The Antarctic is no stranger to the economic opportunist. The history of whaling, sealing and now fishing shows that no place is too remote to deter industry exploiting the resources to meet a perceived market need. But all this has changed hasn't it? Antarctica today is a pristine wilderness ‘devoted to peace and science’ as it says in the Protocol. Maybe, but the climate in Antarctica is changing in ways other than meteorological so perhaps we should look more closely see what changes are brewing.

Sedimentological features and cluster analysis of diatom assemblages were used to investigate a local Holocene prograding sequence of marine-estuarine-lacustrine sediments. It consists of upward finning and thinning sediment cycles formed at the mouth of a meltwater stream during regional isostatic uplift, which followed early Holocene deglaciation and marine inundation events. The sequence begins in the lower Holocene sublittoral sand (marine diatoms and abundant molluscs) overlying, with a transgressive base, the deltic (?) clastic sediment marking probably one of the pre-Holocene interglacial periods (index diatom Actinocyclus ingens suggests an age >0.62 Ma). The lower Holocene marine sand was truncated by middle Holocene gravity flows, bearing volcanic ash. They were deposited in a high energy estuarine environment (brackish diatoms). The beach subsequently formed separated the estuary from the sea and changed it into a freshwater lake. Accumulation of moss and gyttja, containing a freshwater diatom assemblage, marks the final late Holocene stage of this coastal sedimentary sequence, which can be considered as typical for deglaciation periods in the maritime Antarctic.

The results of underwater observations and sampling of krill (Euphausia superba) in the western Weddell Sea during the joint Russian-USA Ice Station Weddell-1 Expedition (11 February–9 June 1992) are presented. Krill was sampled from the same large ice floe composed of both 1- and 2-year ice as it drifted northward for a distance of c. 700 km. Abundance estimates for krill under this floe were in the range 0.1–6.25 ind m−2. Krill aggregate in areas where rafting of ice floes and formation of new ice occur, or around a protected diving hole. The krill sampled consisted mainly of furcilia 6 and post-larvae which did not belong to the 0+ group originating in this (1991–92) year, but presumably hatched in the summer season of 1990–91 and developed very slowly so that at the end of the following summer season, larval stages were still present in the population. No increase of the mean krill size was observed during 2.5 months of observation. The role of larval advection for the maintenance of krill population in the Weddell Sea is discussed.

The relationship between surface sediment diatom assemblages and measured limnological variables in 33 coastal Antarctic lakes was examined by constructing a diatom-water chemistry dataset. Canonical correspondence analysis revealed that salinity and silicate each explain significant amounts of variation in the distribution and abundance of the surface sediment diatom taxa. Salinity has the strongest influence, revealing its value for limnological inference models in this coastal Antarctic region.

The distribution of annual mean biomass of mesozooplankton (animals in the size range 0.2–20 mm) in the upper layer (0–100 m) of the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean was mapped. The map was constructed from 4216 measurements at 2184 oceanographic stations, from the Russian and Brazilian archive records, from published sources, and from the British Oceanographic Data Centre. The annual mean mesozooplankton biomass value for the South Atlantic is estimated in this study to be 93 mg m−3 wet weight.

The dense phytoplankton blooms observed in earlier studies in the Southern Ocean Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ) may not be representative of all regions, so that some previous assessments of the overall importance of this system in total primary production may have been overestimated. Recent observations have shown that increased phytoplankton production may not always be associated with the retreating ice-edge, due to the unpredictability of meltwater-induced stability. Complex interactions between the MIZ and hydrographic fronts have also been indicated. A range of simple simulations, based on biomass inventories for the major biogeochemical systems in the Southern Ocean, show that the greater part of chlorophyll biomass is located in the extensive regions between the major fronts. Consideration of the fronts and the MIZ only, which we surmize may be the principal sites of export production, indicates that the MIZ is clearly the most important single feature. Even if the occurrence of MIZ blooms in the simulations is reduced dramatically, such blooms still appear to make a substantial contribution to production and, by implication, carbon export.

Modern diatom samples were collected from 43 sites across the Strømness Bay area of South Georgia. From 115 taxa belonging to 22 six diatom assemblages were distinguished. A CCA-analysis indicated that the assemblages are linked to pH and conductivity ranges, and habitat structure. The Eunotia paludosa var. paludosa - Eunotia subarcuatoides assemblage occurs in small acid water bodies. Samples of the Fragilaria germainii - Pinnularia aff. anglica assemblage are found in pools with a relatively high conductivity. The Fragilaria neoproducta assemblage and the Achnanthes subatomoides - Navicula vitabunda assemblage are mainly found in larger pools and lakes. This relationship between the assemblages and pH was comparable with results found in the testate amoebae fauna of South Georgia.

