We investigated the physical conditions of the Spring pack ice environment at Terra Nova Bay to understand their influence on the structure and physiology of sympagic microalgae. Bio-optical methods were used to study the availability and spectral quality of solar radiation, both inside and underneath the ice cover. Pack ice thickness was around 2.5 m, with a temperature between −2 and −7°C. On average, only 1.4% of surface PAR penetrated to the bottom ice and less than 0.6% below platelet ice level. Surface UV-B radiation under the bottom ice was 0.2–0.4%. Biomass concentrations up to 2400 mg Chl a m−3, dominated by two species of diatoms (Entomoneis kjellmannii and Nitschia cf. stellata), showed marked spatial and temporal patterns. Maximum values were in the platelet ice during the first half of November, and in the bottom ice two weeks later. Strong shade adaptation characteristics emerged clearly and explained the relevant abundance of microalgae within the sea ice, with specific absorption coefficients (a*) as low as 0.005 m2 (mg Chl a)−1 and the photo-acclimation index (Ek) in the range of in situ irradiance. The biomass specific production values were low, around 0.12–0.13 mg C mg Chl a−1 h−1. The hypothesis suggesting bottom ice colonization by platelet ice microalgae is supported here.

Man's activities have impacted on the Southern Ocean ecosystem for more than 200 years. The exploitation of Southern Ocean resources has followed the same pattern as in other parts of the World Ocean with exploitation starting at the highest trophic levels when seals and whales were taken in the 19th and 20th centuries. After serious over-exploitation of these groups attention moved down the food web to begin exploitation of fish and krill from the late 1960s onwards. The establishment of international management regimes for whales (International Whaling Convention) in 1948 and the remaining marine resources (Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources) in 1982 were based on different perceptions of management, the former only considering management by species whilst the latter adopted management at an ecosystem level. These fundamentally different approaches, together with major political interference, have resulted in very different outcomes for management. The Scientific Committee of the IWC developed a sustainable management system, the Revised Management Procedure, in the first half of the 1990s which, however, is still awaiting inclusion into an overall management regime, the Revised Management Scheme, and its acceptance by the Commission. The IWC is now paralysed by political agendas that have nothing to do with scientific management. In contrast, after an early period of slow progress, CCAMLR has improved its performance substantially from the beginning of the 1990s onwards and is now hailed worldwide for its ecosystem approach to sustainable management.

Several debris-covered glaciers occupy tributaries of upper Beacon Valley, Antarctica. Understanding their flow dynamics and ice thickness is important for palaeoclimate studies and for understanding the origins of ancient ice elsewhere in the McMurdo Dry Valleys region. We present the results of several shallow seismic surveys in Mullins Valley, where the largest of these debris-covered glaciers is located. Our results suggest that beneath a thin sublimation till and near-surface horizon of dirty glacier ice, lies relatively pure glacier ice (P-wave velocity ~3700–3800 m s-1), with total thickness estimates of ~90–95 m towards the valley head, and ~40–65 m near the entrance to Beacon Valley, ~2.5 km downglacier. P-wave velocities decrease downvalley, suggesting that the material properties of the ice change with increasing distance from the ice-accumulation zone. These new data are used to calibrate an ice thickness profile for the active portion of the Mullins Valley debris-covered glacier (upper ~3.5 km) and to shed light on the origin and spatial distribution of enclosed debris.

A marine sediment core collected from the Nordenskjold Basin, to the south of the Drygalski Ice Tongue, provides new sedimentological and chronological data for reconstructing the Pleistocene glacial history and palaeoenvironmental evolution of Victoria Land. The core consists of an over consolidated biogenic mud covered with glacial diamicton; Holocene diatomaceous mud lies on top of the sequence. Radiocarbon dates of the acid insoluble organic matter indicate a pre-Last Glacial Maximum age (>24kyr) for the biogenic mud at the base of the sequence. From this we can presume that at least this portion of the western Ross Sea was deglaciated during Marine Isotope Stage 3 and enjoyed open marine conditions. Our results are consistent with recent findings of pre-Holocene raised beaches at Cape Ross and in the Terra Nova Bay area.

