CONTENTS 3 Line 1. 4 Line 2. 6 Line 3. 9 Line 4. 11 Line 5. 13 14 15 16 18 20 22 J. Muñoz CHILEAN ANTARCTIC SCIENCE PROGRAM 2005 2006 2007 2008 17 projects, grouped by 20 projects. A new program for Lab projects is 24 projects. Total funding for Antarctic 28 projects. Funds available for six scientific disciplines: defined for initiatives that will analyse samples research grows to USD 600,000 due Antarctic research grows to USD Earth, Atmospheric, Marine, and data obtained during previous expeditions (4 to an increase in regular funding from 1,149,000 thanks to new projects Biological, and Social Sciences. projects). Funding available for the various programs INACH, a second Antarctic Ring, and from Fondecyt and financing from A significant number of these for Antarctic research grows to USD 261,700 thanks an agreement with Fondecyt (Fondo Corfo (Corporación de Fomento projects are not selected by to the “Antarctic Science Rings” program, an Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y de la Producción, the Chilean a panel of peers but instead agreement between INACH and Conicyt (the Chilean Tecnológico), the Chilean national Economic Development Agency), correspond to institutional National Science and Technology Commission) fund for scientific and technological through its Innova group (Innova programs established from within the framework of the 2007-2008 International development. The PROCIEN (Programa is the innovation Committee agreements between INACH Polar Year. The agreement spans three years and Nacional de Ciencia Antártica, the within Corfo). Funding from Corfo and Chilean universities. has funding of USD 160,000 per year. Projects are Chilean Antarctic Science Program) InnovaChile is destined for Antarctic Funding reaches USD 100,000 reorganized in accordance with the new priorities of regroups its projects in accordance with laboratory infrastructure. From this plus logistical support valued the five-year plan running from 2006 to 2010, which the research programs suggested by year on, all projects incorporated at USD 850,000 (a funding level are defined during the evaluation seminar for the the Scientific Committee on Antarctic into the PROCIEN are selected which has increased to only period 2001-2005. The Postgraduate Thesis Support Research (SCAR). through a peer-reviewed process. USD 1,276,600 in 2010). Program gets underway, with four projects, to bring outstanding young researchers into the Antarctic community. INTRODUCTION What does Antarctica mean to Chile? referring to a relationship As a fourth aspect, the Antarctica Peninsula ween South America and area is one of the three regions on the Earth can be measured on a with a rate of warming higher than the this relationship has also global average: in just 50 years the surface air climate of our nation and temperature has increased nearly three degrees from the Atacama Desert Celsius. This trend is nearly five times the global serves of forests in the average and within half the time. The species uality and quantity of our that live there are being affected yb global ources. climate change and are sending signals about how mainland Chile could be affected in a not dealing with a unique so far away future. where the adaptation of ditions of cold, dark, UV Science often teaches sets of rules to y, and so on, has brought memorize, resulting in a sort of distorted survivors holding many view that alienates many young people d, and perhaps adapted from the adventures of seeking knowledge. uch as health, agriculture, Nevertheless, the marvel of scientific activity but a few. lives in the ever-changing nature of discovery, as vibrant as life itself. general and the Antarctica articular (where Chile has This is the opportunity that nearby Antarctica ns and shelters) continue offers to us, a place where we all work together any completely unknown for research in the Last Frontier of knowledge, explored areas. The task the White Frontier. Our readers have in their 3 at lives in and beneath hands the details of how Chileans are going ntarctic waters, is not yet about this challenging work. new step taken here is nternational science and José Retamales, PhD Director Chilean Antarctic Institute – INACH 2005 - 2011 2009 2010 2011 36 projects. As a result of an innovative 43 projects. Never in the history The PROCIEN supports 55 projects, tripling the number of projects agreement between INACH, CorreosChile (the of the Chilean Antarctic Science conducted in 2005. 