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SCAR Newsletter: Issue 10, April 2007

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SCAR announces new Fellowship programme for 2007-2008 season

Deadline for applications is 15 May 2007. Please see details and application form. Among others, the new fellowship programme includes 2 fellowships for research either at an Antarctic base or on an Antarctic research vessel.

Executive Officer vacancy at SCAR Secretariat

SCAR Exceutive Officer post is now vacant. Applications for the position of Executive Officer should be sent by 15 April. Please see further details.

Aliens in Antarctica (IPY-project nr. 170)

The study of non-indigenous organisms (aliens) in the Antarctic and especially the sub-Antarctic has focused mainly on the ecological effects of species which colonised these regions successfully (animals such as cats, rabbits, reindeer, and rats; angiosperms such as Poa annua and Agrostis stolonifera). Apart from a few pilot experiments, this project will be the first study to obtain a comprehensive insight in the extent of propagules (e.g. spores, seeds, eggs) which are unintentionally imported either by cargo, or in or on the clothes, shoes, or hand luggage of people visiting the region (for scientific reasons or as tourists). This IPY project will use special vacuum cleaners to sample the clothing, shoes, and "carry-on" luggage of a randomly chosen set of passengers from ships and planes entering the region from outside the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic region. Each passenger will be asked to complete a questionnaire, explaining their itinerary prior to their journey to the Antarctic region. The project will also sample the cargo of a selection of ships of National Antarctic Research Organisations, as well as fresh food supplies from research and tourist ships. This will be the first ever systematic and comprehensive sampling of non-indigenous propagules imported into the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic. Eight countries collaborate in the project, which will be executed in the first Austral summer of the International Polar Year.

Trends in Antarctic Terrestrial and Limnetic Ecosystems: Antarctica as a Global Indicator

This new book, edited by Dana Bergstrom, Pete Convey, and Ad Huiskes, has just been published by Springer (ISBN: 978-1-4020-5276-7). The book provides an account of the activities of the SCAR programme RiSCC (Regional Sensitivity to Climate Change in Antarctic Terrestrial and Limnetic Ecosystems), which investigated a suite of scenarios useful for investigating the range of climate change effects on terrestrial and limnetic biota, in order (i) to understand the likely response of Antarctic biota to changing climates, and (ii) to contribute to the development of theory concerning interactions between climate change, indigenous and introduced species, and ecosystem functioning. The book provides a synthesis of the likely effects of climate change on Antarctic terrestrial and limnetic ecosystems and, thereby, contributes to their management and conservation. The book is described as "a milestone as it has collected the most actual facts about the Antarctic region and allows us to look at the phenomenon from physical and biological perspectives. It is a 'must' for all who are concerned about our environment."

SCAR and INQUA organise joint meeting on 'Climate and ice in Antarctica and Southern Ocean since the Last Glacial Maximum'

SCAR's Antarctic Climate Evolution (ACE) programme will be organising a session with this title for the next meeting of the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA), which became a Union Member of SCAR in July 2006. The session will concentrate on interactions between the Antarctic ice sheet, the surrounding Southern Ocean, and global climate change, from the Last Glacial Maximum onwards. Recent evidence suggests that these interactions are far stronger than previously thought and that changing ocean temperatures may well be one of the primary controls on the growth and retreat of the ice sheet. Study of the period of the Last Glacial Maximum onwards allows us to address high profile issues such as the timing and controls of grounding line retreat in the Amundsen, Ross and Weddell Sea sectors. It also allows a focus on the highly contentious source of Meltwater Pulse 1A. Contributions from marine and terrestrial geomorphological communities are anticipated, as well as from modelling, paleoceanography and ice-core groups.
The meeting takes place in Cairns, Australia, 28 July - 3rd August 2007, and the session is organised by Martin Siegert (Edinburgh, UK), Eric Wolff (British Antarctic Survey) and Mike Bentley (Durham, UK). The deadline for abstracts is 31st January (www.inqua2007.net.au)

Antarctic Science News

Deep-diving remotely operated vehicle maps Antarctic offshore sediments

UK scientists recently completed the first Antarctic research cruise (RRS James Clark Ross cruise JR157) using a 'Isis', a deep-diving remotely-operated vehicle (ROV). The 'Isis' ROV was used to investigate glacial-interglacial sediment transfer from the Antarctic continent to the deep ocean and, for the first time, it was able to view former sub-glacial features on the Antarctic continental shelf and slope at an outcrop scale. This work will make a contribution to SCAR's ACE programme.

There are some online news items about the cruise at:
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/206/1 and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6359025.stm

US and UK geologists tackle Mount Discovery

A team of US and UK geologists, during December 2006 through to early February 2007, examined 7-11 million year old volcanic rocks on Mount Discovery (about 80º South). The age of the rocks are important for deciphering East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) history and, in particular, should throw considerable new light on the thermal state and dynamics of the ice sheet in the late Miocene, a period of EAIS history that has been contentious for over two decades. The fieldwork investigated about 12 km of 900 metres-high continuous cliff section. More than a dozen volcanic units were mapped and sampled intensively. Many are separated by erosive surfaces that are probably glacial in origin. In addition, the Mt Discovery work has identified at least two periods when the region was overridden by substantially greater ice thicknesses. This year's study includes an extensive Argon isotopic dating investigation by the USA co-workers that should make the Mt Discovery sequences amongst the most precise and intensively dated in Antarctica. The work is a contribution to SCAR's ACE (Antarctic Climate Evolution) programme.

Former SCAR President Robert Rutford honoured

Bob Rutford was President of SCAR from 1998 to 2002. In recognition of his major contributions to Antarctic science that began in 1959, the US Board on Geographic Names, a part of US Geological Survey, approved the name Mount Rutford on Monday 5 March 2007.

