We should all be really pleased both with ourselves and with our governments for the amazingly rapid progress the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty has made. Final ratification by twenty six countries in less than seven years is impressive for an international treaty with such wide obligations.

Antarctic Science is now in its tenth year with the number of pages increasing, its citation rate increasing and the enthusiasm of its editors undimmed! We are grateful to all our contributors, editorial board members and referees for their support which have made the journal what it is. This is a good time to take stock and consider the future.

The spatial configuration of the Antarctic ice sheet has fluctuated widely during the Late Quaternary, primarily in response to climate and sea-level forcings. Ice core time-series have long been used as proxy climate records for the Antarctic ice sheet surface and polar atmosphere, and there has been a major multinational effort to drill ice cores on or near the summit of ice domes to retrieve the longest possible records. The annual layering of ice accumulation has afforded high resolution proxy climate records on annual to decadal intervals, spanning a few hundred to hundreds of thousands of years. These time-series have also detailed the changes in the ice sheet surface elevation and dynamics, particularly since the transition from glacial to Holocene climate. However, ice sheet sensitivity to external forcings and the associated fluctuations in ice volume are probably best researched around the ice sheet's margins. The sedimentary record in these circumAntarctic margins holds the key to our unravelling of past and future responses of the Antarctic ice sheet and circumpolar oceans to climate and environmental change, including: fluctuations in ice volume; the distribution of ice shelves; the production of Antarctic bottom water; the variability in the fast ice and pack ice characteristics; biogeochemical cycling and marine productivity; and the evolutionary response of marine and terrestrial species and ecosystems.

Change is in the air - not just a mild breeze, more of an impending storm. At XXV SCAR in Concepcion, much of the talk at Working Groups and at the Delegates meeting was of change. But why, how and when?

An inventory of Antarctic and Subantarctic mysid fauna is presented, together with a summary of the present state of knowledge of species and their taxonomic diversity, geographic and bathymetric distribution patterns. Fifty nine species of Mysidacea (Crustacea, Peracarida) are now known. Of these, 37 were reported for the Antarctic region and 31 for the Magellan region; six species occur further north in the Southern Ocean, but south of 40°S. 51% of the Antarctic Mysidacea are endemic, and the figure for the Magellan region is 48%. Most of the species live hyperbenthically, but some also occur bathy- or mesopelagically. Mysidetes has the most species in the Southern Ocean, and Eucopia australis is the species with the widest bathymetric distribution (600–6000 m depth). It is concluded that an emergence of species onto the Antarctic shelf in the Neogene was quite unlikely, because none of the mysid species is a true deepsea species, and most species occur on the shelf or at the shelf break. It is more probable that present day species colonized the Southern Ocean via shallower waters. The examples of the distribution of different genera suggest that the Mysidacea of the Southern Ocean probably had various geographical origins.

Swimming activity of the Antarctic scallop at a temperature of c. −1.4°C was analysed using in situ video recordings obtained from a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) in Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea. Data are presented on swimming trajectories, distance travelled and velocity during a swimming bout, adduction frequency, shell gape angle, and the angular opening and closing velocities of shell. This scallop is an effective swimmer although swimming bouts in response to the ROV were generally short, consisting of 2–5 adduction cycles in the take-off phase followed by 1–4 (exceptionally 14) adductions during level swimming. The maximum velocity during each adduction cycle ranged from 19.4–43.1 cm s−1 and the mean velocity during a swimming bout from 12.0–23.5 cm s−1. Each adduction cycle consists of opening, closing and glide phases of approximately equal duration. Adduction frequency during swimming averaged 1.5 adductions s−1.

