Has Antarctica been saved now that agreement has been reached by all Consultative Parties on the Protocol and its four annexes and, if so, by whom and for whom? The environmental lobby seem clear that it was their efforts that provided the impetus for international agreement and that the Protocol will provide the protection needed for the “Last Great Wilderness on Earth”. It would be pointless to deny the considerable political impact produced by the NGO environmental groups but their contribution to the discussions was more emotional than factual. It would be equally unfair to overlook the major contribution from the Antarctic science community to the sensible resolution of this debate, a feature largely overlooked by the media.

Commercial krill fishing has been undertaken in the Southern Ocean for twenty years. Recently the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) introduced a reporting scheme to summarize catch data from half degree of latitude by one degree of longitude rectangles. These data demonstrate that commercial fishing in the southwest Atlantic is concentrated in the shelf zone. Certain krill predators are also restricted to this area whilst collecting food for their young during the summer. Krill fishing takes place year round, moving northwards in winter as the ice edge advances.

The diet of Antarctic fur seals around Heard Island was investigated in May and June 1990. Fish predominated in samples, occurring in an average of 93.4% of droppings. Otoliths from pelagic fish (mainly myctophids) constituted over 96% of all otoliths. There was an increase in the occurrence of squid from 3.4% in summer 1987/88 to 49.3% in the present study. For the fish species Gymnoscopelus nicholsi (Gilbert), 10.3% of otoliths recovered from scats were considered suitable for measurement compared with 30.5% from scats at Heard Island in 1987/88; this greater level of erosion provides further evidence that the seals were foraging further afield. The study demonstrates a significant difference between summer 1987/88 and winter 1990.

Three species of shrimps (Notocrangon antarcticus, Chorismus antarcticus, Nematocarcinus lanceopes) were investigated in the south-eastern Weddell Sea using of underwater photography. Maximum densities of c. 100 specimens per 100 m2 were found for N. antarcticus on the continental shelf (200–600 m) and for N. lanceopes on the slope (800–1200 m). Small-scale dispersion patterns and size-frequency distributions were analyzed within dense concentrations. These direct observations indicate that the behaviour of the three species is adapted to different habitats with Chorismus distribution correlated with that of sponges and Notocrangon with base sediment.

Samples of phyto- and zooplankton were collected in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean (38–67°S, 18–84°E) and analysed for organochlorine residues (PCBs and pesticides). The PCB concentration in particulate matter (mainly phytoplankton) appeared to be high and similar to that of temperate zones: 0.7 μg g−1 dry weight. Contamination levels were more constant expressed per water volume than per dry weight, and seven times lower (1.2 μg m−3) than in northern temperate zones (8.8 μm−3 in the North Sea). The Antarctic ecosystems are thus less contaminated than temperate ones — as expected — but the very low phytoplankton biomass present cause high PCB levels per unit of biomass. These results confirm the necessity of using different systems of units in order to correctly express the contamination levels and to identify the main mechanisms responsible for the accumulation of stable pollutants. PCB levels in netplankton samples (mainly zooplankton) were comparable with phytoplankton on a dry weight basis (0.7 μm−3), lower on a lipid weight basis (5.8 μg g−1 lw for netplankton, 16.3 for particulate matter) and were much higher per seawater volume (27.2 μg m−3 for netplankton, 1.2 for particulate matter). Netplankton contamination is comparable in the Antarctic (0.35 μg g−1 dw) and the North Sea (0.70) since zooplankton feeding on phytoplankton has similar levels of contamination in both ecosystems. Lindane, heptachlor epoxide, dieldrin, DDE and DDT were observed in various samples at trace levels. The high DDE/DDT ratio reflects the more recent origin of Antarctic organochlorines.

Two shallow ponds at Cape Evans, Ross Island, were sampled at 1–2 week intervals, during winter freezing throughout the winter and during the subsequent melt period, to examine the physical and chemical conditions imposed on the biota during the year. Liquid water was first detected at the base of the ponds in late December. During the main summer melt period conductivities were less than 10 mS cm−1 with maximum daily temperatures around 5°C. The bottom waters became increasingly saline during freezing and water temperatures decreased below 0°C; by June the remaining water overlying the sediments had conductivities >150 mS cm−1 and temperatures of −13°C. Calcium carbonate, then sodium sulphate precipitated out of solution during early freezing. The dominant nitrogen species was dissolved organic-N which reached 12 g m−3 in Pond 1 just prior to final freeze up. The organic and inorganic forms of nitrogen and dissolved reactive phosphorus increased with increasing conductivity in the ponds. The behaviour of particulate-N and particulate-P mirrored that of chlorophyll a with a peak in March-April and a second higher peak just before final freeze-up. This study provides clear evidence that organisms which persist throughout the year in Antarctic coastal ponds must be capable of surviving much more severe osmotic, pH, temperature and redox conditions than those measured during the summer melt. Deoxygenation, pH decline and H2S production, however, point to continued respiratory activity well into the dark winter months.

