• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• 제24권3호
• /
• pp.227-236
• /
• 2002

For ten firn cores, from both the eastern and the western side of Lambert Glacier basin (LGB), snow accumulation rate and isotopic temperature were measured far the recent 50 years. Results show that snow accumulation for five cores over the eastern side of LGB (GC30, GD03, GD15, DT001, and DT085) at Wilks Land and Princess Elizabeth Land increases, whereas it decreases at the western side (Core E, DML05, W200, LGB 16, and MGA) at Dronning Maud Land, Mizuho Plateau and Kamp Land. For the past decades, the increasing rate was $0.34-2.36kg\;m^{-2}a^{-1}$ at the eastern side and the decreasing rate was $-0.01\;-\;-2.36kg\;m^{-2}\;a^{-1}$ at the western side. Temperatures at the eastern LGB were also increased with the rate of $0.02%o\;a^{-l}$. At the western LGB it was difficult to see clear trends, which were confirmed by Instrumental temperature records at coastal stations. Although statistic analysis and modeling results display that both surface temperature and accumulation rate has increased trends in Antarctic ice sheet during 1950-2000, the regional distributions were much more different for different geographic areas. We believe that ice-core records at Wilks Land and Princess Elizabeth Land reflect the real variations of SST and moisture change in the southern India Ocean. For the Kamp Land and Dronning Maud Land, however circulation pattern was different, by which the climate was more complicated. The International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE) aimed to reveal an overall spatial pattern of climate change over Antarctic ice sheet for the past 200 years. This study points the importance of continental to regional circulation to annual-decadal scale climate change in Antarctica.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• 제28권2호
• /
• pp.163-173
• /
• 2006

The so called Antarctic Treaty System, started from the Antarctic Treaty in 1959, has gradually been enlarged into the concept of an international environmental regime, which has been included in not a few international institutions, treaties, conventions, and international non-governmental organizations (INGO). This kind of movement, as in the role of an international environmental regime, has recently been highlighted in the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty. This Protocol is taking appropriate measures as an international environmental regime in regulating its member nations by enforcing principles in protecting Antarctic resources and environment, regulating member nations' Antarctic activities, establishing norms in the adoption of international and domestic laws, and devising regulations for deciding administrative actions through the member nations' collective decision-making procedures. h this context, this paper is to test a few questions; firstly, how the Antarctic Treaty System can be related with the role of international environmental regime; secondly, how the theories of international environmental regime, such as the hegemony theory, rational choice theory, and international morality theory, can be tested in the role of Antarctic Treaty System as an international environmental regime. Finally, this paper provides a solution for the future problems of the Antarctic Treaty System as an international environmental regime regarding the regime's principle (conflict between the environmental principle and the right of nation-state), norms and regulations (the conflict between the developed and underdeveloped nations in terms of the concept of 'common but differentiated environmental responsibility'), cooperation directions (the leadership problems between hegemonic nation and multilateral leading groups), and management methods (cooperation and arrangement problems among expert institutions, observer groups, and INGO).

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
• /
• 제36권4호
• /
• pp.396-399
• /
• 2020

The Antarctic freshwater copepod, Boeckella poppei (Mrazek, 1901), has the widest range of distribution extending from southern South America to Antarctic continent, among all Boeckella species. Boeckella poppei is the only freshwater copepod known to be inhabiting the Antarctic continent. In present study, we analyzed the DNA barcodes of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene of B. poppei from King George Island, Antarctica. The intraspecific genetic distances varied from 0% to 13% and interspecific genetic distances ranged from 11% to 14%. The overlap of DNA barcode gap suggests careful threshold-based delimitation of species boundaries.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• 제22권7호
• /
• pp.902-906
• /
• 2012

Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from the Antarctic green algae Pyramimonas gelidicola were analyzed to obtain molecular information on cold acclimation of psychrophilic microorganisms. A total of 2,112 EST clones were sequenced, generating 222 contigs and 219 singletons, and 200 contigs and 391 singletons from control ($4^{\circ}C$) and cold-shock conditions ($-2^{\circ}C$), respectively. The complete EST sequences were deposited to the DDBJ EST database (http://www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp/index-e.html) and the nucleotide sequences reported in this study are available in the DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank. These EST databases of Antarctic green algae can be used in a wide range of studies on psychrophilic genes expressed by polar microorganisms.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• 제21권2호
• /
• pp.137-147
• /
• 1999

