Antarctic Fast Ice Research Articles

DDT compounds and PCB isomers and congeners in Weddell seals and their fate in the Antarctic marine ecosystem.

The whole-body burdens and concentrations of ZDDT (the sum of p,p,′-DDE and p,p′-DDT) and PCBs in the Weddell seal, Leptonychotes weddelli, caught near Syowa Station, Antarctica, were determined by detailed biometric measurements of their organs and tissues and analyses of ZDDT and PCBs in them. The concentration levels of ZDDT and PCBs in Weddell seals were much lower than those in various species of marine mammals from other oceans. The low levels may be attributable to the low concentration of these chemicals in the food of Weddell seals and in the sea water under antarctic fast ice. However, the concentration ratio of ZDDT between the food organisms of seals and sea water under antarctic fast ice was higher than those of other ocean ecosystems.

Melting of the Antarctic fast ice

Melting of the Antarctic fast ice

Snow measurements on antarctic fast ice

Abstract Snow stakes have generally been the common technique for direct measurements of snow depths. However, on Antarctic fast ice such observations, especially for budget computations, must be adjusted for the presence of snow‐water infiltration‐congelation ice that is formed through the upward infiltration of seawater through cracks in the fast ice. Investigations in 1970 and 1971 showed that actual snow accumulation on fast ice is two to three times the snow depth that can be directly measured with a stake.

Temperature regime of antarctic fast ice

Abstract Direct measurements of fast‐ice temperatures in Alasheyev Bight demonstrate the strong effect of snow cover on temperature amplitude. A change from cyclonic weather to drainage wind with low air temperature is accompanied by removal of part of the snow cover that acts as a thermal insulator, reducing the amplitude of the fast‐ice temperatures. The opposite occurs with a change from drainage wind to cyclonic weather, associated with warming and snow deposition.