The results of several years of studies concerning the role of penguin rookeries in the functioning of the land ecosystems in the maritime Antarctic are summarized. The origins of phosphatic ornithogenic soil in the areas of currently active penguin rookeries arc presented. In the maritime Antarctic occurs relatively fast microbiological decomposition and mineralization of large amounts of excrements carried into coastal area by penguins during breeding period. Chemically aggressive water solutions of guano react with underlaying rocks. This process brings about the occurrence of wide zones of phosphatization. These processes cause the appearance of the series of phosphate minerals whose composition and properties depend on the changing physical and chemical conditions of the soil environment. It has been discovered that in the rookeries for various reasons abandoned by penguins phosphates are still present in large amounts and, gradually changed and washed out, have been for hundreds, or even thousands years a source of nutrients for plants growing in poor Antarctic land ecosystems. These soils came to be called the relic ornithogenic soils of the maritime Antarctic. The stages of plant colonization in the abandoned penguin rookeries were traced. The differences in the fate of the organic matter carried out from the sea to the coastal area by sea-birds in various climatic zones were discussed.
This paper reports the species of macromycetes collected on King George Island and Livingstone Island (South Shetlands). Brief notes on taxonomy and distribution of the species are added.
Przedstawiono wykaz nowych nazw geograficznych wprowadzonych na obszarze Wyspy Seymour (Marambio), Półwysep Antarktyczny (fig. 1, pl. 1—2) w czasie prac terenowych argentyńsko-polskiej grupy geologicznej w sezonie 1993-1994.
New information about presence and features of some Lecanora species as well as their ecology and distribution in Antarctica are provided. Lecanora dispersa (Pers.) Sommerf. is confirmed to occur in the Antarctic region; L. sverdrupiana Řvst. is recorded for the first time from maritime Antarctica; L. torrida Vain. is reported as new for that Antarctic area and for the southern hemisphere. An attempt to summarize the present state of knowledge for the genus Lecanora in the Antarctic region is made. Several species, which require more in depth studies, are briefly discussed and an up-to-date list of species occurring in Antarctica is included.
Life cycles,number of eggs per female,minimal adult female length and reproductive costs are presented for 18 species of Amphipoda from the West Spitsbergen area, 77 79 °N. Fifteen species incubated eggs during the polar night and released their offspring in early April. Three species incubated eggs from late spring till late summer. The appearance of the youngest juveniles, indicating the hatching period, is presented for 63 species. Most of the species studied were K strategists, with large eggs of over 1 mm diameter; only one species (Hyperoche medusarum ) was r strategist.
The population structures of Calanus finmarchicus, C.glacialis and C.hyperboreus were investigated in the recurrent polynya of the North Waters (NOW) in Baffin Bay during April July 1998. Species were determined from samples collected by plankton nets of 300 ľm and 200 ľm mesh size. The highest concentration of all three species was found at the centre of study the area. C.hyperboreus was the most abundant species (44.54 ind.m 3).C.glacialis was recorded up to 27.14 ind.m 3, C.finmarchicus up to 5.63 ind.m 3 .C.finmarchicus was reproducing in the northern end of Baffin Bay.The life cycle for C.glacialis was estimated at 2 years,and that of C.hyperboreus to last at least 4 years.
The multidisciplinary journal Polish Polar Research is bibliometrically analysed as a medium of international scientific communication in light of current citation data from SCI Ex 1996 -2002. Despite its world-wide distribution and distinctive visibility in the polar society, the journal 's two-years impact factor is invariably not very high (below 0.35) because the cited papers are mostly from the 1980s. The increasing participation of foreign (co)authors in the Polish quarterly, paired with the slowly growing number of citing articles in SCI Ex are already promising steps to the immediate information transfer and subsequently improved brief-term journal impact. Citation links with polar investigators from Germany,and also from Great Britain, Spain and the USA are clearly manifested, especially in fields of marine Antarctic ecology and biology. Even if Polish Polar Research may successfully compete with several low-rated journals from different countries indexed in SCI Ex in related categories, its continuing internationalization is urgently required.
Notothenia coriiceps, N.rossii and Lepidonotothen nudifrons were sampled from Admiralty Bay from March to November 1997 and from January to February 1999. The ratio of N.coriiceps to N.rossii individuals in catches regularly increased during 22 years from 0.4 in 1977 to 9.5 in 1999. Oving to its reproductive strategy and avoidance of shallow waters N.rossii may be more vulnerable to overfishing. The condition factor was the most stable (CV 6 -10%), variations in the of hepatosomatic index and index of stomach fullness were intermediate (21 -38%and 40 -43%,respectively), and the gonadosomatic index was the most variable (65 -100%). Lack of seasonality in two somatic indices (condition factor and index of stomach fullness) in N.coriiceps adults is a direct effect of high food availability and unlimited food detection all year round. In contrast, the seasonality of a reproductive index (gonadosomatic index) of these fish is a response to the highly seasonal trophic conditions for pelagic larvae.
