The development of Antarctic tourism

Polar Record ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 20 (126) ◽  
pp. 203-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosamunde J. Reich

The Antarctic continent and its off-lying islands are probably the part of the world least disturbed by man. If all human activity beyond latitude 60°S ceased, all that would remain would be the remnants of scientific stations and a few dilapidated structures associated with Antarctic whaling when it was a land-based industry. Many hold the view that efforts should be made to retain this near-pristine condition and there is therefore widespread opposition to all forms of commercial enterprise in the Antarctic, including tourism. While there may be grounds for opposing the harvesting of living resources because of the possibility of over-exploitation, and for opposing the extraction of Antarctic minerals because of the danger of irreversible environmental damage, opposition to tourism, especially as there are no facilities in the Antarctic specifically designed for their benefit, seems more difficult to justify.

Author(s):  
Claudio Smiraglia

The Antarctic continent is certainly made an "awful" place by its harsh climate: in the past, explorers and researchers endured terrible hardships and the climate remains a challenge today, in spite of the many improvements in knowledge and technology. The Antarctic may be termed "the continent of the extremes", as it occupies an area unlike any other on earth. It is the farthest and most inaccessible and isolated continent; the most regular because of its rounded shape, with the South Pole at the centre; the coldest continent, with temperatures falling to -90°C; the driest (with an average of 130 mm of precipitation); the windiest, the highest, the most glacialized (it contains 91% of the volume of the earth’s ice). It also displays the most monotonous landscapes and presents the greatest contrast between marine and terrestrial ecosystems. But the Antarctic is also "extreme" because it is the least populated continent, with no indigenous population at all, while its few settlements (consisting in scientific bases) are concentrated on the coast; it is the only place that does not belong to one nation, but to all the world; it is the place where unique information on the past, present and future of humankind is revealed.


1972 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 273-275
Author(s):  
I. A. Fedosseyev ◽  
A. F. Plakhotnick

Though Russia, in contrast with England, had no broad access to the oceans, Russian oceanographers always took a great interest in the world ocean investigations. To confirm this we would first of all like to mention the Russian cruises around the world, made by I. F. Krusenstern and Ju. F. Lisjansky in 1803–06, V. M. Golovnin in 1806–13 and 1817–19, M. P. Lazarev in 1819–21 and 1822–25 (the second voyage, the main result of which was the discovery of the Antarctic Continent, was made together with F. F. Bellingshauzen), O. E. Kotsebu in 1815–18 and 1823–26, and F. O. Litke in 1826–29. The names of several Russian explorers who carried on important work in various parts of the Arctic and the Pacific Oceans in different periods of the nineteenth century are well known. At one time valuable results of the oceanological investigations, carried out by Admiral S. O. Makarov on the ship Vitjaz in the Pacific Ocean in 1886–89, attracted much attention. The fact that Vitjaz is lettered on the pediment of the Oceanographical Museum of Monaco among the ten ships most distinguished in oceanographical explorations from the whole world testifies to the scientific importance of Makarov's investigations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 304-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun T. Brooks ◽  
Pablo Tejedo ◽  
Tanya A. O'Neill

AbstractThe small ice-free areas of Antarctica provide an essential habitat for most evident terrestrial biodiversity, as well as being disproportionately targeted by human activity. Visual detection of disturbance within these environments has become a useful tool for measuring areas affected by human impact, but questions remain as to what environmental consequences such disturbance actually has. To answer such questions, several factors must be considered, including the climate and biotic and abiotic characteristics. Although a body of research has established the consequences of disturbance at given locations, this paper was conceived in order to assess whether their findings could be generalized as a statement across the Antarctic continent. From a review of 31 studies within the Maritime Antarctic, Continental Antarctic and McMurdo Dry Valleys regions, we found that 83% confirmed impacts in areas of visible disturbance. Disturbance was found to modify the physical environment, consequently reducing habitat suitability as well as directly damaging biota. Visible disturbance was also associated with hydrocarbon and heavy metal contamination and non-native species establishment, reflecting the pressures from human activity in these sites. The results add significance to existing footprint measurements based on visual analysis, should aid on-the-ground appreciation of probable impacts in sites of disturbance and benefit environmental assessment processes.


Author(s):  
Isabelle Dangy

White, by Marie Darrieussecq, a novel set in the Antarctic continent, constitutes an exploration of physical matter and biological matter as they are determined by the Pole’s extreme climatic conditions. The characters are scientists or technicians, on a mission in a research base, faced with a modified perception of space and time which complicates further the presence of an enigmatic spectral matter diffused between objects and beings. The aim of this article is to observe how resorting to data taken from science contributes to the concrete rendering of bodies as well as streams of consciousness, to the point of constituting the frame for a love story likely to free the characters from the constraints and anguish that have restrained them, and to assert the intrusion of life in the world of permanent freeze.