We describe the distribution and estimate the abundance of seabirds in the Amundsen and southern Bellingshausen seas, and attempt to identify the mesoscale and larger ocean and ice features that explain the birds' discontinuous occurrence patterns. Our general objective was to assess if ocean fronts, especially near the continental shelf break, enhance feeding opportunities for top trophic-level predators. A variety of subsurface thermohaline fronts occurred on both sides of the shelf break, at shallower depths from west to east, and with warmer and saltier water on their northern sides. Pack ice overlaid some of these fronts, especially in the Amundsen Sea. Seabirds comprised either an ice group in pack ice or in polynyas, or an open-water group in waters north of the pack. In the Amundsen Sea, bird densities were near 0 birds km−2 in waters overlying the continental shelf, an unexplained pattern found previously in the Ross Sea but not repeated in the Bellingshausen Sea (5 birds km−2 over the shelf). Both groups were more abundant (densities 3–9 birds km−2) near the frontal zones, the ice edge and the shelf break. In the Amundsen Sea, the distribution of ice-group species was related statistically to proximity of fronts and the pack-ice edge, thermocline slope, and depth of the chlorophyll maximum; water-group distribution was related to distance to the fronts and sea-surface temperature. In the Bellingshausen Sea, distribution of both groups was related to distance to the fronts. Many thousands of petrels, found roosting during daylight on icebergs situated near the shelf break, escaped standard census techniques and, thus, are likely to have diluted positive correlations of avian occurrence patterns with physical features of the environment. While the emperor penguin was seen in high numbers and can dive deep enough to forage within the subsurface fronts, those ocean and food-web processes that apparently affect increased food availability for surface and shallow-diving foragers in the frontal regions remain unclear.

This issue contains a group of papers selected from those presented at the 1st workshop of the SCAR-GLOCHANT and IGBP-PAGES cosponsored programme on the Late Quaternary Sedimentary Record of the Antarctic Ice Margin Evolution (ANTIME), held in Hobart, 6-1 1 July 1997. ANTIME is focused on the circurn Antarctic reconstruction of palaeoclimate, palaeoenvironment, and ice sheet palaeogeography throughout the last glacial cycle. There were 65 participants from Australia, USA, UK, Italy, Spain, Japan, Sweden, Germany and Russia at the workshop. The participants included representatives of PAGES, IMAGES, and INQUA. The workshop included three scientific sessions on:

1. Extent, timing and regional differences during Glacial Stage 2 (10–30 kyr BP) in Antarctica, from the terrestrial and marine records;

2. Climatic, environmental and glacial events during the Holocene;

3. Late Quaternary geochronological problems in Antarctica.

Lake sediment cores from Midge Lake, Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands and Sombre Lake, Signy Island, South Orkney Islands were analysed for volcanic tephra using light microscopy and magnetic susceptibility. Cores were dated using published 14C and 210Pb chronologies. Electron probe microanalyses of discrete tephra glass shards were undertaken to characterise the tephra geochemically in order to identify possible source volcanoes and refine tephrochronological data for the region. Results identified five tephra horizons in a core from Midge Lake. Four of these tephra at 3–4 cm, 8–9 cm (c. 450 yr BP), 15–16 cm (c. 755 ± 105 yr BP) and 21–22 cm (c. 1340 ± 100 yr BP) consisted of sodic basaltic to basalticandesitic glasses, containing abundant labradoritic feldspar inclusions, and a single ‘acidic’ tephra was found at 2–3 cm. Seven tephra horizons were identified in the Sombre Lake core including three basaltic tephra at 3–9 cm (30 ± 4 yr BP to 125 ± 25 yr BP), 31–32 cm and 44–46 cm (1325 ± 50 14C yr BP) and four acidic tephra at 21–22 cm and 24–25 cm, 33–36 cm (c. 1021 14C yr BP) and 54–56 cm (c. 1450 14C yr BP). These are the first tephra to be identified from the South Orkney Islands. Geochemical and grain size analysis indicated that the analysed Midge Lake tephra were derived from the Quaternary Deception Island volcano. Smaller grain sizes, congruent geochemical data and prevailing wind directions also indicate this volcano as the likely source of Sombre Lake tephra. Results highlight the importance of establishing geochemical consistency between tephra deposited across wide geographical areas, during apparently synchronous time periods, if they are to be used in a regional tephrochronology.

