Increased Connectivity in a Polar Desert Resulting from Climate Warming: McMurdo Dry Valley LTER Project

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The McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) is a polar desert on the coast of East Antarctica, a region that has not yet experienced the climate warming that is now occurring elsewhere. The McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research (MCMLTER) project has documented the ecological responses of the glacier, soil, stream and lake ecosystems in the MDV to a cooling trend that occurred from 1986 to 2000, which was associated with the depletion of atmospheric ozone. In the past decade, three warm austral summers with strong fohn winds occurred and the resulting high streamflows and sediment deposition changed the dry valley landscape,  enhancing physical connectivity of the ecosystem.   Our long term records suggest that soils, streams, glaciers, and lakes are responding to these warm pulses at different timescales.  We expect that climate warming in the region will amplify connectivity among landscape units, though the warm seasons (i.e. events) are pulses of energy that this ecosystem is responding to differently than the cooling period prior.