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REMIXED

Research Examining MIXotrophic Ecology and Diversity – what does that actually mean and why are we interested?  Traditionally, microbial eukaryotes (algae and protists – not bacteria) are considered either phototrophic (use sunlight to grow) or heterotrophic (eat prey to grow).  Mixotrophy refers to an organism’s ability to utilize a combination of these trophic strategies.  We…

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World Penguin Day

Or as my colleague Wade calls it, “Take a Leopard Seal to Lunch Day”.  (The image is of a sticker that I bought at Palmer Station – oceanographers can have a warped sense of humor.)  But, since we are in the Antarctic, I should say something about penguins.  They are amusing to watch.  Clumsy on…

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Palmer Station Pit Stop

We arrived at Palmer Station this morning (picture above, Happy Easter!), and are currently offloading supplies and fresh food for the station.  The first thing(s) to come off the ship were the tanks of juvenile krill that the Bernard lab group will be studying at Palmer (image below shows one of the large grey tanks…

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Cape Shirreff

On Thursday, April 18, we awoke to see land for the first time in several days.  The ship had arrived at Cape Shirreff and it was time for the seal research team to leave us.  They will be spending the next 35-40 days at Shirreff Base on the island while they study leopard seals (we…

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The Passage

This blog post title reflects both our actual trip through Drake Passage and how we pass the time during the transit.  First, though, I’d like to introduce the people in our group.  In the picture below, from left to right, are Jean-David Grattepanche (Temple), Wade Jeffrey (University of West Florida), me (Rebecca Gast, WHOI) and…

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Big Boots

“When you see somebody putting on his big boots, you can be pretty sure an adventure is going to happen.”  Winnie the Pooh (AA Milne) This adventure actually began a few years ago when my collaborators, Bob Sanders (Temple University) and Wade Jeffrey (University of West Florida), and I developed a project to assess the…

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