Description: The latent heat fluxes (LHF) and sensible heat fluxes (SHF) over the Southern Ocean from six different data sets are inter-compared for the period 1988- 2000. The six data sets include three satellite-based products, namely, the second version of the Goddard Satellite-Based Surface Turbulent Fluxes data set (GSSTF-2), the third version of the Hamburg Ocean Atmosphere Parameters and Fluxes from Satellite Data (HOAPS-3) and the Japanese Ocean Fluxes Data Sets with Use of Remote Sensing Observations (J-OFURO); two global reanalysis products, namely, the National Centers for Environmental Prediction-Department of Energy Reanalysis 2 data set (NCEP-2) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts 40 Year Re-analysis data set (ERA-40); and the Objectively Analyzed Air-Sea Fluxes for the Global Oceans data set (OAFlux). All these products reveal a similar pattern in the averaged flux fields. The zonal mean LHF fields all exhibit a continuous increase equatorward. With an exception of HOAPS-3, the zonal mean SHF fields display a minimum value near 50°S, increasing both pole- and equatorward. The differences in the standard deviation for LHF are larger among the six data products than the differences for SHF. Over the regions where the surface fluxes are significantly influenced by the Antarctic Oscillation and the Pacific-South American teleconnection, the values and distributions of both LHF and SHF are consistent among the six products. It was found that the spatial patterns of the standard deviations and trends of LHF and SHF can be explained primarily by sea-air specific humidity and temperature differences; wind speed plays a minor role. Keywords: Latent heat flux; sensible heat flux; Southern Ocean (Published: 17 November 2011) Citation: Polar Research 2011, 30 , 10167, DOI: 10.3402/polar.v30i0.10167

Description: Like many other first-time Arctic explorers Austrian Christiane Ritter (1897–2000) claims to have been inspired by the reports of others. In her case she decided to travel to Spitsbergen after reading the diaries written and sent to her by her husband Hermann, who had spent three winters there as a hunter–trapper. A woman in the polar night, Ritter’s eloquent account of her experiences while overwintering with him in Gråhuken on Wijdefjorden in the mid-1930s, also has the form of a journal. Apart from an introductory chapter sketching the background of her journey, and underscoring her own complete ignorance of what she had in store, it is written mainly in a continual present tense. This allows the reader to follow her evolving perspective on life in the Far North – as well as on European culture viewed from a distance that gradually becomes mental as well as geographical. The book is therefore full of firsts: from “the first glimmerings of the relentless nature of the Arctic”, to her first experience, towards the end of her stay, of sharing her husband’s “hunting fever”. (Published: 14 October 2011) Citation: Polar Research 2011, 30 , 9801, DOI: 10.3402/polar.v30i0.9801

Description: The McMurdo Dry Valleys are one of the most arid environments on Earth. Over the soil landscape for the majority of the year, biological and ecosystem processes in the dry valleys are constrained by the low temperatures and limited availability of water. The prevalence of these physical limitations in controlling biological and ecosystem processes makes the dry valleys a climatesensitive system, poised to experience substantial changes following projected future warming. Short-duration increases in summer temperatures are associated with pulses of water from melting ice reserves, including glaciers, snow and permafrost. Such pulses alter soil geochemistry by mobilizing and redistributing soil salts (via enhanced weathering, solubility and mobility), which can alter habitat suitability for soil organisms. Resulting changes in soil community composition or distribution may alter the biogeochemical processes in which they take part. Here, we review the potential impacts of meltwater pulses and present new field data documenting instances of meltwater pulse events that result from different water sources and hydrological patterns, and discuss their potential influence on soil biology and biogeochemistry. We use these examples to discuss the potential impacts of future climate change on the McMurdo Dry Valley soil ecosystem. Keywords: Water pulse; climate change; polar desert; International Polar Year; discrete warming events; soil biogeochemistry (Published: 19 December 2011) Citation: Polar Research 2011, 30 , 14555, DOI: 10.3402/polar.v30i0.14555

