Lisa Rand,
"Daryl Xavier: On Thick Ice"
(page 2 of 2)
With the support of her supervisors, Professor Johanna Laybourn-Parry
and Professor Christine Dodd, Xavier began research involving the
bacterioplankton communities in the saline lakes of the Vestfold Hills
region of Antarctica. These lakes initially formed 8 to 10,000 years ago
when glacial retreat and the subsequent uplifting of the region resulted
in the entrapment of ocean water in lakes and ponds, including the three
lakes Xavier studies. Over the course of her nine months at Davis in
2006, she split her time between the base, and Ace, Pendant, and Ekho
lakes, where she conducted her fieldwork. At each lake, Xavier took
water samples at different depths, recording light readings,
temperature, pH, and salinity. Each sample had to be cultured in
triplicate, using three different media, and all the samples she took
were stored cryogenically for transport back to her home institution in
the U.K.. Upon preliminary analysis of these samples, Xavier has
determined that, although the three lakes under study are of identical
origin, the bacterial communities are radically different biologically,
leading to further questions about the evolutionary forces at work in
these three separate marine ecosystems.
One of three women of 19 total members of the winter team, and as a
woman in her late forties, Xavier was not among the norm of researchers
at Davis. Her age and gender proved no obstacle to developing a strong
professional and personal dynamic on base, and she credits the station
leader, John Rich, and the rest of "the lads" with supporting her during
what proved to be an exceptionally challenging few months for a woman
who never expected to become a microbiologist, never mind spend a winter
in Antarctica.
Xavier anticipates that her research may aid climate scientists
modeling past, current, and future climate change. She also hopes that
further study of these microorganisms may lead to isolation of new
antifreeze proteins or low temperature enzymes that may prove useful in
industrial applications. Xavier is unsure what her career options will
be once she graduates this year. "I doubt if it would involve lab-based
research or molecular work, but that might be because I am up to my eyes
with it at present," says Xavier. "I shall have to wait and see what job
opportunities there are out there for a woman of my years!"
Xavier has found that her status as a "nontraditional" student has
inspired "astonishment and envy" in those who hear her story, but also a
measure of skepticism. Xavier says: "Some think I must be insane or at
least slightly mad to have undertaken such an adventure. I sometimes
think I must have been a little crazy to have done so, too! But nowadays
I do tend to live by the adage 'feel the fear and do it anyway.'"
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