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A qualitative description of energy flow and nutrient cycling in the Marion Island terrestrial ecosystem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

Extract

Since 1965 South Africa- has conducted a biological research programme on its two sub-Antarctic islands, Marion and Prince Edward. This programme is organized under the auspices of the South African Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SASCAR) and is sponsored by the South African Department of Transport. The first South African scientific expedition to the islands in 1965–66 yielded much information on the geology, zoology and botany of the two islands (van Zinderen Bakker Sr and others, 1971). The programme has since developed into a sophisticated ecological/physiological study, having as its major objective an understanding of the food cycles operative within the islands' ecosystems. The realization of this objective involves detailed investigations into the primary and secondary production of the various components of the islands' biota as well as a quantitative inquiry into the biogeochemical cycles of nutrients operative within the terrestrial, fresh and salt-water environs of the islands.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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