The Antarctic psychrophilic ciliate Euplotes focardii manifests a dramatic reduction in the activation of its hsp70 gene in response to a heat-shock, while oxidative and chemical stresses activate the transcription of this gene to appreciable extents. To investigate the genetic causes of this eccentric behaviour of E. focardii in the hsp70 gene transcription activation, we carried out a comparative structural analysis of this gene between E. focardii and another Antarctic Euplotes, E. nobilii, which manifests a psychrotrophic behaviour and an inducible thermal response. No substantial difference was detected in the organization of the hsp70 5' promoter region, both species bearing canonical regulatory cis-acting elements deputed to bind transcriptional trans-activating factors. Adenine-rich elements favouring mRNA degradation were instead detected in the hsp70 3' regulatory region of E. nobilii, but not in that of E. focardii. These observations lend further support to the hypothesis that the causes of the Euplotes focardii unresponsiveness to thermal stress resides in some structural, or functional modifications of transcriptional trans-activating factors.

Two sediment cores collected from beneath the Amery Ice Shelf, East Antarctica describe the physical sedimentation patterns beneath an existing major embayed ice shelf. Core AM01b was collected from a site of basal freezing, contrasting with core AM02, collected from a site of basal melting. Both cores comprise Holocene siliceous muddy ooze (SMO), however, AM01b also recovered interbedded siliciclastic mud, sand and gravel with inclined bedding in its lower 27 cm. This interval indicates an episode of variable but strong current activity before SMO sedimentation became dominant. 14C ages corrected for old surface ages are consistent with previous dating of marine sediments in Prydz Bay. However, the basal age of AM01b of 28250 ± 230 14C yr bp probably results from greater contamination by recycled organic matter. Lithology, 14C surface ages, absolute diatom abundance, and the diatom assemblage are used as indicators of sediment transport pathways beneath the ice shelf. The transport pathways suggested from these indicators do not correspond to previous models of the basal melt/freeze pattern. This indicates that the overturning baroclinic circulation beneath the Amery Ice Shelf (near-bed inflow–surface outflow) is a more important influence on basal melt/freeze and sediment distributions than the barotropic circulation that produces inflow in the east and outflow in the west of the ice front. Localized topographic (ice draft and bed elevation) variations are likely to play a dominant role in the resulting sub-ice shelf melt and sediment distribution.

Magnetic screening as a cost-effective and non-time-consuming approach has been successfully carried out in Marambio soils and seems to be a suitable method for contamination assessment in Antarctic areas. Ferromagnetic minerals are found in most samples, and magnetite-like carriers are especially dominant in samples collected near pollution sources. Lead and zinc are the main trace elements that have adversely impacted on some areas in this station, both are end products from different pollution sources derived from fuel combustion and residues, solid waste, paints, etc. The correlation results between magnetic and chemical variables show moderate relationships varying from 0.409 to 0.663; this fact supports the use of magnetic parameters, such as magnetic susceptibility and bivariate ratios, for pollution monitoring. The magnetic properties, heavy metal contents, and related maps of these soils can be considered as a reference in the area for future temporal and/or spatial work.

As a result of the recent application of DNA based technology to the investigation of maritime Antarctic freshwater lakes, patterns have begun to emerge in the bacterioplankton communities that dominate these systems. In this study, the bacterioplankton communities of five Antarctic and five Arctic freshwater lakes were assessed and compared with existing data in the literature, to determine whether emerging patterns in Antarctic lakes also applied to Arctic systems. Such a bipolar comparison is particularly timely, given the current interest in biogeography, the global distribution of microorganisms and the controversy over the global ubiquity hypothesis. In addition, it has recently been discovered that commonly encountered bacterial sequences, often originating from uncultivated bacteria obtained on different continents, form coherent phylogenetic freshwater clusters. In this study we encountered both identical sequences and sequences with a high degree of similarity among the bacterioplankton in lake water from both poles. In addition, Arctic freshwater lakes appeared to be dominated by some of the same groups of bacterioplankton thought to be dominant in Antarctic lakes, the vast majority of which represented uncultivated groups.

