Plant and invertebrate ecology

1967 ◽  
Vol 252 (777) ◽  
pp. 213-235 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Antarctic Peninsula ◽  
Vascular Plants ◽  
Terrestrial Vegetation ◽  
Generic Level ◽  
Preliminary Account ◽  
Antarctic Continent ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Subordinate Role ◽  
Continental Climate ◽  
Made In

The pioneer studies of Skottsberg (1912), supported by the observations of Bertram (1938) and Bryant (1945), showed that a range of bryophyte and lichen communities are developed in many localities along the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula and on its offshore islands. In contrast, the terrestrial vegetation over much of the Antarctic continent is apparently restricted to sparse, widely scattered communities of lichens, with mosses playing only a subordinate role, particularly in inland areas (Siple 1938; Rudolph 1963; Greene 1964). Holdgate (1964) thus proposed a division of the Antarctic botanical zone into Maritime and Continental areas, the former having an oceanic rather than a continental climate, and supporting liverworts and two species of vascular plants in addition to well-developed moss and lichen communities. The Maritime area, which can thus be characterized in vegetational and floristic terms, has yet to be clearly defined geographically, but extends over much of the Scotia Ridge-Antarctic Peninsula sector. The present paper aims at giving a preliminary account of the vegetation in this area, based on observations made in a variety of localities from Candlemas Island south to Neny Island. The distribution of these sites is indicated in figure 17, and the extent of observations at each locality has been described elsewhere (Longton 1966 #). Because of taxonomic difficulties a detailed analysis of the vegetation in each area was impracticable, since many of the taxa can at present be named only to the generic level (Greene 1964). The major divisions of the vegetation have been defined, however, and their distribution is discussed in relation to climatic, edaphic and biotic factors, enabling an attempt to be made at outlining the geographical boundaries of the Maritime Antarctic.

Soil tardigrades from the Antarctic Peninsula with a description of a new species and some remarks on the genusRamajendas(Eutardigrada: Isohypsibiidae)

Polar Record ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Łukasz Kaczmarek ◽  
Karel Janko ◽  
Jerzy Smykla ◽  
Łukasz Michalczyk
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Antarctic Peninsula ◽  
Morphometric Characters ◽  
Antarctic Continent ◽  
Fourth Species ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
A New Species ◽  
Mixed Samples ◽  
Hypsibius Dujardini

ABSTRACTIn thirteen (mostly soil) mixed samples, collected from nine localities on the Antarctic continent and some of the neighbouring islands, 788 specimens and 32 eggs of tardigrades were found. In total, five species were identified:Acutuncus antarcticus, Echiniscus jenningsi,Diphascon(D.)victoriae,Hypsibius dujardiniandRamajendas dastychisp. nov.A. antarcticuswas the most abundant (nearly 90% of all specimens) and was the prevailing taxon found in the majority of locations.R. dastychisp. nov. is the fourth species described in the exclusively Antarctic/sub-Antarctic genus. The new species differs from all other congeners by the presence of four gibbosities on the caudo-dorsal cuticle (configuration II:2–2) and also by some morphometric characters. In this paper we also briefly discuss the taxonomy and zoogeography of the genusRamajendas.

scholarly journals Low Antarctic continental climate sensitivity due to high ice sheet orography

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hansi A. Singh ◽  
Lorenzo M. Polvani
Keyword(s):  
Moisture Transport ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Moisture Convergence ◽  
Warm Temperature ◽  
Atmospheric Concentration ◽  
Antarctic Continent ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Continental Climate

Abstract The Antarctic continent has not warmed in the last seven decades, despite a monotonic increase in the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases. In this paper, we investigate whether the high orography of the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) has helped delay warming over the continent. To that end, we contrast the Antarctic climate response to CO2-doubling with present-day orography to the response with a flattened AIS. To corroborate our findings, we perform this exercise with two different climate models. We find that, with a flattened AIS, CO2-doubling induces more latent heat transport toward the Antarctic continent, greater moisture convergence over the continent and, as a result, more surface-amplified condensational heating. Greater moisture convergence over the continent is made possible by flattening of moist isentropic surfaces, which decreases humidity gradients along the trajectories on which extratropical poleward moisture transport predominantly occurs, thereby enabling more moisture to reach the pole. Furthermore, the polar meridional cell disappears when the AIS is flattened, permitting greater CO2-forced warm temperature advection toward the Antarctic continent. Our results suggest that the high elevation of the present AIS plays a significant role in decreasing the susceptibility of the Antarctic continent to CO2-forced warming.

