Antarctic Projects Stymied by the Shutdown

Abstract

The U.S. federal government shutdown coincided with the beginning of the Antarctic austral summer research window, and many scientists told Eos they are deeply concerned about the impacts on research there. John Priscu, a lead principal investigator with the Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling (WISSARD) project in West Antarctica, said the government shutdown “threw us a curve that I did not anticipate or plan for.” Pricsu, who has spent 30 seasons working in Antarctica under federal funding, said that a hole in the project's long‐term data set “will have a major impact on the models we are developing to examine climate‐induced changes” in Antarctic ecosystems.