1992 ◽  
Vol 338 (1285) ◽  
pp. 319-328 ◽  

The main changes in the distribution and abundance of marine top predators in the Antarctic in the last two centuries were caused by hum an over-exploitation. Hypotheses that increases in populations of krill-eating penguins and seals represent recovery from exploitation, accelerated by removal of krill-eating whales, are being re-evaluated in the light of correlations between population size and reproductive success of seabirds and seals and various features of the biological and physical environment. These correlations involve phocid and otariid seals, penguins and flying birds and sites ranging from the Antarctic continent to sub-Antarctic islands. Although the nature of, and balance between, physical and biological influences differ between sites, regions and different types of predator, processes (including potentially important links with the Southern Oscillation) involving sea-ice extent and distribution play a key role. Major uncertainties over the nature of the links between physical and biological processes and the responses of marine populations preclude any confident prediction of the potential effects of future environmental change. However, certain taxa, especially those of specialist ecology, extreme demography and restricted distribution (especially in high latitudes) are especially vulnerable to at least some of the likely environmental changes.


2013 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 167-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. P. Andreev

Lichen flora and vegetation in the vicinity of the Russian base «Molodyozhnaya» (Enderby Land, Antarctica) were investigated in 2010–2011 in details for the first time. About 500 specimens were collected in 100 localities in all available ecotopes. The lichen flora is the richest in the region and numbers 39 species (21 genera, 11 families). The studied vegetation is very poor and sparse, but typical for coastal oases of the Antarctic continent. The poorness is caused by the extremely harsh climate conditions, insufficient availability of liquid water, ice-free land, and high insolation levels. The dominant and most common lichens are Rinodina olivaceobrunnea, Amandinea punctata, Candelariella flava, Physcia caesia, Caloplaca tominii, Lecanora expectans, Caloplaca ammiospila, Lecidea cancriformis, Pseudephebe minuscula, Lecidella siplei, Umbilicaria decussata, Buellia frigida, Lecanora fuscobrunnea, Usnea sphacelata, Lepraria and Buellia spp.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1551
Author(s):  
Zihuai Guo ◽  
Yibin Yao ◽  
Jian Kong ◽  
Gang Chen ◽  
Chen Zhou ◽  
...  

Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) can provide dual-frequency observation data, which can be used to effectively calculate total electron content (TEC). Numerical studies have utilized GNSS-derived TEC to evaluate the accuracy of ionospheric empirical models, such as the International Reference Ionosphere model (IRI) and the NeQuick model. However, most studies have evaluated vertical TEC rather than slant TEC (STEC), which resulted in the introduction of projection error. Furthermore, since there are few GNSS observation stations available in the Antarctic region and most are concentrated in the Antarctic continent edge, it is difficult to evaluate modeling accuracy within the entire Antarctic range. Considering these problems, in this study, GNSS STEC was calculated using dual-frequency observation data from stations that almost covered the Antarctic continent. By comparison with GNSS STEC, the accuracy of IRI-2016 and NeQuick2 at different latitudes and different solar radiation was evaluated during 2016–2017. The numerical results showed the following. (1) Both IRI-2016 and NeQuick2 underestimated the STEC. Since IRI-2016 utilizes new models to represent the F2-peak height (hmF2) directly, the IRI-2016 STEC is closer to GNSS STEC than NeQuick2. This conclusion was also confirmed by the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology Ionosphere and Climate (COSMIC) occultation data. (2) The differences in STEC of the two models are both normally distributed, and the NeQuick2 STEC is systematically biased as solar radiation increases. (3) The root mean square error (RMSE) of the IRI-2016 STEC is smaller than that of the NeQuick2 model, and the RMSE of the two modeling STEC increases with solar radiation intensity. Since IRI-2016 relies on new hmF2 models, it is more stable than NeQuick2.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-452
Author(s):  
Mathura Umachandran

Abstract We live in an age of globalized and globalizing phenomena: the contemporary agenda of academic inquiry takes in ‘networks’, ‘connectivity’, and other modes of articulating complex structures of human activity. In Comparative Literature and beyond, the idea of world literature has borne the weight of idealist intercultural understanding, the hopes of translation studies, and the anxieties around the failure of communication. Erich Auerbach offers a touchstone in the conceptual genealogy of world literature (Weltliteratur). This article illuminates how Auerbach’s Weltliteratur is predicated on a polemic with German philhellenism, tracked through Auerbach’s declaration that his idea is ‘ungoethisch’. Auerbach’s revisions to Weltliteratur constituted a strategy to render it a historicist concept. Since Auerbach’s notion of historicism was itself derived from nineteenth-century German humanism, this essay argues that Auerbach was attempting to go with Goethe beyond Goethe. Finally, this essay assesses how successful Auerbach’s decoupling of Weltliteratur from universalism, under the sign of Goethe and the Greeks. I suggest that Weltliteratur is still a pertinent concept today because of Auerbach’s intervention to install historicist and dialectical resources therein.


1988 ◽  
Vol 6 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 179-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A.E. Gibson ◽  
Russell C. Garrick ◽  
Harry R. Burton ◽  
Andrew R. McTaggart

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