Quaternary processes and environmental changes are often difficult to assess in remote subantarctic islands due to high surface erosion rates and overprinting of sedimentary products in locations that can be a challenge to access. We present a set of high-resolution, multichannel seismic lines and complementary multibeam bathymetry collected off the eastern (leeward) side of the subantarctic Auckland Islands, about 465 km south of New Zealand's South Island. These data constrain the erosive and depositional history of the island group, and they reveal an extensive system of sediment-filled valleys that extend offshore to depths that exceed glacial low-stand sea level. Although shallow, marine, U-shaped valleys and moraines are imaged, the rugged offshore geomorphology of the paleovalley floors and the stratigraphy of infill sediments suggests that the valley floors were shaped by submarine fluvial erosion, and subsequently filled by lacustrine, fjord, and fluvial sedimentary processes.

The Subantarctic island of South Georgia lost most of its birds to predation by rodents introduced by people over 2 centuries. In 2011 a UK charity began to clear brown rats Rattus norvegicus and house mice Mus musculus from the 170 km long, 3,500 km2 island using helicopters to spread bait containing Brodifacoum as the active ingredient. South Georgia's larger glaciers were barriers to rodent movement, resulting in numerous independent sub-island populations. The eradication could therefore be spread over multiple seasons, giving time to evaluate results before recommencing, and also reducing the impact of non-target mortality across the island as a whole. Eradication success was achieved in the 128 km2 Phase 1 trial operation. Work in 2013 (Phase 2) and early 2015 (Phase 3) covered the remaining 940 km2 occupied by rodents. By July 2017, 28 months after baiting was concluded, there was no sign of surviving rodents, other than one apparently newly introduced by ship in October 2014. A survey using detection dogs and passive devices will search the Phase 2 and Phase 3 land for rodents in early 2018. Seven (of 30) species of breeding birds suffered losses from poisoning, but all populations appear to have recovered within 5 years. The endemic South Georgia pipit Anthus antarcticus was the first bird to breed in newly rat-free areas, but there were also signs that cavity-nesting seabirds were exploring scree habitat denied them for generations. Enhanced biosecurity measures on South Georgia are needed urgently to prevent rodents being reintroduced.

Two new species in Leptogium are described and illustrated from the Cape Horn region: L. auriculatum and L. adnatum both grow on wet rocks, the former by a river, the latter on coastal rocks. In addition to the special habitat the latter is easily identified on the closely appressed thallus which centrally often have densely packed squamules in intricately folded structures. Leptogium auriculatum is characterized by the regular, rounded lobes with thickened margins carrying granular isidia. The total number of Leptogium species known in the region at present is 19, including the previously doubtful L. patagonicum Zahlbr., which is here confirmed as a distinct species.

Interactions between seabirds and commercial fishing activities have been well documented but little information is available regarding the impacts of more traditional fishing practices on seabird populations. We interviewed fishermen, administered questionnaires, and made field-based observations to determine the extent to which artisanal fisheries interact with and affect seabirds in the fjords and channels of the Chonos archipelago in southern Chile. Our surveys indicated a positive perception of seabirds as useful indicators of marine productivity and in their role scavenging fish waste and discards associated with fishing operations. However, the surveys also revealed that fishermen routinely establish seasonal camps for collecting seabird eggs and adults for food or bait and introduce feral predators to seabird breeding colonies on islands. Understanding the traditional practices of fishermen is critical for the future of community-based conservation of the region's marine resources and biodiversity.

Fifty-one species of basidiomycetes are recorded from the Southern Atlantic archipelago of the Falkland Islands. Several other fungi are discussed in the light of these findings. Some of these fungi are recorded for the first time from the Falklands and especially from some of the smaller islands of the group adjacent to West and East Falkland. The world distributions of the fungi dealt with in this compilation, particularly in the southern hemisphere, are given where they are known. Comments are made on the possible reasons for the occurrence of the species in the Falklands, especially the ectomycorrhizal taxa.

