Palmer Station

The Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) study area is located to the west of the Antarctic Peninsula extending South and North of the Palmer Basin from onshore to several hundred kilometers off shore. Palmer Station is one of the three United States research stations located in Antarctica. It is on Anvers Island midway down the Antarctic Peninsula at latitude 64.7 South, longitude 64.0 West.

The Palmer LTER, established in the Fall of 1990, is one of the National Science Foundation sponsored Long Term Ecological Research Programs which is funded by the Office of Polar Programs at the National Science Foundation. It focuses on the pelagic marine ecosystem in the Antarctic, and the ecological processes which link the extent of annual pack ice to the biological dynamics of different trophic levels. Pack ice may be a major physical factor affecting the structure and function of polar biota. Interannual cycles and/or trends in the annual extent of pack ice are hypothesized to impact all levels of the food web, from total annual primary production to breeding success in seabirds.