Seeds of non-native species in King George Island soil

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 324-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo Fuentes-Lillo ◽  
Marely Cuba-Díaz ◽  
José M. Troncoso-Castro ◽  
Mauricio Rondanelli-Reyes
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystem ◽  
Soil Samples ◽  
King George Island ◽  
Fildes Peninsula ◽  
The Past ◽  
Exponential Increase ◽  
Hypochaeris Radicata ◽  
The Antarctic

AbstractThe Antarctic terrestrial ecosystem is relatively simple and has low plant diversity. Taking into account the current effects of climate change and the exponential increase in visitors during the past 50 years, this ecosystem is very vulnerable to the arrival of non-native species. Fildes Peninsula, King George Island, is an area of high human impact due to the scientific and logistical activities that occur there making the area particularly interesting for the arrival of non-native species. In this study, we determine the spectrum of seeds arriving to the peninsula and being deposited in the topsoil. Soil samples were collected and analysed in order to identify and quantify plant material. The results indicate that there is a direct relationship between the sites where seeds were found and areas with higher levels of human activity on the peninsula. Eight species were identified, with the most common beingHypochaeris radicataandSenecio jacobaea. Seed quantification indicated that areas of high human activity are most vulnerable to the invasion and establishment of non-native species. This study is the first to demonstrate the presence of non-native seeds in the topsoil at Fildes Peninsula, Antarctica.

scholarly journals Colonization by mites of glacier-free areas in King George Island, Antarctica

2009 ◽  
Vol 44 (8) ◽  
pp. 891-895 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Gryziak
Keyword(s):  
West Coast ◽  
Protected Area ◽  
Soil Samples ◽  
Oribatid Mites ◽  
King George Island ◽  
Admiralty Bay ◽  
Near Shore ◽  
South Shetlands ◽  
Mite Communities ◽  
The Antarctic

This work aimed to investigate the ratio of colonization by terrestrial mites on ice-free areas created by the ongoing climate-induced melting of Antarctic glaciers. Glacier retreat opens new ice-free areas for the colonization by vegetation and animals. The study was undertaken on the Antarctic Specially Protected Area no. 128 (West Coast of the Admiralty Bay, King George Island, South Shetlands Islands). Transects marked between the Ecology, Baranowski and Windy Glaciers, and a sea shore were used to collect soil samples. Oribatid mites were found only on near-shore areas, on patches of vegetation of more than 30 years of age. The colonization by mite communities is strongly determined by the presence of plants.

scholarly journals Insights on the environmental impacts associated with visible disturbance of ice-free ground in Antarctica

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 304-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun T. Brooks ◽  
Pablo Tejedo ◽  
Tanya A. O'Neill
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Visual Analysis ◽  
Heavy Metal Contamination ◽  
Dry Valleys ◽  
Environmental Consequences ◽  
Species Establishment ◽  
Antarctic Continent ◽  
Terrestrial Biodiversity ◽  
The Antarctic

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.

From the New Geopolitics of Resources to Nanotechnology: Emerging Challenges of Globalism in Antarctica

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan D. Hemmings
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
Special Treatment ◽  
International Governance ◽  
Administrative Capacity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Do So

Abstract The Antarctic regime does not face imminent collapse, but its apparent calm disguises significant ecological and geopolitical instability. Over the past 15 years, the picture of human activity in Antarctica has transformed from one still heavily terrestrially focussed, dominated by national Antarctic programmes, largely science focussed, and situated within a Cold-War geopolitics, to one where diverse activities, increasingly including the marine environment, involving a much wider group of actors and commercial imperatives, is the norm. Globalism has brought new pressures, and increased intensity of pressures to Antarctica. Whilst the existing Antarctic Treaty System retains a theoretical capacity to develop standards and provide regulation, it has shown no obvious inclination to do so for a decade and a half. Critically, the system seems to have lost confidence in Antarctic exceptionalism as its organising principle, and to lack administrative capacity to address substantive issues. Given technology’s overcoming of the natural defences of Antarctica, if globalism now denies us the capacity to treat anywhere differently and thereby disables the principle of Antarctic exceptionalism upon which international governance of the region was predicated, Antarctica faces severe difficulties. This paper argues for continuing special treatment of Antarctica and a new deliberative exceptionalism. It suggests that significant unresolved issues within the present Antarctic dispensation need attention, notably the beginning of a debate on the abandonment of territorial sovereignty claims, a more coherent institutional development and the establishment of a political level Meeting of Parties in addition to the current officials-only meetings.