Closely spaced continuous temperature profiles from expendable bathythermographs launched along two sections across the Drake Passage and western Scotia Sea in the summer 1981–1982 are used to examine the vertical medium-scale (∼10–100 m) temperature fine structure. The large-scale temperature structure across the frontal regimes characteristic of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and the cross-frontal structure of the upper ocean are discussed. In the Drake Passage the heat content drops about 0.5 × 102 Kcal cm−2 (2 × 109 J m−2) across the Subantarctic Zone and 0.9 × 102 Kcal cm−2 (3.6 − 109 J m−2) across the Polar Front. In the Scotia Sea the heat content changes across the front are not as prominent. The statistical model of Joyce (1977) is used to quantify the heat fluxes across the fronts produced by the medium-scale temperature interleaving. In the Drake Passage the estimated heat flux is 0.32 × 10−3 °C m s−1 (1.3 × 103 W m−2) across the Subantarctic Front and 0.46 × 10−3 °C m s−1 (1.9 × 103 W m−2) across the Polar Front. In the Scotia Sea the estimated heat flux is larger in the Polar Front reaching 0.71 × 10−3 °C m s−1 (2.9 × 103 W m−2). The medium-scale fine structure heat fluxes are about 10% of the existing estimates of the mesoscale eddy heat fluxes and comparable to heat fluxes associated with the meridional flow of deep and bottom waters across the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

Freshwater drainage systems, fed by melting of nearby inland ice and perennial snowdrifts, exist in the south-eastern part of arid, ice-free, coastal Vestfold Hills. Most important is the complex Druzhby system. Intriguing questions arise about the conditions controlling its seasonal development and about the consequences of possible changes of those conditions. A water-balance was calculated for 1990–91. The system went through four seasonal phases of which only one displayed a fully developed external drainage. Evidently, the relative duration of those phases can vary considerably from one year to another. The system depends critically on the water supply from ice-dammed Chelnok Lake, which could readily be drained by a minor retreat of Sørsdal Glacier. Exposed to excessive evaporation, the large Crooked Lake would then become internally drained and reach a new equilibrium in ∼830 years. A Crooked Lake sediment core can be interpreted as suggesting this occurred during the Holocene. The idea, inferred from striae, of a late Holocene Chelnok Glaciation reaching the northern shores of Crooked Lake is questioned. Instead, it is suggested that the Chelnok striae originate from local basal melting of the ice sheet draining southward into a deglaciated Sørsdal trough. At present, runoff is determined by opposing short and long-term climatic influences.

The stratigraphy of the upper part of the Upper Palaeozoic–Lower Mesozoic Victoria Group in the central Transantarctic Mountains is reviewed. Marked lithologic contrasts exist in the Falla Formation between the lower volcanic-poor part and the upper volcaniclastic part. The name Falla Formation is here restricted to the lower volcanic-poor part of the sequence making it the youngest formation in the Victoria Group. The upper volcaniclastic part, a tuffaceous sequence, is named the Hanson Formation.

Glacial geological studies on the Windmill Islands and along the Budd Coast at the margin of the Law Dome, East Antarctica, indicate that the glacial extent of Law Dome has fluctuated during the Holocene. The morphology and structural geology of the present ice margin and Løken Moraines indicate that Law Dome has readvanced over part of the Windmill Islands since the culmination of the post-glacial retreat. Sedimentological and geochemical analyses show that Løken Moraines comprise reworked proglacial and coastal marine sediments and ice, which supports the morphological and structural evidence for a readvance. A chronology for the readvance is produced from relative lichenometry of Løken Moraines and coastal nunataks in conjunction with 14C radiocarbon dates from the proglacial and coastal zones. The combined glaciological and geological evidence suggests that the readvance occurred after c. 4000 yr BP in response to a positive mass balance on Law Dome during the Holocene.

Cape Dubouzet is mainly composed of a volcanic-subvolcanic complex of extrusive rhyolitic breccias, a banded rhyolite and a semi-annular body of dacite porphyry rich in xenoliths of metamorphic rocks. Major and REE geochemistry indicate that the volcanic rocks are calc-alkaline and that they are genetically related by fractional crystallization of a plagioclase-bearing assemblage from a common magma. Rb-Sr data suggest that the rhyolitic complex is of Middle-to-Late Jurassic age, and that it is intruded by Late Cretaceous stocks of banded diorite and gabbro. All these rocks are partially covered by moraines whose clasts are of local provenance. Xenoliths in the dacite porphyry suggest that the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula is underlain by a metamorphic complex composed of amphibolites, meta-tonalites and pelitic gneiss containing garnet, sillimanite, cordierite, hercynite, and andalucite. Such rocks are not known in the Scotia metamorphic complex, nor in the Trinity Peninsula Group and its low grade metamorphic derivatives, which also occur as rare xenoliths in the dacite. Previous dating of xenoliths collected from the moraines suggested a late Carboniferous age for this amphibolite-grade metamorphism. Both the Jurassic-Cenozoic magmatic arc of the Antarctic Peninsula and the accretionary complex rocks of the Trinity Peninsula Group were thus developed, at least in part, over pre-existing continental crust.