Ebook: Ecological Studies in the Antarctic Sea Ice Zone: Results of EASIZ Midterm Symposium

Until comparatively recently, the remoteness, inaccessibility, and extreme climate have meant that the vast pack-ice zone around the Antarctic continent was one of the least-known marine ecosystems on Earth. Myths and speculations prevailed in the literature, often derived from an anthropocentric way of thinking that considered the sea-ice environment as predominantly hostile to marine life. This picture has changed drastically now as a result of a series of international efforts, the most recent of which has been the highly successful EASIZ (Ecology of the Antarctic Sea Ice Zone) programme of the Scientific Council on Antarctic Research (SCAR). Focusing, in contrast to other international programmes, on life at the seafloor, EASIZ has attempted to link processes in the three major marine subsystems (sea ice, pelagic and benthic) within the pack-ice zone. Work has been carried out from both research ships and shore-based research stations. This work included organisms ranging in size from bacteria to seals and covered topics as diverse as biodiversity, iceberg scour, pelagobenthic coupling, autecology, and ecophysiology. Consequently, we now view the sea-ice zone as a rich system with highly adapted organisms, considerable natural disturbance from ice, low resilience and of great potential importance as an indicator for climate change.

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Content:
Front Matter....Pages I-XV
Front Matter....Pages in1-in1
Antarctic marine benthic biodiversity in a world-wide latitudinal context....Pages 1-9
New species of benthopelagic hydromedusae from the Weddell Sea....Pages 10-16
A study on octopodids from the eastern Weddell Sea, Antarctica....Pages 17-23
Diversity of reproductive features in some Antarctic polynoid and sabellid polychaetes, with a description of Demonax polarsterni sp. n. (Polychaeta, Sabellidae)....Pages 24-32
Deep-sea polychaetes in the Weddell Sea and Drake Passage: first quantitative results....Pages 33-39
Great differences in peracarid crustacean density between the Arctic and Antarctic deep sea....Pages 40-44
Potential impact of the main benthic amphipods on the eastern Weddell Sea shelf ecosystem (Antarctica)....Pages 45-50
Diversity of epibenthic habitats of gammaridean amphipods in the eastern Weddell Sea....Pages 51-60
No evidence for slow-down of molecular substitution rates at subzero temperatures in Antarctic serolid isopods (Crustacea, Isopoda, Serolidae)....Pages 61-65
Microscopic anatomy and ultrastructure of the digestive system of three Antarctic shrimps (Crustacea: Decapoda: Caridea)....Pages 66-76
Synopsis of the pycnogonids from Antarctic and Subantarctic waters....Pages 77-81
Cytogenetics of the bathydraconid fish Gymnodraco acuticeps (Perciformes, Notothenioidei) from Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea....Pages 82-88
Seasonal fluctuations of vagile benthos in the uppermost sublittoral of a maritime Antarctic fjord....Pages 89-96
Assemblages of necrophagous animals off Enderby Land, East Antarctica....Pages 97-103
Front Matter....Pages in4-in4
Are Antarctic suspension-feeding communities different from those elsewhere in the world?....Pages 104-116
Primary production, light and vertical mixing in Potter Cove, a shallow bay in the maritime Antarctic....Pages 117-124
Land forcing controls pelagic-benthic coupling in Adelie Cove (Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea)....Pages 125-132
Fluxes and composition of settling particles during summer in an Antarctic shallow bay of Livingston Island, South Shetlands....Pages 133-139
Feeding strategies and diet composition of four Antarctic cnidarian species....Pages 140-147
Foraging behaviour of Weddell seals, and its ecological implications....Pages 148-156
Front Matter....Pages in5-in5
On the direct impact of ice on marine benthic communities, a review....Pages 157-168
Biogeochemistry of platelet ice: its influence on particle flux under fast ice in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica....Pages 169-179
Meiofauna in sea ice of the Weddell Sea (Antarctica)....Pages 180-184
In situ oxygen microelectrode measurements of bottom-ice algal production in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica....Pages 185-193
Recolonisation of meiofauna after catastrophic iceberg scouring in shallow Antarctic sediments....Pages 194-201
Meiofauna response to iceberg disturbance on the Antarctic continental shelf at Kapp Norvegia (Weddell Sea)....Pages 202-209
Quantification of iceberg impact and benthic recolonisation patterns in the Weddell Sea (Antarctica)....Pages 210-214
Front Matter....Pages 215-220
Ecophysiology of Antarctic marine ectotherms: limits to life....Pages in7-in7
Effects of solar radiation on growth and mycosporine-like amino acids content in Thalassiosira sp, an Antarctic diatom....Pages 221-230
Distribution patterns of decapod crustaceans in polar areas: a result of magnesium regulation?....Pages 231-236
Occurrence of the autofluorescent pigment, lipofuscin, in polar crustaceans and its potential as an age marker....Pages 237-245
Production and respiration of Antarctic ascidians....Pages 246-250
Temperature-dependent pH regulation in stenothermal Antarctic and eurythermal temperate eelpout (Zoarcidae): an in-vivo NMR study....Pages 251-258
Back Matter....Pages 259-265
....Pages 266-271