Bryozoans were collected in Kongsfjorden (79°N and 12°E) in the summer seasons of 1997, 1998, and 1999. In the total of 44 grab, dredge, and SCUBA diving samples 143 taxa were determined: 123 species, 17 to the generic and 3 to the family level. In the investigated material were 24% Arctic species and 66% boreal-Arctic species. This suggests a rather Arctic nature of the fjord. A few boreal species indicate the influence of warm water masses (West Spitsbergen Current). The majority of species (76%) have an encrusting life form. There were 5 species with a frequency of occurrence higher than 20%. These are Electra crustulenta var. arctica (31.82%); Cylindroporella tubulosa (27.27%); Tegella arctica (22.73%); Tegella armifera (20.45%); and Hippothoa divaricata var. arctica (20.45%). Among all identified species 23 were recorded for the first time in the area of Svalbard archipelago. Most (79%) of newly noted species have Arctic distributions. The lower sampling effort of previous researchers most likely accounts for the present enrichment of the list of Bryozoa of Kongsfjorden.
This article presents an inventory of the marine benthic harpacticoids (Crustacea, Copepoda) from the area of Svalbard (including Bear Island). Information concetning the occurrence of 90 taxa in the shallow littoral zone of Svalbard is presented based on own samples as well as published and unpublished sources. Two species and 7 genera are reported for the first time from the investigated area.
The results of a statistical analysis of the influence of the Hansbreen surface ablation relative to selectedmeteorological parameters (air temperature andsunshine duration) are presentedhere. Over the period1989 2001 the lowest summer balance on the surface ablation of Hansbreen was recorded in 1994 (0.56 m water equivalent). Concurrently, both the air temperature (mean seasonal ~2.3 °C) and the sunshine duration (seasonal sum ~278.9 h)were at their lowest. Owing to the relatively high sunshine duration (676.5 h),the highest values were in 1998 (1.71 m w.e.); likewise,in 2001 (1.84 m w.e.) when a high air temperature (mean of 3.6 °C) occurred. The statistical models erected on the basis of these data allow us to estimate fairly reliably the seasonal ablation of Hansbreen. The basis of these is the reasonably reliable relationship determinable between the seasonal sum of PDD (positive degree days) and the ablation intensity changes in respect of altitude above sea level. Sunshine duration is regarded here as being of very little significance in terms of increasing the accuracy of the models. The errors inherent in this models varies from 28% to as little as 7%. Shown models may eventually find application as a method of calculating the amount of water resulting from the decay of tidewater glaciers.
A few specimens of a macroporid bryozoan were collected, from the Eocene La Meseta Formation from Seymour (Marambio) Island, Antarctic Peninsula. Based on the morphology of the studied specimens Macropora antarctica sp.n. has been erected. This is the stratigraphically oldest species of the genus which exhibits a number of similarities with the Tertiary fossils and some Recent macroporids reported from the Southern Hemisphere i.e., Australia, New Zealand and South America.
Cockburn Island is one of the most historically significant places on the Antarctic continent. The isle was first surveyed in early 1843 during Captain James Ross famous expedition, but the early explorers failed to recognise its geological and palaeontological significance. Cockburn Island is exceptional for it has the only succession of Upper Cretaceous, Eocene and MiocenePliocene rocks on the continent, which is now known to contain an admirable and diverse fossil record of fauna and flora. These fossil assemblages are providing exciting new information on the evolutionary history of Antarctica. At least 22 species of Late Cretaceous macroinvertebrates and vertebrates have been recognised, whereas the Eocene record is slightly more diverse at 28 macroinvertebrate taxa recorded. The Pliocene macrofossil record is depauperate atsome 11 species, butmicrofossils (diatoms, ostracods, foraminifera) are represented by at least 94 taxa. The palaeoecologic and palaeobiogeographic significance of fossil assemblages is explored in this paper. Further, a checklist of fossils is presented herein, for the first time, as is a bibliography of the geology and palaeontology of the island.
Eocene penguin remains from Seymour Island (Antarctica) are so far the oldest−known record of extinct Sphenisciformes. Rich Argentineand Polish collections of penguin bones from the La Meseta Formation are taxonomically revised on tarsometatarsal morphology. Two genera and four species are erected: Mesetaornis polarisgen. et sp. n., Marambiornis exilisgen. et sp. n., Delphinornis arctowskiisp. n. and D. gracilissp. n. Moreover, the diagnoses of already described species: Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi, A. grandis, Palaeeudyptes klekowskii, P. gunnari, Archaeospheniscus wimani and Delphinornis larseniare revised as well. Gradual cooling of climate, changes of environment andtrophic relationships, that lasted several millions years, were most probably responsible forthe intense speciation and taxonomic diversification of the Middle–Late Eocene La Meseta penguins.
Altogether 105 algal taxa were identified including 101 diatom species. Chaetoceros criophilus was dominant in the western part of the study area influenced by waters from the Bellingshausen Sea. Corethron criophilum was abundant in the Weddcll Sea water mass found to the east of 53.5°W meridian. Nitzschia cylindrus common in the ice-melt samples was dominant in only two net phytoplankton collections obtained at the ice-edge zone. Additional samples from Admiralty Bay, at King George Island revealed the dominance of Chaetoceros socialis and the presence of many tychoplankton species. Very few diatom cells were found in the open waters of the Bransfield Strait which combined with the presence of krill, suggested intensive grazing by herbivores. The unstable waters of the Weddell-Scotia Confluence area contained little phytoplankton except for a station dominated by Phaeocystis pouchetii. Greater cell densities were related to warm, lower salinity Weddell Sea water of summer modification found in the surface layer east from 49°W.