1124-BiologistsReport

Science Report

11/24/2014

Paul Sokoloff

Today was my last dedicated EVA for plant collecting. We focused on two areas immediately

adjacent to the hab - a dry streambed and sandstone outcrops to the east of the Hab (opposite the

Hab turnoff on Cow Dung Road), and along the top of the plateau immediately southwest of the Hab.

The first location yielded new lichen diversity not yet recorded during this rotation, and two

different endolithic cyanobacteria containing rock type - sandstone, and a prolifically colonized

quartz rock. The plateau yielded at least one new species of vascular plant, and many species

previously collected on this trip.

With the collection portion of my research program wrapping up (any further collections this trip

will be opportunistic), I'm turning my attention towards identification and processing of the

specimens. Some of this will take place in sim, but the majority of the identification will take

place back at my lab in Ottawa - where reference material is available for the vascular plants

and lichens, and where we can extract chloroplast DNA from the cyanobacteria colonies for

identification. Each specimen was collected in duplicate: one set of specimens will be deposited

at the National Herbarium of Canada at the Canadian Museum of Nature, and one set will be left

here in Utah, at the Intermountain Herbarium in Provo. After identification, this biodiversity

data will be used to start an annotated checklist to the flora of MDRS, a document that will be

useful to future crews conducting biological work at the Station.