bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Antarctic visitor behaviour: are guidelines enough?
Authors: Davis Pamela B.
Published: October 2009

The general pattern of Antarctic tourism is well known and can be described in terms of numbers of visitors, landing sites, and general activities. However, little is known about the visitors, their behaviour, and other user characteristics. This information is vital for planning effective visitor-management strategies. This article presents and discusses some results from a 1993/94 questionnaire conducted aboard three IAATO member ships and focuses on how visitors rated the behaviour of themselves and others vis-à-vis the IAATO voluntary visitor guidelines. It also identifies how sex, age, educational level, and ship affect guideline violation or adherence. Additionally, passenger responses to hypothetical violations are discussed, which may help to explain why violations occur. This paper stresses not how many violations occur, but why they occur, providing a new insight for future visitor management.
Acarine colonisation of Antarctica and the islands of the Southern Ocean: the role of zoohoria
Authors: Pugh P.J.A.
Published: October 2009

A quarter of the terrestrial Acari recorded from Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands are parasitic haematophages or non-feeding phoretics associated with other larger and more mobile animals, especially sea birds and pterygote insects. Although flying sea birds are effective vectors of zoohoric mites into the region, penguins are not and merely serve as reservoir hosts. Similarly, most of the mites associated with insects were accidentally introduced by man as free-living adults that subsequently utilised a range of alien and indigenous insects as local dispersal mechanisms.
The Arctic shipFox
Authors: Erskine Angus B. , Kjaer Kjell-G.
Published: October 2009

The shipFox, built in Aberdeen in 1855 as a yacht, was used by Francis Leopold McClintock on his successful search for relics of Sir John Franklin's lost expedition. She was then chartered for one summer for Allen Young and John Rae to survey a route for a trans-Atlantic cable via the Faeroes, Iceland, and Greenland, after which she was in the services of the Kryolith Mine og Handelsselskabet, based at Ivigtut, southwest Greenland, for many years. In 1905, under charter, she made a historically significant voyage to Thule in northwest Greenland. After this she was owned by the Kongelige Grønlanske Handel and used for coastal freighting, until in 1912 she was condemned and abandoned in Qeqertarsuaq (Godhavn) Harbour, where remnants may be seen today.
‘…which an affectionate heart would say’: John Franklin's personal correspondence, 1819–1824
Authors: Davis Richard C.
Published: October 2009

Personal letters written by John Franklin to his relatives and friends between 1819 and 1824 reveal the Admiralty's 1819–1822 overland expedition from a unique perspective. All the official journals of that expedition have been published, as have the most important pieces of correspondence between Franklin and the Admiralty, the Colonial Office, and fur-trade officers. Previously unpublished personal correspondence, however, offers the possibility of a more candid response, as well as an opportunity to view the experience from an altered position. In these personal communications, Franklin sometimes expresses opinions that contradict those that appear in his public narrative and official records. But more importantly, they help construct an image of Franklin's personality around the time of his first overland expedition. The letters reveal a modest man with close familial attachments and a strong sense of personal relationships, in spite of the increasingly technological nature of his subsequent Arctic undertakings.
An international environmental regime for the Antarctic: critical investigations
Authors: van der Lugt Cornelis
Published: October 2009

Since the late 1970s, theorists in the field of international relations have increasingly used the concept ‘international regime’ in their attempts to give content to the idea of international governance. The concept was adopted from international lawyers, and this has led to some confusion when analysts apply terminology differently. Analysis of Antarctic politics is no exception. This article seeks to illustrate how the theory of international regimes can be applied to the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). The focus is on the events of the 1980s, during which international awareness (or perception) of a global environmental crisis severely tested the robustness of ‘the Antarctic regime’ (that is, the ATS). Three approaches to regime formation and change or transformation are considered in an attempt to explain the rejection of the Convention for the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities and the acceptance of the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty. The three approaches employed are game theory, functional theories, and cognitive explanations. The evolution of a new epistemic consensus on the value and the future of the Antarctic crystallises, signifying a key role on the part of natural scientists and environmental non-governmental organisations. It is concluded that the ATS as a whole can today be described as an international environmental regime.
Karl Ernst von Baer and the Kara Sea ‘Eiskeller’
Authors: Tammiksaar Erki , Stone Ian R.
Published: October 2009

Karl Ernst von Baer coined the word ‘Eiskeller’ (ice-cellar) to describe the Kara Sea in 1837, but he did not define precisely what he meant. The word was seized upon by subsequent geographers, notably Friedrich B. Lütke and August Petermann, as implying that the sea was unnavigable. However, when numerous successful voyages — by Norwegian fishermen, Joseph Wiggins, and Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld — showed that this was not the case, it was Baer, and not Lütke or Petermann, who was criticised for the claim. Baer only defended himself against these allegations in 1876, the year of his death, 39 years after he had first used the term.
The polar ship Quest
Authors: Erskine Angus B. , Kjaer Kjell-G.
Published: October 2009

