It gets less precipitation than the Sahara Desert, and powerful winds scour the land. Life hangs on in the dry valleys of Antarctica, but it's nothing we can see without microscopes. Life in the dry valleys is scarce, and any life you do find tends to live at the very edge of survival. One goal of the program is to better understand how ecosystems work. A seal carcass lies in the dry valleys.
Dead animals decompose extremely slowly in the cold, dry atmosphere.
Some carcasses have been dated and are thousands of years old. This harsh environment remains virtually unexplored. By studying such a simple system, uncomplicated by the thousands of interactions between organisms found in temperate locations, we can better understand how all ecosystems function. Ice covers the lakes year-round, streams flow for only a few weeks each year, glaciers lose more water by evaporation than by melting, and soils face low temperatures and virtually no precipitation. The soils I'm studying are very dry, similar to a coarse sandy beach, with a few rocks thrown in here and there.