Antarctic Flora Research Articles

Phytogeography of continental Antarctic lichens

The northern and southern polar regions differ substantially in topography, climate, terrestrial habitats and in their biota. The Arctic flora comprises around 900 flowering plants, 600–700 bryophytes and 2000 lichens. The Antarctic flora is depauperate by comparison with only two flowering plants, 100–120 bryophytes, and probably only around 200 lichens. Despite considerable taxonomic uncertainty, broad phytogeographic patterns can be outlined, with species having a Maritime Antarctic, Peninsula and Lesser Antarctic, Circum-Antarctic, and Disjunct distribution pattern. The extent of endemism in the flora is unclear. The origin of the Antarctic lichen flora appears ancient in part, although there is ample evidence for post-Pleistocene or Holocene colonization and invasion.

The phenomenon of forest growth in Antarctica: a review

Abstract The existence of a temperate Antarctic flora in the Permian, Mesozoic and early Tertiary poses a number of problems that are not soluble by reference to any environmental situation obtaining at the present day (i.e. in which plants live in a regime where a warm summer is followed by a winter without sunlight). Certain characteristics of the polar climate during a number of geological periods can be deduced from the remains of forests which grew at very high latitudes where tree growth cannot take place at the present day. The demands of tree growth of the order of 3 to 4 mm increase in trunk radius each year are such that an input of light energy of at least 3000 MJ m −2 a −1 would be necessary. Light energy inputs of this magnitude have been measured at very high latitudes in both North and South polar regions and it would appear that polar forest growth would be possible today if the ambient temperatures were sufficiently raised above their present levels. It is also significant that the forest productivity of about 10 t ha −1 as estimated for the Lower Cretaceous forest on Alexander Island (Palaeolat. 70°S), is a terrestrial productivity that is only matched at the present day in a variety of temperate and subtropical regions of the world. The evolution of photoperiodic ecotypes in tree species must have facilitated the colonization of polar regions by tree varieties adapted to make all of their annual growth during the long summer light period. There is evidence also that these photoperiodic ecotypes have a high rate of cambial activity concentrating the more rapid growth of wood into the polar summer.

Polish Antarctic activities 1976–78

The first permanent Polish scientific station in the Antarctic—the H. Arctowski station—was opened on 26 February 1977 on behalf of the Polish Academy of Sciences, by the 1976–77 expedition's leader. Assistant Professor S. Rakusa-Suszczewski. The station is built on the west coast of Admiralty Bay, south of Point Thomas, King George Island, in the South Shetland Islands, and is named after Professor Henryk Arctowski (1871–1958), an outstanding Polish scientist and member of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition in Belgica (1897–99) under A. de Gerlache de Gomery. Its location by the sea allows the possibility of oceanographic research, which should make up for the lack of such a centre in Poland. However, its main purpose is to carry out the biological studies necessary in order to formulate measures for the protection of the Antarctic flora and fauna, whose existence is being threatened by an increasing number of tourists and fishermen. It is also hoped that co-operation with other scientists and countries, and exchanges of information will occur, and that the station will be a stopover point for many scientific expeditions and other ships.

Conservation in the Antarctic

Formidable legal and administrative complexities arise from conflicting claims to jurisdiction and the continued absence of generally recognized sovereignty over much of the region. Existing conservation measures fall into three groups: elaborate laws made by governments claiming Antarctic territories, more restricted laws, and simple instructions for particular expeditions. The Antarctic Treaty, 1959, made it possible to begin coordinating all these separate instruments. No claimed jurisdiction has been surrendered or recognized: each government has started to harmonize its own control measures with the ‘Agreed Measures for the Conservation of Antarctic Fauna and Flora’, 1964. This scheme applied only to land areas and has since been evolving in the light of experience. Although not yet formally approved by all the governments concerned, it is working effectively by voluntary agreement. Different approaches are necessary for conservation of Southern Ocean resources, especially krill. A start has been made with the ‘ Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals’, 1972. There are many outstanding problems: all require effective cooperation between scientific and legal advisers, diplomats and politicians. Mention is made of recent British conservation legislation for South Georgia, the Falkland Islands and the Tristan da Cunha group. Some of the next steps are outlined.

