He is part of a first-time ever collaboration between U.S. and People's Republic of China researchers working to unravel secrets of the Antarctic food web.
T here are no other green plants that exist anywhere in the region.
He and University of Maine researcher Cindy Pilskaln have joined the Chinese scientists for more than eight weeks aboard the Chinese research vessel Xue Long , or Snow Dragon. Asper, however, can't resist the chance to chart new knowledge about the ecological pathways that the algae travel to become food for the diverse plant-eaters in the ecosystem. Nearly all of life on Earth depends on taking inorganic carbon and making organic carbon through photosynthesis. I am interested in the movement of that carbon from the ocean surface to the ocean floor. A grant from the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs is paving the way for the cooperative venture.