Elizabeth (Susie) Balser and Will Jaeckle

Two Illinois Wesleyan Biologists Participate in Antarctica Research Expedition

November 15, 2004

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Elizabeth (Susie) Balser and Will Jaeckle, members of Illinois Wesleyan University’s Department of Biology, will be part of a scientific team participating in a five-week research voyage to Antarctica beginning this month.

• Follow the voyage

Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the expedition aboard the R/V Laurence M. Gould, will depart from Punta Arenas, Chile, on November 23 and return December 22.

Balser and Jaeckle will join scientists from Auburn University and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) for one of two main scientific projects that will be pursued during the cruise. The co-principal investigators are Kenneth M. Halanych of Auburn and Rudol S. Scheltema of WHOI.

While participating in the research, Jaeckle will continue teaching two Illinois Wesleyan courses — one in invertebrate zoology and the other in evolution — through daily, Internet-based communication with his students.

"This provides a rare opportunity to link undergraduate education at Illinois Wesleyan to scientific research in remote areas," said Jaeckle. "Many of the animals and processes of life and evolution have been presented in the classroom. With our participation in this research expedition, students will have the opportunity to see firsthand, albeit electronically, organisms in their native habitat as well as how science proceeds.

"Students will complete assignments that relate the biology of Antarctic species to those already studied in the classroom and will be challenged by periodic questions sent from the R/V Laurence M. Gould via satellite communications. Moreover, students will have the chance to interact with the scientific crew and will later have the opportunity to participate in research to be completed at Illinois Wesleyan involving animals collected during this cruise."

The project in which Jaeckle and Balser will participate involves the examination of invertebrates, animals without backbones, which live both in the water and on the seafloor. In particular, the research will focus on developmental forms, called larvae, of such marine animals as molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms to determine if some of them move between Antarctica and South America.

Many of the marine animals living around Antarctica have evolved over millions of years and are now different from any other animals in the world. Some of these animals are able to live in both Antarctic and South American waters. The scientists’ goal will be to find larvae that are actually moving across the Drake Passage, which is where fast-flowing, southern ocean waters are squeezed between the continental land masses of South America and Antarctica.

"Ocean waters cover almost 80 percent of the surface of the Earth and, in places, can be seven miles deep. Finding larvae that are at most a few millimeters in length in such a volume of water is challenging," said Balser. "We increase our odds of collecting larvae by filtering large volumes, actually millions of gallons, of water through a net with a mesh size small enough to capture the animals, but large enough to allow water to pass — thus concentrating the animals in our samples.

"We then examine these samples with a microscope to identify and sort them according to what group they belong. To collect animals from the sea floor we drag a trawl net over the bottom, much the same way that bottom fish like flounder are caught. Some scientists participating in this expedition will be diving, using thermal dry suits, in freezing waters, to study and collect animals. Identifying the animals is a primary goal of this research, but we are also interested in how they develop, feed, and accomplish other requirements of all living organisms."

The researchers will gather samples, both larvae and adults, from both the South American and Antarctic waters. These samples will be sorted aboard the ship based on their outward appearance and then brought back to laboratories, including Illinois Wesleyan’s science labs, where they will be subjected to morphological analysis and genetic testing in order to determine differences and similarities.

Balser, currently on sabbatical, is an invertebrate zoologist with training in the morphology, physiology, and evolution of invertebrate animals. Her research pursuits include comparative examination of the structure and development of sea stars and other echinoderms as well as other invertebrate animals related to vertebrates (fish, reptiles, mammals). Jaeckle's research focuses on aspects of the life history, development, and ecology of invertebrate animals, with particular emphasis on the free-living larval stages.

A special Web site is following the progress of the cruise and is available at http://www.iwu.edu/iwunews/Antarctica.