Life sciences - Terrestrial ecosystems in the Antarctic

The composition of the terrestrial Antarctic flora and fauna and the distribution patterns of a number of species and of the principal vegetation types is now reasonably well established, at least in outline, for the Antarctic Peninsula region and the areas about McMurdo Sound as well as for some areas around the coastal ranges of East Antarctica. Detailed research at Signy Island has provided information concerning the biomass and productivity of certain vegetation types, decomposer organisms, microbivores, and invertebrate herbivores and predators. The main pathways of energy and nutrient within the terrestrial study sites can be regarded as reasonably established. Net annual production locally reaches very high levels (up to 800 g m -2 ). Only a tiny part of this productivity is consumed by herbivores, the greater part passing to the decomposers or persisting as peat. Most of the animals are microbivores, or graze on fungi, and in turn sustain the small number of invertebrate predators. Analysis of the range of habitats even on Signy Island indicates however that the sites for which detailed ecological information is available represent only a part of the range of environmental and ecological variation. The island is in fact characterized by a very high level of within-site diversity, some of it on a very small scale. Similarly, recent research which permits ecological comparisons with the sub-Antarctic islands of South Georgia and Macquarie, and with the McMurdo area, confirms that Signy Island displays only a small part of the very large range of diversity within the Antarctic regions as a whole. It is a reasonably representative sample of the maritime Antarctic zone in the Antarctic Peninsula region where conditions are particularly favourable for terrestrial life. Its ecological features resemble most closely those of the South Shetland Islands (except over permeable volcanic rocks) and the Palmer Archipelago on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula. Very different plant and animal communities occur over much of the McMurdo Sound region and in the inland ranges of East Antarctica. Some general statements can now be made about the relationships between terrestrial Antarctic eco-systems and climatic, edaphic and historical factors. There is a clearly marked attenuation of the vegetation and fauna and simplification of the ecological systems as one moves towards cold, arid continental conditions. But the biota of the maritime Antarctic and the sub-Antarctic islands is more impoverished than ecological factors alone would indicate, because of the isolation of these land habitats, many of which have only recently been deglaciated. If present environmental conditions persist, a slow increase in the complexity of these ecological systems is to be expected and in some areas, especially the subantarctic islands, this process is being accelerated by human influence.

Seasonal Movements of the Weddell Seal in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica

This paper reports a study on the seasonal changes in abundance of the Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddelli Lesson) in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Aerial reconnaissance flights and visual methods were used to count the seals lying on the ice. seals have a daily feeding cycle resulting in the largest number lying on the at 4 PM. overwintering population was estimated at 250 and the maximum summer population at 2,670. arrival of the seals in McMurdo Sound can be divided into two parts: (1) first influx of pregnant females in October, and (2) second influx of the main population November-December. There was a secondary buildup of seals in early February. Details of the first and second influx are shown by a study of the area from Knob Point to the confluence of the Erebus Glacier Tongue and Hut Point Peninsula. Statistical analysis showed that the numbers of seals lying on the was significantly related to wind velocity. The Weddell seal is circumpolar, and its normal habitat is the inshore waters of the Antarctic continent and adjacent islands. It spends much time in the water, but emerges at intervals to lie out on the beaches or on isolated floes not far from land. . . . It is the most southerly ranging mammal, apart from man himself, and is the seal most specialised for life in high latitudes, where so much of the year must be spent under the ice (Bertram 1940: 5-6). This paper describes fluctuations in numbers of the Weddell seal in McMurdo Sound (77 degrees, 30 minutes south, 166 degrees east) between October and March in the three seasons 1961-64. work is part of a long-term project by the University of Canterbury Antarctic Biology Unit and the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in their research program on conservation of Antarctic flora and fauna. This study on the Weddell seal was initiated to establish the state of the population in McMurdo Sound because, since 1956, seals have been killed for dog food. I thank G. Markham, Superintendent of Antarctic Division, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and the leaders and members of the New Zealand Antarctic Research Program, 1961-62, 1962-63, 1963-64, for the help generously given. I wish to acknowledge my debt to VX-6 Squadron of the United States Navy Antarctic Support Activities for aerial reconnaissance flights. Also I acknowledge Professor G. A. Knox and Dr. B. Stonehouse, W. Featherston, O. Sutherland, and I. Spellerberg for help in the field and in discussion of these results. For the statistics I acknowledge the help of Miss E. Stevenson of the Applied Mathematics Division, D. S. I. R.