The Ross Sea is an area of dense water formation within the Southern Ocean, hence it potentially plays an important role for anthropogenic CO2 sequestration. In order to estimate the penetration of anthropogenic carbon in the Ross Sea from total inorganic carbon (TCO2) measurements carried out in 2002–03 Antarctic Italian Expedition, we applied two independent models. Anthropogenic carbon was present throughout the water column. The highest concentrations were associated with the recently ventilated shelf waters, namely High Salinity Shelf Water (HSSW) and Ice Shelf Water (ISW), due to their recent contact with the atmosphere. The lowest concentrations were observed for Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW), due to its relatively older ventilation age. This water mass intrudes onto the shelf in some parts of the Ross Sea and hence is observed in the sampled section, where it is recognizable for its low O2 and high TCO2 concentrations. The overflow of the dense High Salinity Shelf Water out of the continental slope was observed in the area off Cape Adare. Since this recently formed shelf water contributes to the formation of the Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW), this process represents a pathway for anthropogenic carbon export down to the deep ocean.

Strong-wind events occur 10–20 times per year at Kohnen Station, East Antarctica (75°00′S, 0°04′E, 2892 m above sea level), and are often caused by warm-core cyclones in the north-eastern Weddell Sea. An uncommon event occurred in January 2002, when blocking both in the south Atlantic Ocean and in the south Tasman Sea caused a split-up of the circumpolar vortex, and large amounts of heat and moisture were transported onto the Antarctic Plateau. During strong-wind events over the plateau the near-surface temperature can increase by tens of degrees, which is partly caused by the advection of heat, but for an important part by the destruction of the stable temperature-deficit layer by enhanced vertical mixing. The temperature rise is larger during the winter/night than during the summer/day, due to a better-developed temperature deficit. Snowdrift during the January 2002 event linearly increased surface roughness for momentum with friction velocity, for values over about 0.18 m s-1. The cloud cover during the event reduced down-welling solar radiation by 32%, and increased the albedo from about 0.86 to 0.92. Changes in longwave radiation largely cancelled the daytime changes in shortwave radiation, thus net radiation was most affected at night.

For the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf we have compiled measurements of meteoric ice thickness from many institutions, and several different techniques (e.g. radar and seismic sounding) to produce an improved digital map of meteoric ice thickness. This map has high-resolution compared to previous compilations and serves to highlight small-scale geographic features (e.g. ice plains, grounding-line regions). We have also produced a map of the thickness of marine ice bodies beneath the ice shelf by using borehole density data to calibrate an ice thickness to surface-elevation relation, and then comparing maps of ice surface elevation and meteoric ice thickness to infer marine ice thickness. Due to denser data coverage and the improved density-depth relation, the resulting map is a significant improvement on its predecessors and allows insight into the glaciological context of the ice shelf, in particular, into the location of the grounding lines on the southern Ronne Ice Shelf. Here the data were supplemented with barometric determination of surface elevation, which were used to locate the grounding line position. The final delineation of the grounding line position was confirmed by reference to satellite imagery, and revealed that earlier estimates were substantially in error, especially in the area of Foundation Ice Stream and Möllereisstrom.

Analysis of five basement samples from the Vestfold Hills (East Antarctica) reveals pooled apatite fission track (FT) ages ranging from 188 to 264 Ma and mean lengths of 13.7 to 14.9 μm. Quantitative thermal histories derived from these data give consistent results indicating onset of cooling/denudation began sometime prior to 240 Ma, with final cooling below 105°–125°C occurring between 240 and 220 Ma (Triassic). A Cretaceous denudation phase can be inferred from the sedimentary record of the Prydz Bay offshore the Vestfold Hills. The two denudational episodes are likely associated with Palaeozoic large-scale rifting processes that led to the formation of the adjacent Lambert Graben, and to the Cretaceous Gondwana break-up between Antarctica and India. Subsequent evolution of the East Antarctic passive continental margin likely occurred throughout the Cenozoic based on the depositional record in Prydz Bay and constraints (though tentative) from FT data.

