A salp swimming in the waters around Antarctica. (Photo: Courtesy of Dive and Discover) Dive and Discover Expedition 10: Antarctica Follow the scientists of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution as they learn about jellylike creatures called salp. Are salp causing changes in the food chain? Send your questions to the scientists through the Mail Buoy. Read daily updates from the scientists. Read about the Frozen Continent Antarctica and use the interactive map. Learn about the Antarctic's Ecosystem and how the fragile balance of ice and water affect the animals that live there. Learn about how scientists first discovered Antarctica and plans for the future. Test your knowledge with Antarctica: The Frozen Continent quiz.

February 21, 2006—In Antarctica, an underwater food chain runs wild. Whales feed on krill and krill feed on phytoplankton. The plankton feed on another important life form in the ocean: salp. While the word seems like something from a made-up language, salp are anything but imaginary. With their peculiar feeding habits and jellyfish-like makeup, very little is known about these transparent, migratory creatures.

To learn more about the salp, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the University of Connecticut are sending a team of scientists to Antarctica who are funded by the National Science Foundation to do this research. Their findings will be posted daily on the Dive and Discover Web site beginning Tuesday. Dive and Discover is an online educational Web site designed to let students and the public share in the excitement of oceanography. This will be Dive and Discover's first time in Antarctica, but its 10th expedition.

"They (the divers) are going to open a jar... take the lid off and let the salp swim right into it," says Larry Madin, a senior scientist and director of the Ocean Life Institute at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Madin is one of a group of scientists who will be traveling to Antarctica to study salp.

Why divers and glass jars? Salp are too delicate to catch in nets, which could tear the jellylike creatures. While in some seasons, scientists have reeled in nets full of salp and other sea creatures, at other times, the salp are scarce.

"Fifteen dives, 30 days at sea, and we collected five," Madin said of one attempt to capture salp to study.

Krill feed on phytoplankton attached to ice, but salp eat only free-floating plankton. The more ice there is, the fewer salp there are around. Since it is nearly impossible to predict the ice levels from year to year, scientists don't know how successful this trip will be in collecting salp samples.

Still, divers and scientists will have plenty to do. They will be making repairs on the equipment and taking ocean water measurements. Scientists believe that factors like salinity, temperature, and the amount of chlorophyll in the water could determine where the salp are found.

The Dive and Discover Web site will feature daily entries from the scientists, information about salp, expedition tracking maps, and interactive diagrams to keep up with everything that's happening in one of the coldest and most remote places on the planet!

For such small, seemingly insignificant creatures, these salp are causing quite a stir.

Dive and Discover
The Dive and Discover mission runs from February 21 to March 10. Visit the official Web site for stories, updates, and photos.

National Science Foundation
To learn more about the National Science Foundation visit the official Web site.

National Science Foundation—Office of Polar Programs
Visit this site to read about the National Science Foundation's discoveries in the Artic.