Two species of lichens, six cyanobacteria, one diatom, 10 chlorophytes and two mycelial fungi were found at La Gorce Mountains (86°30′S, 147°W) at an altitude of about 1750 m. The lichens Lecidea cancriformis and Carbonea vorticosa occurred at a single site which is the most southerly record of lichens. Thousands of small ponds covered extensive ice-cored moraine. Nine ponds sampled had about 30 cm of ice overlying about 26 cm of water and contained algal mats dominated by Phormidium autumnale and cf. Leptolyngbya fragilis. The very low conductivity waters had high nitrate and low dissolved reactive phosphorus concentrations. Of 124 soil samples, five contained visible algae. In 32 there were only microscopic growths but no algae were detected in 87 samples, possibly because of lack of water for much of summer. A visible mat dominated by Hammatoidea normanni occurred in a rock fissure at the lichen site. At Price Bluff, green patches of Desmococcus cf.olivaceus, up to 20 cm2, were scattered over the moraine. Growths were revealed at the soil–ice interface when overlying soil up to one centimetre thick was removed. It is suggested that although dispersal of algae from local populations may be readily achieved establishment of populations is a rare event outside the pond environment.

Measurements of dissolved N2, O2, Ar, CO2, and CH4 were made in perennially ice-covered Lake Hoare. Results confirm previous reports that O2 concentrations in the upper water column exceed atmospheric equilibrium and that N2 and Ar are supersaturated throughout the water column. The mean supersaturation of N2 was found to be 2.0 (±0.37) and Ar was 3.8 (±1.1). The ratios of N2/Ar (20.3 ±3.8), and O2/Ar (22.5 ±4.0) at the ice-water interface are consistent with those previously measured, suggesting that bubble formation is the main process for removing gas from the lake. However, the saturations of N2 and Ar greatly exceed those previously predicted for degassing by bubble formation only at the ice-water interface. The data support the hypothesis that removal of gas by bubbles occurs in the water column to a depth of 11 m in Lake Hoare. CO2 concentration increases from near zero at the ice-water interface to 80–100 times saturation at and below the chemocline at c. 28 m. There is considerable variability in the gas concentrations throughout the water column; samples separated in depth by one metre may vary by more than 50% in gas content. It is likely that this phenomenon results from the lack of turbulent mixing in the water column. Methane (c. 2 μg 1−1) was detected below the chemocline and immediately above the sediment/water interface at a depth of 30 m. Samples from lakes Vanda, Joyce, and Miers, also show supersaturations of O2, N2, and Ar at levels similar to levels found in Lake Hoare.

Over the past 15 years, Japanese, Australian and Russian expeditions to Prydz Bay have collected about 30 000 km of bathymetric data, 6000 km of sidescan sonar data and more than 250 sediment grab and core samples. These data were used in the present study to compile surficial sediment, bathymetric, and geomorphological maps of the Prydz Bay region. Lithofacies distribution was determined by surficial sediment data analysis using sample matrix (Q-mode) and cluster analysis techniques based on data from 206 sites. Data included percentage biogenic silica (opal), calcium carbonate, gravel, mud, and relative abundance of two diatom species (Fragilariopsis curta and F. kerguelensis). Five lithofacies are identified from the available data: (1) slightly gravelly sandy mud (g)sM lithofacies, (2) siliceous mud and diatom ooze (SMO) lithofacies, (3) F. kerguelensis pelagic ooze lithofacies, (4) F. curta gravelly muddy sand gmS lithofacies and (5) calcareous gravel lithofacies. In many areas the lithofacies correlate to geomorphological provinces as defined by previous investigators using 3.5 kHz and sidescan sonar data. In some cases, Holocene SMO sediments are seen to drape over iceberg plough marks, implying that these are relict features. These five lithofacies are likely to dominate most of the East Antarctic shelf region and may be helpful in defining sedimentary successions resulting from ice-sheet advance and retreat over glacial-interglacial cycles.

