Open Access
Precautionary spatial protection to facilitate the scientific study of habitats and communities under ice shelves in the context of recent, rapid, regional climate change
TLDR
In this article, the authors highlight why commercial fishing activities should not be permitted in these habitats, and suggest that areas under existing ice shelves in Subareas 88.3, 48.1 and 48.5 should be preserved and protected for scientific study.Abstract:
Recent rapid climate change is now well documented in the Antarctic, particularly in the Antarctic Peninsula region. One of the most evident signs of climate change has been
ice-shelf collapse; overall, 87% of the Peninsula’s glaciers have retreated in recent decades. Further ice-shelf collapse will lead to the loss of existing marine habitats and to the creation of new habitats, with consequent changes in both ecological processes and in community structure. Habitats revealed by collapsed ice shelves therefore offer unique scientific opportunities. Given the complexity of the possible interactions, and the need to study these in the absence of any other human-induced perturbation, this paper highlights why commercial fishing activities should not be permitted in these habitats, and suggests that areas under existing ice shelves in Subareas 88.3, 48.1 and 48.5 should be preserved
and protected for scientific study. The boundaries of these areas should henceforth remain fixed, even if the ice shelves recede or collapse in the future. Designation of areas under ice shelves as areas for scientific study would fulfil one of the recommendations made by the Antarctic Treaty Meeting of Experts in 2010.read more
Citations
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Linkages between vulnerability, resilience, and adaptive capacity
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyse les relations conceptuelles (imprecises) de la vulnerabilite, de la resilience and de la capacite d'adaptation aux changements climatiques selon le systeme socioecologique (socio-ecologigal systems -SES) afin de comprendre and anticiper le comportement des composantes sociales et ecologiques du systeme.
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Consensus management in Antarctica's high seas – past success and current challenges
Jessica A. Nilsson,Jessica A. Nilsson,Elizabeth A. Fulton,Elizabeth A. Fulton,Marcus Haward,Craig R. Johnson +5 more
TL;DR: The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) has managed the ecosystems of the high seas of the Southern Ocean since 1982 as discussed by the authors, and is seen as an example of best practice in managing marine resources in international waters.
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Update on the global abundance and distribution of breeding Gentoo Penguins ( Pygoscelis papua)
TL;DR: The assessment identifies South Georgia and sub-Antarctic islands in the Indian Ocean as being the most critical data gaps for this species and suggests that the global population has increased by approximately 11% since 2013, with even greater increases along the WAP.
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Southern Ocean fishery management - Is CCAMLR addressing the challenges posed by a changing climate?
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluate the extent to which these recommendations have been implemented in the global and regional legal frameworks, the flexibility and resilience to tackle climate change of the provisions can be assessed.
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Utilising IPCC assessments to support the ecosystem approach to fisheries management within a warming Southern Ocean
Rachel D. Cavanagh,Philip N. Trathan,Simeon L. Hill,Jess Melbourne-Thomas,Jess Melbourne-Thomas,Michael P. Meredith,Philip R. Hollyman,Bjørn A. Krafft,M. Muelbert,Eugene J. Murphy,Martin Sommerkorn,John Turner,Susie M. Grant +12 more
TL;DR: The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) is aware of the urgent need to develop climate-responsive options within its ecosystem approach to management.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Environmental forcing and Southern Ocean marine predator populations: effects of climate change and variability
TL;DR: Oscillating climate signals such as ENSO potentially provide a unique opportunity to explore how biological communities respond to change, based on the premise that biological responses to shorter-term sub-decadal climate variability signals are potentially the best predictor of biological responses over longer time-scales.
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Catastrophic ice-shelf break-up by an ice-shelf-fragment-capsize mechanism
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors proposed a mechanism that may sustain and accelerate the break-up of Larsen A and B ice shelves by rolling 90° in a direction toward, or away from, the ice front.
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Biodiversity change after climate-induced ice-shelf collapse in the Antarctic
Julian Gutt,Iain Barratt,Eugene W. Domack,Cédric d'Udekem d'Acoz,Werner Dimmler,Antoine Grémare,Olaf Heilmayer,Enrique Isla,Dorte Janussen,Elaina Jorgensen,Karl-Hermann Kock,Linn Sophia Lehnert,Pablo José López-Gonzáles,Stephanie Langner,Katrin Linse,Maria Eugenia Manjón-Cabeza,Meike Meißner,Américo Montiel,Maarten Raes,Henri Robert,Armin Rose,Elisabet Sañé Schepisi,Thomas Saucède,Meike Scheidat,Hans-Werner Schenke,Jan Seiler,Craig R. Smith +26 more
TL;DR: The marine ecosystem on the eastern shelf of the Antarctic Peninsula was surveyed 5 and 12 years after the climate-induced collapse of the Larsen A and B ice shelves, and an impoverished benthic fauna was discovered, that included deep-sea species presumed to be remnants from ice-covered conditions as discussed by the authors.
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Evolution and diversity of the benthic fauna of the Southern Ocean continental shelf
TL;DR: The modern benthic fauna of the Antarctic continental shelf is characterized by the lack of active, skeleton-breaking (durophagous) predators such as crabs, lobsters and many fish.
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Long-term temperature trends in the deep waters of the Weddell Sea
TL;DR: In this paper, a historical data set encompassing CTD and bottle data from 1912 to 2000 was analyzed for temporal trends in the deep water masses: warm deep water (WDW) and Weddell Sea deep waters (WSDW).
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