Bellingshausen and the discovery of Antarctica

Polar Record ◽  
1971 ◽  
Vol 15 (99) ◽  
pp. 887-889 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terence Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
Antarctic Peninsula ◽  
West Coast ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Antarctic Continent ◽  
The Antarctic

For the last twenty years there has been considerable Soviet interest in the circumnavigation of Antarctica by the Russian naval expedition of 1819–21, led by Captain T. T. Bellingshausen, with Lieut M. P. Lazarev as his second in command, in the sloops Vostok and Mirnyy. It is now reasonably certain that Bellingshausen sighted the Antarctic continent several times, notably on 27 January 1820 (New Style) at a point about lat 69°21′S, long 2°14′W, and was thus the first to see it (Edward Bransfield sighted the north-west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula at about lat 63°50′S, long 60°30′W on 30 January 1820, three days later). Bellingshausen did not claim to have done so however, but his descriptions of what he saw tally very well with what the edge of the continent here is now known to look like. There is one relatively new point. Bellingshausen's first sighting has been moved forward one day, from the 28th to the 27th, because it has been shown that he was keeping ship's time, from mid-day to mid-day, and therefore that what his log called the 28th (his sighting being in the second half of the day) was what the civil calendar would call the 27th (Belov, 1963, p 19–29). All this much is well documented and unlikely to be disputed. The question is, how much importance did he, and his contemporaries, attach to this discovery? And did he realize that he had seen the edge of a continent? Recent Soviet studies have sought to show that he had a very good idea of the importance of what he had seen, and that this idea did get through to his contemporaries. It is here that there is room for argument with the Soviet scholars.

scholarly journals A New Monthly Pressure Dataset Poleward of 60°S since 1957

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (10) ◽  
pp. 3865-3874 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan L. Fogt ◽  
Logan N. Clark ◽  
Julien P. Nicolas
Keyword(s):  
Antarctic Peninsula ◽  
Marked Improvement ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Kriging Interpolation ◽  
West Antarctica ◽  
Antarctic Continent ◽  
Key Drivers ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Circulation Changes

This study presents a new monthly pressure dataset poleward of 60°S, from 1957 to 2016, based on a kriging interpolation from observed pressure anomalies across the Antarctic continent. Overall, the reconstruction performs well when evaluated against ERA-Interim. In comparison to other reanalyses, the reconstruction has interannual variability after 1970 similar to products that span the entire twentieth century and is a marked improvement on the first-generation reanalysis products. The reconstruction also produces weaker pressure trends than the reanalysis products evaluated here, which are consistent with observations. However, the skill of the reconstruction is weaker in the South Pacific and therefore does not improve the understanding of long-term pressure variability and trends in this region, where circulation changes have been key drivers of climate variability in West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula.

The first African-American in Antarctica: George W. Gibbs Jr.

Polar Record ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-282
Author(s):  
Glenn M. Stein
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Advisory Committee ◽  
Antarctic Peninsula ◽  
George Washington ◽  
Marguerite Bay ◽  
Antarctic Continent ◽  
The Antarctic

On 2 September 2009, the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US Board on Geographic Names) confirmed a place name for George Washington Gibbs Jr, the first African-American expedition member to set foot on the Antarctic continent (Fig. 1). Gibbs Point forms the northwest entrance to Gaul Cove, on the northeast of Horseshoe Island, Marguerite Bay, Antarctic Peninsula (67°48′22″S, 67°09′38″W) (Fig. 2).

scholarly journals A Synthesis of Antarctic Temperatures

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (16) ◽  
pp. 4096-4117 ◽  
Author(s):  
William L. Chapman ◽  
John E. Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Temperature Change ◽  
Correlation Length ◽  
Antarctic Peninsula ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
Length Scales ◽  
Temperature Anomalies ◽  
Single Station ◽  
Antarctic Continent ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Start Dates

