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For printable image click here. David Kirchman, Maxwell P. and Mildred H. Harrington Professor of Marine Studies, meets some Adelie penguins in Antarctica. Photo by Hugh Ducklow

David Kirchman, Maxwell P. and Mildred H. Harrington Professor of Marine Studies at the University of Delaware, is a veteran of scientific research cruises in the freezing waters of both the Arctic and the Antarctic, with more exciting voyages ahead in the International Polar Year. For nearly a month this past winter, Kirchman lived and worked aboard the 249-foot research and supply vessel Laurence M. Gould in the Southern Ocean off western Antarctica, near Palmer Station, one of three U.S. research stations on the frozen continent.

The research cruise was part of the National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Program, which is collecting data on a variety of ecosystems, ranging from forests to deserts, at more than two dozen research sites, primarily in the United States.

LTER research at the Palmer Station site focuses on the ocean ecosystem off Antarctica. It has been under way since 1990, and research cruises have been conducted annually along the Antarctic Peninsula since 1993.

Kirchman, an expert in marine microbiology, was invited to participate in the latest cruise by Hugh Ducklow, Glucksman Professor of Marine Science at the College of William and Mary, who is leading the Antarctic LTER project. The two scientists have been colleagues since they were doctoral students at Harvard more than 25 years ago.

One use of the long-term data collected in Antarctica is to document climate change and its impact on the ocean environment.

This was the second time Kirchman has conducted research in Antarctica--a decade ago, he participated in a research cruise aboard a different U.S. Antarctic Program ship, the 308-foot Nathaniel B. Palmer, in the Ross Sea, which is on “the other side” of the frozen continent.

During the past five years, he also has been on two of his UD laboratory's four research cruises in the Arctic, all aboard the U.S. Coast Guard's 420-foot icebreaker Healy.

Media contact: Tracey Bryant, (302) 831-8185, [tbryant@udel.edu]
June 5, 2007
Photos by Hugh Ducklow and David Kirchman