US Antarctic Program (USAP)
The USAP Collection in the 21st Century
With nearly 19 million specimens, the USAP collection is the basis for taxonomic knowledge of Antarctic marine invertebrates, and includes type and non-type material dating back to the U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842. In 2007, the National Museum of Natural History and NSF’s Office of Polar Programs launched a renewed cooperative agreement to transform the USAP collection and associated data, into a modern resource, primarily web-based, easily available to a vast and diverse audience (e.g., general public, policy makers, conservation groups) as well as making it a useful tool for scholars. Drs. Rafael Lemaitre (PI) and Jerry Harasewych (co-PI) are developing a state of the art, one-stop Antarctic Invertebrate Website that will become a knowledge portal on the marine invertebrates from the region, and serve as ideal conduit to disseminate to the largest possible audience information on history, fauna, station and cruise data, NMNH Antarctic holdings, and bibliography. This project is part of the International Polar Year pan-institutional activities of the Smithsonian.
Visiting Scientists, New Identifications
- Dr. Chris Mah aboard the R/V Laurence Gould in the Southern Ocean
Dr. Christopher Mah was trained in systematics at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, CA. He received a PhD in Geology (Paleontology) from the University of Illinois in 2005 where he studied the paleobiology, systematics, and evolution of starfishes. He recently completed a 2 year NSF Polar Programs Postdoctoral Fellowship which focused on the evolution and systematics of Antarctic forcipulate starfishes which brood their young.
- Babies being brooded by the Antarctic Starfish, Diplasterias brandti (Bell)
Dr. Mah spent the Fall of 2008 identifying USAP specimens recently repatriated to the USNM by the New Zealand Institute of Water and Atmosphere and specimens recently donated by Dr. Stacy Kim at Moss Landing Marine Labs in Moss Landing, California. These include over 2000 dry and wet specimens that may potentially provide further information for studies on brooded juveniles.
Dr. Mah is also the author of the Echinoblog an echinoderm-themed blog which provides information and education about living and fossil echinoderms in a widely accessible forum, including an article about processing Antarctic Starfish.
- Dr. Ilya Tëmkin examining unsorted Antarctic Bivalves
As part of the Antarctic Curator-In-Residence Program Dr. Ilya Tëmkin, a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History and currently a postdoctoral fellow at NMNH, examined the USAP holdings of unsorted bivalve mollusks in August 2008. With the help of USAP summer interns, all the specimens were sorted to morphospecies, some of which were preliminary assigned to families or genera. A number of lots were isolated for taxonomic revisionary works and in-depth anatomical studies.
- Dr. Yuri Kantor and Dr. Guido Pastorino examine predatory gastropods collected by the United States Antarctic Program and housed at NMNH in IZ.
In the Spring 2008, Dr. Yuri Kantor from the Severtzov Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow and Dr. Guido Pastorino from the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales in Buenos Aires worked with the USAP [United States Antarctic Program] mollusk collections as part of the Antarctic Curator-In-Residence Program.
The visiting scientists and Dr. Harasewych are researching several groups of predatory neogastropods, including the toxin producing conoideans, and will produce revisionary works resulting in publications. The results will be provided to the NMNH-IZ database and incorporated into the new Antarctic Invertebrate Web Site, now under development by the Redmon Group.
A Brief History of the NSF Polar Program Cooperative
Agreement with NMNH, SI
The Smithsonian Oceanographic Sorting Center (SOSC), from 1963 to 1992, received and sorted more than 20,000 samples of benthic invertebrates, plankton, algae and fish collected by researchers associated with the United States Antarctic Program (USAP). Sorted specimens were sent to taxonomic
- R/V Hero meets the other NSF Antarctic research ship, the USNS Eltanin, for the first time-- at the pier in Punta Arenas, April 1970 (Antarctic Journal, January/February 1971, photo from La Prensa).
- R/V Hero in the Palmer Station harbor next to the US Coast Guard icebreaker Burton Island, 1976-77. (Photographer: Team Palmer 77 medic Gary Cullen.)
