amkrcik ANTARCTIC PENINSULA *j9 0 100 km t^JP Q 100 mis ^8 1 Comandante Ferraz brazil 2 Henry Arctowski polano 3 Teniente Jubany Argentina 4 Artigas uruouav 5 Teniente Rodolfo Marsh chue Bellingshausen ussr Great Wall china 6 Capitan Arturo Prat chile 7 General Bernardo O'Higgins chile 8 Esperanza aroentine 9 Vice Comodoro Marambio aroentina 10 Palmer usa 11 Faraday uk SOUTH 12 Rothera uk 13 Teniente Carvajal chile SHETLAND 14 General Szn Martin aroentina ISLANDS JOOkm NEW 2EALAND ANTARCTIC SOCIETY MAP COPYRIGHT ANTARCTIC (successor to "Antarctic News Bulletin) Vol. 11 No. 8 Issue 128 Vol. 11 No.'s 1 to 12 January 1986 to December 1988 Polar Activities ANTARCTIC is published quarterly by the New Zealand 318 New Zealand Antarctic Society Inc., 1978. Australia 330 United Kingdom 332 ISSN 0003-5327 United States 337 Editor: Robin Ormerod Special Report Please address all editorial inquiries, con Antarctic Treaty Minerals Convention 340 tributions etc to the Editor, P.O. Box 2110, Wellington, New Zealand. Sub-Antarctic Telephone: (04) 791-226 International: + 64-4-791-226 Campbell 348 Heard 346 Deadline for final copy for the next issue is Snares 345 October 20. Publication date approximately mid November. General Trans-Antarctic 348 All administrative inquiries should go to Antarctic Heritage Trust 350 Bulletin "Co-ordinator", P.O. Box 1223, 351 Christchurch. Greenpeace Obituaries 354 Back and missing issues, P.O. Box 1223, Books 355 Christchurch. © No part of this publication may be reproduced in any way without the prior permission of the publishers. Cover: Field camp at northern end of George VI Sound. Photo: J. R. Potter/BAS. Antarctic Vol. 11 No. 8/12 NZARP Ozone studies mark start of new season Regular flights taking the 200 scientists base and field support staff south for the 1988/89 New Zealand Antarctic Research programme are due to begin in early October. This 48 projects including scientific and survey work will be undertaken mostly in and around Ross Island, McMurdo Sound and the Dry Valleys. Ozone measurements are continuing and have been intensified by scientists who flew south on Winfly. Vegetation studies will be undertaken at Terra Nova Bay to assess environmental impact on which another project involving visits to a number of sites on Ross Island and in McMurdo Sound will also focus. Fish, sponges, Adelie penguins and skuas will also be subject to various studies. Ten divisions of DSIR will be involved in been hampered by cloud. Programmes 22 different events, while other government scheduled to have been carried out on board departments included in the programme are an RNZAF P3 Orion flight to the South Pole the New Zealand Meteorological Service have been deferred as the flight has been (NZMS), the Department of Survey and Land postponed or cancelled. Information (DOSLI), the Department of Conservation (DOC) and the Telecom Hoping to take advantage of spring Corporation of New Zealand. Television New conditions to measure ozone levels from Ross Zealand, the Department of Defence and the Island has been Sylvia Nichol of the New Antarctic Heritage Trust will also be involved Zealand Meteorological Service, who flew in the programme as well as scientists from south on Winfly in late August. five different universities and the Canterbury Last season Sylvia Nichol and Dr Tom Museum. Clarkson, also of NZMS, installed a Dobson Logistic support will be provided under the spectrophotometer at Arrival Heights New Zealand/US agreement and (Antarctic Vol 11. No 6 pages 234-237) in supplemented by RNZAF "Ice-cube" flights the hope of obtaining winter readings and in while DSIR's Antarctic Division is responsible readiness for spring when up to a 50 percent for the detailed implementation of the depletion in ozone levels in the stratosphere programme formulated by the Ross has been observed since 1970. Measurements Dependency Research Committee. were made from the end of last January to The major projects this season reflect mid-February when the sun became too low increased concentration on ozone studies, in the sky. Because of snow and cloudy more diverse biological and zoological work, conditions during the winter readings could greater geophysical input with only three only be made during the full moon in May. specifically geological projects. Most of the This data should be supplemented with further routine work will be continued. measurements which she and Dave Barrett, Ozone measurements a Scott Base technician, hoped to make during the full moon of August 27 and Scientists measuring seasonal and subsequently throughout September. A new geographical distribution of trace gasses technician will be trained before her return to relevant to Antarctic ozone depletion have New Zealand at the end of October. 