Water
Liquid water (rather than frozen ice) drives Antarctic terrestrial biology.
Understanding the sources of liquid water, where liquid water congregates, and how wet some soils can get before freezing in the RSR, will improve understanding about where the biota occurs. Our novel analysis will apply and extend an existing mode to investigate the regional scale spatial variations in liquid water caused by climate variations, and the scale and sources of water through melting ice and snow patches . Our analyses will explore how a changing Antarctic climate will affect the amount and distribution of liquid water available for biological activity.