Changing Trends In Antarctic Research

The core of this volume is a report from a symposium held at the University of Goteborg in the Fall of 1991. It deals with the interplay of science and politics and how^ such interplay affects research agendas. The focus is on polar research in Antarctica, a continent that has been much in the news during the past couple of years. It gives me particular pleasure to thank all the speakers who took part in the program. All of them have many commitments and involvements in international polar research and the protection of Antarctica for its scientific and aesthetic values. The fact that such a distinguished group has been willing to come to Goteborg, to my mind attests to the importance and timeliness of our topic and the relevance of epistemological and policy issues in this field. A presentation of each speaker and author is made within the relevant chapters in the text. My interest in the Antarctic has its origins in discussions with Anders Karlqvist, the Director of the Swedish Polar Research Secretariate at the Royal Academy of Science in Stockholm. Anders and I had worked together in the early 80's in a program on Technology and Culture, among other at the Research Policy Institute in Lund. At the time he was with the Swedish Council for Planning and Coordination of Research (FRN), its Committee for Future Oriented Research headed by Torsten Hagerstrand.

The Antarctic provides a suite of scenarios useful for investigating the range of climate change effects on terrestrial and limnetic biota. The purpose of the book is to provide, based on the most up to date knowledge, a synthesis of the likely effects of climate change on Antarctic terrestrial and limnetic ecosystems and, thereby, to contribute to their management and conservation, based on the information.

The thawing Antarctic continent offers living space and marine and mineral resources that were previously inaccessible. This book discusses how revisiting the Antarctic Treaty System and dividing up the continent preemptively could spare the world serious conflict. The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements—collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS)—regulate the seventh continent, which is the only continent without a native human population. The main treaty within the ATS came into force in 1961 and suspended all territorial claims in Antarctica. The Antarctic Environmental Protocol followed in 1998 and prohibited any minerals exploitation in the continent. With this prohibition up for review in 2048, this book asks whether the Antarctic Treaty can continue to protect Antarctica. Doaa Abdel-Motaal—an expert on environmental issues who has traveled through the Arctic and Antarctic—explains that the international community must urgently turn its attention to examining how to divide up the thawing continent in a peaceful manner. She discusses why the Antarctic Treaty is unlikely to be an adequate measure in the face of international competition for invaluable resources in the 21st century. She argues that factors such as global warming, the growth in climate refugees that the world is about to witness, and the increasingly critical quest for energy resources will make the Antarctic continent a highly sought-after objective. Readers will come to appreciate that what has likely protected Antarctica so far was not the Antarctic Treaty but the continent's harsh climate and isolation. With Antarctica potentially becoming habitable only a few decades from now, revisiting the Antarctic Treaty in favor of an orderly division of the continent is likely to be the best plan for avoiding costly conflict.

Since its discovery Antarctica has held a deep fascination for biologists. Extreme environmental conditions, seasonality and isolation have lead to some of the most striking examples of natural selection and adaptation on Earth. Paradoxically, some of these adaptations may pose constraints on the ability of the Antarctic biota to respond to climate change. Parts of Antarctica are showing some of the largest changes in temperature and other environmental conditions in the world. In this volume, published in association with the Royal Society, leading polar scientists present a synthesis of the latest research on the biological systems in Antarctica, covering organisms from microbes to vertebrate higher predators. This book comes at a time when new technologies and approaches allow the implications of climate change and other direct human impacts on Antarctica to be viewed at a range of scales; across entire regions, whole ecosystems and down to the level of species and variation within their genomes. Chapters address both Antarctic terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and the scientific and management challenges of the future are explored.

Recent trends in life sciences research is more inclined towards interdisciplinary studies. Recent developments in the technologies have led to a better understanding of living systems and this has removed the demarcations between various disciplines of life sciences. A new trend in life science incorporates biological research involving a merger of diverse disciplines such as ecology, microbiology, toxicology and meteorology etc. The book encompasses topics on habitat ecology, biology of apis and apiculture, Cyanobacterial diversity, adaptation of microorganisms, Antibacterial activity, fungal glucose, prawn culture, concept of ecosystem, ozone depletion and global warming, halophilic archaea flourish in hypersaline environment and lycopene: preventive effects against cadmium injury in different tissues, Microbial enzymes and their applications, Phytochemical and antibacterial activity distributed throughout fifteen chapters for the benefits of graduate and postgraduate students as well as young researchers and scientists. In addition, this book provide newer techniques and the use of modern tools in achieving the potential of ecology, microbiology, toxicology, apiculture, aquaculture, meteorology, extremophiles, Immunotheraphy of Cancer and Marine bacterial enzymes this is all used to understand the challenges found in life sciences.

The Antarctic and Southern Ocean are hotspots for contemporary endeavours to oversee 'the last frontier' of the Earth. The Handbook on the Politics of Antarctica offers a wide-ranging and comprehensive overview of the governance, geopolitics, international law, cultural studies and history of the region. Four thematic sections take readers from the earliest human encounters to contemporary resource exploitation and climate change. Written by leading experts, the Handbook brings together the very best interdisciplinary social science and humanities scholarship on the Antarctic and Southern Ocean.

Outline and discussion of proposed regional core projects on global change research in the Antarctic.