Documents

SCAR Bulletin, No. 171, April 2009

Report of SCAR 3rd Cross-Linkages Workshop, February 2009

SCAR Bulletin, No. 172, May 2009

Report from the SCAR Delegation to XXXII ATCM in Baltimore, USA, 6-17 April 2009

Introduction

The XXXII Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) took place in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, at the Baltimore Convention Centre from 6th to 17th April 2009. In parallel with the start of the Committee on Environmental Protection (CEP) XII in Baltimore on April 6th, a joint session between the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties (ATCPs) and the Arctic Council was held at the US State Department in Washington DC. US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, and the President of the Arctic Council addressed the joint meeting. It featured the endorsement of a joint Ministerial Declaration on the International Polar Year 2007-2008 (IPY) (Appendix 1). The session was followed by an afternoon presentation on the science of IPY by US scientists at the US National Academy’s headquarters, in Washington, DC. Videos of these presentation videos are available at: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=114688.

The SCAR Delegation consisted of C Summerhayes (Head of Delegation), C Kennicutt, M Sparrow, and K Lochte, who presented the SCAR lecture. The Chairman of SCAR’s Standing Committee on the Antarctic Treaty System (SC-ATS), S Chown, sent his regrets for being unable to attend. Several of the Members of SC- ATS attended the meeting (C Kennicutt, H Miller, S Marenssi, J Shears), which facilitated decision making on key issues concerning SCAR’s presentations to the CEP and the ATCM. SCAR Vice-Presidents R Ravindra and S Marenssi were also present.

SCAR Bulletin, No. 173, September 2009

Report of the SCAR Executive Committee (EXCOM) Meeting, Punta Arenas, Chile, 5-7 August 2009

SCAR Bulletin, No. 174, March 2010

SCAR Annual Report 2009

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.

During 2009, SCAR’s research continued focusing on five themes:

1. the modern ocean-atmosphere-ice system;
2. the evolution of climate over the past 34 million years since glaciation began;
3. the response of life to change;
4. preparations to study subglacial lakes and their environs; and
5. the response of the Earth’s outer atmosphere to the changing impact of the solar wind at both poles.

Highlights of recent scientific discoveries include:

