Documents

SCAR XXX IP01: SCAR Annual Report 2007-2008

Executive Summary

The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) is the foremost, non-governmental organisation for initiating, developing, and coordinating high quality international scientific research in the Antarctic region, including the study of Antarctica’s role in the Earth System. SCAR adds value to research conducted by individual nations by facilitating and encouraging researchers to extend beyond their programmes and to partner with other colleagues worldwide that have similar or complimentary research interests. Collectively, SCAR programmes can often accomplish research objectives that are not easily obtainable by any single country, research group, or researcher.

Through its biennial Open Science Conference SCAR provides a forum for the community of polar scientists, researchers, and students to gather to report on the latest science, exchange ideas and explore new opportunities. SCAR also supports research Fellows and provides a broad range of data management and information products and services.

SCAR provides objective and independent scientific advice on the underlying scientific knowledge and principles necessary for the wise management of the Antarctic environment by the Antarctic Treaty Parties (through Consultative Meetings); the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR); the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals (CCAS), the Advisory Committee of the Agreement on Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) and the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programmes (COMNAP).

SCAR has led the development of a network of the four main bodies of the International Council for Science (ICSU) that are concerned with research in the Polar Regions and/or the cryosphere; these include SCAR, the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), and the newly formed International Association for Cryospheric Sciences (IACS) of the International Union for Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG). Creation of this 4-component network will help to ensure that polar scientific research is effectively coordinated.

We are now in the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2009, to which SCAR is making a significant contribution through its scientific research programmes. In recognition of the importance of the IPY the SCAR Open Science Conference for July 8-11 2008 (St Petersburg, Russia) has been broadened to be the SCAR/IASC Open Science Conference, and has the theme “Polar Research – Arctic and Antarctic Perspectives in the IPY”. The IPY Steering Committee has formally adopted it as the first of three thematic IPY conferences (the second will be in Oslo in June 2010 and the third in Canada in 2012). Planning for the conference, which has attracted almost 1400 registrants, has occupied much of the year. 

SCAR leverages its limited resources by partnering with selected global science programmes, providing them with an Antarctic perspective. These include the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), elements of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), the International Permafrost Association (IPA), the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), the Partnership for Observations of the Global Ocean (POGO), the Census of Marine Life (COML), the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR), and the Scientific Committee on Solar Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP).  

During 2007, SCAR’s research focused on five themes in Antarctic science: (i) the modern ocean-atmosphere-ice system; (ii) the evolution of climate over the past 34 million years since glaciation began; (iii) the response of life to change; (iv) preparations to study subglacial lakes and their environs; and (v) the response of the Earth’s outer atmosphere to the changing impact of the solar wind at both poles. Highlights of scientific discoveries include:

1. A new medium depth (136 m) ice core has been drilled in a high accumulation site on the southwestern Antarctic Peninsula. It records a doubling of accumulation since the 1850s, with acceleration in recent decades. This rapid increase is strongly associated with changes in the regional meteorology – especially in the Southern hemisphere Annular Mode (SAM).
2. Excess deuterium data from Dome A shallow ice cores show an increasing trend during the past ~4000 years, implying that the average moisture sources of Dome A in the southern hemisphere are moving equatorwards.
3. New marine geological data suggest the possibility of rapid and synchronous ice retreat from much of Antarctica’s continental margin following the last glaciation, beginning about 11,500 years ago and lasting less than 1,000 years, which may be related to globally-relevant meltwater pulses.
4. The latest inventory of Antarctic subglacial lakes and aquatic environments has identified more than 160 features. The spectrum of subglacial environments provides a framework for comparing and contrasting lake environments enhancing our ability to test hypotheses about the origin, evolution, and significance of subglacial aquatic environments.
5. Tests of the extent to which auroral events in both hemispheres are joined together (inter-hemispheric conjugacy) have long showed that some auroral structures are synchronous and may even pulsate in tune (i.e. are conjugate). Recent observations with ground-based all-sky TV-cameras confirm this conjugacy but also show some non-conjugate auroras: (i) pulsating auroras in both hemispheres with different spatial appearance and period, and (ii) pulsating auroras in one hemisphere only.
6. A continent-wide analysis of biological distribution patterns provides many independent examples of long-term persistence and evolution within Antarctica, over timescales from the Pleistocene to Gondwana breakup, providing a new challenge and constraint to reconstructions of the history of ice on the continent.