Ice-free area expansion compounds the non-native species threat to Antarctic terrestrial biodiversity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant Duffy ◽  
Jasmine R Lee
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Climate Scenario ◽  
Climatic Environment ◽  
Species Establishment ◽  
Suitable Habitats ◽  
Terrestrial Biodiversity ◽  
A Site ◽  
Area Expansion ◽  
Free Area

Warming across ice-covered regions will result in changes to both the physical and climatic environment, revealing new ice-free habitat and new climatically suitable habitats for non-native species establishment. Recent studies have independently quantified each of these aspects in Antarctica, where ice-free areas form crucial habitat for the majority of terrestrial biodiversity. Here we synthesise projections of Antarctic ice-free area expansion, recent spatial predictions of non-native species risk, and the frequency of human activities to quantify how these facets of anthropogenic change may interact now and in the future. Under a high-emissions future climate scenario, over a quarter of ice-free area and over 80 % of the ~14 thousand km2 of newly uncovered ice-free area could be vulnerable to invasion by one or more of the modelled non-native species by the end of the century. Ice-free areas identified as vulnerable to non-native species establishment were significantly closer to human activity than unsuitable areas were. Furthermore, almost half of the new vulnerable ice-free area is within 20 km of a site of current human activity. The Antarctic Peninsula, where human activity is heavily concentrated, will be at particular risk. The implications of this for conservation values of Antarctica and the management efforts required to mitigate against it are in need of urgent consideration.

scholarly journals Anti-Memorials and the Art of Forgetting: Critical Reflections on a Memorial Design Practice

2008 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
SueAnne Ware
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
The Other ◽  
Complex Spectrum ◽  
Design Practice ◽  
Design Work ◽  
The Past ◽  
Heroin Overdose ◽  
The Future ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Over Time

Andreas Huyssen writes, ‘Remembrance as a vital human activity shapes our links to the past, and the ways we remember define us in the present. As individuals and societies, we need the past to construct and to anchor our identities and to nurture a vision of the future.’ Memory is continually affected by a complex spectrum of states such as forgetting, denial, repression, trauma, recounting and reconsidering, stimulated by equally complex changes in context and changes over time. The apprehension and reflective comprehension of landscape is similarly beset by such complexities. Just as the nature and qualities of memory comprise inherently fading, shifting and fleeting impressions of things which are themselves ever-changing, an understanding of a landscape, as well as the landscape itself, is a constantly evolving, emerging response to both immense and intimate influences. There is an incongruity between the inherent changeability of both landscapes and memories, and the conventional, formal strategies of commemoration that typify the constructed landscape memorial. The design work presented in this paper brings together such explorations of memory and landscape by examining the ‘memorial’. This article examines two projects. One concerns the fate of illegal refugees travelling to Australia: The SIEVX Memorial Project. The other, An Anti-Memorial to Heroin Overdose Victims, was designed by the author as part of the 2001 Melbourne Festival.

scholarly journals Conservation of the group Piperia (Orchidaceae) and associated plant communities

Lankesteriana ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Lauri
Keyword(s):  
Plant Community ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Mediterranean Climate ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Mediterranean

