The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Antarctic marine research team set sail today from Punta Arenas, Chile, for a research expedition to the White Continent. During the next four-plus weeks, the team will be traveling south aboard the National Science Foundation’s ship Laurence M. Gould to document populations of deep-sea king crabs that could have significant influence over the ecology of the Antarctic seafloor communities.

Maggie Amsler, UAB research biologist in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Biology, is traveling with graduate student Ryan James on this voyage. This is UAB’s third cruise in which a team has studied crab populations in the Antarctic region, and Amsler has participated in each. This year, the UAB team will be partnering with a researcher from Florida Institute of Technology.