52 percent of the PROCIEN projects are affiliated Chilean Post Office) and the Chilean Air Force, Program have so many projects with international universities and research centres. the Undergraduate Thesis Support Program is been performed at the same It is calculated that the maximum number of logistically supportable established to allow young university students to time. The Bicentennial Scientific projects has been reached, given the present level of infrastructure. travel to Antarctica to complete their professional Expedition also breaks the record Nearly USD 1,063,800 has been provided in competitive funding, development. The PROCIEN doubles the number for participation of women in with nearly USD 1,276,600 in logistics investment from the National of projects it had just four years earlier, having research (29 scientists). Funding Antarctic Program. All told, the Chilean investment in Antarctic now a strong and transparent funding program obtained from grants begins science is above USD 2,000,000, considerably lower than the evaluated by both national and international to diminish due to a gradual funding level of other Antarctic Programs and only possible due to peers, whose proposals are presented in English. reduction of the Corfo InnovaChile various competitive funds and financing by various governmental This effort will determine the regional leadership infrastructure program. agencies, in particular the Chilean Defence Department and the of Chile in the field of Antarctic science. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs. PROCIEN now coordinates seven funds subject to competition which reach USD 1,527,660, compared to only USD 100,000 in 2005. 1 RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SOUTH AMERICA AND ANTARCTICA SOUTH AMERICA AND ANTARCTICA: AGING SISTERS WHO STILL NEED ONE ANOTHER The rich fisheries of Chile, the It is difficult to characterise the nature Such effects, which determine desertification of the Atacama of Chile’s dependence on Antarctica. the present and future of Chile, are area, the present and future Scientific advances in recent years being studied in projects in this line have shown a considerable degree of of research, using modern geological, climates of Chile - these have interdependence between our nation palaeontological, and biogeographical been and will continue to and the White Continent. The stormy techniques. A group of biologists has be moulded by the dramatic past that shows in the rocky strata of proposed using certain organisms as both land masses tells us of an exuberant a sort of living marker of the recent interdependencies of South dance taking place with Patagonia and and remote pasts, by looking into that America and Antarctica. the Antarctic Peninsula joined together. ultimate indicator for evolutionary The set of projects in this The thin physical contact seen in some processes: DNA. Thanks to such studies, chapters of natural history once served as there has been considerable success area of research is searching a land bridge for many terrestrial species in establishing complex evolutionary for ways to characterise which today inhabit the Subantarctic relationships between the Antarctic these links, using modern forests of Chile, but which slowly fauna and that of distant places such techniques in the fields of disappeared from Antarctica. At other as the Subantarctic islands of Australia, times the two land masses remained South Africa, and Chile. As an example geology, palaeontology and disconnected and this separation allowed of the link between science and tourism, biogeography. These will be the ocean currents to modify the climate, one project studies the ichthyosaurs, applied to the species that with changes of up to 11 degrees Celsius marine reptiles similar to dolphins, from average temperature on the planet. the age of dinosaurs. These were found today populate the forests in the rocks of a marine basin common of southern Chile and in The last separation (which began 40 to both the southern region of Chile 4 the past made Antarctica million years ago) led to the formation and the Antarctic Peninsula, bringing of the most powerful ocean current on new opportunities to special-interest a verdant region. Likewise hhh l ilfhl there are dolphin-like reptiles belonging to the age of dinosaurs, whose fossil remains have surfaced in Torres del Paine National Park, opening up promising opportunities for special- interest tourism there. E. BarticevicE. 1. GEOLOGICAL AND PALEONTOLOGICAL EVOLUTION 5. THERMOCHRONOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE NORTHERN OF THE MAGELLAN AND LARSEN BASINS DURING ANTARCTIC PENINSULA: IMPLICATIONS FOR THEIR THE MESOZOIC AND CENOZOIC: SOURCE AREAS AND MESOZOIC TO CENOZOIC TECTONIC AND CLIMATIC POSSIBLE SIMILARITIES (2010-2013) EVOLUTION (2008-2011) Principal Investigator. Teresa TORRES. Principal Investigator. Mauricio CALDERÓN. A. Palma Associated institutions. Universidad de Chile, Associated institutions. Universidad de Chile, Universidad de Concepción, Museo Universidad of Arizona (US) and Universität Nacional de Historia Natural, Universidad Bochum (Germany). de Magallanes