Branches, stems and roots of Nothofagus (southern beech) were reported from the Beardmore Glacier area (Sirius Formation) some 500 km from the South Pole. The Sirius Formation is a glacially derived unit which is considered Pliocene in age. We considered two scenarios by which a Nothofagus forest could flourish so close to the South Pole during the Pliocene. One scenario calls for the disappearance of this genus from Antarctica during the early Tertiary (Oligocene) and its re-introduction during a warm Pliocene interval. Seeds from modern Nothofagus, however, are not viable after submersion in sea water, are not carried by migrating birds and are not designed for long-distance wind transport. The second scenario involves survival of Nothofagus in Antarctic refugia through middle Tertiary glacial advances and its flourishing during a Pliocene warming. Excluding its occurrence in the Beardmore Glacier area, the known range of this genus in Antarctica is Cretaceous to Oligocene with some questionable occurrences in the early Miocene. The existing data do not support the refugia scenario. We also considered published speculations in which the closest modern analogue to the Beardmore Glacier Region, during the time that the Nothofagus represented by these specimens lived, was the coastal region of southern Chile where average annual temperatures are approximately 5°C and summer temperatures are of the order of 8–10°C. We incorporated these observations and speculations into a palaeoenvironmental model, assuming them to be valid; the results require Pliocene temperatures as warm as, or warmer than, the Cretaceous, a scenario which is not supported by the literature. We conclude, therefore, that the occurrence of Nothofagus in the Beardmore Glacier area is older than Pliocene. Instead, we suggest that it represents a relict assemblage which is probably no younger than Oligocene but which may have persisted into the early Miocene.

Granitoid gneisses intercalated with Koettlitz Group metasediments in the upper Ferrar, Taylor and Wright valleys of South Victoria Land comprise various hornblende+biotite orthogneisses and biotite orthogneisses, including the km-scale Dun and Calkin plutons. K-feldspar megacryst inclusion textures and discordant cross-cutting relationships with enclosing metasediments are interpreted as firm evidence of an intrusive origin for hornblende+biotite and biotite orthogneiss. The scale of several concordant orthogneiss bodies (including the Dun and Calkin plutons), the presence of mafic enclaves, and relict flow differentiation in hornblende+biotite orthogneiss are also compatible with a plutonic origin. Orthogneisses were emplaced prior to deformation that produced macroscopic upright, tight, folds about NW-trending axes. Petrography and geochemistry indicate I-type affinities for hornblende+biotite orthogneisses and the Dun Pluton. Hornblende+biotite and biotite orthogneisses (with the exception of the Dun Pluton) are part of a single petrogenetic suite, together with younger Bonney, Valhalla, and Hedley plutons. Emplacement of a continuum of I-type intrusives is envisaged which spanned Koettlitz Group deformation, and possibly caused much of the deformation. Hornblende+biotite and biotite orthogneisses are deformed precursors to the younger Bonney, Valhalla, and Hedley plutons. The Dun Pluton contains Fe-rich salitic clinopyroxene relicts and exhibits a unique geochemistry. It is rich in Sr, Al2O3, Na2O, and poor in FeO, K2O, Rb, Y, V. Chemical and petrographic features indicate an evolved body, possibly derived from a primitive source distinct from other orthogneisses and granitoids.

Alkaline dykes tentatively dated at ∼1.3 Ga cut the Vestfold Hills in a consistent N–S to N15°E direction. They form a spectrum between more abundant ultramafic lamprophyres (UML) corresponding broadly to H2O–CO2-rich nephelinites, and alkaline lamprophyres (AL), representing H2O–CO2-rich basanites. Olivine (Fo46–93, averaging Fo75) is abundant only in the UML, but both types carry primary diopsidic clinopyroxene with complex zoning; amphibole (pargasite, hastingsite, kaersutite with up to 8.6% TiO2); titanian phlogopite (up to 10% TiO2); feldspars (orthoclase, anorthoclase, albite and andesine), nepheline (K-poor and Si-rich), ilmenite (up to 1% MgO and MnO), chrome titanomagnetite, and carbonate (magnesian calcite, ferroan dolomite, breunnerite). Lamprophyric peculiarities include the local coexistence of three feldspars, extremely Ti-rich amphiboles and micas, and the presence of globular structures and possibly primary carbonates. Some dykes carry small but abundant lherzolite xenoliths, others carry chromian diopside (1% Cr2O3) and En58–76 orthopyroxene xenocrysts. The dykes represent primitive, mantle-derived magmas which have undergone varying but generally low degrees of polybaric fractionation, together perhaps with mixing of more primitive and fractionated batches, during their ascent through the crust.

In the Weddell Sea oceanographic data and numerical models demonstrate that Ice Shelf Water, one ingredient in the production of Weddell Sea Bottom Water, is formed by thermohaline interaction of High Salinity Shelf Water with the base of the Filchner-Ronne ice shelves. South of Berkner Island a passage with a water column thickness of about 300 m linking the Filchner and the Ronne regimes is important for the ventilation of the sub-ice shelf cavities. To simulate the flow we tested a two-dimensional thermohaline circulation model on several sections which approximate different geometries of a sub-ice shelf channel bounded by the ocean bottom and the ice shelf base. Temperature and salinity profiles measured in front of the Filchner-Ronne ice shelves are used to force the model. The results indicate that the circulation is sensitive to both salinity (density) forcing and depth of the shelf bottom prescribed at the open boundary representing the Ronne Ice Shelf edge. Where the shelf is shallow, 400 m deep, a closed circulation cell within the Ronne cavity acts like an ice pump with accumulation rates of marine ice at the ice shelf base up to 1.5 m y−1. The total outflow at the Ronne Ice Shelf edge is supported by an inflow from the Filchner regime. Where the shelf is deeper, a flow from the Ronne into the Filchner cavity develops if the bottom salinity at the Ronne Ice Shelf edge exceeds a critical value of 34.67. Seasonal variability imposed at both edges modifies the circulation pattern at the Filchner Ice Shelf edge such that the depth and magnitude of Ice Shelf Water outflow correspond with observations in the Filchner Depression.

Atmospheric carbon monoxide and methane were studied spectroscopically in the Arctic and Antarctic. Seasonal variations of CO are evident in both polar regions, absolute values of abundance being three times larger in the Arctic than in the Antarctic. Increasing concentration trends were confirmed for both gases: 0.8% per year for Antarctic CO, 0.5% per year for Antarctic CH4 and 3.1% per year for Arctic CH4.