ANTARCTICA valued, protected and understood www.aad.gov.au a window on CLIMATE CHANGE 9 Spring 2005 CONTENTS The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), an FEATURE A window on climate change 1 agency of the Department of the Environment Sharing the winter with emperor and Heritage, leads Australia’s Antarctic programme and seeks to advance Australia’s Climate change: cold, hard facts on a hot topic 2 Antarctic interests in pursuit of its vision penguins has been the most amazing of having ‘Antarctica valued, protected A new international programme for Antarctic climate research 4 and understood’. It does this by managing experience in my brief Antarctic Australian government activity in Antarctica, Warm gravel gathers more moss 5 providing transport and logistic support Southern Ocean Atlas 5 to Australia’s Antarctic research program, career. Emperors are unique in that maintaining four permanent Australian Going with the floe 6 research stations, and conducting scientific Solving an ice age mystery with a million year old ice core 8 research programs both on land and in the they manage to raise their chicks in Southern Ocean. New telescope aids climate studies 8 the harshest winter weather. In the Australia’s four Antarctic goals are: Improved treatment of ice-ocean interactions enhances • To maintain the Antarctic Treaty System and climate modelling 10 enhance Australia’s influence in it. Production in sea ice could fall 11 space of 10 weeks, in temperatures • To protect the Antarctic environment. • To understand the role of Antarctica in the Predicting snow petrel nesting habitats in East Antarctica 12 global climate system. that humans can barely cope with, • To undertake scientific work of practical, economic and national significance. SCIENCE Sounds of the ‘silent world’ 14 these tenacious and dedicated parents Australian Antarctic Magazine seeks to inform Testing the krill surplus hypothesis 16 the Australian and international Antarctic Massive icebergs on the move 17 oversee the development of their community about the activities of the Australian Antarctic programme. Opinions The Heard Island echosystem: eavesdropping on the food web 18 expressed in Australian Antarctic Magazine do tiny, fragile, hatchlings into these not necessarily represent the position of the Filming a frozen world for Planet Earth 20 Australian Government. How low can you go? New records for Antarctic weather 22 cute and charismatic little characters. Australian Antarctic Magazine is produced twice yearly. Editorial enquiries, including POlICY Antarctic tourism: more growth, new guidelines 23 requests to reproduce material or contributions Emperors fulfill an extreme challenge should be addressed to: International majority supports whale protection 24 Marine Reserve management plan in force 24 and teach us to remain humble in The Editor Australian Antarctic Magazine Liability for environmental emergencies in Antarctica 25 Australian Antarctic Division the face of Antarctica’s wild and Kingston, 7050 Acting on illegal fishing 25 Tasmania, Australia. Our environmental policy 26 unforgiving environment. Australian Antarctic Division International efforts deliver environmental rewards 28 Telephone: (03) 6232 3209 Exemplary environmental efforts recognised 28 (International 61 3 6232 3209) —Frederique Olivier email: [email protected] Antarctic Peninsula under the microscope 29 Facsimile: (03) 6232 3288 (International 61 3 6232 3288) historicaL profiLE Editor: Wendy Pyper Editorial Advisory Committee: Professor Adventure on the high seas 30 Michael Stoddart, Andrew Jackson, Sally Chambers Production: Jessica Fitzpatrick, Operations A trade in Antartica 32 Virginia Andrews-Goff, Anna Johnstone Graphic Design: e.g. design arts Art in Antarctica 34 FREEZE FRAME ISSN 1445-1735 (print version) IN BRIEF 35 IRLEY Australian Antarctic Magazine can be viewed A at Antarctica Online: <http://www.aad.gov. DE F A au/information/magazine>. A field scientist by trade, Frederique W (Fred) Olivier has dedicated the last six summers to conducting a variety of science projects down south, or guiding tourist expeditions. Spending last winter FRONT CoveR: JAMES DRagesic at Mawson, she assisted in the filming Back CoveR: Although well adapted to their environment, life can still be tough for emperor of emperor penguins for a BBC Natural 9 penguin chicks. FREDERIQUE OLIVIER History series, which gave her the INSIDE CoveR: Sunset FREDERIQUE OLIVIER opportunity to invest herself full time in another passion...photography. A window on climate change ate P IAN R D A Sørsdal glacier near Davis. fter the introduction of two new CASA 212-400 aircraft Antarctic Magazine 7), Toby Jarvis has been analysing Ato Antarctica last year, the Australian Antarctic Division hydroacoustic data