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Top of the Hill, Bottom of the World

Biogeochemist Phoebe Lam took advantage of clear conditions to climb Observation Hill, adjacent to McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Lam and her team are working with three other institutions to determine the causes of large summertime algal blooms in the Ross Sea. Because iron increases photosynthetic efficiency and photosynthetic rates, she and her colleagues are investigating the relative importance of warm salty intrusions of deep water versus tidal resuspension of sediments as sources of iron to surface waters of the Ross Sea.

(Photo by Dan Ohnemus, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)