Antarctica – The Costa Lab

Archive by category "Antarctica"

10 Frequently Asked Questions About Our Upcoming Antarctic Field Season

1. What are you doing while you are in Antarctica? We are studying the foraging ecology and physiology of one of the Southern Ocean’s top predators—the leopard seal. Leopard seals are known for their sharp teeth, reptilian appearance, and voracious appetite. However, many aspects of their basic biology remain a complete mystery. Our goal is to understand where they go, how deep they dive, what they eat, and how their physiology enables them to live…

Meet Our Leopard Seals

Our research project would not exist without an incredible group of leopard seals that are sharing an incredible wealth of information about their species with us. And, without further ado, here they are! VIOLET (#128) Violet is the first leopard seal we tagged as part of our research project on the feeding ecology and physiology of leopard seals. She was tagged in January, and the tag (which you can see on her back) transmits data…

Studying leopard seals in Antarctica

Our research team, with the self-appointed nickname of Seal Team 5, is on our way back from a five week trip to Antarctica where we were studying the feeding ecology and physiology of one of the top predators in the Southern Ocean: the leopard seal. Our team consisted of five researchers from the University of California Santa Cruz, Colorado State University, Baylor University, and the U.S. Antarctic Marine Living Resources program and included experts on…

Leopard Seal Foraging Ecology and Physiology

We are in the process of preparing for a potential field effort in Antarctica investigating the foraging ecology and physiology of leopard seals! We will update this blog as we move forward, so stay tuned for more details. A bit more detail about our project… The climate of the Antarctic Peninsula is warming, resulting in less sea ice. These environmental changes may be pushing many Antarctic organisms beyond their normal physiological and behavior capabilities. The leopard…

Early Antarctic explorers in the Ross Sea

As you’ve probably heard in the news, the Council for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) recently announced the creation of the world’s largest Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Ross Sea (see press release here). This is, without a doubt, a major success in our efforts to preserve the most pristine marine ecosystem left on Planet Earth, and making sure that the living organisms that inhabit this system are protected from exploitation. The…

Meet The Onion

No, I’m not talking about myself (although I do have many layers). Work in Antarctica is all fun and full of glamour, except when it gets cold and windy (i.e. all the time). As I have mentioned before, we are conducting a series of necropsies on dead animals that we have to find before they freeze, in order to harvest fresh samples that will later allow our team to grow cells in the lab. It is a sad…

Warning: This post might contain bloody pictures (Ewww! Gross!)

Biologist are weird creatures. Most people like to stay the heck away from blood, which is more than normal, acceptable and sane. Biologists, however, happen to have to get in bloody messes as part of their job so that science can happen. Let’s recap though. Last time we heard about the adventures of B-267 was last year, and we had successfully finished our field season collecting samples from placentas, dead animals and live animals to…

We demand more cuteness!!!

Well, calm down! This is scientific blog after all, so we need to set our priorities straight. Science is the reason why we are in McMurdo, under the group name of B-267 (check it out on Twitter and Instagram . I have been trying to tell you how almost cool this project is. What if they actually discover the mechanism that allows seals to shut down circulation to parts of their bodies and the gene that allows that tissue to survive…

We are scientists, we don’t think our study animals are cute…

Ok, that is a lie. Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddelli) are not only the southernmost breeding mammal in the world, champion divers, excellent animals models to study and much, much more, but they are also extremely cute (and that is the professional opinion of the scientific community). Among the many, many privileges of working with these animals during their breeding season, is the fact that sometimes you run into amazing displays of beauty, such as when it…

Ok, but what is this project really about?

Try to imagine the following situation: a cheetah in the savannah is chasing a prey and it finally catches it after a while. Exciting, right? (well, at least for the cat). The cheetah exercised so hard, ran so fast to catch that elusive antelope that it now needs to rest and catch its breath again, right? Now, let’s picture the same situation, except the prey is a fish and the predator a seal. There is…