Sir Ernest Shackleton bought the Norwegian sealer Foca 7 in 1921 for his third Antarctic expedition and renamed it Quest. He died aboard the ship in South Georgia in January 1922, but Frank Wild took over the leadership and completed the expedition after the delayed start. The vessel returned to Norwegian ownership in 1923 but kept the name Quest. In the 1920s and 1930s, in-between sealing voyages, she was chartered out for various scientific or hunting expeditions, mostly to S valbard or the east coast of Greenland, during which many well-known explorers trod her decks, including Gunnar Isachsen, Gino Watkins, Augustine Courtauld, John Rymill, Count Eigil Knuth, Lawrence Wager, H.W. Ahlmann, Gaston Micard, Paul-Emile Victor, and John Giaever. Vital assistance was given in rescuing the survivors of the Italian airship Italia in 1928, of the Danish ship Teddy in 1924, and of several sealers at different times. Many sailors owed their lives to this little ship, which was owned by the Schjelderup family and for most years captained by Ludolf Schjelderup, who gained international fame as an expert ice pilot. On one occasion, 1936–37, the vessel overwintered at Loch Fyne in northeast Greenland. In April 1940, when the Germans invaded Norway, Quest was sealing off Newfoundland. Allied naval forces took possession of her and she was used in various capacities in Canada, Bermuda, and UK coastal waters for the rest of the war. After the war, she once again returned to the sealing business under Norwegian ownership until finally coming to grief in the ice just north of Newfoundland and sinking on 5 May 1962.
Diversity and abundance of soil algae in the polar desert, Sverdrup Pass, central Ellesmere Island
Authors: Elster Josef , Lukesová Alena , Svoboda Josef , Kopecky Jirí , Kanda Hiroshi
Published: October 2009

Cyanobacteria and eukaryotic algae were investigated during three seasons in 18 plots established across Sverdrup Pass valley of central Ellesmere Island, 79°N, Canada. The sites differed in altitude, substratum, and other characteristics. A high species diversity totalled 136 taxa. Cyanobacteria accounted for 52 and eukaryotic algae 84 species. In both groups, numerous species did not correspond to any taxa described. However, high diversity did not always coincide with high algal abundance or biomass. On older and stable landscapes, visible crusts developed, containing mostly cyanobacteria, fungi, and other microbial components. Considerable variation in algal diversity and abundance was found among the sites. Also the southern, granitic portion of the pass was richer in green algae compared to its northern, dolomitic portion where motile cyanobacteria were more prominent. These micro-autotrophs occupied the soil profile to a depth of 7 cm. Their highest density was not at the surface but at 3–4 cm depth. One plot was contaminated by windblown copper-rich dust from a nearby outcrop and soil here was poorest in content of photosynthetic pigments, suggesting a local heavy-metal toxicity.
The Northern Sea Route, 1998
Authors: Brigham Lawson W.
Published: October 2009

By any measure, 1998 was a year of conflicting domestic and international interests regarding Russia's Northern Sea Route (NSR). The European Union sponsored an international demonstration project using a Finnish tanker during an April and May voyage to the Kara Sea. Russian icebreakers escorted the tanker, which carried a cargo of gas condensate from the Ob estuary to Europe. The International NSR Programme (INSROP) continued during a fifth year of interdisciplinary research concentrating on the integration of previous results and NSR voyage simulations. Lukoil and Gazprom forged ahead with building their own tanker fleets, while advertisements appeared in the Russian press protesting the use of foreign carriers in the Russian Arctic. In November Lukoil-affiliate companies acquired more than 50% interest in Murmansk Shipping Company, making Lukoil owner of 13% of the Russian merchant marine. Difficult escort operations through heavy ice were conducted late in the year so that Pevek would be supplied with adequate fuel to survive the coming winter.
Biological activity on a decaying caribou antler at Cape Herschel, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, high Arctic Canada
Authors: Sutcliffe Antony J. , Blake Weston
Published: October 2009

In the polar desert of the high Arctic, underlain by continuous permafrost and commonly snow-covered for much of the year, the paucity of plant growth might seem unsurprising. Although low temperatures and lack of moisture exert a strong influence on plant life and can greatly diminish the rate at which plants can grow, these are nevertheless not the only factors involved. Lack of mineral nutrients, in an environment where chemical weathering is inhibited, may play an even greater part. In consequence, where nutrient-rich decaying animal bones are present, it is not uncommon to find growing upon them a luxuriant vegetation of mosses and vascular plants, together with less spectacular algae and lichens, which show up in striking contrast to the barren ground around them. These microhabitats, in turn, carry their own fauna of invertebrates. This paper examines, in detail, one such specimen and its flora and fauna — a 2000-year-old shed caribou antler from the ground surface at Cape Herschel, Ellesmere Island, 78°N.
Winter navigation in the Northern Sea Route using RADARSAT data
Authors: Alexandrov Vitali Yu. , Sandven Stein , Johannessen Ola M. , Pettersson Lasse H. , Dalen Øyvind
Published: October 2009

