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Today\'s storyteller is Dr Pacifica Sommers! She is a microbial ecologist based at the University of Colorado - Boulder interested in the ways that microbes drive interactions in ecosystems, and has studied this in (spoiler alert) Antarctica! Pacifica\'s research is centered in the Taylor Valley area of Antarctica, which may sound familiar to steady listeners because this is also where Schuyler Borges (Episode 99 last week) works! So what Pacifica studies is the microbial communities and interactions in cryoconite holes in glaciers, which are melted puddles on the surface of glaciers caused by the cryoconite dust increasing the temperature and melting a hole in the surface. It\'s really cool and I had a great time talking to Pacifica so enjoy!

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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and on the shiny new Twitter account @storytellers42.

You can find Pacifica Sommers on Twitter @pacificsummer and her website https://pacificasommers.com/.

Tardigrade video: https://lifeundertheice.org/.

BONUS: Schuyler Borges also works in the Taylor Valley in Antarctica, and you can hear from them in Episode 99!

Recorded on 23 October 2020.