Palmer Station Antarctica LTER

The Palmer Station LTER in Antarctica provides a unique opportunity to explore microbial biodiversity in a fragile environment that is among the most vulnerable to impacts from climate change. A major focus of the Palmer Station has been the impact of climate change on microbial food web dynamics. MIRADA samples for Palmer Station targeted the 200 and 600 grid lines at both an off- and near-shore station. The rationale for choosing these corners was to capture the potential spatial variability in the communities of the northern and southern ends of the grid, as well as the variability in the off- and near-shore stations. The near-shore stations typically have higher primary and bacterial productivity associated with them. The near-shore stations of the 200 line are off the southern end of Adelaide Island extending into Marguerite Bay, which is very highly productive, often much more than the near-shore 600 line. Each station was sampled at the surface and a depth of ~100 m to capture the variability in the communities over depth.