Biological research by the British Antarctic Survey

The Antarctic Peninsula, the islands rising from the Scotia Ridge, and the Falkland Islands are a key area for biologists interested in the origin, relationships, and adaptations of the Antarctic flora and fauna. Of all Antarctic regions, furthermore, this has perhaps been the most intensively studied. The pioneer observations of J. R. and J. G. Forster during Cook's circumnavigation in 1772–75, and of James Eights in 1833 (Caiman, 1937), supplemented by the less systematic accounts of those engaged in early nineteenth-century sealing and whaling voyages (Weddell, 1825; Allen, 1899) paved the way for the thorough scientific programmes of more modern expeditions. The first of these, theBelgicaexpedition under de Gerlache, 1897–99, yielded much general information and brought back an apterous fly{Belgica antarctica),the first higher insect to be discovered in the true Antarctic. Soon afterwards, the Swedish South Polar Expedition led by Nordenskjold, 1901–04, brought to the Antarctic an outstanding botanist, the late C. J. F. Skottsberg, whose botanical researches on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic themes were to last for over half a century (Skottsberg, 1963). During the following decade the two French expeditions led by Charcot, 1903–05 and 1908–10, contributed important microbiological and ornithological information, and in 1902–04 the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition under Bruce made the first study of the South Orkney Islands and provided a general evaluation of botanical and biogeographical problems (Rudmose Brown, 1912). All these expeditions made general collections of flora and fauna which revealed that the Antarctic Peninsula and its adjacent islands were the richest area, biologically speaking, of the whole Antarctic region. Farther north, the Swedish Magellanic Expedition, led by Skottsberg in 1907–09, provided what is still the only published account of the vegetation of the Falkland Islands and information vital to the evaluation of biogeographical relationships between the Scotia Ridge, the Antarctic Peninsula, and the Magellanic region of South America. Skottsberg (1912) also described the vegetation of South Georgia, where pioneer work had been done by Will during the German International Polar Year expedition, 1882–83. The botanical work on this island, up to 1964, has recently been comprehensively reviewed by Greene (1964a).

The Theories of the Origin of the Antarctic Faunas and Floras

The Theories of the Origin of the Antarctic Faunas and Floras

Notes of a Naturalist in South America

LEAVING Valparaiso, and steering southwards amongst the evergreen islands of the South Chilian Archipelago and Fuegia, Mr. Ball encountered all the disagreeables of those inhospitable and desolate regions, signalised by a fall of the barometer and thermometer, gales of wind, the rolling seas of a tempestuous ocean, fogs, and darkness. And here he observes (and the observation is new to us) that one of the main features of the Andes suffers a great change. The western chain, which runs for 900 miles as an almost continuous range of high land on the coast of Chili, from lat. 40° S. to the Straits of Magellan becomes separated from the range to the east of it by a broad belt of low country including several large lakes. Further south the chain first dips under the ocean, to emerge as the great Island of Chiloe and the Chonos Archipelago, after which it joins the continent again at Cape Tres Montes. Further south is the Gulf of Peñas, forty miles wide, beyond which are the famous channels that lead into the Straits of Magellan. The new geographical features are accompanied by a change of climate, and this again is marked by the appearance of many types of the so-called Antarctic (or rather Fuegian) flora, which may be traced northward from Fuegia to the Mountains of Valdivia, and some few of which types, profiting by the fogs of the desert region of the Andes, straggle northwards into Northern Chili. In Messier's Channel, lat. 50° S., the wild celery of Europe was found, of which Mr. Ball says: “Growing in a region where it is little exposed to sunshine, it has less of the characteristic smell of our wild plant, and the leaves may be eaten raw as salad, or boiled, which is not the case with our plant until the gardener, by heaping soil about the roots, diminishes the pungency of the smell and flavour.” “The 5th of June,” he goes on to say, “my first day in the channel, will ever remain a bright spot in my memory. Wellington Island, which lay on our right, is over 150 miles in length, a rough mountain range, averaging apparently about 300 feet in height, with a moderately uniform coast-line. On the other hand, the mainland presents a constantly varying outline, indented by numberless coves and several deep narrow sounds rnnning far into the recesses of the Cordillera. In the intermediate channels crowds of islands, some rising to the size of mountains, some mere rocks peeping above the water, present an endless variety of form and outline. That which gives the scenery a unique character is the wealth of vegetation that adorns this seemingly inclement region. From the water's edge to a height which I estimated at 1400 feet, the rugged slopes were covered with an unbroken mantle of evergreen trees and shrubs. Above that height the bare declivities were clothed with snow, mottled at first by projecting rocks, but evidently lying deep upon the higher ranges. I can find no language to give any impression of the variety of the scenes that followed in quick succession against the bright blue background of a cloudless sky, and lit up by a northern sun that illumined each new prospect as we advanced.”

Die Vegetation der Erde nach ihrer klimatischen Anordnung Ein Abriss der vergleichenden Geographie der Pflanzen

Die Vegetation der Erde nach ihrer klimatischen Anordnung Ein Abriss der vergleichenden Geographie der Pflanzen

Enumeration of the plants hitherto collected in Kerguelen Isalnd by the "Antarctic," "Challenger," and "British Transit of Venus" expenditions - I. - Flowering plants, ferns, lycopodiaceæ, and churaceæ

1. Ranunculus crassipes, Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. 224, t. 81. Christmas Harbour, Observatory and Swain’s Bay, Boyal Sound (a form with petioles 5-7 inches long). I have nothing to add to what I have said of this species in the Antarctic Flora, beyond that I can hardly doubt its being a derivative form of the Fuegian R. biternatus , Sm., with which it agrees in habit and its thick-walled beaked carpels, but differs chiefly in its robustness and simple leaves. R. biternatus has been found by Moseley in Marion Island, where it presents every character of the American plant.