Photographer Page

Cristina Mittermeier

Plant life holds vast quantities of carbon and one of nature's greatest—and most under appreciated—systems for storing carbon is seagrass.

Austin Gallagher’s research on tiger sharks helped lead to the discovery of a sprawling underwater meadow of seagrass that increased the known extent of seagrass globally by at least 41 percent.

Seagrass beds shelter mollusks, fish, squid, and little crustaceans, and often serve as foraging grounds for sea turtles. Globally, there are 72 different species of seagrass.

Like many migratory fish, chinook salmon are threatened by overfishing, habitat degradation, and dams that block their migration from the sea to upriver spawning grounds.

"Silence the 'peanut gallery' in your own mind telling you photography is too difficult, too expensicve or simply not something women can do, and take the first steps into the art of photography! Women are hardwired to" be storytellers and our planet has never needed more passionate people telling stories that help us understand our place in the world; there has never been a better time to be a female photographer than today, when the world needs us." Cristina Mittermeier

Climate change is impacting flora and fauna across the Arctic. Although scientists don't know specifically what killed this individual polar bear, experts warn that many of the bears are having trouble finding food as the sea ice they historically relied on thins and melts earlier.

Crabeater seals slither onto floating ice to nap, give birth, or hide from killer whales or leopard seals. (Note the prominent scars.) With less sea ice available off the Antarctic Peninsula, icebergs like this one, calved from glaciers on land, provide critical resting places for animals. Despite their name, crabeaters feed mostly on shrimplike krill— another Antarctic staple whose future is in doubt.

A young blue-eyed shag attempts what may be its first dive near shore. Many flying seabirds nest or feed along the Antarctic Peninsula.

Climate change is affecting the birds' abilities to find food.

Adélie penguins are one of two true Antarctic penguins, and they are threatened by a changing climate.