1. SCAR published a major 560-page interdisciplinary review of “Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment (ACCE)” (http://www.scar.org/publications/occasionals/acce.html) showing how the climate has changed in the past and is likely to change in the future, with probable effects on the biota, notably declines in reproductive success with ocean warming and declining sea ice off the Antarctic Peninsula.
2. Increased growth in Antarctic sea ice during the past three decades is a result of the strengthening of surface winds around Antarctica caused by development of the ozone hole; these winds have limited the impact of global warming on Antarctic climate. When ozone levels recover, towards 2070, sea ice is likely to retreat considerably.
3. ICESTAR scientists present in Nature images of the aurora taken simultaneously in the Northern and the Southern hemispheres. These images reveal indisputable evidence that the auroras in the two hemispheres can be totally asymmetric. These findings contradict the commonly made assumption of aurora being mirror images of each other. See Nature 460, 491-493 (2009).
4. An international scientific consortium that includes ICESTAR team members successfully developed a series of autonomous observatories in Antarctica that for the first time provide critical year-round “space weather” data from the Earth’s harshest environment. Data from these observatories were used in conjunction with the array of THEMIS satellites to reveal new information about magnetospheric substorms, the sudden release of energy that causes auroral displays. See J. Geophys. Res., doi: 10.1029 /2008JA013507.
5. Thanks to the impetus of the International Polar Year, some 620 scientists and students participated in SCAR-sanctioned IPY studies from over 25 countries. Over 8,600 species have been authenticated by taxonomic experts as living in the Antarctic.
6. The CAML-led barcoding campaign in collaboration with the CCDB Guelph, Canada and the marine EBA community extended the number of Antarctic DNA barcodes from 3,500 pre-2009 to over 10,000 to date. These data show clear evidence of a high numbers of cryptic species in the Antarctic benthos, especially in species previously thought to have circum- Antarctic distributions
7. Recent research shows that terrestrial, shelf and deeper water biotas all have components that survived repeated glaciations in what appear to be temporary and shifting refugia, which likely also contributed to substantial radiation in the marine biota (reviewed in Quaternary Science Reviews (vol. 28, 3035-3048).
8. The IPY Aliens in Antarctica project discovered that people involved in national programme activities in the Antarctic carried twice as many alien propagules on their clothing and equipment as did Antarctic tourists. These aliens were mainly vascular plant seeds, bryophytes and lichens. Most were found in packs and bags and on hiking footwear. This demonstrates the importance of designing measures to prevent introduction of foreign biota into the Antarctic and transfer within.
9. The ACE-supported ANDRILL Programme recovered >2400 metres of sediment from McMurdo Sound spanning more than 20 million years (Ma) of climate and ice sheet history, providing numerical modellers with new constraints on ice sheet behaviour and Ross Sea conditions. ANDRILL cores record obliquity-paced Pliocene cycles (60 glacial interglacial cycles, with 38 in the last 5Ma), with periodical collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS), resulting in a switch from grounded ice and ice shelves to open water environments in the Ross Sea Embayement (Naish et al., Nature 2009). These findings are consistent with a new ice sheet/ice shelf model, which simulates fluctuations of the WAIS, in response to ocean induced melting, that are capable of generating up to 7m of sea level change (and up to 3 m from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet).
10. The first SCAR Data and Information Strategy (DIMS) was published, defining the direction for SCAR data management activities over the next 5 years, emphasises the need to leverage established regional, global and thematic data-centric networks to improve data management capability within the Antarctic science community as a whole.
11. SCAR successfully ran the first year of the Martha T Muse Prize for Science and Policy in Antarctica, a $100,000 unrestricted yearly prize given to an early to mid-career individual who has demonstrated excellence and the potential or leadership in Antarctic science or policy. Dr Steven Chown was the inaugural recipient. Presentation of the award and a lecture by Dr Chown will take place at the Oslo IPY Conference in June 2010.

SCAR Bulletin, No. 175, May 2010

Report from the SCAR Delegation to XXXIII ATCM, Punta del Este, Uruguay, 3-14 May 2010

Summary

SCAR’s contributions to the XXXIII Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) were positively received. Several SCAR submissions were praised by many of the Parties. The Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment (ACCE) report was seen as critical to the success of the Antarctic Treaty Meeting of Experts (ATME) on Climate Change and annual updates on climate change were welcomed as essential for the ongoing deliberations of the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP) and the ATCM. Climate will be a separate agenda item for the CEP and the Antarctic Treaty Parties look to SCAR for science leadership as climate is seen as relevant to most CEP agenda items. A Resolution on the SCAR ACCE Report (Resolution 4 – see Appendix 1) and a Decision (Decision 5 – see Appendix 2) were adopted welcoming the report and associated updates and encouraging the dissemination of the findings of the ACCE report to relevant national and international bodies. SCAR noted it has already extensively distributed the report and will continue to widely communicate its conclusions. Many parties were interested in progress with the Southern Ocean Observing System (which was presented both at CEP and at the ATCM). SCAR will provide a final version of the plan for the XXXIV ATCM in Buenos Aires.

The introduction of the non-native species papers were lauded as setting the stage for future directions on this issue by the Parties. There is a plan to develop a guide of best practices and it will draw extensively on information provided by SCAR and the IPY Aliens project for directions. Results of the IPY Aliens project will continue to be reported by SCAR at future ATCMs as they become available. It was noted that “introduction of non-indigenous species” was a preferred terminology.

