International Programs

Scientists are still researching what keeps lionfish in check back home in their native range even as they’re going gangbusters in the Atlantic and Caribbean, mostly untouched by the local sharks, moray eels and grouper. “If they do try a lionfish, they quickly spit it out, probably because of the venomous spines,” said Mark Hixon, an Oregon State University marine ecologist who has conducted feeding trials in tanks.

Forget Cancun or Miami. Last winter break, a group of Oregon State University students didn’t seek out the sun and sand. Instead, they enthusiastically set off for the coldest place on earth.

Professor Michael Harte, director of the OSU Marine Resource Management Program, led a group of 15 students, 10 of them from OSU, on an exploratory trip to Antarctica in December to examine how human actions around the world can alter the fragile ecosystems in the frigid south.

Harte and his students viewed the trip as an opportunity to turn a vacation into a learning lab, as they reflected on their own carbon footprint while at the same time witnessing the dramatic effects of climate change on the landscape and the flora and fauna of the Antarctic.

Oregon State University students and members of the public will have a unique
opportunity to learn firsthand about the effects of climate change and human
impacts on the environment in Antarctica during a special class that will take
them to the remote continent for two weeks.