that are typical during midday when latent heat is highest. This implies that the loss of mass during these periods did not yield any isotopic enrichment to the residual lake mass. However, fractionation increased after midday when the boundary layer stabilized and the latent heat flux was small. This diurnal pattern was mirrored on synoptic timescales, when following warm and stable conditions latent heat flux was low and dominated by higher fractionation for a few days. We hypothesize that the shifting from negligible to large isotopic fractionation reflects the development and subsequent exhaustion of liquid water on the surface. The results illustrate the complex and nonlinear controls on isotopic fractionation from icy lakes, which implies that the isotopic enrichment from ablation could vary significantly over timescales relevant for changing lake volumes. Future work using water isotope fluxes for longer periods of time and over additional perennial and seasonal ice-covered lake systems is critical for developing models of the isotopic mass balance of arctic and Antarctic lake systems.

}, keywords = {LTER-MCM, Dry Valley lakes, isotope fractionation, stable water isotopes}, issn = {1523-0430}, doi = {10.1080/15230430.2021.2001899}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15230430.2021.2001899}, author = {Bellagamba, Anthony W. and Berkelhammer, Max and Winslow, Luke A. and Peter T. Doran and Myers, Krista F. and Devlin, Shawn and Ian Hawes} } @article {4597, title = {Metabolic capacity of the Antarctic cyanobacterium Phormidium pseudopriestleyi that sustains oxygenic photosynthesis in the presence of hydrogen sulfide}, journal = {Genes}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, month = {03/2021}, pages = {426}, abstract = {

Sulfide inhibits oxygenic photosynthesis by blocking electron transfer between H2O and the oxygen-evolving complex in the D1 protein of Photosystem II. The ability of cyanobacteria to counter this effect has implications for understanding the productivity of benthic microbial mats in sulfidic environments throughout Earth history. In Lake Fryxell, Antarctica, the benthic, filamentous cyanobacterium Phormidium pseudopriestleyi creates a 1\–2 mm thick layer of 50 \µmol L\−1 O2 in otherwise sulfidic water, demonstrating that it sustains oxygenic photosynthesis in the presence of sulfide. A metagenome-assembled genome of P. pseudopriestleyi indicates a genetic capacity for oxygenic photosynthesis, including multiple copies of psbA (encoding the D1 protein of Photosystem II), and anoxygenic photosynthesis with a copy of sqr (encoding the sulfide quinone reductase protein that oxidizes sulfide). The genomic content of P. pseudopriestleyi is consistent with sulfide tolerance mechanisms including increasing psbA expression or directly oxidizing sulfide with sulfide quinone reductase. However, the ability of the organism to reduce Photosystem I via sulfide quinone reductase while Photosystem II is sulfide-inhibited, thereby performing anoxygenic photosynthesis in the presence of sulfide, has yet to be demonstrated.\ 

}, keywords = {LTER-MCM}, doi = {10.3390/genes12030426}, url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/12/3/426}, author = {Lumian, Jessica E. and Jungblut, Anne D. and Dillon, Megan L. and Hawes, Ian and Peter T. Doran and Mackey, Tyler J. and Dick, Gregory J. and Grettenberger, Christen L. and Sumner, Dawn Y.} } @article {3710, title = {Microbial Mat Communities along an Oxygen Gradient in a Perennially Ice-Covered Antarctic Lake}, journal = {Applied and Environmental Microbiology}, volume = {82}, year = {2016}, month = {01/2016}, pages = {620 - 630}, keywords = {LTER-MCM}, issn = {0099-2240}, doi = {10.1128/AEM.02699-15}, url = {http://aem.asm.org/lookup/doi/10.1128/AEM.02699-15}, author = {Jungblut, Anne D. and Ian Hawes and Mackey, Tyler J. and Krusor, Megan and Peter T. Doran and Sumner, Dawn Y. and Eisen, Jonathan A. and Hillman, Colin and Goroncy, Alexander K.}, editor = {Stams, A. J.} } @article {3919, title = {Modeling the thickness of perennial ice covers on stratified lakes of the Taylor Valley, Antarctica}, journal = {Journal of Glaciology}, year = {2016}, month = {06/2016}, pages = {1 - 10}, chapter = {1}, abstract = {
A 1-D ice cover model was developed to predict and constrain drivers of long-term ice thickness trends in chemically stratified lakes of Taylor Valley, Antarctica. The model is driven by surface radiative heat fluxes and heat fluxes from the underlying water column. The model successfully reproduced 16 a (between 1996 and 2012) of ice thickness changes for the west lobe of Lake Bonney (average ice thickness = 3.53 m) and Lake Fryxell (average ice thickness = 4.22 m). Long-term ice thickness trends require coupling with the thermal structure of the water column. The heat stored within the temperature maximum of lakes exceeding a liquid water column depth of 20 m can either impede or facilitate ice thickness change depending on the predominant climatic trend (cooling or warming). As such, shallow (\<20 m deep water columns) perennially ice-covered lakes without deep temperature maxima are more sensitive indicators of climate change. The long-term ice thickness trends are a result of surface energy flux and heat flux from the deep temperature maximum in the water column, the latter of which results from absorbed solar radiation.