Links
Search USNM Collections
Marine Invertebrate Specimen Processing Procedures: Methods of Fixation and Preservation
Policies for Research in the Antarctic Region
International Polar Year (US IPY)
International Polar Year (IPY)
NSF Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems Program
USAP Project Personnel
- Marshall Boyd
Marshall Boyd is interning as an assistant to Marilyn Schotte in the Department of Invertebrate Zoology this summer. He will be scanning reprints of Brian Kensley's research on various Crustaceans. He is also identifying and photographing Isopods from the collection so that they may be cataloged into the Natural History's website. In addition he will be working with the USAP program interns with their on-going research projects of many Antarctic species.
- Amy Chang
- Alyssa Meyer
Alyssa’s interests include evolutionary genetics, conservation, international policy, hiking, and rock climbing. After completing her undergrad, she intends to pursue a Master’s in Environmental Science and Policy. Alyssa is currently cataloging and digitizing the mollusk collection for the USAP program.
- Trang Nguyen
Trang Nguyen is from the lovely suburbs of Centreville, Virginia and has just finished her BS degree in Biological Sciences from Virginia Tech. While at Tech she participated in the pilot program of Earth Sustainability, worked in a plant pathology lab, an immunity/inflammation lab, the Massey herbarium at Virginia Tech, and the National Herbarium. After 4 years of exploring her major (and everything else) she found marine science to evoke the most enjoyment.
Trang has broad interests that include marine biology, biogeography, and conservation; currently she is working on digitizing the mollusk collection for the USAP program.
- Sunjana Supekar
Sunjana Supekar is from Herndon, Virginia. She is a junior at Oberlin College, studying biology and anthropology. Sunjana has a broad variety of interests in the biological sciences, from epigenetics to ecology. She is also an archeological research assistant, studying the workability of dried caribou antler used to make tools. Sunjana has prior internship experience at the National Museum of Natural History, preparing tissues and studying the phylogeny of Nemertean worms. This summer, Sunjana is working on the digitization of Nemertean and Ophiuroid literature, as well as cataloguing and photographing specimens. Sunjana plans to continue her studies in ecology and zoology by spending a semester in Costa Rica. After Oberlin, Sunjana hopes to attend graduate school for evolutionary biology and/or environmental science.
- Angela Trenkle
- Lauren Van Thiel
Lauren Van Thiel is from Roanoke, Virginia and recently earned her B.S. in Marine Science with a minor in Biology from the University of South Carolina. During her undergraduate career, Lauren researched the effects of climate change on blue mussels and later investigated the diets of juvenile salmon during an internship in Oregon with NOAA. In her senior year, she spent time in Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles learning scientific diving techniques and studying coral ecology. During her study abroad experience, she also discovered her interest in scientific publication and is currently pursuing a M.S. in Technical Communications from Northeastern University. Lauren’s research interests include marine paleoecology, deep-sea and cold water coral systems, and mangrove-reef interactions. In her free time, Lauren enjoys reading and traveling. She is currently working on digitizing the sponge and tardigrade collection as well as developing a permanent collection of sponge spicules for USAP.
- Diane Wyse
Diane Wyse is a rising senior pursuing a B.S. in Biology, with a concentration in Conservation and a Minor in Leadership Studies at George Mason University. Her formative years were spent residing throughout the U.S. and England with an active-duty military family.
As a result of spending most of her life on an island or near a coast, she developed a passion for marine conservation. Her interests in marine conservation include environmental chemistry, human-wildlife conflict, and coastal development. Diane has experience in both vertebrate and invertebrate zoology. While participating in the Smithsonian-Mason Semester program she volunteered with both mammalian and avian husbandry, including endangered cranes, waterfowl, and red pandas; which led to an internship at a wild bird rehabilitation center in Marathon, FL. She is currently modernizing the database of the Cnidaria phylum for the United States Antarctic Program, in addition to working on a species identification project for the genus Thouarella.
In addition to past experience volunteering in an environmental chemistry lab at George Mason University, she will be participating in the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences Fall 2009 REU in the Environmental Quality Assessment Lab analyzing persistent organic pollutants in the marine environment
USAP Project Personnel "Alumni"
- Jennifer Hammock
Jen's staff page
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USAP Project Personnel processing Antarctic specimens
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