Ocean City Woman To Research Climate Change In Antarctica

OCEAN CITY, NJ — A Rutgers University senior from Ocean City is headed to Antarctica to gather data on the effects of climate change. Rachael Young will spend 12 weeks at sea in Terra Nova Bay in the western Ross Sea, close to the International Date Line, the university announced this week. She is one of two South Jersey students who will be conducting research in that region this month.

Young will gather data on an ice-loving krill species – crystal krill, which serves as food for many fishes and birds, according to the university. Krill are tiny crustaceans that are important food for many marine animals.

She and postdoctoral fellow Corie Charpentier will use a submersible robot glider with an echo sounder to determine how many of these creatures there are, their location in the water column and their relationship with other species in the food web.

Young’s work will support Grace Saba, assistant professor of marine and coastal sciences. The two worked together for two years on a fisheries-focused project on black sea bass and spiny dogfish at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s laboratory at Sandy Hook. Young sees that experience and the upcoming experience as part of the advantage of attending a large research university.

“I found out my first year that undergraduates could go to Antarctica, and I was like, I’ve got to go there,” Young said.

At the same time she conducts this research, her friend and roommate, Taylor Dodge of Woodstown, will spend six weeks on the West Antarctic Peninsula, the fastest-warming place on the continent. Dodge will also collect krill, for the Long Term Ecological Research project, which has been gathering data on the peninsula since 1990.

Then, she’ll spend six weeks at Palmer Station, an American research station on the peninsula, helping to analyze the data and shed light on the impact of climate change on various species along the peninsula.

In conducting these projects, Young and Dodge will be making the most of a challenge and opportunity they’ve both been eager to embrace since their first year in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.

Dodge and Young met as first-year students in the oceanography class taught by Oscar Schofield, Scott Glenn and Josh Kohut. They also were inspired by a documentary about Schofield’s work in the Antarctic. As soon as she learned that undergraduates could do this, she wanted to go. However, she applied twice to go to Antarctica and wasn’t picked.

“Then, this year, I applied again and kept my fingers crossed,” Dodge said. “Just before I went to Europe this summer, I called and asked if I’d gotten it because I needed to know for planning purposes. I told Oscar I would take a leave of absence (from school) if I had to, so that he wouldn’t have to worry about my getting home in time to graduate. This time, I got it.”

Dodge, a seasoned adventurer, is a volunteer firefighter with the East Franklin Fire Department in Franklin Township, Somerset County, and has traveled extensively in Europe, North America and South America. Antarctica will be her fourth continent, and she plans to visit all seven eventually. Despite a tendency to seasickness, she plans to join the Navy after graduation.

The attached image is courtesy Rutgers University: Taylor Dodge, left, and her roommate, Rachael Young, are headed for opposite ends of Antarctica next month. Credit: Cameron Bowman, Rutgers University