Sea Aggies in the Arctic
Dominique Cowart USAP
Dominique Cowart ’05 became a
participant of the United States Antarctic Program (USAP),
and was deployed to McMurdo Station located on Ross Island,
Antarctica in August 2005.
She works with a team from the University of Delaware
Graduate College of Marine Studies (Lewes, DE), headed by
Dr. Adam Marsh, a professor who studies how marine
invertebrates develop in the cold.
As a team they are looking at sea stars and sea urchins
which reside in the cold waters under the sea ice, and how
the extremity of this cold environment affects the
development rates of these animals. Dive holes measuring 4
feet wide and 15 feet deep are drilled into the sea ice and
divers go to collect the animals studied.
The specimens are brought to the lab and injected with a
muscle tenser allowing the animals to release eggs/sperm, or
spawn. Embryos are created, and their growth to larvae are
tracked and studied. Cowart is tracking the effects of
salinity changes on sea star embryos.
Since arriving in Antarctica, Cowart has witnessed the
launching of weather balloons, a green laser pointing
directly into the atmosphere for ozone measurement, and a
lowest temperature of -30 o F with a wind chill of -80 o F.
“The experience has been beyond words. As we progress
towards the summer, we gain about 30 minutes of sunlight per
day, and are able to behold sunrises/sunsets unlike any
other on Earth,” noted Cowart