Ten new species in nine different genera are described from the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas): Bryonora granulata with a finely granular thallus containing perlatolic acid; Bryoria mariensis, a terricolous species with norstictic acid and unusual cortex cells; Carbonea hypopurpurea with a K+ purple hypothecium and a thallus containing confluentic and 2′-O-methylperlatolic acids; Caloplaca megalariicola lichenicolous on Megalaria grossa; Cladonia flammea with a red-orange coloration on the lower side of the primary squamules; Cliostomum falklandicum, on rocks and with a dispersed thallus containing only atranorin; Lepraria malouina with usnic and stictic acids; Rimularia andreaeicola, over bryophytes and lacking lichen substances; R. subpsephota, similar to R. psephota but with a discrete white thallus lacking norstictic acid; and Usnea austrocampestris, a straggling species in sect. Neuropogon from the mountain tops. Rimularia andreaeicola is also known from Tierra del Fuego and R. subpsephota from Tierra del Fuego and South Georgia, but the other species are known only from the Falkland Islands. The new combinations Carbonea agellata, C. subdeclinans, Cliostomum aeruginascens and C. violascens are also made; Lecidea interrupta Darb. and Lecidea protracta Darb. are reduced to synonymy with Lecanora xantholeuca (Müll. Arg.) Hertel; Rhizocarpon simillimum is reported for the first time from the Southern Hemisphere, from the Falkland Islands and New Zealand; and Bryoria chalybeiformis is reported for the first time from the Falkland Islands.

The new species Calvitimela austrochilenis Fryday and Tephromela superba Fryday are described: the former from several collections from southern Chile and one from Marion Island, and the latter from southern South America (including the Falkland Islands), Campbell Island, (New Zealand), and Antarctica. Four new combinations are also made in Tephromela: T. atrocaesia (Nyl. ex Cromb.) Fryday from Îles Kerguelen, Heard Island, South Georgia, and southern South America; T. atroviolacea (Flot.) Fryday from southern South America and Îles Kerguelen; T. lirellina (Darb.) Fryday from only southern South America; and T. skottsbergii (Darb.) Fryday, which is shown to be an earlier name for T. austrolitoralis (Zahlbr.) Kalb & Elix, from throughout the region. Lectotypes are selected for Lecanora atrocaesia and L. atroviolacea. The systematic placement of Tephromela eatonii (Cromb.) Hertel from Kerguelen, Marion Island and Bouvetøya is also discussed but the species is retained in Tephromela.

The new species Megalaria allantoidea Fryday is described from the subantarctic Îles Kerguelen in the southern Indian Ocean, where it grows over terricolous bryophytes or Azorella selago cushions. It differs from all other described species of Megalaria in having large, sausage-shaped ascospores. The systematics of the genus Megalaria is reviewed, ascus structure of some previously described species revised, and the position of the new species in the genus discussed.

Campbell Island is a small, uninhabited peat-covered island lying in the cool southern ocean 600 km south of the New Zealand mainland. Dracophyllum scrub is the main cover from sea level to 200 m, above which tussock grassland, macrophyllous forbs and tundra dominate. Seven peat profiles from sea level to the tundra zone provide an elevational transect for pollen and charcoal records spanning the last 500 years. Scrub density was relatively low between 200 and 400 cal yrs BP, possibly due to Little Ice Age cooling, but had recovered by the time Europeans discovered the island in AD 1810. Burning and grazing during a brief farming episode (AD 1895–1931) severely reduced scrub and palatable grasses and forbs. Vegetation recovery is now well advanced following cessation of farming and the later elimination of all feral grazing animals, cats and rats. Climates were cool in the southwest Pacific during the farming period, and since AD 1970 the island has warmed by c. 0·5°C. However, there has been no upwards movement of the scrubline despite vigorous regeneration of scrub at lower altitudes. The island's cloudy, highly oceanic climate appears to offset increasing summer warmth, and scrubline is likely to rise only if clearer and less windy, as well as warmer, summers eventuate.

Lithographa serpentina Coppins & Fryday is newly described from Campbell Island (New Zealand), and is unique within its genus and order for having submuriform ascospores. Also newly described are Lithographa opegraphoides Coppins & Fryday from the Falkland Isles, Rimularia actinostoma Coppins & Fryday from Canada (British Columbia), and Rimularia austrolimborina Coppins & Fryday from southern Chile. The new combination Lithographa graphidioides (Cromb.) Imshaug ex Coppins & Fryday is made to accommodate the previously misunderstood Stigmatidium graphidioides Cromb. and the more recently described Lithographa subantarctica Hertel & Rambold. A key to all described species of Lithographa is provided.

Archaeological research in the Auckland Islands, south of New Zealand, has disclosed earth ovens, middens and flaked stone tools dating to the thirteenth–fourteenth centuries AD. This is the first site of prehistoric settlement in the outlying islands of the Subantarctic. Polynesians and their dogs survived on seals and seabirds for at least one summer. The new data complete a survey of colonisation in the outlying archipelagos of South Polynesia and show that it occurred contemporaneously, rapidly and in all directions from mainland New Zealand.