Bacterial cultures obtained through selective enrichment of beach sand collected 60 days and one year after treatment of sites in a pilot oil spill trial conducted at Airport Beach, Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica, were examined for the ability to degrade n-alkanes and phenanthrene. The effects of different hydrocarbon mixtures (Special Antarctic Blend [SAB] and BP-Visco), fish oil [orange roughy]) and inoculation of replicate sites with water from Organic Lake (previously shown to contain hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria) on the indigenous microbial population were examined. Of the cultures obtained, those from sites treated with SAB and BP-Visco degraded n-alkanes most consistently and typically to the greatest extent. Two mixed cultures obtained from samples collected at 60 days and two isolates obtained from these cultures extensively degraded phenanthrene. 1-Hydroxy-naphthoic acid formed the major phenanthrene metabolite. Lower levels of salicylic acid, 1-naphthol, 1, 4-naphthaquinone and phenanthrene 9-10 dihydrodiol were detected in extracts of phenanthrene grown cultures. This study shows that under laboratory conditions indigenous Antarctic bacteria can degrade n-alkanes and the more recalcitrant polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, phenanthrene. The enrichment of hydrocarbon degrading microorganisms in Antarctic ecosystems exposed to hydrocarbons is relevant for the long term fate hydrocarbon spills in this environment.

Seasonal movements and foraging areas of postbreeding (n = 9) and postmoulting (n = 3) adult southern elephant seal females from Marion Island were studied using Geolocation Time-depth Recorders. Movements were classified into three phases – an outbound transit phase, distant foraging phase, and an inbound transit phase. The longest residence time of postbreeding females during their foraging migrations was in areas at the outer edge of their feeding range (± 1460 km) both to the north and south of the island, largely within inter-frontal zones south of the Antarctic Polar Front (APF) and between the Sub-Tropical Convergence (STC) and the Sub-Antarctic Front (SAF). Postmoulting females travelled further afield (2122–3133 km distant) to the APF, to inter-frontal zones south of the APF (within the pack ice outer edge), as well as to the Antarctic Continental Shelf. This study provides additional information on the putative function of dive types in relation to the movement phases of elephant seal females from Marion Island. The relative frequency of assumed ‘foraging’, ‘exploratory’ and ‘transit’ dive types, as well as the duration and location of the different phases of movement suggest two seasonal foraging strategies. Sea floor topography could possibly cue the transit phases of both postbreeding and postmoulting females from Marion Island.

A marine survey in Prydz Bay, provides an unparalleled view of glacigenic and marine sedimentation across Prydz Channel and Amery Depression during the Late Quaternary. Gravity cores and a suite of eight radiocarbon dates indicate that the Late Wisconsin Glacial Maximum (LGM) was associated with grounding of a palaeo-ice shelf along the periphery of Prydz Channel. Deposition in front of the grounding line was dominated by ice-rafting. A granulated facies, containing angular clay and diamicton clasts, was producd by a combination of regelation freezing, near to the grounding line, and remelting of this basal debris in the sub-ice shelf setting. Beneath these LGM marine deposits lie two key beds of diatom ooze that are distinct in size sorting and Pliocene diatoms. These “interstadial” units can be traced across most of the Prydz Channel, and are underlain by additional glacial marine units. Debris related to the Lambert Deep is distinct from detritus from eastern Prydz Bay and deposition of these two sources within the channel oscillated during the LGM. We suggest that coastal drainage systems contributed to a limited glaciation of the shelf during the LGM, rather than direct outflow via the Lambert/Amery system. It is proposed that shelf-wide glaciation is related to the duration of glacial sea level lowstands rather than the absolute magnitude of eustatic fall during such episodes.