318 Vol. 11 No. 8/12 Antarctic Also at Scott Base since Winfly has been Fish Brian McNamara from the Physics and Engineering Laboratory's station at Lauder Biological adaptation of fishes to low near Omakau in central Otago. He is involved temperatures will be studied again by scientists in a combined project with scientists from from the Zoological Department of the the University of Denver who are operating University of Auckland. This year the team infrared equipment from Arrival Heights to be led by Professor Rufus Wells will designed to measure nitric acid comprise Dr John Macdonald and three and hydrochloric acid in the stratospheric graduate students Heather McNeil, Nicholas column. Ling and Andreas Rieckenback. Remote sensing spectrophotometers Working initially from the fish hut 1500 installed at Arrival Heights in 1982 and metres south of Scott Base the team will focus on the viscosity of fish body fluids at sub-zero subsequently upgraded will be checked and operated again throughout the coming year. temperatures, buoyancy control of fishes in Two further systems from Lauder are also in cold water and the control of heart beats of fish living at -1.8 deg C. operation at Pole Station through a group associated with the National Oceanic and The team is due to return to Christchurch Atmospheric Administration Laboratories after six or eight weeks on the ice but known as Global Monitoring for Climatic Professor Wells and Dr Montgomery may Change and at Halley Bay, through the British return for a second trip later in the season to Antarctic Survey. Assistance will be given this carry out further work at Cape Royds, Lake year to scientists from the University of Fryxell and Terra Nova Bay before returning Wyoming who are planning to launch to Christchurch in mid-January. balloon-born ozone and aerosol sondes during Working from Scott Base four scientists the early spring. from the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Waikato will continue Vegetation studies of the structure and function of photoreceptors in fish in extreme cold and Establishing factors which influence patterns of vegetation, and distribution of species is brightness. The project leader is Dr Benno Meyer-Rochow who will be accompanied by part of the work being undertaken in the Terra John Ingram, and Professors Masataka Obika Nova Bay area by Drs Colin Meurk and David from Keio University, Yokohama and Given of Botany Division in Christchurch and Yikitoma Morita from Hamamatsu Medical Dr Martin Foggo of the Central Institute of University, Hamamatsu in Japan. Technology in Trentham near Wellington. Known vegetation includes lichens, mosses, Other aspects of the project include liverworts and algae. They will be mapped, investigation of physical and chemical their communities systematically sampled, properties of chromotophores of Antarctic and micro-environmental influences fishes, ultra structural organisation and recorded. function of the pineal organ of the brain of P. Borchgrevinki and preliminary Quadrants are to be established from which research into the mechanical properties of the impact of human activity and other crustaceans and fish muscle under different environmental changes can be monitored. temperatures. Earlier mapping and monitoring of plots established at Edmonston Point in 1984 will be extended and the vegetation changes in Seaweeds the thermal area of Mt Melbourne will be Few quantitative investigations have been recorded and the heat flux measured. The undertaken on the growth of seaweeds in the work, being undertaken with logistics support extreme Antarctic environment. A series of from the Italians, will be carried out in January experiments will be undertaken to investigate when snow melt is greatest. rates of photosynthesis and respiration in 319 Antarctic Vol. 11 No. 8/12 several species of seaweeds under a range of appear to use one of two strategies to tolerate light and temperature conditions. The team extreme cold. Some arthropods are either from the Botany Department at the University freezing tolerant and can survive extracellular of Otago, led by Dr Murray Brown and ice formation or they are freezing susceptible including Kath Miller, Johnathon Keogh and but avoid freezing by supercooling. Bronwyn Gillanders, will also attempt to In a project designed to cast some light on estimate the standing crop of various the problem Dr David Wharton and Ian species as well as their growth rates at varying Brown of the Zoology Department, University depths. of Otago, will work from Scott Base from Supported by the Antarctic Division diving November to February with visits to Cape supervisor the team will make a series of dives Royds, Cape Bird and Vanda Station to under the sea ice at Cape Evans during collect samples. October and November to make the Using a cold microscope stage in the Scott observations and to collect samples. Base Laboratory the freezing responses and Both laboratory and on-site investigations supercooling points of nematodes will be will be carried out to test whether seaweeds determined during cooling from 0 degrees C show physiological or chemical adaptation to to -50 degrees C. Cultures will be grown and the extreme Antarctic environment.