Plankton Base grew out of ten years of Antarctic and Arctic fieldwork by Dr. Allison Cusick and Dr. Martina Mascioni. Below is a plain-language tour of what that science has actually shown — followed by the peer-reviewed papers behind each finding.
Each of these findings comes from the peer-reviewed studies listed further down the page.
During an exceptional bloom on the western Antarctic Peninsula, molecular sequencing revealed that the naked dinoflagellates driving it belong to a previously undescribed species in the Gymnodinium group — a genuinely new organism on the tree of life.
Before this work, most Antarctic phytoplankton research happened offshore from research vessels. Sampling from expedition ships gave us the first detailed picture of what actually blooms in the nearshore fjords where glaciers meet the sea — and how those communities shift through the season.
Nearshore plankton communities on the western Antarctic Peninsula respond directly to shifts in the Gerlache Strait's oceanographic fronts. That makes them a sensitive, measurable indicator of how one of the planet's fastest-warming regions is actually changing.
Travelers on expedition vessels — trained and supported by scientists on board — can generate peer-review-quality oceanographic data at a scale no single research cruise could. This is the framework Plankton Base carries forward.
Start here if you want the foundational science in the researchers' own words.
Links nearshore phytoplankton variability to changing oceanographic fronts — a key signal for monitoring polar climate response.
Demonstrates how polar tourism can deliver rigorous, scalable Antarctic research — the framework underpinning Plankton Base.
First detailed picture of phytoplankton bloom dynamics in previously unmonitored Antarctic nearshore waters.
Every peer-reviewed paper produced through the FjordPhyto program that Plankton Base carries forward.