Smithsonian at the Poles: Contributions to International Polar

Foreword
On behalf of Smithsonian colleagues and as a tropical biologist, I extend
a warm welcome to this International Polar Year 2007–2008
science symposium. The commonality between poles and tropics is
their shared image of “remoteness” that keeps them removed from
the thoughts of society that sponsors our research. In fact, we believe that the
poles and tropics are now “canaries in the coalmine,” because they are at the
forefront of global change.
We face a desperate task of educating society that our global problems are
not restricted to the densely populated areas of the United States, Europe, and
Asia. We must increase our understanding of how polar regions affect the habitability
of our planet through long-term monitoring and observations of shortterm
cyclical changes, geosphere/atmosphere interactions, and interconnectivity
of physical, biological, and social systems.
Coming to Washington in 2007 to adopt a broader set of science responsibilities
than I previously had at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, I
have found a multitude of polar interests throughout the Smithsonian. I highlight
the following Smithsonian programs, which you will learn more about
during this Smithsonian symposium.
The U.S. Antarctic Meteorite Program is headed by Tim McCoy, Department
of Mineral Sciences, National Museum of Natural History. Since 1976,
Smithsonian, NSF and NASA have supported the accession of over 12,000 meteorite
specimens from the Antarctic ice sheets in an attempt to better understand
the history of our solar system.
The U.S. Antarctic Program Invertebrate Collections are deposited in the
National Museum of Natural History and currently number over 900,000 specimens.
Archival samples from the Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research site are
now also included. Rafael Lemaitre, Chairman of the Invertebrate Zoology Department,
reports that this program (co-sponsored by SI and NSF) has loaned over
170,000 specimens in 138 separate lots to researchers in 22 countries since 1995.
Antarctic photobiology has been co-sponsored by NSF and the Smithsonian
Environmental Research Center since 1990. Patrick Neale, Principal Investigator,
investigates the colonial alga (Phaeocystis antarctica) that dominates spring