Portland State Magazine Winter 2017

14 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE WINTER 2017 WR I T T E N B Y CH E L S E A BA I L E Y AND J OHN K I R K L AND WHILE PORTLANDERS were huddled against the rain and gloom in the winter of 2001-02, Antarctica was experiencing an unusual warm spell. A sudden temperature rise in East Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys—one of the most arid places on Earth—caused glaciers to melt and triggered massive flooding. About the only life found in that part of the continent is microbes in the soil. “There are no penguins. No birds. Nothing,” says Andrew Fountain, a PSU geology professor who recently co-authored a paper on the impact of the warm- ing event. When the floods came, the microbe population bloomed along with phytoplankton in nearby lakes, and stayed at unusually high levels for the next five years. The warming event affected life in other parts of the conti- nent too. Snow that was usually firm on the Antarctic Peninsula near South America became wet and sloppy, destroying the WHAT ANTARCTICA IS TELLING US ABOUT OUR WARMING PLANET.