Joe Levy, Department of Geology, will present. Sediments and soils provide the foundation for the terrestrial biosphere—everything that lives on the surface of the Earth has to live somewhere. Earth’s organisms, in turn shape its climate through photosynthesis, respiration, decomposition, or burial. In this talk, we’ll look at how biogeochemical processes in Antarctica’s cold desert sediments and soils leading to the growth and development of an ecological community near the limits of life as we know it. We’ll look at what kinds of organisms are growing in Antarctica’s ephemeral wetlands, how we find them, and what they are doing to transform raw sediment into carbon-bearing soils that could radically alter Antarctica’s role in the global carbon cycle in a future world with less ice.