Collaborative Research: RAPID: Antarctic Groundwater-Ecosystem Connectivity Across Ice-Ocean-Land Critical Zones

Antarctica holds vast, hidden reservoirs of salty groundwater beneath its ice and frozen soils; an extensive network that may influence earth system variability, ocean ecosystems, and ice sheet stability. This project will directly measure groundwater discharge and potential associated gas seeps along the Antarctic coast, revealing how these subsurface waters transport nutrients, trace metals, microorganisms, and atmospheric-reactive gases to the Southern Ocean. Understanding these exchanges is vital because they can shape marine productivity, influence carbon cycling, and control the release or storage of gases. The project strengthens U.S. and New Zealand scientific collaboration in alignment with the “Antarctica InSync” initiative, supporting coordinated, sustainable research in one of the world’s most logistically challenging environments. Insights from this work will help improve predictions of how Antarctica both responds to and influences global environmental variability.

This collaborative RAPID project investigates how Antarctic groundwater drives ecosystem connectivity across the McMurdo Sound coastal zone, focusing on the Cape Evans and New Harbor regions of the Ross Sea. The team will identify groundwater discharge using in situ gamma radiation sensors, deploy seepage meters and OsmoSamplers for fluid and gas flux measurements, and collect water and sediment samples for detailed geochemical and microbial analyses. These data, combined with land-based geophysical, SCUBA, and ROV surveys by New Zealand partners will quantify groundwater pathways, flux rates, and biogeochemical properties. The project tests the hypothesis that Antarctic groundwater significantly affects coastal geochemistry, microbial diversity, and glacial flow, influencing the sensitivity of Antarctic coastal margins to earth system dynamics. The findings will provide foundational data for future multinational monitoring, modeling, and management of Antarctic critical zones.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Award Number: 2602802
Principal Investigator: Jill Mikucki
Funds Obligated: $48,942
State: TN