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• W2090955983 abstract "The threat of climate change on the crucial but little-known Antarctic ecosystem is drawing increasing numbers of researchers, and tourists, to the continent. Nigel Williams reports. The threat of climate change on the crucial but little-known Antarctic ecosystem is drawing increasing numbers of researchers, and tourists, to the continent. Nigel Williams reports. Antarctica is coming under an increasing global focus. Not only is evidence growing of its potential worldwide impact on climate change, but it is also showing evidence of some of the fastest climate changes itself. And its ecosystems, which comprise some remarkable species, are turning out to be increasingly complex and fragile. It is perhaps no surprise that researchers and, more controversially, tourists are moving in. A race seems to be growing to become the leading research community in Antarctica. “Antarctica's ice, rocks and living material contain a treasure trove of information on Earth's history and the evolution of life,” says the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the UK's main research effort in the region. “Although geographically remote, it affects the whole planet through its influence on the climate system and sea level.” With BAS scientists' identification of the ozone hole, its research record is impressive and it now seeks to achieve pole position. It has committed itself “to become, by 2012, the leading international centre making use of the exceptional importance of the Antarctic and the surrounding Southern Ocean to achieve new insights into key global phenomena and scientific fundamentals.” But, other countries are ramping up their efforts, including Germany (see p. R181). And Australia announced at the end of last year its first successful landing of an Airbus on an ice runway constructed just 55 km from its Casey Research Station. Such a feat means that Australian researchers can reach the continent in just a few hours, as comfortably as any international air passenger, making huge time savings on their normal sea journeys. And tourists are flocking in too. The short Antarctic summer is now coming rapidly to a close seeing an end to this season's tourist influx, and also many of the research projects, until next year. Antartica is governed by a Treaty system that sets aside the continent and surrounding ocean as a nature reserve devoted to peace and science. There are currently 45 signatory countries to the treaty. While scientific research is still the primary motivation for activity in Antarctica, tourism has become significant in recent years and, therefore, a significant issue for treaty countries. Most Antarctic tourism is in the Western Antarctic Peninsular region with ships departing from Argentina and Chile. Commercial tourism began in 1957 but only became a serious activity in 1969. Since the late 1980s there has been rapid growth: in 1992–3 around 6,500 passengers were landed. During the last season, 2006–7, at least 30,000 tourists entered the treaty area. The tourist influx is rasing concerns from researchers about the threat to the continent's nature reserve status. And the inevitable happened sooner rather than later last year when a tourist ship, the MV Explorer hit an iceberg and sank, leading to a major rescue operation for the more than 100 passengers and fears of environmental damage from the wreck. But the influx of tourists is something researchers are increasingly likely to have to work around in the summer months. So far, data suggest that the Western Antarctic Peninsular is bearing the brunt of change. Here, BAS report that climate records from the west coast of the peninsula have risen nearly 3°C during the past 50 years, which is about ten times higher than the global average. But the eastern side of the peninsula also appears very sensitive to climate change with marked regional summer warming. This led to the well publicised collapse of the Larsen Ice Shelf in 2006. Significant warming has also been observed in the Southern Ocean. Upper ocean temperatures to the west of the Antarctic Peninsular have increased by over 1°C since 1955. Waters within the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) are warming more rapidly than the global ocean as a whole — amounting to around 0.2°C in these waters at around 700–1100 m in depth. While researchers are reporting these physical changes to the environment, biologists are left playing catch-up: trying to document the details of Antarctic ecosystems, threatened by such changes. Australian researchers' filming of a trawl of bottom-dwelling organisms more than one kilometre below the surface of the Southern Ocean discovered many organisms, including worms, crustaceans and sea spiders that could not be identified and are thought to be new species — samples are being sent to labs for further study. Researchers from the Institute of Oceanography in Southampton have described the remarkable shallow-water sea-bed species off the Antarctic peninsular, where traditional predators such as crabs have not been found, but may be able to invade under warming conditions. And in another study, reported recently in Current Biology (18, 282–285), researchers from the BAS have found evidence of a surprising distribution of one of the staples of the Antarctic food chain: krill. These crustaceans are considered to be confined to surface waters, at least as adults, and are staple food for many cetaceans and birds in Antarctica. But the new work by Andrew. Clarke and Paul. Tyler have found adult krill at depths down to 3500 m, which may require a reappraisal of “our notion of the biology of this key Southern Ocean species,” says Andrew Brierley, a marine biologist at the University of St Andrews. So much evidence of the increasing global importance of Antarctica, the speed of changes, and the gaps in our knowledge of key ecosystems is sure to heighten the research race and management of ever-growing numbers of people who want to come and see it all for themselves." @default.
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• W2090955983 date "2008-03-01" @default.
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• W2090955983 title "Worries heighten Antarctic focus" @default.
• W2090955983 doi "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2008.02.040" @default.
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