Description: One of the priorities of the fourth International Polar Year (IPY) was to increase awareness of the polar regions and polar science among the general public through education, communication and other forms of outreach. This paper reports on the media coverage of Princess Elisabeth Antarctica (PEA), Belgium’s ‘‘zero-emission’’ Antarctic research station designed by the nonprofit International Polar Foundation (IPF) to run on wind and solar energy and to employ state-of-the-art forms of energy management and other ‘‘green’’ technology. This paper provides background information on PEA, a review of IPF’s media strategy for the project, a description of media coverage of the station and a discussion of the way in which the IPF’s main messages were reported in the media. IPF staff surveyed approximately 300 media reports released between February 2004, when the PEA project was announced to the general public, and June 2010, when the IPF presented their findings at the IPY conference in Oslo. PEA was featured 580 times in print and web media in Belgium, and 303 times outside Belgium. Major international agencies such as the Associated Press, Agence France Presse, the BBC, Al-Jazeera and Reuters covered the project. On television and radio, PEA was featured in news broadcasts from all four major television networks in Belgium, most major radio stations and 34 different television and radio news outlets outside Belgium. The paper concludes that the media coverage for PEA was significant and suggests reasons why the project was so widely reported. Keywords: Media and outreach; media strategy; Antarctic research stations; energy management system; renewable energy; reducing environmental footprint (Published: 30 December 2011) Citation: Polar Research 2011, 30 , 11153, DOI: 10.3402/polar.v30i0.11153

Description: The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is a crucial component of the global ocean conveyor belt, acting as a zonal link among the major ocean basins but, to some extent, limiting meridional exchange and tending to isolate the ocean south of it from momentum and heat income. In this work we investigate one of the most important mechanisms contributing to the poleward transfer of properties in the Southern Ocean, that is the eddy component of the dynamics. For this particular purpose, observations obtained from near-surface drifters have been used: they represent a very useful data set to analyse the eddy field because of their ability to catch a large number of scales of motion while providing a quasi-synoptic coverage of the investigated area. Estimates of the eddy heat and momentum fluxes are carried out using data taken from the Global Drifter Program databank; they refer to Surface Velocity Program drifter trajectories collected in the area south of 358S between 1995 and 2006. Eddy kinetic energies, variance ellipses, momentum and heat fluxes have been calculated using the pseudo-Eulerian method, showing patterns in good agreement with those present in the literature based on observational and model data, although there are some quantitative differences. The eddy fluxes have been separated into their rotational and divergent portions, the latter being responsible for the meridional transports. The associated zonal and depth-exponentially integrated meridional heat transport exhibits values spanning over a range between -0.4 PW and -1.1 PW in the ACC region, consistent with previous estimates. Keywords: Antarctic Circumpolar Current; eddy fluxes; Global Drifter Program data; Lagrangian oceanography; Helmholtz decomposition (Published: 30 December 2011) Citation: Polar Research 2011, 30 , 11203, DOI: 10.3402/polar.v30i0.11203

Description: This study investigates the rate of erosion during the 1951-2006 period on the Bykovsky Peninsula, located north-east of the harbour town of Tiksi, north Siberia. Its coastline, which is characterized by the presence of ice-rich sediment (Ice Complex) and the vicinity of the Lena River Delta, retreated at a mean rate of 0.59 m/yr between 1951 and 2006. Rates ranged from 434 m of erosion to 92 m of accretion during these 56 years and exhibited large variability (?=45.4). Ninety-seven percent of the rates observed were less than 2 m/yr and 81.6% were less than 1 m/yr. No significant trend in erosion could be recorded despite the study of five temporal subperiods within 1951-2006. Erosion modes and rates actually appear to be strongly dependant on the nature of the backshore material, erosion being stronger along low-lying coastal stretches affected by past or current thermokarst activity. The juxtaposition of wind records monitored at the town of Tiksi and erosion records yielded no significant relationship despite strong record amplitude for both data sets. We explain this poor relationship by the only rough incorporation of sea-ice cover in our storm extraction algorithm, the use of land-based wind records vs. offshore winds, the proximity of the Peninsula to the Lena River Delta freshwater and sediment plume and the local topographical constraints on wave development. Keywords: coastal erosion, permafrost, Arctic, climate change, Russia (Published: 15 September 2011) Citation: Polar Research 2011, 30 , 7341, DOI: 10.3402/polar.v30i0.7341

Description: Antarctic tourism has grown rapidly in volume and diversified into an ever wider range of activities, transport modes and destinations. Antarctica is a global commons, which limits the range of options for regulating tourism development. This configuration has raised concerns and debates among academics, policy makers and interest groups about the challenges for regulation and management in the long term. Based on a literature review of recently published research and policy papers, this article takes stock of the current state of knowledge about the strategic challenges facing Antarctic tourism regulators and proposes ways forward for research and policy. Three clusters of strategic challenges are presented: addressing collective interests in the face of increasingly diverging interests of actors; the complex nature and indeterminacy of Antarctic tourism processes and impacts across different spatial and temporal scales; and the reliance on shared responsibility in developing and implementing tourism policy. In light of these strategic challenges, this article outlines aspects that need to be improved if a more strategic governance approach is to be embraced towards Antarctic tourism. The paper posits that a collective strategy on Antarctic tourism should be positioned at the heart of Antarctic tourism regulation and should be developed to address upcoming challenges more comprehensively and consistently. Finally, besides identifying policy instruments capable of contributing towards this strategy, independent monitoring and observation systems ought to be created to guarantee impartial checks and balances with regard to Antarctic tourism. Keywords: Tourism; Antarctica; development governance; strategic (Published: 20 February 2012) Citation: Polar Research 2012, 31 , 17219, DOI: 10.3402/polar.v31i0.17219