Abstract Monthly surface air temperatures from land surface stations, automatic weather stations, and ship/buoy observations from the high-latitude Southern Hemisphere are synthesized into gridded analyses at a resolution appropriate for applications ranging from spatial trend analyses to climate change impact assessments. Correlation length scales are used to enhance information content while limiting the spatial extent of influence of the sparse data in the Antarctic region. The correlation length scales are generally largest in summer and over the Antarctic continent, while they are shortest over the winter sea ice. Gridded analyses of temperature anomalies, limited to regions within a correlation length scale of at least one observation, are constructed and validated against observed temperature anomalies in single-station-out experiments. Trends calculated for the 1958–2002 period suggest modest warming over much of the 60°–90°S domain. All seasons show warming, with winter trends being the largest at +0.172°C decade−1 while summer warming rates are only +0.045°C decade−1. The 45-yr temperature trend for the annual means is +0.082°C decade−1 corresponding to a +0.371°C temperature change over the 1958–2002 period of record. Trends computed using these analyses show considerable sensitivity to start and end dates, with trends calculated using start dates prior to 1965 showing overall warming, while those using start dates from 1966 to 1982 show net cooling over the region. Because of the large interannual variability of temperatures over the continental Antarctic, most of the continental trends are not statistically significant. However, the statistically significant warming over the Antarctic Peninsula is the strongest and most seasonally robust in the spatial patterns of temperature change. Composite (11-model) global climate model (GCM) simulations for 1958–2002 with forcing from historic aerosol and greenhouse gas concentrations show warming patterns and magnitudes similar to the corresponding observed trends for the 45-yr period. GCM projections for the rest of the twenty-first century, however, discontinue the pattern of strongest warming over the Antarctic Peninsula, but instead show the strongest warming over the Antarctic continent.

scholarly journals Antarctic Peninsula Climate Over the Last 400 Years, Deduced from an Ice-Core Record

1988 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 198
Author(s):  
A.J. Aristarain ◽  
J. Jouzel ◽  
M. Pourchet ◽  
C. Lorius
Keyword(s):  
Antarctic Peninsula ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Temperature Record ◽  
Isotopic Study ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Isotope Record ◽  
Ice Core Record ◽  
Antarctic Continent ◽  
The Antarctic

Reconstruction of the past climate of the Antarctic Peninsula is of special interest because it represents a possible link between the conditions that predominated over the Antarctic continent and those over South America, only about 1000 km away. From a detailed isotopic study on a core drilled on James Ross Island (64°12′S, 57°40′W), including a comparison with the Orcadas temperature record (which has been available since 1904), we have recently examined the climatic changes which have occurred in this region over the last 130 years (Aristarain and others 1986). We have now extended this isotope record back to about A.D. 1600 (dating is obtained from a glaciological model). A striking feature of the resulting climatic curve is the significant cooling, estimated at about 2º C, which has been observed since the turn of the century, in comparison with the warmest period of the record (around A.D. 1850). This feature, which is at odds with Northern Hemisphere temperature data, will be examined in the context of factors affecting the Antarctic Peninsula climate. These include sea-ice extent, and the relative influence of a maritime climate in the west and of a continental climate in the east, and the generally high climatic sensitivity theoretically expected in these ice-margin areas. The whole climatic curve will also be compared with other Antarctic and Southern Hemisphere records.

scholarly journals Antarctic Peninsula Climate Over the Last 400 Years, Deduced from an Ice-Core Record

1988 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 198-198
Author(s):  
A.J. Aristarain ◽  
J. Jouzel ◽  
M. Pourchet ◽  
C. Lorius
Keyword(s):  
Antarctic Peninsula ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Temperature Record ◽  
Isotopic Study ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Isotope Record ◽  
Ice Core Record ◽  
Antarctic Continent ◽  
The Antarctic

Reconstruction of the past climate of the Antarctic Peninsula is of special interest because it represents a possible link between the conditions that predominated over the Antarctic continent and those over South America, only about 1000 km away. From a detailed isotopic study on a core drilled on James Ross Island (64°12′S, 57°40′W), including a comparison with the Orcadas temperature record (which has been available since 1904), we have recently examined the climatic changes which have occurred in this region over the last 130 years (Aristarain and others 1986).We have now extended this isotope record back to about A.D. 1600 (dating is obtained from a glaciological model). A striking feature of the resulting climatic curve is the significant cooling, estimated at about 2º C, which has been observed since the turn of the century, in comparison with the warmest period of the record (around A.D. 1850). This feature, which is at odds with Northern Hemisphere temperature data, will be examined in the context of factors affecting the Antarctic Peninsula climate. These include sea-ice extent, and the relative influence of a maritime climate in the west and of a continental climate in the east, and the generally high climatic sensitivity theoretically expected in these ice-margin areas. The whole climatic curve will also be compared with other Antarctic and Southern Hemisphere records.

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