The application of biodiversity data to the bioregionalization efforts by New Zealand was seen as a major development in moving toward a more regularized approach to selection of Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPAs) and conservation in general. SCAR will work with New Zealand and other interested Parties on advancing this as a framework for conservation efforts. The CEP acknowledged that the lack of baseline Antarctic biodiversity information was a critical data gap in recognizing non- indigenous species and called on all Parties to address this deficit in knowledge.

The 2011 SCAR “a review of conservation practice for Antarctica in the 21st century” workshop was seen as an important next step in conservation efforts and participation by Parties was encouraged. CCAMLR’s Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are progressing and SCAR participation in these activities was encouraged. The point was made that terrestrial and marine concepts in this area will need to be harmonized to ensure continuity in the designation of protected areas in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. In the future these two protective measures will need to interface in a seamless manner. SCAR should contribute to the MPA discussions (the invitation to the CCAMLR workshop in South Africa in July 2010) to ensure a common basis for protection across all of Antarctica.

The Parities welcomed the SCAR contribution on bioprospecting. SCAR’s survey and literature review revealed the extent of current bioprospecting and the potential for future biotechnology based on Antarctic organisms. Dr. Gerday’s lecture was well received by Parties and many requested copies of the presentation. Bioprospecting will remain on the ATCM agenda, however no follow-no ICG was formed. SCAR awaits development of the next steps in regard to this agenda item.

Requests for follow-on work were moderate and SCAR’s advisory workload seems to be less demanding than in recent years. This development is welcomed as it allows SCAR to more closely align its work with CEP/ATCM needs and bring a balance between ATCM requests for advice and SCAR initiatives. SCAR plans to utilize this opportunity to become increasingly proactive in advising the CEP on relevant issues in addition to responding to requests for advice.

SCAR Bulletin, No. 176, November 2010

Report of the XXXI SCAR Delegates Meeting, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 9-11 August 2010

SCAR Bulletin, No. 177, June 2011

SCAR Annual Report 2010

SCAR’s scientific research adds value to national efforts by enabling national researchers to collaborate on large-scale scientific programmes to accomplish objectives not easily obtainable by any single country. SCAR’s members currently include scientific academies of 36 nations and 9 ICSU scientific unions.

SCAR provides independent scientific advice in support of the wise management of the Antarctic environment, in partnership with the Antarctic Treaty Parties and other bodies such as the CEP, CCAMLR, COMNAP, and ACAP.

SCAR’s success depends on the quality and timeliness of its scientific outputs, which in most cases are assessed through external peer-review. Descriptions of SCAR’s research programmes and scientific outputs are available at www.scar.org and are summarised in this paper.

SCAR produces an electronic quarterly Newsletter highlighting relevant science and other SCAR related issues. Please email [email protected] if you would like to be added to the mailing list.

SCAR Bulletin, No. 178, June 2011

Report of the SCAR 4th Cross Linkages Meeting, Ottawa, Canada, 5-6 May 2011

SCAR Bulletin, No. 179, August 2011

Report from the SCAR Delegation to XXXIV ATCM, Buenos Aires, 20 June – 1 July 2011

Introduction

The XXXIV Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina from the 20th of June to 1st of July 2011.

The SCAR Delegation consisted of M D Sparrow, M C Kennicutt II and R. Badhe. M C Kennicutt also presented the SCAR lecture. The SC-ATS Chair, S Chown and invited expert J Lee were unable to attend due to flight cancellations brought on by a volcanic eruption in Chile. However, S Chown provided the SCAR Delegation substantive comments on relevant papers, which were very helpful. SCAR Vice Presidents R Ravindra, Y-D Kim and S Marenssi were also present as part of their national delegations as was deputy Chief Officer of SC-ATS, Kevin Hughes.

