This SGER proposal is an outgrowth of collaboration between Horn Point Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and the University of Trieste and the Laboratory for Marine Biology, Trieste, Italy. It is to support the participation of DK Stoecker and a graduate student in an Italian expedition to the Ross Sea during the austral summer 2002-2003. Techniques which have been recently developed to investigate the autecology and population dynamics of temperate, coastal bloom-forming algae will be applied to polar protists from the Ross Sea. This collaboration presents a tremendous opportunity to compare the role of microzooplankton grazing in bloom dynamics in temperate and polar systems, determine if polar microplankton have ectocellular protease activity and to obtain samples of the photosynthetic ciliate, Mesodinium rubrum and its crytophyte algal "prey" from the Ross Sea for molecular analysis. Futhermore, the cruise would contribute to the education of a graduate student in polar science and provide material for his dissertation. It would also contribute to continued collaboration between UMCES and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Trieste, Italy.