The results are presented of the first winter ice navigation demonstration, using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images from the Canadian satellite RADARSAT, onboard the nuclear icebreaker Sovetskiy Soyuz in the Kara Sea region in April–May 1998. While ERS SAR data only could cover part of the sea ice in this large area, the demonstration showed that RADARSAT ScanSAR images with 100 m pixel size could be used to map all relevant ice areas with a few 500 × 500 km scenes. SAR images transferred onboard icebreakers in near real time offer an excellent possibility to select optimal sailing routes in difficult ice conditions such as those that were encountered by this expedition. SAR images were also used for planning of operations prior to the expedition. This study compares sub-satellite sea-ice observations with RADARSAT SAR as well as Okean side-looking radar (SLR) signatures of the major ice types and features found in the Kara Sea during winter. Wide-swath SAR images will become available from several new satellites in the near future, such as Envisat, scheduled in 2001, and RADARSAT-2, in 2002. Satellite SAR images will therefore play an increasingly important role in operational ice monitoring both in the Northern Sea Route and in other ice areas.
Harpoon guns, the lost Greenland settlement, and penal colonies: George Manby's Arctic obsessions
Authors: Barr William
Published: October 2009

George William Manby (1766–1854) was an English inventor best known for his idea of firing a line from shore to a wrecked ship so that the crew might be saved by means of a breeches-buoy. Around 1819 he turned his attention to new typesof whaling harpoons, bothahand harpoon andagun harpoon. In 1821 he went on a voyage to the Greenland whaling grounds on boardBaffin, Captain William Scoresby Jr, with the aim of trying out his inventions, but the experiments were foiled by the reluctance of the crew to cooperate. As a result of that voyage, Manby espoused three ideas that he pursued obsessively for the rest of his life: that there might still be Norse survivors in the so-called ‘Lost Colony’ in East Greenland; that Britain should claim the area of East Greenland north of the area claimed by Denmark; and that this area should be developed as a penal colony.
Contributions of traditional knowledge to understanding climate change in the Canadian Arctic
Authors: Riedlinger Dyanna , Berkes Fikret
Published: October 2009

Despite much scientific research, a considerable amount of uncertainty exists concerning the rate and extent of climate change in the Arctic, and how change will affect regional climatic processes and northern ecosystems. Can an expanded scope of knowledge and inquiry augment understandings of climate change in the north? The extensive use of the land and the coastal ocean in Inuit communities provides a unique source of local environmental expertise that is guided by generations of experience. Environmental change associated with variations in weather and climate has not gone unnoticed by communities that are experiencing change firsthand. Little research has been done to explore the contributions of traditional knowledge to climate-change research. Based in part on a collaborative research project in Sachs Harbour, western Canadian Arctic, this paper discusses five areas in which traditional knowledge may complement scientific approaches to understanding climate change in the Canadian Arctic. These are the use of traditional knowledge as local-scale expertise; as a source of climate history and baseline data; in formulating research questions and hypotheses; as insight into impacts and adaptation in Arctic communities; and for long-term, communitybased monitoring. These five areas of potential convergence provide a conceptual framework for bridging the gap between traditional knowledge and western science, in the context of climate-change research.
Wilderness and aesthetic values in the Antarctic
Authors: Codling Rosamunde
Published: October 2009

In Article 3 of the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties committed themselves to ‘the protection of the Antarctic environment…and the intrinsic value of Antarctica, including its wilderness and aesthetic values.’ The phraseology of the Protocol requires clarification. ‘Wilderness and aesthetic values’ links two disparate concepts, best handled by separation. Annex V, Article 3, of the Protocol covers many topics, and their assessment must be by a composite of frameworks specifically designed for the different purposes set out in the Annex.

A working definition of wilderness in the Antarctic is suggested: ‘Any part of the Antarctic in which neither permanent habitation nor any other permanent evidence of present or past human presence is visible.’ Using this, a very high proportion of the continent will be recognised as having wilderness status. The phrase ‘aesthetic values’ should be seen as part of a wider process—Landscape Character Assessment—that is at present unknown to most in the Antarctic community. It is based on the principle of objective description and classification of landscape character. This basic characterisation can then be put to different uses, one of which may be to make more subjective judgements or evaluations that lead to area designations.
A high temporal resolution data set of ERS scatterometer radar backscatter for research in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions
Authors: Sheng Yongwei , Smith Laurence C. , Frey Karen E. , Alsdorf Douglas E.
Published: October 2009

Radar backscatter in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions is temporally dynamic and reflects changes in sea ice, glacier facies, soil thaw state, vegetation cover, and moisture content. Wind scatterometers on the ERS-1 and ERS-2 satellites have amassed a global archive of C-band radar backscatter data since 1991. This paper derives three high temporal resolution data products from this archive that are designed to facilitate scatterometer research in high-latitude environments. Radar backscatter data have a grid spacing of 25 km and are mapped northwards from 60°N latitude over intervals of one, three, and seven days for the period 1991–2000. Data are corrected to a normalized incident angle of 40°. Animations and full-resolution data products are freely available for scientific use at http://merced.gis.ucla.edu/scatterometer/index.htm.
The contributions of Karl Ernst von Baer to the investigation of the physical geography of the Arctic in the 1830s–40s
Authors: Tammiksaar Erki
Published: October 2009