Antarctic krill are a key species in the Southern Ocean ecosystem, and their life cycle appears to be correlated with, and by implication dependent upon, seasonal sea ice dynamics. Moving from correlations with environmental parameters to an understanding of the mechanisms that lead to these correlations may allow predictions of the consequences of climate change on the distribution of favourable habitat for Antarctic krill. During winter cruises in 2001 and 2002 in the region west of the Antarctic Peninsula, one of the most rapidly warming regions on the planet, ice camps were established for periods of 3–9 days. Timing of sea ice advance, chlorophyll a concentrations in ice cores, and growth rates and pigment content of larval krill all differed significantly between winters. Growth rates and pigment content of larval krill from the same ice floe were correlated, suggesting that growth rates in winter are a function of the biomass of the sea ice microbial community. Apossible mechanism underlying the correlation between recruitment success and timing of ice advance is proposed. In conjunction with other postulated habitat requirements, this proposed mechanism allows for speculation about future changes in the geographic location of favourable habitat for Antarctic krill.

Management of human impacts in the Antarctic requires an effective system of monitoring to provide information about the process being managed and the effectiveness of management actions. Human impacts arise as a result of processes that originate in the region (endogenous) and those that originate outside the region (exogenous). A number of monitoring programmes have been established in both terrestrial and marine systems to measure impacts that arise as a result of endogenous process such as fishing, tourism and research. However, most of this monitoring is surveillance monitoring, which is not linked to a specific management objective, and does not produce quantitative metrics that can be assessed and compared to agreed targets. However, defining such target levels for the Antarctic, where the aim is to minimise human impacts, is a complex process. Although potential analogues for target setting exist in other parts of the world these are generally insufficiently precautionary to be applied in the Antarctic. The challenge for scientists and policymakers working in the Antarctic is to provide quantitative measures, with agreed trigger levels, and to develop appropriate monitoring schemes to manage human impacts in the future.

The VLNDEF (Victoria Land Network for DEFormation control) project started in 1999 with the aim of detecting crustal deformation in Northern Victoria Land (Antarctica) over an area that had never been surveyed by a dense GPS network before. After a brief summary of the Italian geodetic activities carried out since 1991, the paper presents the results obtained from the processing of data collected from 1999 to 2003. In particular, processing strategies were dealt with, in order to produce horizontal and vertical displacement maps through GPS observations. Absolute motions in a global reference frame have been investigated using a double approach, which allowed us to make considerable progress in detecting movements and standardizing the data analysis. The analyses provide absolute horizontal velocities ranging between 17 mm yr−1 and 8 mm yr−1, with greater motions in the northernmost area. The subtraction of the rigid plate motion provides relative displacements, which may contribute to the understanding of neotectonics and geology, whereas the pattern of the vertical crustal motions detected, with average values of +1.3 mm yr−1, is essential to detect the effect of Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) and other geophysical signals, and to redefine theory and numerical models used without any direct measurements.

Haemoglobin carries oxygen from the environment to tissues; in vertebrates, it is contained in specialized cells, called erythrocytes. Over the last century, the study of the chemical properties of this haemoprotein has provided a wealth of information. One of its most important and ancient physiological features is the Root effect, found in many teleost fish (and some amphibians). The Root effect corresponds to an extreme pH sensitivity and can be described as an exaggerated Bohr effect: it dictates to what extent the oxygen tension can be raised in acid-producing tissues. It is likely that the eye choroid rete represents the most ancient anatomical structure associated with the presence of Root effect haemoglobins. This review describes our overall understanding of the molecular properties, biological occurrence, physiological role and evolutionary origin of Root effect haemoglobins. The current knowledge of the structural properties of Root effect haemoglobins is discussed in the light of recent results obtained on the haemoglobins of the coldadapted notothenioids Trematomus newnesi and T. bernacchii.