Images to Display the Main Points So Far

By reading the human impacts on Antarctica, it can be difficult to picture what’s actually going on. In my blog, I have tried to make the posts as visual as I can, because this illustrates the extent of the issues I have discussed. Particularly because Antarctica is remote and relatively uninhabited, I have used maps to show where the places I talk about are.

Having said this, I feel like illustrations need their own post so today, I will be presenting a range of photographs that relate to the main issues I have mentioned so far: tourism, waste, entanglement and krill.

Figure 1.

Clean up operation of an abandoned landfill site at Thala Valley. The site was used from the 1960s to 1980s. An Australian research station dumped approximately 1,000 tonnes of soil here, which contains remains of used batteries and machinery. Source: Royal Society of Chemistry (2007)

Figure 2.

Freshly caught krill. Source: Australian government: Department of the Environment, Antarctic Division (2012)

Figure 3.

Researcher carefully taking a sample from a contaminated site. Source: Australian government: Department of the Environment, Antarctic Division (2012)

Figure 4.

Tourists enjoying the company of an Emperor penguin chick. Source: Wikipedia (2009)

Figure 5

Runner from the Antarctic Marathon smiling at a penguin. Source: B Positive Project (2013)

Figure 6.

Source: Peabody Essex Museum (2008)

Figure 7.

Diver among krill. Source: Sarano and Duran (2010) ‘Oceans:Official Companion to the Disney Feature Film’

Figure 8.

350 foreign officials attend an Annual Antarctic Treaty Conference in Uruguay in 2010. Main discussions included tourism, climate change and sovereignty. Source: Merco Press (2010)

Before I end this post, I'd like to recommend a couple of blogs and websites that have a good selection of photos that I would encourage my readers to take a look at. Firstly, Flickr's Antarctica page has a great range of pictures taken by tourist, and can be accessed by clicking here. Secondly, I came across a website called Wild Nature Images which has many photographs posted on their website, and can be accessed by clicking here. 

Wrap up of Research Stations

Since I've been looking at research stations recently, I'd like to post up this insightful three minute video which summarises why countries want to do research in Antarctica. It celebrates the success of the research being undertaken by the countries that have bases, mentioning research on penguins and even the use of research for physics!

Pause for Thought

Since I started this blog three months ago, I have covered a wide range of topics. Given this and the enormity of this subject, I thought that this post should summarise the main findings so far.

Here is a summary of the key points and conclusions:

• Different parts of Antarctica are being affected differently. It is easy to consider Antarctica as one unified system which is affected the same when things happen because the whole continent looks homogeneous. For example, “Larsen B has collapsed, quick! We have to find a way to stop the whole continent from melting!” In reality, ice sheets in Antarctica are complex to understand because they are affected by climate change, ocean circulations…etc. The Bipolar Sea-saw Pattern can help explain one part of the observed sea ice changes, however it is only a contributing factor out of many.
• Tourism is a recent phenomenon and as tourist numbers continue to increase, and they will do in the future, animals are being affected in different ways. But the extent that they are affected differs between species. Tourism also has indirect impacts which are just as damaging to the environment, for example oil spills.
• International organisations such as the UN try to create treaties to regulate Antarctica. I have analysed regulation in terms of tourism and found that there are flaws in them. In my view tougher restrictions are required if the environment is to remain unaltered by human actions. Furthermore, regulation can have negative and positive impacts on animals in Antarctica, for example, whaling bans, krill and penguins. It is unlikely that international organisations foresee these indirect food chain effects and this reduces the impact of regulation.
• Krill are immensely important in the Antarctic food chain but fishing activities may be jeopardising them. However, it is difficult to understand whether krill populations are reacting to fishing or natural changes in sea ice extent caused by La Niña. Because of this, separating natural impacts and human impacts is more complex than it seems. 
• Fishing is harmful for fur seals and other mammals because debris lost in the ocean creates entanglement.
• Regulation seems to be the only way that humans are trying to make amends. It seems that banning happens less often.

My Thoughts

Furthermore, I would like to use this as an opportunity to evaluate what I have posted so far, giving my thoughts on what I think I have done well and not so well.

• Diversity: I have tried to include a range of case studies throughout the blog to make it more interesting, drawing on different animals and explaining the different effects where ever I can. For instance, my discussions have drawn on fur seals, Adélie penguins, Gentoo penguins, krill, South Polar Skua…etc. I also want to point out that it has been an enjoyable experience learning about these wonderful animals!
• Geographical dispersion: I have tried to include case studies from different parts of Antarctica to illustrate what’s happening everywhere. This has been supplemented with maps (see below). Antarctica is a large continent and different regions are affected by different activities. Having said this, I believe I have focussed on west side of Antarctica more than the east side. While writing and researching, I have discovered that there is little literature on the east side of Antarctica which is the main reason why. Perhaps this is because eastern Antarctica is less accessible than the west side so research tends to be focussed here.
• Maps: I understand that naming Antarctic islands, ice sheets and seas could be confusing and hold little meaning if no one knows where they are. So where I can, I have places maps throughout the blog and highlighted where my case study locations are. Hopefully I haven’t created an overload, but I feel they are necessary!
• Balance: I have given a balanced view of the impacts throughout the blog, presenting arguments for natural causes as well as human impacts.

