Antarctic Summer Science Lecture: The Largest Land Animals in Antarctica
Come along to this FREE talk by Dr Bryon Adams from Brigham Young University and learn more about Antarctic soil ecosystems and how they link to broader global questions about climate change, biodiversity, and stewardship. Antarctica emerges not as a frozen curiosity, but as a powerful natural laboratory and an early warning system for ecological change on a rapidly warming planet.
Date: Saturday 7th February 2026.
Time: 3 to 4pm.
Location: Auaha Hīhī at Tūranga (Cathedral Square, Central City).
Cost: FREE.
This is a talk for all audiences. Everybody is welcome.
Antarctica is often imagined as a continent defined by ice, penguins, and vast emptiness. Yet complex ecosystems persist in places that appear almost entirely lifeless such as the ice-free landscapes of one of the coldest and driest deserts on Earth (the McMurdo Dry Valleys).
This talk explores how and why life survives there, and what these systems can teach us about resilience, limits, and ecological change. Drawing on research from the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program, Dr Byron Adams introduces audiences to the “charismatic megafauna” of terrestrial Antarctica. Not seals or penguins, but microscopic animals such as nematodes, tardigrades, mites, and springtails that dominate Antarctic soils and quietly control nutrient cycling, energy flow, and ecosystem functioning.
Register to attend this FREE talk on the Largest Land Animals in Antarctica (Humanitix).