SCAR BULLETIN. No 18, September 1964

Reprinted from Polar Record, Vol. 12, No. 78, 1964, pp. 330-341

IQSY Programme on Meteorology – Antarctic Stratwarm, by H. R. Phillpot

Other Content

• Scientific investigations recommended by SCAR
• International Commission on Polar Meterology
• SCAR working groups, changes in membership
• SCAR Logistics Symposium, corrections
• Proceedings from SCAR Symposium on Antarctic Biology are published “Biologie Antarctique”

SCAR Bulletin, No. 180, August 2011

Report of the SCAR Executive Committee (EXCOM) Meeting, Edinburgh, UK, 18-19 July 2011

SCAR Bulletin, No. 181, May 2012

SCAR Annual Report 2011

Introduction

SCAR’s scientific research adds value to national efforts by enabling national researchers to collaborate on large-scale scientific programmes to accomplish objectives not easily obtainable by any single country. SCAR’s members currently include the scientific academies of 36 nations and 9 ICSU scientific unions.

SCAR provides independent scientific advice in support of the wise management of the Antarctic environment, in partnership with the Antarctic Treaty Parties and other bodies such as the CEP, CCAMLR and COMNAP.

SCAR’s success depends on the quality and timeliness of its scientific outputs. Descriptions of SCAR’s research programmes and scientific outputs are available at www.scar.org. This short paper summarises past (since the last annual report) highlights and future meetings we believe will be of interest to Treaty Parties and others.

SCAR produces an electronic quarterly Newsletter highlighting relevant science and other SCAR related issues (http://www.scar.org/news/newsletters/). Please email [email protected] if you would like to be added to the mailing list. As well as the web (www.scar.org), SCAR is also available on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

SCAR Bulletin, No. 182, September 2012

Report of the SCAR Delegation to CEP XV and XXXV ATCM in Hobart, Australia, 11-20 June 2012

Introduction

The XXXV Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) and XV Meeting of the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP) took place in Hobart, Australia, from June 11-20th 2012.

The SCAR Delegation consisted of M D Sparrow (SCAR Executive Director), M C Kennicutt II (SCAR President), S L Chown (CO of SC-ATS), P O’Brien (deputy Chief Officer of SSG-GS), A Terauds (SCAR Speaker) and L Newman (SOOS Executive Officer). Only M D Sparrow and M C Kennicutt stayed for the full 8 working days of the meeting. SCAR Vice Presidents R Ravindra, Y-D Kim and S Marenssi were also present as part of their national delegations, as was deputy Chief Officer of SC-ATS, Kevin Hughes.

SCAR Bulletin, No. 183, September 2012

Report of the XXXII SCAR Delegates’ Meeting, Portland, USA, 23-25 July 2012

SCAR Bulletin, No. 184, August 2013

Report of the Programme Planning Group Meeting, Modena, Italy, January 2012

Background

A meeting was held in Modena to develop a strategic portfolio of, and explore linkages between, the next generation of SCAR Research Programmes (SRPs). An agenda is given in Appendix 1 and a list of attendees in Appendix 2. The meeting was held at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Appendix 3). A list of acronyms is included in Appendix 4.

The objective of this meeting was to plan how to present the SCAR Delegates with a coherent, linked package of new SRP programmes for approval. To do this the proposals need to be well developed, widely supported, and integrated.

After summarizing the main aims of the meeting and important dates, the first session outlined the state of play with regards to the proposals. All presentations focused on interactions with the other proposals, the Standing Committee on Antarctic Data management (SC-ADM), the Standing Committee on Antarctic Geographic Information (SC-AGI), the Standing Committee on the Antarctic Treaty System (SC- ATS) and other SCAR groups and programmes, as well as demonstrating how far advanced the proposals were. Issues that were considered included:

1. Will each proposal be ready for 2012, or would a particular proposal benefit from a workshop etc. before being delayed to 2014?
2. Does the concept rise to the level of an SRP or would an Expert Group be more appropriate?
3. Could (or should) the programmes be merged in some way, either with each other or with other SCAR groups or programmes?