Although more widely known as the founder of modern embryology, Karl Ernst von Baer played a special role in the investigation of the physical geography of the Russian Empire in the nineteenth century. Baer not only conducted his own scientific research in the Arctic, he was also a key supporter and organiser of other Russian expeditions to the far north. Baer carried out the first investigations of the physical geography, flora, and fauna of Novaya Zemlya, and it was due to his work that the first precise data on the climate of the Russian Arctic appeared in the scientific literature in Europe. He can also be considered the founder of geocryology, as he not only wrote the first theoretical survey on Siberian permafrost, but was the initiator and organiser of the first expedition, under the leadership of Alexander Theodor von Middendorff, that was launched with the task of studying that phenomenon in Siberia. Baer was instrumental in the restoration of the tradition of Russian Arctic exploration, which had died out at the end of the eighteenth century; it was at his initiative that the Russian Geographical Society — which later became the leader in Russian Arctic exploration — was founded in 1845.
Genetic variation inArmeria maritimain Iceland
Authors: Philipp Marianne
Published: October 2009

A comparison of the population genetic structureof Armeria maritimain Iceland with an earlier study in Denmark was undertaken. Ten populations were sampled in Iceland for isozyme analysis. Most populations showed Hardy-Weinberg proportions, but a higher number than statistically expected possessed too many homozygotes. This could indicate a breakdown of the self-incompatibility system in some cases. Statistically significant differences in allelic frequencies among populations were observed but no positive correlation between genetic distance and geographic position was found. Gene diversity in Iceland was lower than in Denmark although the alleles occurring in Iceland were the same as those found in Denmark. Missing alleles were those found with lowest frequency in Denmark. It is suggested thatA. maritimain Iceland has immigrated from the southern part of the distribution post-glacially, leaving behind the rare alleles.
Defibration of wood in the expedition huts of Antarctica: an unusual deterioration process occurring in the polar environment
Authors: Blanchette Robert A. , Held Benjamin W. , Farrell Roberta L.
Published: October 2009

Significant deterioration to the historic expedition huts of the Ross Sea region of Antarctica has occurred during the past decades from exposure to the polar environment. One type of deterioration that has affected all of the huts is a chemical attack resulting in a defibration of wood. Wood surfaces have a rough, fuzzy appearance and consist of white to yellow-brown masses of detached fibers. The damage is commonly associated with areas where water with dissolved salts is absorbed by wood. As moisture evaporates from the wood surface, exceedingly high concentrations of salt accumulate. Chemical reactions within the wood cause a corrosive degradation on the middle lamella region of the woody cell wall (the area located between cells that cements them together) and may gradually degrade all cell-wall layers. As the deterioration progresses, cells continue to separate and the wood is converted into masses of detached and eroded wood fibers. In advanced stages of attack, the wood structure and integrity is severely compromised. This paper describes the defibration process, reports locations on Ross Island where the damage is severe, and discusses methods to control the problem. Successful preservation of these important historic structures and cultural objects depends on a more complete understanding of the unique deterioration processes underway and on implementation of effective strategies to conserve the huts.
Antarctic fisheries
Authors: Everson Inigo
Published: October 2009

During recent years there has been a steady increase in the total world fish catch (including shellfish) to a plateau, reached in the early 1970's, of around 70 million tonnes. Although much of the increase in the past decade has been due to the Anchoveta fishery, if that component is excluded the underlying trend is still upward (Gulland, 1976). This increasing pressure on the established fishery resources has meant that in recent years there has been a tendency for those nations with a distant water fishing capability to look further afield. Although much of this exploratory fishing has been in areas reasonably close to good harbour facilities, the recent trend by coastal states of establishing 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zones has meant that the Southern Ocean, an area of limited international control, has receiveda great deal of attention.
The first South Georgia leases: Compañia Argentina de Pesca and the South Georgia Exploring Company Limited
Authors: Walton D. W. H.
Published: October 2009

South Georgia, at present governed as a Dependency of the Falkland Islands, has an interesting history of human activity extending back nearly two centuries. The sealers who visited the island in considerable numbers in the 18th and 19th centuries (Jones, 1973) almost certainly left gangs of men on the island for considerable periods, but not until the 20th century were permanent settlements established there. Published accounts of the initial stages of this colonisation (Matthews, 1931; Christie, 1951) contain various important errors, and give only the simplest outline of an interesting political problem. A more accurate account of some of these events has recently been published (Tonnessen and Johnsen, 1982). Material preserved in the Falkland Islands Government's (FIG) archives at Port Stanley has allowed a detailed account to be built up of this important period of South Georgia's history.
Robert Stein's expedition to Ellesmere Island 1899–1901
Authors: Barr William
Published: October 2009

