The multilateral failure to apply the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) by the target year 2010 was headline news as are the accelerating climatic changes which dictate its urgency. Some ecosystems that are vulnerable to anthropogenic change have few species listed as endangered because too little is known about their biota. The highest vulnerability may correspond to where hotspots of species endemism, range limits and physiological sensitivity overlap with areas of most rapid physical change. The old, large and remote archipelago of South Georgia is one such location. Sea-surface temperatures around South Georgia are amongst the most rapidly warming reported. Furthermore oceanographic projections are highlighting the region as extremely vulnerable to ocean acidification. We outline the first polar Darwin Initiative project and the technical advances in generating an interactive and fully integrated georeferenced map of marine biodiversity, seabed topography and physical oceanography at South Georgia. Mapping marine mega and macro-faunal biodiversity onto multiple physical variables has rarely been attempted. This should provide a new tool in assessing the processes driving biological variability, the importance of marine areas in terms of ecosystem services, the threats and vulnerabilities of Polar Regions and should greatly aid implementation of the CBD.

Until recently, the spectacled petrel Procellaria conspicillata Gould was listed as Critically Endangered due to its small population size and ongoing incidental mortality on fishing gear. Surveys at its sole breeding locality, Inaccessible Island in the central South Atlantic Ocean, indicated that the population increased from 1999–2004, resulting in the species being down-listed to Vulnerable. We repeated the census of breeding spectacled petrels during the early incubation period in October–November 2009. Numbers of burrows increased by 55% from 2004–09, with increases in all count zones, and the greatest changes in peripheral populations. Burrow occupancy estimates remained high, averaging 81% during one-off checks. Our best estimate of the population in 2009 was 14 400 pairs, continuing the c. 7% per year increase inferred since the 1930s following the disappearance of introduced pigs. This confirms the rapid recovery of this species despite ongoing mortality on fishing gear. Our results suggest that at least some procellariiforms are able to sustain strong growth rates in the face of fishing mortality when colony based threats are removed.

Management of non-native species introductions is a conservation priority in the Antarctic region. However, despite the recognised importance of intra-regional propagule transfer, the majority of studies have focused on inter-regional pathways (i.e. from outside of the Antarctic region). Here we quantify the number of seeds carried by expeditioners who have visited sub-Antarctic Marion Island. We recorded 420 seeds from 225 items of clothing, with seeds found on 52% of the items and soil on 45% of them. The median number of seeds for field-based and station-based personnel was 20.5 and 3 per person, respectively. Waterproof trousers and socks, particularly those of field workers, carry the greatest number of propagules (for field workers, medians of 5 and 6.5, respectively) and therefore should be the focus of intra-regional management interventions. Amongst the seeds found entrained within clothing several were from species which are widespread aliens in the Antarctic region including Agrostis stolonifera, Poa annua and Sagina procumbens, and indigenous zoochorous species (Acaena magellanica, Uncinia compacta) were also well represented. The present data provide quantitative evidence in support of previous, largely hypothetical concerns about the risks of intra-regional propagule transfer in the Antarctic.

The order Tanaidacea includes over 1000 species which are mainly free-living or tube-dwelling detritivores. Exspina typica Lang, 1968 represents an exception to these common life styles, having being found in the intestine and body cavity of deep sea holothuroids. The 2008 New Zealand ‘IPY-CAML Cruise’ held in the Ross Sea collected several deepwater holothuroids that were observed to carry specimens of E. typica inside their coelomic cavity. A clear interpretation of this association was hence possible. Even if E. typica shows slight adaptations to a parasitic life style, the tanaids were found to actively ‘dig’ into the host's skin, grasping tissue with their claws and producing tunnels in the body wall. It is therefore possible to clearly define this association, which is here reported from the Antarctic for the first time, as parasitism.

The nematode communities of Antarctica are considered simple. The few species present are well adapted to the harsh conditions and often endemic to Antarctica. Knowledge of Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems is increasing rapidly, but nematode communities remain to be explored in large parts of Antarctica. In soil samples collected at Byers Peninsula (Antarctic Specially Protected Area No. 126), Livingston Island we recorded 37 nematode taxa but samples showed great variation in richness and abundance. Nematode richness decreased with increasing soil pH, whereas total abundances, and the abundance of several trophic groups, were greatest at intermediate pH (around 6.5–7). Moreover, the community composition was mainly related to pH and less so to soil moisture. Trophic group, and total nematode, rotifer and tardigrade, abundances were generally positively correlated. Byers Peninsula is thus, by maritime Antarctic standards, a nematode biodiversity hotspot, and the presence of several previously unrecorded genera indicates that nematode species richness in maritime Antarctica is probably underestimated. Our results indicate that abiotic factors influence nematode communities with little evidence for biotic interactions. The unexplained heterogeneity in community composition is probably related to variation in microclimate, vegetation, topography and unmeasured soil properties, but may also be contributed to by biological processes.

