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The Environment of the Bunger Hills

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The Environment of the Bunger Hills The Environment of the Bunger Hills John A. E. Gibson Australian Antarctic Division Channel Highway Kingston Tasmania 7050 Australia September 2000 2 Contents 1. Introduction 4 1.1 Geographical setting of the Bunger Hills 4 1.2 Nomenclature 6 1.3 Occupation history 7 2. Weather 13 3. Geology, Geomorphology and Quaternary History 16 4. Lakes 17 4.1 Hydrology 17 4.1.1 Algae Lake drainage system 18 4.1.2 Ice-dammed epiglacial lakes 21 4.1.3 Epishelf lakes 24 4.1.4 Open lakes 25 4.1.5 Closed lakes 27 4.1.6 Ice-based drainage on the Apfel Glacier 28 4.1.7 Water levels and melt intensity 28 4.1.8 Ice cover 30 4.2 Physical limnology 30 4.2.1 White Smoke Lake 31 4.2.2 Lake Pol’anskogo 32 4.2.3 Lake 12 34 4.2.4 Transkriptsii Gulf 35 4.2.5 Lake 14 37 4.2.6 Lake Polest 37 4.2.7 Mixing and history of the epishelf lakes 38 4.3 Chemistry 41 4.4 Biology 45 4.4.1 Non-photosynthetic bacteria 46 4.4.2 Photosynthetic bacteria and algae 46 4.4.3 Fauna 49 4.4.3.1 Rotifers 49 4.4.3.2 Platyhelminthes 50 4.4.3.3 Copepods 50 3 5. Terrestrial Flora 53 5.1 Terrestrial algae 53 5.1.1 Stream algae 53 5.1.2 Epilithic algae 54 5.1.3 Sublithic algae 54 5.1.4 Soil algae 55 5.2 Fungi 55 5.3 Lichens 55 5.4 Mosses 67 5.5 Liverworts 69 5.6 Spatial zonation of flora 69 6 Terrestrial Fauna 70 6.1 Heterotrophic protists 70 6.2 Nematodes 71 6.3 Tardigrades 71 6.4 Mites and fleas 71 6.5 Birds 72 6.5.1 Snow petrel 72 6.5.2 Wilson’s storm petrel 73 6.5.3 South polar skua 73 6.5.4 Adélie penguin 75 6.6 Seals 76 Acknowledgments 78 References 79 Appendices 87 4 1. Introduction During the 1999/2000 summer a group of four people visited the Bunger Hills (66° 20’S, 100° 50’ E), an area of ice-free rock situated in Wilkes Land, eastern Antarctica, with the aim of gathering scientific and other information to support the development of an Environmental Impact Assessment for the use of sites in the area for landings by large aircraft capable of intercontinental flight. The following report, which describes the natural history of the Bunger Hills, was developed from observations made in the field during this visit supplemented by information published previously. This report is divided into several sections. The remainder of Section 1 deals with the geographical setting, nomenclature and occupational history of the Bunger Hills; Section 2 covers the weather; Section 3 briefly discusses the geology, geomorphology and Quaternary history; Section 4 covers the hydrology, physics, chemistry and biology of the extensive lake systems of the Hills; Section 5 discusses the terrestrial flora; and Section 6 covers the terrestrial fauna. 1.1 Geographical setting The Bunger Hills is a rocky, ice-free area located in Wilkes Land, eastern Antarctica. It is approximately 1000 km from Davis in the similarly ice-free Vestfold Hills, 450 km from Casey, and 3800 km from Hobart. It is directly south of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. The nearest permanently inhabited Antarctic station is the Russian base Mirny, located 340 km to the west, though, as discussed below, three summer stations that are occupied sporadically are located within the Bunger Hills. The Bunger Hills is surrounded on all sides by ice: to the east lies the Remenchus Glacier and the polar ice cap, to the south the Apfel Glacier, to the west the Apfel, the Edisto Ice Tongue and the Scott Glacier, and to the north the Shackleton Ice Shelf (Figure 1). It is thus different to the Vestfold Hills, which has the open ocean as one of its boundaries, but similar to Schirmacher Oasis in Dronning Maud Land (Bormann and Fritzsche, 1995). The total area is about 950 km 2, of which 420 km 2 is exposed rock (Markov et al., 1970). The remainder is a marine ecosystem that is connected to the Southern Ocean under the Shackleton Ice Shelf, which is a permanent ice shelf held in place by Mill and Bowman Islands. The ice on this marine area breaks out in some summers, and the water, though a little fresher at the surface than seawater, is marine in its 5 (a) Schirmacher Oasis Weddell Sea Beaver Lake Ablation Lake Vestfold Hills Davis South Pole Mirny Bunger Hills Amundsen Casey Sea Ross Sea N Shackleton Ice Shelf 66 ° 00’ S 0 km 10 Remenchus Glacier Currituck Peninsula Thomas Island cier Gla disto E Cacopon Inlet ue Tong Scott Glacier Continental Ice Sheet Transkriptsii Gulf Rybij Khvost Gulf Epishelf lakes Land Algae Lake Other lakes Marine Lake Ice Pol’anskogo White Smoke 66 ° 30’ S Lake Apfel Glacier 100 ° 