In the present era of instantaneous telecommunications it is scarcely conceivable that two major exploring or scientific expeditions could be planning simultaneously to operate in a particular area of the Arctic (or indeed anywhere on earth) in complete ignorance of each other's intentions until each arrived in the field. At the turn of the century, however, this was indeed possible, and did in fact happen in the case of a little-known expedition to Ellesmere Island, led by Dr Robert Stein, which found itself completely eclipsed by the much better equipped and funded expedition of Otto Sverdrup in Fram.
Health and disease among the Lapps
Authors: Haraldson Sixten R. S.
Published: October 2009

This article is based on studies of existing, rather limited, reports on health and disease among the Lapp population, and on my personal experience during 16 years of ‘front-line’ health work (1945–61) in northernmost Sweden. My work in Jukkasjärvi, Norrbotten county, some 300 km north of the Arctic Circle in the heartland of the Lapp world, provided daily contacts with Lapps and their problems; extensive travel and official field visits to camps and settlements helped to give me detailed knowledge of social and health conditions among the Lapp population.
Reindeer dairying in the Soviet Union
Authors: Fondahl Gail
Published: October 2009

Reindeer milk is used by native peoples throughout the Soviet North. This article describes how different groups use, or have in the past used, the milk in raw and processed form. After summarizing the properties of reindeer milk, it outlines a neglected chapter in the history of domesticated animals: the attempt in the 1930s to set up a commercial reindeer dairy industry in the USSR. Lastly, it analyzes the decline of reindeer milking among peoples of the Soviet north in this century.
Antarctica at the UN 1988: seeking a bridge of understanding
Authors: Beck Peter J.
Published: October 2009

The struggle between Antarctic Treaty Parties and their UN critics regarding the management of Antarctica was resumed in November 1988 when, for the sixth successive year, the United Nations discussed the 'Question of Antarctica'. This year the UN adopted two further resolutions reaffirming demands of 1987 for wider participation in the minerals negotiations, the involvement of the UN Secretary-General in Antarctic Treaty System operations, and the exclusion of South Africa from treaty meetings. The Treaty Parties seem unlikely to heed these resolutions. Reforms within the Treaty System are the most likely means of progress for the critics, althoough Australia's critique of the Minerals Convention has introduced an element of uncertainty.
Mules of the British Antarctic Expedition 1910–13
Authors: Harrowfield D. L.
Published: October 2009

Horses were first used in Antarctica when eight Manchurian ponies provided support for Shackleton's British Antarctic Expedition (1907–09). Scott's British Antarctic ‘Terra Nova’ Expedition (1910–13) used 17 ponies during its first year, and seven Indian mules in the following season. This paper presents new information on the mules, which suffered severely from the effects of an unbalanced diet and low temperatures. They were the last horses ever used to support an Antarctic expedition. In January 1989 when the stables of Scott's hut at Cape Evans were reclad and cleared of ice by a working party from the Antarctic Heritage Trust (New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme), artefacts relating to their occupancy by Manchurian ponies and Indian mules were located.
Monitoring shipborne visitors in Antarctica: a preliminary field study
Authors: Stonehouse Bernard
Published: October 2009

During every austral summer since the International Geophysical Year 1957–58 several thousand scientists and support staff have worked in Antarctica. A more recent development is the annual advent of 4000–5000 tourists, who now probably outnumber expedition members in the area covered by the Antarctic Treaty System. Most tourists come by ship, visiting coastal areas of the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Orkney and South Shetland islands that arc readily accessible beween November and March: smaller numbers visit the Ross Dependency and Adelie Land sectors. This article reviews Antarctic Treaty and International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) attitudes to tourism, and outlines a preliminary study of shipborne tourism between late December 1991 and March 1992 on Half Moon Island, South Shetland Islands. Within one month (January) a survey team from the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, recorded 14 visits by six tour ships, bringing more than 2000 tourists. In addition, attitudes and expectations of visitors were studied on five ships. Arising from this study, a programme of visitor monitoring is planned as a joint project between British, Chilean, and Argentine scientific institutions during the next five years. Objectives are to find ways of minimizing both short-term and long-term impacts of tourists and other visitors on breeding birds and other ecological communities, and to provide a factual basis for regulation under the Antarctic Treaty System.
Pesticide residues in the sediments from the lakes of Schirmacher Oasis, Antarctica
Authors: Sarkar A. , Singbal S.Y.S. , Fondekar S.P.
Published: October 2009

Concentration levels of various organochlorine pesticides and their derivatives — namely, hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCH) and the DDT compounds pp'-DDT, op'-DDT, pp'-DDE, op'-DDE, pp'-DDD, and op'-DDD — were determined in the sediments from eight different lakes of the Schirmacher Oasis, near Dakshin Gangotri, the Indian station (70° 45'S, 11° 44'E) during the Sixth Indian scientific expedition to Antarctica (December 1986 to February 1987). Concentration levels of HCHs (α, β, γ)and t-DDT (pp'-DDT + op'-DDT + pp'-DDE + op'-DDE + pp'-DDD + op'-DDD) in sediments of these lakes were found to be in the ranges of 37.7–155 pg/gand 512.9–1131 pg/g, respectively. Among the isomers of HCH, gamma-HCH was most prominent, followed by alpha-HCH, whereas in the case of metabolites of DDT and its isomers, pp'-DDT was found to be dominant over others. However, all the other compounds of the DDT family were present in considerable amounts in all the lakes. There was no significant change in the monthly variation of the concentration levels of HCHs and DDTs in the lakes.
Spying on the Russians: Archibald Douglas and HMS Egeria at Petropavlovsk, 1877–1878
Authors: Stone Ian R.
Published: October 2009