Fifty four surface sediment samples from the western and central Ross Sea were examined to determine relationships between modern oceanographic conditions and surface sediment diatom assemblages. A centered R mode principal components analysis demonstrates four geographically distinct assemblages. The assemblage just north of the Ross Ice Shelf in the central Ross Sea is most closely associated with Stephanopyxis spp. (a heavily silicified diatom abundant during the Pliocene), and may result from a combination of winnowing/reworking, and modern flux of primarily non-siliceous algae. The algal assemblage in the western part of the central Ross Sea is most closely associated with Thalassiosira gracilis (an open water diatom), and reflects early seasonal pack ice break up during the late spring inception of the Ross Sea polynya. The algal assemblage north of Drygalski Ice Tongue, in the western Ross Sea, is most closely associated with Fragilariopsis curta (a diatom common in stratified ice edge zones), suggesting that water column seeding by species melting out of coastal sea ice is important in this area. The assemblage south of Drygalski Ice Tongue is most closely associated with resting spores of Thalassiosira antarctica (a diatom associated with coastal waters). Although the habitat of T. antarctica requires future research, we speculate that sea ice conditions unique to area B support an autumnal T. antarctica bloom.

Certain physical factors, substrate type and ice action appear to be important determinants for ascidian distribution. Three different substrate types were sampled at depths between 0–30 m by SCUBA diving: soft bottoms, hard bottoms and moraine deposits. The species found were Aplidium radiatum, Synoicum adareanum, Distaplia cylindrica, Sycozoa gaimardi, Sycozoa sigillinoides, Tylobranchion speciosum, Corella eumyota, Ascidia challengeri, Cnemidocarpa verrucosa, Styela wandeli, Dicarpa insinuosa, Pyura bouvetensis, Pyura discoveryi, Pyura obesa, Pyura setosa, Molgula enodis and Molgula pedunculata. Highest diversity and patchy distribution was found in less stringent environments, where epibiosis is a commmon phenomenon on stolidobranch ascidians. Differences in stalk development were found in the most abundant species Molgula pedunculata and Cnemidocarpa verrucosa. Ice action may be the main factor that determines the absence of ascidians above 15 m in all the stations sampled.

Year-round temperature measurements at 1600 m elevation during 1994 in the Asgard Range Antarctica, indicate that the mean annual frost point of the ice-cemented ground, 25 cm below the surface, is −21.7 ± 0.2°C and the mean annual frost point of the atmosphere is −27.5 ± 1.0°C. The corresponding mean annual temperatures are −24.9°C and −23.3°C. These results imply that there is a net flux of water vapour from the ice to the atmosphere resulting in a recession of the ice-cemented ground by about 0.4–0.6 mm yr1. The level of the ice-cemented permafrost is about 12 cm below the level of dry permafrost. The summer air temperatures would have to increase about 7°C for thawing temperatures to just reach the top of the subsurface ice. Either subsurface ice at this location is evaporating over time or there are sporadic processes that recharge the ice and maintain equilibrium over long timescales.

On the high Antarctic shelf, 374 different epibiotic relationships of the megafauna were photographically registered and statistically analysed. These comprised 47 different epibiotic and 96 substratum taxa and had obvious differences in abundance and presence in three different benthic assemblages. Six abundant obligatory relationships in which the epibiont occurred almost exclusively on one type of substratum had highly specialized epibionts. For an additional eight relationships, a statistical test revealed that the epibionts preferred specific living and elevated mineral substrata. Most of these relationships are interpreted as commensalism (sensu Odum) in which the suspension feeding epibiont profits from the elevated position. Here it has better access to food compared with life on the sediment. The evolution of a rich and mainly sessile epifauna on parts of the high Antarctic shelves and the successful development of epibiotic behaviour in other species are suggested as a major reason for the high species richness in the benthic fauna. The results provide evidence that the Antarctic megabenthos is more biologically accommodated than physically controlled.

Stable isotope data from waters of lakes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) of southern Victoria Land, Antarctica are presented in order to establish the climatic history of this region over the past two millennia. New data from Lake Fryxell and Lake Hoare in Toylor Valley, along with previously published data from Lake Vanda, Wright Valley and Lake Bonney, Taylor Valley are used to infer the recent climatic history of MDV. Lakes Vanda, Fryxell and Bonney appear to have lost their ice covers and evaporated to small, hypersaline ponds by 1000 to ~1200 yr BP. Lake Hoare either desiccated or did not exist prior to 1200 yr BP. These data indicate a major lowering of lake level prior to ~1000 yr BP, followed by a warmer and/or more humid climate since then.