Penguins are one of the key constituent organisms in the Antarctic ecosystem. A total of 18 species of penguins occur only in the southern hemisphere from the Galapagos Archipelago to southern area off Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, South America, and the islands scattered in the Southern Ocean to the coast along the Antarctic Continent. In the Antarctic Treaty area, there are only 5 species of penguins such as Emperor (Aptenodytes forsteri), Gentoo (Pygoscelis papua ellsworthi), Adelie (P. adeliae), Chinstrap (p. antarctica), and Macaroni (Eudyptes chrysolophus) penguins. Two additional species, the King (Aptenodytes patagonicus patagonicus) and Rockhopper (Eudyptes chrysocome) penguins, however, are distributed within the Antarctic Convergence. In the vicinity of king Sejong Station located in King George Island, the South Shetland Islands off the Antarctic Peninsula, 5 species are observed, among which 2 Pygoscelis species such as the Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins hatch their eggs and raise their chicks at the rookery 2km south offing Sejong Station in summer. Adelie penguins hatch their chicks in other place in King George Island. One Emperor penguin roamed on the frozen Maxwell Bay which has been frozen every two or three years with the approximate thickness of 60cm. And one Macaroni penguin also visited the rookery in summer. We should carry out researches on the penguins occurring in the vicinity of King Sejong Station to monitor the environmental changes around King Sejong Station and the South Shetland Islands.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• 제23권4호
• /
• pp.401-410
• /
• 2001

Global climate change will alter many such properties of the Southern Ocean as temperature, circulation, stratification, and sea-ice extent. Such changes are likely to influence the species composition and activity of Antarctic marine microorganisms (protists and bacteria) which playa major role in deter-mining the concentration of atmospheric $CO_2$ and producing precursors of cloud condensation nuclei. Direct impacts of climate change on Antarctic marine microorganisms have been determined for very few species. Increasing water temperature would be expected to result in a southward spread of pelagic cyanobacteria, coccolithophorids and others. Growth rates of many species would be expected to increase slightly but nutrient limitation, especially micronutrients, is likely to result in a negligible increase in biomass. The extent of habitats would be reduced for those organisms presently living close to the upper limit of their thermal tolerance. Increased UVB irradiance is likely to favour the growth of those organisms tolerant of UVB and may change the trophic structure of marine communities. Indirect effects, especially those as a consequence of a diminution of the amount of sea-ice and increased upper ocean stratification, are predicted to lead to a change in species composition and impacts on both trophodynamics and vertical carbon flux.

• 한국수산과학회지
• /
• 제51권4호
• /
• pp.435-443
• /
• 2018

The Antarctic krill Euphausia superba is important commercially and ecologically as a basic component of the Antarctic Ocean ecosystem. To manage this resource, it is important to determine the distribution and standing of krill in the water layer. Acoustic methods can capture information about the entire water layer quickly. Acoustic surveys were conducted from March 3 to March 14, 2017, using the commercial fishing boat Sejong (7,765 tons). Acoustic systems with a frequency of 38 kHz and a 200 kHz commercial echo sounder (ES70, Simrad, Norway) were used and the acquired data were processed using post processing software. The density and standing of Antarctic krill were determined using the two-frequency difference method, using the characteristics of two frequencies. To compare the frequency difference of krill, the method using the frequency difference according to the krill length, recommended by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) and the values extracted according to the krill length at survey stations where only krill were collected during the study period, were compared. The frequency difference ranges were 3.96-5.91 dB and -3.0~13.8 dB, respectively.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• 제23권4호
• /
• pp.425-431
• /
• 2001