The period 1877–1878 was one of tension between Britain and Russia caused by the Russo-Turkish War and the consequent threat to the route to India. The Royal Navy was deployed to deter the Russians in seas adjacent to the Balkans, but also undertook intelligence gathering missions further afield. Two of these were to Petropavlovsk in sub-Arctic Kamchatka and were undertaken by Commander A.L. Douglas in HMS Egeria. The British, with their French allies, had sustained a serious defeat there during the Crimean War and wished to ascertain the state of Russian defences should there be fresh hostilities. In the event, Douglas discovered that the Russians had abandoned Petropavlovsk as a fortified post and that there was no garrison. His reports were, therefore, negative, but included interesting information concerning Petropavlovsk in this era.
Willard Wentzel's account of the Mackenzie River
Authors: Riffenburgh Beau , Holland Clive , Davis Richard
Published: October 2009

Following his return from participating in John Franklin's first overland expedition (1819–1822), Willard Wentzel, a clerk for the North West Company, produced a map of the Mackenzie River and a brief account of its geography, native peoples, and history and significance as it related to the North West Company. This map and the account, which is one of the few early descriptions of the Mackenzie River area, are held in the Royal Commonwealth Society Papers at the University of Cambridge. They have not previously been published.
Acquisition of consultative status under the Antarctic Treaty
Authors: Pannatier Serge
Published: October 2009

Under the regime established by the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, decision-making remains exclusively with the limited number of states that are entitled to appoint representatives to participate in Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings. Whereas the 12 original signatory states have a permanent right to attend these meetings, acceding states may gain consultative status only during the time they carry out substantial scientific research in the Antarctic. This paper addresses three issues: the first relates to the problems arising out of the ‘admission procedure’ adopted by the original signatory states when faced with the first application of an acceding state to become an Antarctic Treaty Consultative Party, a procedure that has been applied ever since to similar cases. The second looks at the forms of scientific research activities an acceding party ought to conduct in Antarctica in order to meet the requirements laid down in the Antarctic Treaty. The third deals more generally with the issue of limited participation in the Antarctic Treaty decision-making process, which has come under severe criticism from non-Consultative Parties and states that have not acceded to the Treaty.
Heroic age geology in Victoria Land, Antarctica
Authors: Tingey Robert J.
Published: October 2009

In the heroic age of Antarctic exploration—the first 15 or so years of this century (Hayes 1932)—scientific investigations took second place, at least in the public eye, to geographical exploration and its offshoot, the race to the South Pole. Nevertheless important geological discoveries were made and the basic framework of Antarctic geology was mapped out. This article describes briefly the geological work and the geologists of the expeditions that explored Victoria Land between 1900 and 1912, with a note on the significance of the geological specimens found with the bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers in 1912.
British Antarctic Policy in the Early 20th Century
Authors: Beck Peter J.
Published: October 2009

World War I has often been said to mark the end of the ‘Age of Imperialism’—the close of ‘that final surge of land hunger’ (Landes 1969) from 1880 to 1914 when much of the world's land surface, especially in Africa and the Pacific, was acquired by the major powers. Britain's large share was demonstrated by the predominance of red on pre-1914 maps, though in fact the British Empire achieved its greatest areaafter1918; ‘… including India’, reported the 1920Colonial Office List, ‘the Empire now extends over 11 million of square miles, or 91 times the area of the Mother Country’ (Mercer 1920). This study examines one specific part of British imperial policy in the immediate post-war years—one which, had it been fully implemented, would have increased the area by a further 40 per cent. In the view of L. S. Amery, Under-Secretary of State at the Colonial Office and one of Britain's leading politicians of the time, it was desirable that:

… the whole of the Antarctic should ultimately be included within the British Empire, and that, while the time has not yet arrived that a claim to all the continental territories should be put forward publicly, a definite and consistent policy should be followed of extending and asserting British control with the object of ultimately making it complete.
The FRAM expeditions: Arctic Ocean studies from floating ice, 1979–82
Authors: Johnson Leonard
Published: October 2009