Detailed redescriptions of the poorly known isopods Cymodocella tubicauda Pfeffer 1887 and Exosphaeroma gigas (Leach 1818) are presented in order to allow easier identification of these two species. Similarities to and differences from other species of the genus are discussed.

Echinozone quadrispinosa (Beddard, 1886) is reduced to synonymy with E. spicata (Hodgson, 1910). A key is given to the four Antarctic species together with biogeographical information.

Macaroni penguins (Eudyptes chrysolophus) and rockhopper penguins (E. chrysocome) account for a substantial proportion of the avian biomass at the subantarctic Prince Edward Islands (47°S, 38°E) in summer, when both species are breeding at the islands. Information on breeding population sizes, breeding and moulting activities, and diets were combined with measurements of the penguins' energy expenditures to construct a bioenergetic model of their energy requirements and food consumption at the islands. Total energy requirements of adults and chicks amounted to 460 × 109 kJ and 162 × 109 kJ for macaroni and rockhopper penguins, respectively. Food consumption was estimated to amount to a total of 166 000 tonnes during the seven-month breeding and moulting cycle, of which macaroni penguins consumed 75%. Most, if not all, of this food is taken within a 200-km radius of the islands. Available information suggests that potential primary production in the immediate vicinity of the islands is sufficient to support the macaroni and rockhopper penguin populations. However, the importance in the diets of the penguins of several prey species more typical of Antarctic and subtropical regions suggests that the penguins rely to a large extent on the importation of prey populations from other areas.

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.

The diet of Heard Island cormorants was investigated by examination of casts over three summer seasons. The diet was composed mainly of benthic organisms, with polychaetes being the most common prey for the greater part of the population. Fish were taken commonly only by the small breeding population at the western end of the island, whereas elsewhere only 22% of casts contained any fish remains at all. The diet is therefore different from that reported for Phalacrocorax atriceps at other localities.

Between September 1987 and February 1988, Antarctic fur seals Arctocephalus gazella (Peters) at Heard Island fed mainly on fish with an average 95.2% of scats in monthly collections containing fish remains. Pelagic myctophids constituted more than 50% of fish taken by fur seals at the beginning of the summer season and again at the end when there was an influx of non-breeding male seals. During the middle period from October to December, fish from the surrounding shelf area comprised the bulk of the diet. These included various benthic nototheniid species, the bentho-pelagic ice fish Champsocephalus gunnari Lönnberg and skate (Bathyraja spp.), the latter being found in over 60% of scats in October and November. The population of Antarctic fur seals at Heard Island is increasing at about the same rate as at South Georgia. There the increase is thought to be due to the high availability of krill E. superba, but in the present study no euphausiid remains were found, so the increasing population at Heard Island has been supported on a diet of fish. Whether this population increase can be sustained in future on a diet of fish is arguable. Trial fishing around Heard Island indicates that one of the major dietary items of the seals (C. gunnari) is of probable commercial importance and therefore any plans for the establishment of a fishery on Heard Island grounds must be considered in this light.

The female attendance behaviour of Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) and subantarctic fur seals (A.tropicalis), which breed sympatrically on subantarctic Marion Island, was investigated. Over the same period after the breeding season, the mean duration of feeding trips to sea, and percentage of time spent at sea, did not differ significantly between lactating females of the two species. The difference in mean duration of shore visits was significant and the longer onshore attendance of A. tropicalis probably related to the lower demand by their pups which grow at a slower rate. The subpolar maternal adaptations of A. gazella were unchanged under the more temperate environment at Marion Island, and it remains to be established unequivocally whether conditions there are limiting to the species.

Most of the species in the Ectemnorhinin are cryptogam feeders, angiosperm feeders representing a minority. It is hypothesized that this dearth of angiosperm feeders is due to previous climatic conditions, which precluded angiosperm herbivory, but allowed for the exploitation of a diverse cryptogamic flora, and that only with the post-glacial warm-up of the Subantarctic has angiosperm herbivory become possible. When examined in the light of the Quaternary history of the South Indian Ocean Province islands, evidence obtained from a study of the habitat use, diet and morphology of species within the tribe supports this hypothesis.

The presence and distribution of alien plant species on subantarctic Marion and Prince Edward Islands is reviewed and updated. This study documents the finding of a well established population of Cerastium fontanum on Prince Edward Island. An additional taxa, Senecio sp., is recorded in association with a recurrence of Plantago lanceolata on Marion Island. Propagules of both these taxa have recently been dispersed to the island in building material imported from South Africa. The distribution of Agrostis stolonifera and Sagina apetala on Marion Island has increased markedly between 1981 and 1989.