for clues to what makes up Heard Island’s (AAD) is this year gearing up to deliver an inter-continental marine ecosystem. Colin Southwell has also finalised a survey air service between Hobart and Casey in 2007. of crabeater seals in east Antarctica - his results have The Australian Government has given the AAD an extra implications for the sustainable harvest of krill in the Southern $46.3 million over four years to establish the Australia- Ocean. Antarctica Airlink. Preparations are underway to secure a It has been a busy year for those in the AAD involved with suitable aircraft and to build the ice runway and supporting the Antarctic environment, Antarctic tourism and whales. At infrastructure at Wilkins Aerodrome near Casey station. The this year’s Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting, for example, inter- and intra-continental aircraft, in combination with our Treaty Parties adopted rules governing liability for ships, will provide modern logistics to support Australia’s ‘environmental emergencies’ (such as oil spills), concluding 12 Antarctic scientists in their work, and to open up new research years of complex negotiations. The Treaty Parties also passed opportunities in unexplored areas of the Australian Antarctic the first site-specific guidelines for tourism on the Antarctic Territory and the Southern Ocean. Peninsula, to manage tourism and to protect sensitive plants A major thrust of our research aims to understand the role and wildlife. These guidelines will also help protect the tourist of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean in regional and global experience in this rapidly growing industry. last but not least, climate processes; how these climate processes arise; the members of Australia’s Antarctic programme, participating in impacts of climate change; and how ecosystems, communities this year’s meeting of the International Whaling Commission, and species will respond. In this issue of the Australian Antarctic were pleased to see the moratorium on commercial whaling Magazine we look at some of this research. retained. To set the scene, glaciologist Tas van Ommen, steers a path Finally, on page 26, I am pleased to present our new through the greenhouse jungle, describing the difficulties Environmental Policy, which was finalised in April. As part of faced by researchers trying to separate human-induced climate the Australian Government’s Department of the Environment change from natural climate variation. He also discusses the and Heritage, and as an environmentally responsible member work yet to be done; work that is continuing through of the Australian and Tasmanian communities, the AAD Australia’s Antarctic programme and some of which is extends its environmental ethics to all its activities – at ‘home’ described in subsequent articles. This work includes and in Antarctica – through its Environmental Policy. monitoring the effects of sea ice reduction, understanding the responses of plants and animals to a changing environment, and improving climate models. This issue also brings you up to date with the latest results from projects in our Southern Ocean Ecosystems Programme. —AJ PRESS Since our Heard Island expedition in 2003-04 (Australian Director, AAD AUSTRALIAN AntaRCTIC MagaZINE PAGE ISSUE 9 SPRING 2005 F eat UR E ate P IAN R D A Climate change: cold, hard facts on a hot topic limate change is a hot topic in these times. Almost daily are indeed the cause of improving, but are generally limited in their ability to predict Cwe are presented with claims and counter claims in a warming. changes at continental and regional scales. We know that the torrent of information of variable reliability. From some Climate observations are climate changes will not be felt uniformly across the planet. quarters we hear each and every extreme weather event cited important in building and Better understanding of the detailed workings of climate will as evidence of climate change, while others suggest that testing models. Observations be needed to reduce uncertainties. nothing is amiss, or that any changes to climate will be benign also show us just how climate In this century we will continue to see loss of temperate or beneficial. Rather like the extreme weather, extreme changes are being manifest. glaciers, increases in sea level in the range of 10 to 80 cm, opinions can mask the underlying story, making it difficult to The task of detecting human- average warming of about 1.4 to 5.8°C, and significant understand what is really occurring. induced changes is difficult changes to the ice margins of Greenland and Antarctica. Modern climate science is global and multidisciplinary, and however, because the climate Popular reports of complete loss of ice in either Greenland or covers such a diversity