Fluxes of dissolved oxygen and nutrients and vertical fluxes of particulate organic elements were investigated in the subtidal benthic environment of Marian Cove, King George Island, Antarctica, using in situ benthic chambers and near-bottom sediment traps. Fluxes of dissolved oxygen, ammonium, phosphate, and silicate were comparable to those measured in temperate regions. Sediment oxygen consumption was a good indicator of organic respiration and elemental efflux at the benthic boundary layer of Marian Cove, with good positive correlations with ammonia (r2 = 0.67), phosphate (r2 = 0.57), and the C:N:P ratio (106:11.5:1.15) in the chamber water. A positive relationship (r2 = 0.58) between settling particulate organic carbon flux and chl a concentration suggests that water column biomass and production are direct sources of settling particles. According to element budgets in summer assessed using the fluxes, Jin and the sum of Jout and Jburial were 15.9 ± 8.1 and 22.6 ± 8.2 mmol m-2 d-1 for carbon, 2.02 ± 0.54 and 2.46 ± 0.82 mmol m-2 d-1 for nitrogen, 0.07 ± 0.03 and 0.23 ± 0.08 mmol m-2 d-1 for phosphorus, and 12.4 ± 2.7 and 13.5 ± 5.0 mmol m-2 d-1 for silicon, respectively. There was a broad balance between sediment organic input and remineralized output for carbon and nitrogen at the benthic boundary layer of Marian Cove.

Widely accepted ideas about trophic preferences of early penguins suggest that all Eocene sphenisciforms were piscivorous. However, recent findings from the La Meseta Formation (Eocene) of Antarctica, support the presence of at least two different morphotypes that may have evolved as a niche partitioning strategy, which is consistent with the high diversity recorded. The first of them corresponds to a medium–large sized penguin, resembling the Neogene species in configuration. Another morphotype is represented by extremely large penguins with very long and slender bills, clearly linked to fish catching habits.

Fossil leaves of the Voltziales, an ancestral group of conifers, rank among the most common plant fossils in the Triassic of Gondwana. Even though the foliage taxon Heidiphyllum has been known for more than 150 years, our knowledge of the reproductive organs of these conifers still remains very incomplete. Seed cones assigned to Telemachus have become increasingly well understood in recent decades, but the pollen cones belonging to these Mesozoic conifers are rare. In this contribution we describe the first compression material of a voltzialean pollen cone from Upper Triassic strata of the Transantarctic Mountains. The cone can be assigned to Switzianthus Anderson & Anderson, a genus that was previously assumed to belong to an enigmatic group of pteridosperms from the Triassic Molteno Formation of South Africa. The similarities of cuticle and pollen morphology, together with co-occurrence at all known localities, indicate that Switzianthus most probably represents the pollen organ of the ubiquitous Heidiphyllum/Telemachus plant.

The features of solar UV irradiance measured at the Italian-French Antarctic Plateau station, Concordia, during the springs of 2008 and 2009 are presented and discussed. In order to study the impact of the large springtime variations in total ozone column on the fraction of ultraviolet B (UV-B) irradiance (from c. 290–315 nm) reaching the Earth surface, irradiance datasets corresponding to fixed solar zenith angles (SZAs = 65°, 75° and 85°) are correlated to the daily ozone column provided by different instruments. For these SZAs the radiation amplification factor varied from 1.58–1.94 at 306 nm and from 0.68–0.88 at 314 nm. The ultraviolet index reached a maximum level of 8 in the summer, corresponding to the typical average summer value for mid latitude sites. The solar irradiance pertaining to the ultraviolet A (UV-A, 315–400 nm) spectral band was found to depend closely on variations of atmospheric transmittance characteristics as reported by previous studies. Model simulations of UV-B irradiance showed a good agreement with field measurements at 65° and 75° SZAs. For SZA = 85° the ozone vertical distribution significantly impacted model estimations. Sensitivity analysis performed by hypothetically varying the ozone distribution revealed some features of the ozone profiles that occurred in the period studied here.

Here we describe the evolution through winter of a layer of in situ supercooled water beneath the sea ice at a site close to the McMurdo Ice Shelf. From early winter (May), the temperature of the upper water column was below its surface freezing point, implying contact with an ice shelf at depth. By late winter the supercooled layer was c. 40 m deep with a maximum supercooling of c. 25 mK located 1–2 m below the sea ice-water interface. Transitory in situ supercooling events were also observed, one lasting c. 17 hours and reaching a depth of 70 m. In spite of these very low temperatures the isotopic composition of the water was relatively heavy, suggesting little glacial melt. Further, the water's temperature-salinity signature indicates contributions to water mass properties from High Salinity Shelf Water produced in areas of high sea ice production to the north of McMurdo Sound. Our measurements imply the existence of a heat sink beneath the supercooled layer that extracts heat from the ocean to thicken and cool this layer and contributes to the thickness of the sea ice cover. This sink is linked to the circulation pattern of the McMurdo Sound.