SCAR XXX IP02: Environmental Code of Conduct for Terrestrial Scientific Field Research in Antarctica

Background

SCAR has developed a Code of Conduct for the guidance of scientists undertaking terrestrial scientific field research in Antarctica. Reference was made to the need for this Code during CEP IX (Paragraph 132), where SCAR offered to make a version available. The following constitutes a text that has been discussed within the SCAR community and with COMNAP. Further input from COMNAP was received following the COMNAP meeting in June in St Petersburg, and at the meeting of the SCAR Standing Scientific Group on Life Sciences at XXX SCAR in July in St Petersburg, Russia. Amendments made in during these meetings were inserted in the document, which will be submitted to the XXX SCAR Delegates Meeting in Moscow for comment. Once the document is completed it will be submitted as an Information Paper to the ATCM and CEP (in June 2009).

The requirement, expressed in this code of conduct, of avoiding to introduce alien propagules is common in several management plans for Antarctic Specially Protected Areas and in operational procedures of research stations but expressed in different terminology and wording in the different protocols. A unified code of conduct for fieldwork anywhere in the Antarctic, including protected areas using a common terminology for the same process was felt necessary.

SCAR XXX IP03a: Report of Chief Officers’ Meeting, Washington, DC, July 2007

SCAR Chief Officers’ Meeting, Washington, USA, 7th July 2007

SCAR XXX IP03b: Report of Cross-SSG Linkages Meeting Rome, November, 2006

SCAR Cross-Linkages Workshop 6-8 November 2006

Societa Geografica Italiana, Villa Celimontana, Rome, Italy

SCAR XXX IP04: Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment (ACCE): A Progress Report

This is the Executive Summary of the ACCE report as presented in the form of Information Paper 62 for the XXXI Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting and XI meeting of the Committee on Environmental Protection, in Kiev, June 2-13, 2008. SCAR’s AGCS programme was asked to take the lead in preparing the report, which considers the past and possible future changes in the physical environment of the Antarctic and the impact on the biota. Many individuals have contributed to the report and we now have a draft available for consultation. The full report is about 500 pages in length and is available as a single 15 MB PDF file (link obsolete). 

SCAR XXX IP05: Report of the Standing Committee on ATS (XXX ATCM)

Introduction

The meeting in New Delhi took place at Vigyan Bhavan from 30 April to 11 May 2007.

The SCAR Delegation comprised Colin Summerhayes (Head), Steven Chown, and Chris Rapley who presented the SCAR lecture. The Director of the IPY-IPO was initially included in the SCAR Delegation, though it later turned out that ATCM provided him with a separate IPY-IPO name-plate.

Most of the Members of SC-ATS attended the meeting (S. Chown, C. Kennicutt, H. Miller, S. Marenssi), which facilitated decision making on key issues concerning SCAR’s presentations to the CEP and the ATCM.

The SCAR lecture took place between 1130 and 1300 on Wednesday May 2. SCAR hosted a reception immediately after the lecture to bring delegates together. The Indian organisers shared the costs of the reception.

SCAR XXX IP06: Report of the Standing Committee on ATS (XXXI ATCM)

Introduction

The meeting in Ukraine took place at the Hotel Rus, Kiev, from 2^nd to 13^th June 2008.

The SCAR Delegation comprised Colin Summerhayes (Head of Delegation), Steven Chown (leading the CEP Delegation), Mike Sparrow, and Louis Lanzerotti who presented the SCAR lecture. SCAR also represented the IPY-IPO.

Most of the Members of SC-ATS attended the meeting (S. Chown, C. Kennicutt, H. Miller, S. Marenssi), which facilitated decision making on key issues concerning SCAR’s presentations to the CEP and the ATCM.