In May 1982, with the successful conclusion of FRAM IV, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) completed the FRAM series of observations from ice floe stations in the eastern Arctic (Fig 1)—expeditions initiated each spring from 1979 to 1982. The programme developed from an unsuccessful attempt by the Arctic Programme of the ONR to duplicate Fridtjof Nansen's drift of the FRAM across the Arctic. This was to have involved freezing the icebreaker USCGCBurton Islandin the pack ice of the Laptev Sea, but the programme was cancelled due to lack of support. Arctic scientists meeting at the Third Symposium on Antarctic Geology and Geophysics at Madison, Wisconsin, decided on an alternative programme involving ice floe stations. Named FRAM in honour of Nansen's vessel (Hunkins and others 1979a; Kristoffersen 1979), this was eventually organized by the Arctic Programme of ONR to provide basic environmental data from the eastern Arctic north of Greenland. From its inception FRAM emphasized multi-disciplinary research by scientists of several nations. The stations were under US management, with logistics coordinated by the Polar Research Center, University of Washington, under ONR contract. Danish scientists were involved through the Commission for Scientific Research in Greenland, Norwegians through the Norsk Polarinstitutt, British scientists through the Scott Polar Research Institute, and Canadians through the Bedford Institute of Oceanography. Each expedition emphasized a particular scientific discipline with supporting programmes: below are listed the dates, major studies (priority discipline first), chief scientists and key data reports of each.
Greenland: a country in transition
Authors: Høyem Tom
Published: October 2009

On 4 August 1948, in Godthåb/Nuuk, Greenland, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Denmark's modern Arctic policy was founded. The political initiator was Hans Hedtoft, the Danish Prime Minister. The centre of Denmark's Arctic policy is Greenland, but our policy is not a Greenland policy only. Arctic policies are about people and nature, about resources and security, about high technology and traditional Arctic patterns of life. In a high degree they are a matter of cooperation between the local population and the state authorities. All these elements were present when the Danish Prime Minister presented his modern Arctic policy in August 1948.
Humpback whalesMegaptera novaeangliaeand southern right whalesEubalaena australisin Gerlache Strait, Antarctica
Authors: Stone Gregory S. , Hamner William M.
Published: October 2009

During surveys conducted 2–20 April 1986 in Gerlache Strait, Antarctic Peninsula, 103 humpback whalesMegaptera novaeangliaeand eight right whalesEubalaena australiswere sighted. The right whale sightings extend the southern limit of known distribution for the species. Humpback and right whale densities were respectively 0.22 (sd 0.23) and 0.01 (sd 0.06) whales per survey mile. Highest densities for both species were recorded inside bays, rather than in the relatively open water of Gerlache Strait. Both species were feeding on Antarctic krillEuphausia superba. Twenty-three humpback and four right whales were identified individually using photographs of natural features. Also included are sighting records of 18 southern bottlenose whalesHyperoodon planifrons.
Limnology of Priyadarshani Lake, Schirmacher Oasis, Antarctica
Authors: Ingole B. S. , Parulekar A. H.
Published: October 2009

Priyadarshani, an oligotrophic lake in Schirmacher Oasis (Antarctica), was surveyed during the austral summers of 1984–85 and 1986–87 in limnological and benthic studies. Benthic microfauna included seven taxonomic groups, dominated numerically by protozoa, rotifera, nematoda, turbellaria, tardigrada, oligochaeta and mites. Faunal density was high in moss-associated sediments. A maximum water depth of 6.5 m was recorded at the centre of the lake. A thick layer (25–90 cm) of moss and algal communities covered the bottom sediments. The total volume of water was estimated to be 62 million m3 over the submerged area of 0·297 km2.
Hobart, Tasmania: Antarctic and Southern Ocean connections
Authors: Kriwoken Lorne K. , Williamson John W.
Published: October 2009

abstract

This paper describes the historical and contemporary associations between Hobart (Tasmania, Australia) and Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. This association is traced from the sealing and whaling industry, through early exploration and scientific expeditions, to contemporary issues of institutional and educational development and tourism. I is argued that this polar link has placed Hobart at the centre of some important Antarctic and Southern Ocean developments.
Environmental impact assessment in Antarctica under the Protocol on Environmental Protection
Authors: Lyons David
Published: October 2009

The background to the development and implementation of environmental impact assessment procedures in Antarctica is reviewed and the principles and procedures of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (the Madrid Protocol of 1991) are outlined. The difficulties in determining the appropriate level of assessment and the practical, operational aspects of carrying out the evaluations are examined. Particular attention is given to the meaning of terminology in the Protocol, the interpretation of environmental principles and standards, alternatives to the proposed activity, the requirements for sufficient information, the process of obtaining and taking into account public comment, the monitoring of environmental indicators, and the practical implications where an activity needs to be suspended, cancelled, or modified. The workloads generated by the procedures and the credibility of the processes are discussed in view of a possible perception that the exercises may amount to little more than ‘red tape’ to justify decisions that would be taken in any case. Recommendations are made that could improve the EIA process in Antarctica.
The first transit of the Northwest Passage by Russian icebreaker
Authors: Splettstoesser John , Splettstoesser Beezie Drake
Published: October 2009

In a voyage beginning 24 July in Ulsan, South Korea, and ending i n St Petersburg, Russia, on 21 September 1992, the icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov successfully completed an unassisted transit of the Northwest Passage, from Bering Strait to the North Atlantic Ocean. The ship was chartered jointly by Polar Schiffahrts-Consulting, Hamburg, Germany; Blyth and Company Travel, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and D.G. Wells Marine Ltd, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was marketed for tourists, some of whom traveled the entire distance of 14,120 nautical miles [26,150 km]. Khlebnikov was the fifty-third vessel to complete the Northwest Passage since Roald Amundsen first accomplished it in 1906 (Pullen and Swithinbank 1991, and confirmed by the office of Coast Guard Northern, Ottawa, Canada).
The career and disappearance of Hans K.E. Krüger, Arctic geologist, 1886–1930
Authors: Barr William
Published: October 2009