The conservation and protection of California native orchids has not been a large focus recently. All California native orchids are terrestrial and many are associated with forest and woodland plant com- munities. However, a number are associated with the Mediterranean Climate plant community known as Chaparral; this includes at least three Piperia Rydb. species. Many Piperia populations and associated Chaparral plant communities have been impacted by human activity over the past several decades, howev- er, there is very little documentation regarding the size, and overall impact to the populations. 

scholarly journals Temporal Distribution of Arsenic and Metals in Soil From King George Island, Antarctica

2022 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tailisi H. Trevizani ◽  
Rosalinda C. Montone ◽  
Rubens C. L. Figueira
Keyword(s):  
Human Activities ◽  
Temporal Distribution ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Control Points ◽  
King George Island ◽  
Admiralty Bay ◽  
Direct Exposure ◽  
Antarctic Continent ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Continue Monitoring

The polar regions are vulnerable to impacts caused by local and global pollution. The Antarctic continent has been considered an environment that has remained little affected by human activities. Direct exposure to contaminants may occur in areas continuously occupied by research stations for several decades. Admiralty Bay on the southeast coast of King George Island, has potential for being affected by human activities due research stations operating in the area, including the Brazilian Commandant Ferraz Antarctic Station (CFAS). The levels of metals and arsenic were determined in soils collected near CFAS (points 5, 6, 7, and 9), Base G and at two points distant from the CFAS: Refuge II and Hennequin. Samples were collected after the fire in CFAS occurred in February 2012, up to December 2018 to assess the environmental impacts in the area. Al and As were related with Base G. Refuge II and Hennequin can be considered as control points for this region. As a consequence of the accident, the increased levels for Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn, especially at point 9 (inside the CFAS) and in the soil surrounding the CFAS in 2013. The results from 2016 to 2018 demonstrated a reduction in levels of all studied metals near CFAS, which may be related to the leaching of metals into Admiralty Bay; it is thus, being important the continue monitoring soil, sediments, and Antarctic biota.

scholarly journals Whales as Indicators of Historical and Current Changes in the Marine Ecosystem of the Indo-Pacific Sector of the Antarctic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshihiro Fujise ◽  
Luis A. Pastene
Keyword(s):  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Recruitment Rate ◽  
Minke Whale ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Baleen Whale ◽  
The Past ◽  
Antarctic Minke Whale ◽  
Minke Whales ◽  
Nutritional Conditions ◽  
The Antarctic

We review the scientific information on whales that could be indicative of historical and current changes in the ecosystem in the Indo-Pacific sector of the Antarctic. The increased krill availability in the middle of the past century as a result of the heavy harvesting of the larger baleen whale species could have been translated into better nutritional conditions for the Antarctic minke whale, resulting in a decreasing trend in the age at sexual maturity and an increasing trend in recruitment rate and hence total population size between approximately 1940 and 1970. This nutritional condition has deteriorated more recently, as revealed by a decrease in energy storage and stomach content weight since the 1980’s; these changes coincide with appreciable increases in the abundances of humpback and fin whales, which were heavily harvested in the first half of the past century. The historical demographic changes observed in the Antarctic minke whale are consistent with the pattern to be expected under the krill surplus hypothesis, with minke whales now again competing with other (recovering) baleen whale species for krill. However, these minke whales could also be using alternative feeding areas (e.g. polynias within the pack-ice) in response to the increase in abundance and geographical expansion of these other large whale species. This could provide an alternative explanation for indications from sighting surveys and population models of a decrease and then re-stabilisation of minke whale abundance in open water areas since the 1970s.

scholarly journals Tracking Non-Native Species in the Antarctic Marine Benthic Environment

2012 ◽  
pp. 158-162
Author(s):  
Andrea de Oliveira Ribeiro Junqueira ◽  
Ana Carolina Fortes Bastos ◽  
Bruna Rachel Rocha
Keyword(s):  
Native Species ◽  
Antarctic Marine ◽  
Benthic Environment ◽  
The Antarctic
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document