Description: For over 50 years the Antarctic has been governed through the Antarctic Treaty, an international agreement now between 49 nations of whom 28 Consultative Parties (CPs) undertake the management role. Ostensibly, these Parties have qualified for their position on scientific grounds, though diplomacy also plays a major role. This paper uses counts of policy papers and science publications to assess the political and scientific outputs of all CPs over the last 18 years. We show that a subset of the original 12 Treaty signatories, consisting of the seven claimant nations, the USA and Russia, not only set the political agenda for the continent but also provide most of the science, with those CPs producing the most science generally having the greatest political influence. None of the later signatories to the Treaty appear to play a major role in managing Antarctica compared with this group, with half of all CPs collectively producing only 7% of the policy papers. Although acceptance as a CP requires demonstration of a substantial scientific programme, the Treaty has no formal mechanism to review whether a CP continues to meet this criterion. As a first step to addressing this deficiency, we encourage the CPs collectively to resolve to hold regular international peer reviews of their individual science programmes and to make the results available to the other CPs. Keywords: Governance; claimant states; Antarctic policy; scientific publications. (Published: 12 April 2012) Citation: Polar Research 2012, 31 , 11075, DOI: 10.3402/polar.v31i0.11075

Description: King George Island is the largest island and the principal area used for research bases in Antarctica. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Poland, Russia, South Korea and Uruguay have permanent open bases on this island. Other countries have seasonal summer stations on different parts of this island, which demonstrates that human impact is strong on King George Island relative to other areas in the maritime and continental Antarctica. The objective of this work was to present a phytosociological approach for ice-free areas of Hennequin Point, eastern coast of Admiralty Bay, King George Island. The study started with the classification and description of the plant communities based primarily on phytosociological and biodiversity data. The area was mapped using an Astech Promark II® DGPS, yielding sub-metric precision after post-processing with software. The plant communities were described as follows: (1) lichen and moss cushion formation; (2) moss carpet formation; (3) fellfield formation; (4) grass and cushion chamaephyte formation; and (5) Deschampsia Antarctica– lichen formation. Characterizations and distributions of the plant communities are presented on a map at a scale of 1:5000. The plant communities found at Hennequin Point, in general, differ from those found in other areas of the Admiralty Bay region, probably because of the concentration of skua nests in the area and the relief singularities. We conclude by highlighting the importance of the study of plant species found in the ice-free areas of the Antarctic with respect to environmental monitoring and for evaluating global climate and environmental changes. Keywords: Plant communities mapping; lichens; mosses; flowering plants; Antarctic (Published: 7 August 2013) Citation: Polar Research 2013, 32 , 19261, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/polar.v32i0.19261

Description: In this study, we have determined the contents and distribution of zinc and cadmium in the surface sediments from Prydz Bay, East Antarctica. The main sources of the trace elements and their geographic heterogeneity, and the relation between Zn and Cd, are discussed based on the cluster analysis, principle component analysis and considerations of biogenic and lithogenic inputs. The results show that the contents of trace metals range from 34.6 to 96.6 mg kg -1 for Zn, and from 0.254 to 0.441 mg kg -1 for Cd. Calculations of the enrichment factor indicated no significant anthropogenic impact. Biogenic and lithogenic inputs are the main sources of trace metals. They are almost equal for Zn and Cd at the Amery Ice Shelf edge, while the continental shelf and deep ocean are dominated by biogenic inputs. The contribution of biogenic inputs is much higher for Zn than for Cd at the deep ocean. Calculations of biogenic trace metals revealed different relationships between biogenic Zn and biogenic Cd, which reflect the biological uptake by phytoplankton in the water column. Keywords: Trace elements; sources; enrichment factor; cluster analysis; principal component analysis; Antarctica. (Published: 24 July 2013) Citation: Polar Research 2013, 32 , 20049, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/polar.v32i0.20049