Is it S.O.S Antarctica?

The name of my blog suggests that, because of the human impacts, Antarctica is sending a distress signal, asking humans to leave it alone! So far, I have been counting the negative and postive/ natural impacts and they currently stand at 5-3 to negative impacts. Perhaps the continent is in trouble... In my last post I will attempt to answer the above question based on my previous posts and the total score.

Finally I wish to explain what the next few topics are. In this final month or so, I aim to discuss:

• The impact of research stations on Antarctica. Yes research has discovered ways to correct human impacts, but are there any negative impacts?

• The Ozone layer. So far I have focussed on terrestrial and marine impacts, but what about the atmospheric impact?

Thank you for reading, until next week, I’ll end with this cartoon to prepare for the next post. 

 Figure 1. The impact of research

How Krill Variability Affects Penguins

This post will focus on how krill variability in the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) and Scotia Sea affects populations of Adélie and chinstrap penguins via the food chain.

Whaling

As mentioned in my previous post, krill fishing has become one of the main drivers reducing krill population and increasing competition for krill. But this is not the only impact that humans have had on krill population. Indirectly, through the introduction of whaling and sealing restrictions, competition for krill is increasing, causing stress among krill population. In turn, this is causing a decline in the populations of Adélie and chinstrap penguins.

For example, the International Whaling Commission banned the whaling of blue whales in 1966 (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, 2014) which is increasing the population of baleen whales (blue whales are a type of baleen whale) and therefore increasing demand for krill. This reduces available krill to penguins, particularly because blue whales’ diets consist mostly of krill (ibid). More competition for krill means that krill populations may decline even further than they have. Trivelpiece et al. (2011)'s research project in the South Shetland Islands in the West Antarctic Peninsula (see figure 1) discovered that Adélie and chinstrap penguin populations have declined more than 50% in the last 30 years, which is approximately during the same time that whaling bans were introduced in the Antarctic. 

Figure 1. Map showing the South Shetland Islands and the West Antarctic Peninsula. Source: Lenfest Ocean Program, (2011)

This suggests that humans have indirectly affected penguin populations via the food chain and the impact on krill population. Whaling bans therefore have a positive impact on whale populations, but a potentially negative impact on penguin populations. The fact that this happens demonstrates the interconnectedness of Antarctic wildlife and the importance of krill in the food chain. It also highlights the complexity of food chains. Food chain processes are natural and once humans alter these mechanisms, many species, not just one, are affected. Even if humans have good intentions (e.g. to protect whales), there can be negative indirect effects as well. 

Trivelpiece et al. (2011) further mention that the effect of a reduction in krill availability for penguins is predicted to increase as krill fishing increases. Humans, therefore, have a variety of impacts on whale, penguin and krill populations and these impacts are all holistic. The impact that humans have had on Antarctica is both positive (on whales) and negative (for penguins and krill). Because of this, I will classify the total impact as neutral, so for the first time in my blog, the impacts cancel out and the scores remain unchanged! Just to remind you, they stand at negative impacts 4, positive/ natural impacts, 2.

Next week I will explore an argument against anthropogenic causes, focussing on how natural climate variability can cause changes in krill population. Thanks for reading!

Holidaying in Antarctica

Antarctica has become a popular tourist destination over the years. First starting in the 1950s, expedition cruises take tourists to see the wildlife, unique scenery and geology, and visit research centres. Nowhere else on Earth can visitors can go to a continent totally surrounded by the sea and observe some of the world’s rarest species in some of the world’s harshest conditions. These are all reasons why tourism is gaining momentum and why the tourist season has increased to 173 days per year (Aronson et al. 2011). But how is the tourism industry affecting the wildlife in Antarctic?

Penguins

Before the 1950s, wildlife in Antarctica was not used to seeing humans in their habitats very much. Human activity was mainly focussed on research and so a lot of human activity was conducted in research centres – no one was actively looking for penguins or seals or whales. Now that they are, some penguin species are reacting to them, while others are not.