SCAR XXX IP07: Report of SCAR Observer to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR)

Report of the Twenty-sixth Meeting on the Commission for CCAMLR

Hobart, Australia, 22 October to 2 November 2007

Graham Hosie – SCAR-CCAMLR Liaison

SCAR XXX IP08: The SCAR 50^th Anniversary Book Draft

SCAR XXX IP09: SCAR Awards

SCAR XXX IP10i: SCAR Fellowships 2007-2008

SCAR XXX IP10ii: SCAR Fellowships 2008-2009

SCAR XXX IP11: SCAR’s Relations with Partners

Background

As specified in the SCAR Strategic Plan, SCAR’s will foster the development of partnerships with global research organisations having an Antarctic interest, to reinforce the value of the efforts of both, and to avoid duplication.

In particular, SCAR’s links with ICSU and its subsidiary and related scientific bodies continue to increase.

SCAR continues to work closely with ICSU as a member of the ICSU-WMO Joint Committee for the IPY, which steers the IPY process (SCAR’s President and Executive Director are both members of the JC, along wit past SCAR Vice President Jeronimo Lopez-Martinez, and the Chair of the SCAR/SCOR Oceanography Expert Group, Eberhard Fahrbach).

Details of the science carried out by the programmes listed below can be found in the Annual Report (IP01):

• International Council fro Science (ICSU)
• World Climate Research Programme (WCRP)
• Integrated Climate and Ecosystem Dynamics in the Southern Ocean (ICED)
• Past Global Change (PAGES)
• Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR)
• Scientific Committee on Solar-terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP)
• CODATA Programme and IPY Data Links

SCAR XXX IP12: Report of the XXIX SCAR Delegates Meeting, Hobart, July 2006

SCAR XXX IP13: Report of the SCAR Executive Committee Meeting, Washington DC, July 2007

SCAR XXX IP14: Draft Report of the SCAR Executive Committee Meeting, St Petersburg, July 2008

Report of SCAR Executive Committee (EXCOM) Meeting, St Petersburg, Russia
9.00-18.00 July 7, 2008

SCAR XXX IP16i: The SCAR Implementation Plan 2006-2008, as at May 2008

The SCAR Implementation Plan July 2006-July 2008 

Revised at EXCOM, July 2007 

Actions updated end May 2008 

INTRODUCTION:

SCAR’s overall goals are set out in broad detail in the SCAR Strategic Plan 2004-2010, published on the SCAR web site at https://www.scar.org/horizon/strategic-plans/ (updated link).

SCAR works to a biennial cycle that culminates in the biennial SCAR meetings. At these meetings and at meetings of the Executive Committee in intervening years, the tasks and milestones are identified that must be met during the next biennial cycle, to meet SCAR’s overall objectives. These action items form the basis for an Implementation Plan, which extends from one biennial SCAR meeting to the next. Both the Strategic Plan and the Implementation Plan guide the achievement of SCAR’s mission, which is:

“to be the leading independent organisation for facilitating and coordinating Antarctic research, and for identifying issues emerging from greater scientific understanding of the region that should be brought to the attention of policy makers”. 

To achieve that mission, SCAR aims to achieve the following objectives:

1. to initiate, develop, and co-ordinate high quality international scientific research in the Antarctic region, and on the role of the Antarctic region in the Earth system;
2. to provide objective and independent scientific advice to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings and other organizations on issues of science and conservation affecting the management of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.
3. to facilitate free and unrestricted access to Antarctic scientific data and information;
4. to develop scientific capacity in all SCAR Members, especially with respect to younger scientists, and to promote the incorporation of Antarctic science in education at all levels;
5. to communicate scientific information about the Antarctic region to the public.
6. to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and flexibility of the structure, working mechanisms and practices of SCAR.
7. to increase funding to match requirements, and to maintain a healthy funding stream.

The Implementation Plan is organised into the same 7 sections as the Strategic Plan. Each section addresses one of the 7 objectives listed above, and includes tasks and milestones identified during the meetings of the Executive Committee and Delegates in Hobart. The tasks are to be accomplished by specific parties including the Secretariat and the Executive Committee. Another set of tasks and milestones identified in Hobart during the business meetings of the SSGs, is not addressed here, but will be considered for action by the officers of the SSGs during the inter-sessional period.

SCAR XXX IP16ii: Achievements Against Strategic Plan Goals

SCAR XXX IP17: Report on SCAR Communications and Publications

Overview

This short information paper has been prepared as an update to SCAR Communications and Publications since the last Delegates meeting in Hobart, 2006.

SCAR XXX IP18: SCAR Brochure