On 19 March 1930 the German geologist, Hans K.E. Krüger, accompanied by a Dane, Åge Rose Bjare, and an Inughuk, Akqioq (the latter driving their dog sledge) set off westwards from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police post at Bache Peninsula, Ellesmere Island; two support sledges, driven by Inughuit, escorted them. It appears to have been Krüger's intention to study the geology of the coasts of the outer islands of the Canadian Arctic archipelago and to carry out soundings of the continental shelf and slope. The two support sledges turned back at Depot Point, Eureka Sound. Krüger, Bjare, and Akqioq were never seen again. This article reviews Krüger's background, his preparations for the expedition (which included two summers of field work in West Greenland and a wintering in northwest Greenland), and the extensive searches mounted by the RCMP in 1931 and 1932. Finally, it analyzes the evidence provided by three messages left by Krüger and subsequently recovered, with a view to making an educated guess as to the fate of the expedition.
A simple visual technique for estimating the impact of fieldwork on the terrestrial environment in ice-free areas of Antarctica
Authors: Campbell I. B. , Balks M. R. , Claridge G. G. C.
Published: October 2009

A set of simple criteria for visual assessment of the effects of low-intensity fieldwork in ice-free areas of Antarctica was developed. These criteria were tested by using them to examine the impact of soil science investigations, both immediately and some time after disturbance, at Marble Point and at Cape Evans, on the shores of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. The use of these criteria showed that for some types of impacts there had been a marked recovery of the surface with time, ranging from 22 months to 30 years. This was apparently due to repeated freeze and thaw of the soil surface and, to a lesser extent, to the influence of wind, which had partly or completely obliterated some of the earlier disturbances. More durable features remained, while deeper surface impressions, such as old soil inspection pits and vehicle tracks, showed little recovery after more than 30 years. Some biological colonisation of areas disturbed 30 years previously was occurring.
Measured properties of the Antarctic ice sheet derived from the SCAR Antarctic digital database
Authors: Fox Adrian J. , Paul A. , Cooper R.
Published: October 2009

The completion of the SCAR Antarctic digital database (ADD) has provided a new basis for statistical calculations for Antarctica: data-sets are available at the scale of the original source material, and generalised to 1:1,000,000, 1:3,000,000, 1:10,000,000, and 1:30,000,000. The new descriptive statistics presented are based on the ADD 1:1,000,000 data-set since this is the largest scale at which source maps provided complete cover of the coastline and ice-free areas. The statistics include the total length and proportions of coastline types and the total area of Antarctica with the proportions of its constituent feature types. The areas of the Ross and Filchner-Ronne ice shelves have also been computed. Whilst the total area of Antarctica has remained static compared with previous studies, the relative proportions of coastline types and constituent feature types within the total area show significant changes. In particular the calculated area of ice-free ground is only approximately one-seventh of that often quoted from previous studies. The changes reported result from improved mapping, reinterpretation of data, and actual changes of coastline.
Airdrops and king penguins: a potential conservation problem at sub-Antarctic Marion Island
Authors: Cooper John , Avenant Nico L. , Lafite Peter W.
Published: October 2009

Evidence for the disturbance of king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) and other seabirds at sub-Antarctic islands by fixed-wing aircraft making airdrops is reviewed. Based on direct observations of panicking birds at king penguin colonies at Marion Island as Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft flew past, it is postulated that the incident at Macquarie Island in 1990 when many king penguins were found dead shortly after a flypast was most likely caused by panic induced by the aircraft's passage. Visits by fixed-wing aircraft to sub-Antarctic islands should be kept to a minimum and no airstrips should be built on them. Specific recommendations are given for fixed-wing aircraft visits to Marion Island, in order to reduce disturbance to king penguins and other seabirds to the absolute minimum. These recommendations should be adopted at all sub-Antarctic islands.
Standardisation of zones within specially protected and managed areas under the Antarctic Environmental Protocol
Authors: Harris Colin M.
Published: October 2009

A number of countries are revising management plans for protected areas in Antarctica so that they comply with Annex V to the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty. Annex V allows for ‘identification of zones…in which activities are to be prohibited, restricted or managed.’ A wide range of terms are, and could be, used to meet site-specific zoning needs. If allowed to develop in an ad hoc way, a confusing and inconsistent set of zones would be likely to evolve. This could be avoided by a coordinated and pro-active approach to identifying the zones needed. Based on field observations and examination of current and proposed management plans, a simple, standardised model of five types of zone is proposed: Restricted, Scientific, Tourist, Facilities, and Historic. Their application, where needed, would meet the full range of management needs within specially protected and managed areas in Antarctica.