Schweppe Lecture Series

Dr. Rebecca J. Gast
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Thursday, March 13, 2008, 7:00 PM
Visitors Center Auditorium

"Antarctica:
Life in the Ice"

In the ocean, microbes form the base of the food web and provide nutrients to larger organisms through a chain of gradually bigger predators. The marine environment of the Ross Sea, Antarctica is no exception, and it boasts a robust collection of microbes despite extreme conditions. Dr. Gast’s research focuses on protists, which include plant-like organisms called algae as well as ones that eat other microbes as prey. She is interested in understanding how they interact and contribute to the Antarctic food web. Dr. Gast and her colleagues work primarily during the Antarctic spring and summer months (November – February), and examine organisms not only in the water, but the ice and slush as well. They have described several new microbes, including one that steals parts from its prey in order to become a plant (a process called kleptoplasty). In addition, they are working on understanding how cells not only survive, but function well at extremely low temperatures.

Dr. Gast is an Associate Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

The free lecture will be held at 7:00 p.m. in the Visitors Center of The University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, and the public is invited to attend. Dr. Gast's visit to the Marine Science Institute is part of the Laura Randall Schweppe Endowed Lecture Series in Marine Science.