I found this funny cartoon, portraying this point:

Figure 1. Adapted from Antarctic-monument.org  

Seventeen species of penguins can be found on Antarctica. Of these, there are four penguin species that breed on the Antarctic continent itself: the Adelie, the Emperor, the Chinstrap and the Gentoo penguins (Antarctic Connection, 2014). Lynch et al. (2010) conducted a study on Petermann Island (see figure 3) which found that the Gentoo penguin has shown a reduction in breeding productivity in areas where tourists frequently visit. One explanation for this could be that they are less likely to establish a nest in areas that are frequently visited. Although correlation does not mean causation, it’s in my view that tourist visits has played a role in their population because visiting their habitats can be unsettling.

In spite of this, surprisingly Lynch et al. (2010) also found in their study that the Adélie penguin was not affected by frequent tourist visits in terms of breeding. This shows that the effect of tourist visits is species specific and therefore can be difficult to measure. Figure 2 shows the penguins.

Figure 2. Gentoo penguin (left) and Adélie penguin (right)

The Lynch et al. (2010) paper was very insightful to read. Even though I read it to learn about the impacts of tourism on the breeding productivities of the Adélie and Gentoo penguins, I also learnt about a new potential human cause of a trending population decline of the Adélie penguin. During their study, the authors realised that there was a tick infestation among the Adélie penguin colonies at Petermann Island in North West Antarctica, a popular tourist destination because of its proximity to the southern tip of Argentina. This is shown in figure 3. The fact that tourists frequently visit the Island can help explain the spread of this I. uriae parasite. The evidence leads me to believe that the I. uriae parasite was transported from another North Western Island because the authors point out that this was the first time they had witnessed it on Petermann Island since they started investigating penguins there twenty years ago. This demonstrates that tourist expedition cruises may have transported it from another island. The authors also mention that they can’t rule out that climate change could have created conditions allowing its existence in this region. Either explanation holds humans responsible, at least in part, of this occurrence.

Figure 3: Petermann Island

Invasive species

This leads me nicely to my next topic about how tourism causes the invasion of foreign species. Tourist ships tend to contain double hulls. This is a cause of concern because double hulls provide insulation against temperature reductions as ships make their way to Antarctica, allowing invasive species to survive. An example of an invasive species is the mussel species, Mytilus Galloprovincialis, which was observed to have survived in a sea chest on a supply ship by Lee and Chown (2007). Another invasion species found is a type of green algae called Enteromorpha Intestinolis which was discovered growing on Half Moon Island off the West Antarctic Peninsula, apparently because it was transported there by tourist vessels (Clayton et al., 1997; Aronson et al., 2011). These invasive species can be problematic because they affect the food chain, invade habitats and can potentially initiate and spread new diseases to existing marine wildlife. The latter effect is demonstrated by the tick infestation found on Petermann Island. 

All in all, it seems that tourism in Antarctica is having a somewhat damaging effect on wildlife. Understanding these impacts have actually put me off wanting to visit Antarctica for a holiday, then again, I don't think I would be able to survive the cold anyway! So far, the scores for negative human impacts verses positive/ natural impacts on Antarctica are 2-1.

Apologies for such as negative post! Sometimes the impacts of humans on wildlife are harmful and I am trying to shed light on this. My next post will be about oil spills from tourist ships and how this affects sea birds and other wildlife. So until then, thanks for reading!

Tourism in Antarctica – An Introduction

Today’s post will be a light one, introducing tourism and the different ways that it impacts Antarctica.

It is correct to say that there are no continents on Earth that humans have not touched. Human visits to Antarctica were initially for research only. However humans are visiting the continent in vast numbers for no reason other than for entertainment and pleasure (see Figure 2). Seeing wildlife is perhaps the only reason why tourists venture out to Antarctica, but ironically, their activities are harming the very environment which they claim to idolise. The visits have been identified as causing disturbance to wildlife, having negative impacts on vegetation and soil and leaving litter ashore (Bauer, 1994). Furthermore, Aronson et al. (2011) identify further disruptions to the environment such as pollution and the introduction of invasive species. These impacts are no doubt harmful to the Antarctic ecosystem. This raises some important questions such as: to what extent is the industry being regulated, what does the future of Antarctic tourism look like given the issues concerning ice instability and global warming and how severe is the wildlife impact of tourism?

Figure 1: Tourists observing penguins

Figure 2 shows the pace of tourism growth in recent years. This graph is an indication of what the future for Antarctica holds and the severity of the impact of humans through tourism. The figure shows that total tourism increased to more than 45,000 visits per year from 2007 to 2008. After 2008, there has been an overall decline in tourism, falling to about 37,000 per year in 2009. This is presumable attributed to the global financial crisis and reduction in consumer spending as incomes fell. Nevertheless, tourist numbers are still higher than they have been for the past 20 years.

Figure 2: Estimated numbers of passengers travelling annually to Antarctica on expeditions and cruise-only tour ships between 1992-2010. Source: Aronson et al. (2011)

Keep a look out for the answers to the above questions and insightful discussions on this topic!