}, keywords = {LTER-MCM}, issn = {0022-1430}, doi = {10.1017/jog.2016.69}, url = {http://www.journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0022143016000691}, author = {Maciek K. Obryk and Peter T. Doran and J. A. Hicks and Christopher P. McKay and John C. Priscu} } @article {1080, title = {Micro-hole and multigrain quartz luminescence dating of Paleodeltas at Lake Fryxell, McMurdo Dry Valleys (Antarctica), and relevance for lake history}, journal = {Quaternary Geochronology}, volume = {18}, year = {2013}, month = {12/2013}, pages = {119 - 134}, keywords = {LTER-MCM}, doi = {10.1016/j.quageo.2013.04.002}, url = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1871101413000423}, author = {G. W. Berger and Peter T. Doran and Thomsen, K.J.} } @article {3528, title = {Microbial life at -13 ~C in the brine of an ice-sealed Antarctic lake}, journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, volume = {109}, year = {2012}, month = {12/2012}, pages = {20626 - 20631}, keywords = {LTER-MCM}, issn = {0027-8424}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.1208607109}, url = {http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1208607109}, author = {A. E. Murray and Kenig, Fabien and Christian H. Fritsen and Christopher P. McKay and Kaelin M. Cawley and R. L. Edwards and Kuhn, Emanuele and Diane M. McKnight and Nathaniel E Ostrom and Vivian Peng and Adrian Ponce and John C. Priscu and Samarkin, Vladimir A. and Ashley T Townsend and Protima Wagh and Seth A Young and Pung To Yung and Peter T. Doran} } @article {1404, title = {The McMurdo Dry Valleys Long-Term Ecological Research Program: new understanding of the biogeochemistry of the Dry Valley lakes: a review.}, journal = {Polar Geography}, volume = {25}, year = {2001}, pages = {202-217}, keywords = {LTER-MCM}, author = {W. Berry Lyons and Kathleen A. Welch and John C. Priscu and Johanna Laybourn-Parry and Daryl L. Moorhead and Diane M. McKnight and Peter T. Doran and Martyn Tranter} } @article {1405, title = {Mineralogical and geochemical analyses of Antarctic lake sediments: A study of reflectanceand Mossbauer spectroscopy and C, N and S isotopes with applications for remote sensing on Mars}, journal = {Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta}, volume = {65}, year = {2001}, pages = {2875-2897}, keywords = {LTER-MCM}, author = {Bishop, Janice L. and Lougear, A and Newton, J and Peter T. Doran and Froeschl, H and Krner, W and Koeberl, C and Trautwein, A} } @proceedings {1465, title = {McMurdo Dry Valley Lakes: Impacts of Research Activities.}, year = {1999}, publisher = {Desert Research Institute, University and Community College System of Nevada, USA, special publication}, keywords = {LTER-MCM}, doi = {LTER}, author = {Robert A. Wharton Jr. and Peter T. Doran} } @article {1484, title = {McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER: Geophysical determination of bathymetry and morphology of Taylor Valley lakes}, journal = {Antarctic Journal of the United States - 1996 Review Issue (NSF 98-28)}, volume = {31}, year = {1998}, month = {01/1996}, pages = {198-200}, keywords = {LTER-MCM}, author = {Peter T. Doran and Robert A. Wharton Jr. and Jeffrey P. Schmok} } @article {1588, title = {McMurdo Dry Valleys Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER): LTER automatic weather network (LAWN)}, journal = {Antarctic Journal of the U.S.}, volume = {30}, year = {1995}, pages = {276-280}, keywords = {LTER-MCM}, author = {Peter T. Doran and Gayle L. Dana and Hastings, Jordan Towner and Robert A. Wharton Jr.} } @article {1618, title = {McMurdo LTER: Paleolimnology of Taylor Valley, Antarctica}, journal = {Antarctic Journal of the United States}, volume = {29}, year = {1994}, pages = {234-237}, keywords = {LTER-MCM}, doi = {LTER}, author = {Peter T. Doran and Robert A. Wharton Jr. and Sarah A. Spaulding and J. S. Foster} }