30’ E 101 ° 00’ E Figure 1: (a) A map of Antarctica showing the location of the Bunger Hills and other places mentioned in the text; and (b) a map of the greater Bunger Hills area. 6 chemical and biological characteristics (Kulbe, 1997). The exposed land can be broken up into three main units (Markov et al., 1970): (i) a number of small islands and nunataks in the north of the oasis (Highjump Archipelago); (ii) a series of larger islands and peninsulas located in an east- west band (Geographer’s (Currituck) and Thomas Islands, and Charnockite and Geomorfologov Peninsulas) and (iii) a southern land mass, along with Aviatorov Peninsula and Fuller Island. The last unit was the only one investigated during the 1999/2000 ANARE visit, and, in general, the more northerly units are poorly known. The third unit, which is referred to as the southern Bunger Hills throughout the rest of this report, is approximately 30 km long (east-west) by 20 km wide (north-south), with an area of circa 270 km 2. The topography of the southern Bunger Hills ranges includes areas of rugged landscape in the south and southeast, with maximum relief of about 160 m. The bedrock, which consists predominantly of granulite-facies orthogneiss cut by alkaline mafic dykes (Sheraton et al., 1997), is dissected by many steep valleys often aligned along obvious linear fault systems (the most prominent of which trend 50°-230°, 120°-300°, and 0°-180°). In many places these valleys are filled by lakes, with the morphology of the largest of these, Algae Lake, which is 14.3 km 2 and 143 m deep, clearly defined by the fault system. To the north and west, the topography flattens out, with isolated hills up to 120 m high separated by areas of till-covered lowlands. Lakes still occur, but are generally smaller and rounder in outline. 1.2 Nomenclature Various features in the Bunger Hills have been given names by US, USSR, Polish and Australian expeditions. In some cases more than one name exists for the same feature, e.g., Algae Lake (US, and accepted by Australia) compared to Lake Figurno(j)(y)e (Russian). Where relevant, the names and spellings currently accepted by the Australian Antarctic Names and Medals Committee have been used in this report. However, the reader should be aware that, when consulting earlier and/or foreign literature, alternative names and spellings (especially for those transliterated from Russian) might be encountered. All names accepted by the Antarctic Names Committee of Australia in the southern Bunger Hills are shown in Figure 2, along with a number of other unofficial and/or foreign names used in this report. 7 Cacopon Inlet Southern Bunger Hills Gl’atsiologov I. Geologov I. Leon- C. Henderson Fuller I. Edisto Glacier ova Vertoletnyj B. 7 Pen. Magnit I. Magnitologov Str. Chas- Kalach I. ovoj I. C. Aviatorov P. Krylatyj Sur- Pen. Rybij ovyj Krajnij Pen. Korsor I. Shchel’ L. Khvost 3 1 Gulf L. Polest Kinz C. Eolovyj hal B Transkriptsii Gulf Edgeworth Zakrytaja B. David C. T’ulenij C. Hordern Station 9 10 6 8 Soglasija L. Zerkalnoje L. 5 Rogataja Hill Izvilistaja Bay Oasis-2 Dolinnoje L. Station Dobrowolski Station Izumrudn -oye L. L. Dolgoe 4 N Glavnyj I. Dlinnyj Pen. Algae Lake 2 C. Ostryj Vstrech I. L. Burevestnik Tikhoje L. White Smoke L. L. Pt’ich’je L. Pol’anskogo L. Dalekoje 0 5 Apfel Glacier km Figure 2: A map of the southern portion of the Bunger Hills, showing names accepted by the Antarctic Names Committee of Australia, as well as some unofficial and/or foreign names used in this report (in italics). The map is derived from a Russian map published in the Atlas Antarktiki (1966). Numbers indicate the localities of (1) Granatovaya Sopka Island; (2) Neozhidanniyj Peninsula; (3) Ostrovnaja Bay; (4) Piramidal’naya Hill; (5) Sfinks Hill; (6) Sredn’aja Hill; (7) Storozhevoj Peninsula; (8) Cape Tektonicheskij; (9) Zapadnoye Lake; and (10) Vostochnoye Lake. 1.3 Occupation history The Bunger Hills were first sighted by a party led by Frank Wild of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition’s Western Party in November 1912. They saw and named Horden Island, now known as Cape Horden, from a distance, but were unable to reach the rocky outcrop due to severe crevassing on the Denman and Scott Glaciers. The full extent of the ice-free area was first recognised in January 1947 by members of Operation Highjump, which had the aim of photographing the Antarctic coastline. A seaplane landing was made in February 1947, and the area was named the Bunger Oasis (later the Bunger Hills) after the pilot of the plane, Lieutenant Commander David Bunger USN.
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