From an ecological point of view, the western part of the Atlantic sector is one of the most productive areas in the Southern Ocean. Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) and krill-dependent predators such as fish, seals, and birds are abundant there, and most krill fisheries have operated in this area since 1970s. The hottest issues for the proper management of krill resources nowadays are to determine total biomass in this area, and to identify environmental forces controlling stock fluctuation. This paper reviews and collates information on ongoing oceanographic activities in the Antarctic Peninsula region concerning these issues. To delineate the status and function of Antarctic krill population in Antarctic marine ecosystems, multinational researches along the Antarctic Peninsula area have been developing recently. Four member states of CCAMLR (Japan, Russia, UK, and USA) had conducted acoustic surveys in January-February 2000 (socalled CCAMLR-2000 survey), and krill standing stock at 120 kHz was estimated to be 44.29 million metric tonnes in the western Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. On the other hand, the Southern Ocean GLOBEC (SO-GLOBEC) Programme has prepared a serial winter survey to examine the factors that govern krill survivorship and distribution in relation to shelf circulation processes. Ship-based surveys using ice-breakers are being conducted by three nations (Germany, UK, and USA) around the Marguerite Bay during the austral fall and winter 2001 and 2002. In addition to these two large-scale surveys, some CCAMLR members have carried out joint oceanographic surveys near the South Shetland Islands to detect ecosystem changes since 1994. Especially from December 1999 to February 2000, in conjunction with CCAMLR-2000 survey, four nations (Japan, Korea, Peru, and USA) conducted acoustic surveys to produce time-series information on krill distribution and biomass near the South Shetland areas. Though the aims of each program and the approach to solve the scientific questions were different each other, the results from each program fill the gaps between programs. Further cooperation and exchange in these activities could be beneficial to each program.

• ALGAE
• /
• 제24권3호
• /
• pp.139-147
• /
• 2009

Microalgae using a submersible fluorescence probe in water column (up to 100 m) were measured during the austral summer of 2006 (February) in Prydz Bay, East Antarctica (triangular-shaped embayment in the Indian sector of Southern Ocean). Concurrently, environmental parameters such as temperature, salinity and nitrogen (nitrate, ammonium, urea) uptake rates were measured. The concentration of phytoplankton is relatively high due to availability of high nutrients and low sea surface temperature. Phytoplankton community is dominated by diatoms whereas cryptophytes are in low concentration. The maximum concentration of total chlorophyll is 14.87 ${\mu}g\;L^{-1}$ and is attributed to upwelled subsurface winter water due to local wind forcing, availability of micro-nutrients and increased attenuation of photosynthetically available radiation (PAR). Concentration of blue-green algae is low compared to that of green algae because of low temperature. Comparatively high concentration of yellow substances is due to the influence of Antarctic melt-water whereas cryptophytes are low due to high salinity and mixed water column. Varied concentrations of phytoplankton at different times of Fluoroprobe measurements suggest that the coastal waters of Prydz Bay are influenced by changing sub-surface water temperature and salinity due to subsurface upwelling induced by local winds as also melting/freezing processes in late summer. The productivity is high in coastal water due to the input of macro as well as micro-nutrients.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• 제18권6호
• /
• pp.1016-1023
• /
• 2008

Lichens are predominant and important components of flora in the terrestrial ecosystem of Antarctica. However, relatively few researches on the phylogenetic position of Antarctic lichen-forming fungi have been accomplished. In this study, partial sequences of nuclear large subunit rDNAs from 50 Antarctic specimens were obtained and the phylogeny was reconstructed. Antarctic lichen species were distributed in 4 orders, including the monophyletic order Agyrales, paraphyletic orders Pertusariales and Teloschistales, and polyphyletic order Lecanorales. Species diversity was highest in the order Lecanorales, followed by Teloschistales and Pertusariales. Based on the phylogeny and sequence similarity analyses, it is proposed that the taxonomy of Stereocaulon alpinum, Physcia caesia, Usnea aurantiacoatra, and Cladonia species should be revised by careful examination of their phenotypic and molecular characteristics. Six species known to be endemic to Antarctica, Catillaria corymbosa, Himantormia lugubris, Leptogium puberulum, Pertusaria pertusa, Rhizoplaca aspidophora, and Umbilicaria antarctica, formed unique lineages, implying independent origins in the Antarctic area.