The second session focused on strategy. It took into consideration that:

1. An integrated, high quality, package of new SRPs should be developed so the Delegates are not put in the position of picking and choosing. Having a united, integrated plan and submitting realistic budgets can do this.
2. Total funds available (if membership fee increases are approved) are likely to be a maximum of $120,000 including the current SRP Astronomy and Astrophysics from Antarctica (AAA). Does each proposed SRP need the full $20k for a full eight years (or $14k if the proposed fee increases are not approved)?

Consideration was also given as to how, and by whom, the package should be presented to the SSG plenary and in particular to the Delegates.

SCAR Bulletin, No. 185, August 2013

SCAR Annual Report 2012-13

Introduction

SCAR’s scientific research adds value to national efforts by enabling national researchers to collaborate on large-scale scientific programmes to accomplish objectives not easily obtainable by any single country. SCAR’s members currently include 37 nations and 9 ICSU scientific unions.

SCAR’s success depends on the quality and timeliness of its scientific outputs. Descriptions of SCAR’s research programmes and scientific outputs are available at: www.scar.org. This paper summarises SCAR highlights since the last annual report and lists future SCAR meetings we believe will be of interest to Treaty Parties and others. Selected Antarctic and Southern Ocean science highlights for 2012/13 are listed in Appendix 1.

SCAR produces an electronic quarterly Newsletter highlighting relevant science and other SCAR related issues. Please email [email protected] if you wish to be added to the mailing list. As well as the web (www.scar.org), SCAR is also available on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter.

SCAR Bulletin, No. 186, August 2013

Report from the SCAR Delegation to CEP XVI and XXXVI ATCM in Brussels, Belgium, May 2013

Introduction

The XXXVI Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) and XVI Meeting of the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP) took place in Brussels, Belgium from 20th to 29th May 2013.

The SCAR Delegation consisted of M D Sparrow (SCAR Executive Director), J López-Martínez (SCAR President), M C Kennicutt II (SCAR Past-President and SCAR Speaker), S L Chown (CO of SC-ATS), and R Badhe (SCAR Executive Officer). Only M D Sparrow and J López-Martínez stayed for the full meeting.

An item to highlight at this meeting is that the Treaty agreed on the first draft of a multi-year strategic plan. Along with the successful CEP five-year plan, these documents will be useful to SCAR when it comes to its own priority-setting for advice to the ATCM.

SCAR Bulletin, No. 187, August 2013

Report of the SCAR Executive Committee (EXCOM) Meeting in Barcelona, Spain, 22-23 July 2013

SCAR Bulletin, No. 188, October 2014

SCAR Annual Report 2013-14

Introduction

SCAR’s scientific research adds value to national efforts by enabling national researchers to collaborate on large-scale scientific programmes to accomplish objectives not easily obtainable by any single country. SCAR’s members currently include 37 nations and 9 ICSU scientific unions.

SCAR’s success depends on the quality and timeliness of its scientific outputs. Descriptions of SCAR’s research programmes and scientific outputs are available at: www.scar.org. This paper summarises SCAR highlights since the last annual report, including selected science highlights for the past year, which are listed in Appendix 1.

SCAR produces an electronic quarterly Newsletter highlighting relevant science and other SCAR related issues (www.scar.org/newsletter). Please email: [email protected] if you wish to be added to the mailing list. As well as the web (www.scar.org), SCAR is also available on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter.

SCAR Bulletin, No. 189, October 2014

Report of the SCAR Delegation to ATCM XXXVII and CEP XVII in Brasilia, Brazil, 28 April – 7 May 2014

Introduction

The SCAR Delegation consisted of Jerónimo López-Martínez (SCAR President), Michael D Sparrow (SCAR Executive Director) and Carlota Escutia-Dotti (SCAR Lecturer). Steven Chown (CO of SC-ATS) was unable to attend in person but provided comprehensive comments on the Treaty papers of interest to SCAR. Kevin Hughes (deputy CO of SC-ATS) also attended as part of the UK Delegation.