The Ellsworth Mountains were discovered from the air in 1935, but until last December, the summit now known as Mount Rutford had never been ascended. On 9 December 2006, and again the following day, members of a multi-national expedition lead by Damien Gildea, an Australian climber and researcher, scaled the peak and conducted a GPS survey that showed Mount Rutford to be 4,477 metres, or 14,688 feet, high.

The peak of Mount Rutford forms the summit of Craddock Massif in the Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains in West Antarctica. The Rutford Ice Stream, north of the Ellsworth Mountains, is also named after him.

Further information may be found on the website of the University of Texas at Dallas at http://www.utdallas.edu/news/archive/2007/0306001.html

The New Director of the British Antarctic Survey is Prof. Nick Owens

For more detail see BAS Press Release and Nick Owen's profile

Subglacial lakes power the engines that drive ice sheet collapse

A research team led by geophysicists Robin Bell and Michael Studinger from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, has discovered four large, subglacial lakes miles beneath the Antarctic ice sheet's surface. The team linked the lakes to a fast flowing ice stream above and established that within this 170-mile wide area the lakes contribute to the creation of a major ice stream. The team, which includes scientists from NASA, the University of New Hampshire and the University of Washington published their results in the Feb. 22 issue of Nature. Ice streams are large, fast-flowing features within ice sheets that transport land-based ice and meltwater to the ocean. One such stream, the Recovery Glacier ice stream, annually drains the equivalent of eight percent of the huge East Antarctic Ice Sheet, an area larger than the continental United States. The associated Recovery drainage basin, virtually unexplored since an American-led Antarctic ice sheet research trek over 40 years ago, funnels an estimated 35 billion tons of ice into the Weddell Sea annually. "It's almost as if the lakes are capturing the geothermal energy from the entire basin and releasing it to the ice stream," said lead author Bell, a senior research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. "They power the engines that drive ice sheet collapse. The more we learn about the lakes, the more we realize how important they are to ice sheet stability"(Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center). Moreover, the work suggests that subglacial lakes could play a role in sea level rise as well as regional and global climate change. Meltwater at the base of ice streams increases the flow of ice to the oceans, which could, in turn, contribute to higher sea levels worldwide. In addition, floods have been known to originate from the interior of the ice sheet in the past, possibly from subglacial lakes. These sudden pulses of fresh water could potentially interfere with nearby ocean currents that redistribute heat and carbon dioxide around the globe, disrupting the Earth's finely tuned climate system. (Source: Science Daily, 2/26/07, The Earth Institute at Columbia University)

For more details go to the Subglacial Antarctic Lake Environments (SALE) Program Office, Texas A&M University, http://salepo.tamu.edu. Reports of the latest developments in SALE research and exploration are contained in the SALE Workshop 2006 reports and materials available on-line at http://salepo.tamu.edu/saleworkshop2006

Life on a seabed uncapped by the disintegration of Larsen A and B - first CAML cruise brings exciting new findings

under ice shelf photoA 10-week voyage yields likely new species and insights into polar ecology. Intrigued scientists find herds of sea cucumbers on the move, fields of colonizing sea squirts and whales approaching the coast. Deep-sea species at unusually shallow depths on uncapped seabed.

Dynamic behaviour of the subglacial water "blisters" in West Antarctica detected from space

Antarctic subglacial water blistesSatellite laser altimetry can be used to detect changes in subglacial water system by tracking visible change of the surface elevation. Ice surface responds to sublacial water movements by temporarily varying elevation. A major, previously unknown subglacial lake near the grounding line of Whillans Ice Stream in West Antarctica is observed to drain 2.0 km3 of water over ~3 years, while elsewhere a similar volume of water is being stored subglacially. These observations reveal a widespread, dynamic subglacial water system which may exert an important control on ice flow and mass balance of Antarctic Ice Sheet. One of the striking findings is that the change can happen within a short period of time. The results, published in the journal Science, show that some areas fell by up to 9m (30ft) over just two years.

The whole article is published in journal Science (Fricker et al., 2007: An Active Subglacial Water System in West Antarctica Mapped from Space, Published Online February 15, 2007, Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1136897, Science Express Research Articles.)

Read the Abstract
Read the BBC News story

Release of IPCC Working Group I 4th Assessment Report

Climate change is "very likely" to be caused by human activities, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concludes. By "very likely", the IPCC means greater than 90% probability. However, some scientist point out that the IPCC Report might be too conservative.

IPCC projections:
  • Probable temperature rise between 1.8C-4C
  • Possible temperature rise between 1.1C-6.4C
  • Sea level most likely to rise by 28-43cm
  • Arctic sea ice disappears in second half of century
  • Increase in heatwaves very likely
  • Increase in tropical storm intensity likely

The full climate science report will be released later in the year, as will other IPCC chapters looking at the probable impacts of climate change, options for adapting to those impacts, and possible routes to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis - Summary for Policy Makers

Read the New Scientist Environment article

Read the BBC News story

IPY News

"Scope of Science for the International Polar Year"

The "Scope of Science for the International Polar Year" document has now been posted on the IPY website at:

http://216.70.123.96/images/uploads/LR*PolarBrochureScientific_IN.pdf

The 8th March issue of the journal 'Nature' highlights the International Polar Year

Please read the whole articles:

and see Editor's Summary

March 16 Science Magazine features the Poles

Titles include:

For more information and to download pdfs, please go to: http://www.sciencemag.org/sciext/polarscience/#section_in-science

Forthcoming Events

Events of interest to the SCAR Community are listed at: www.scar.org/events/
Newsletter prepared by Colin Summerhayes and Karen Smith, SCAR Secretariat. Please send feedback to info@scar.org