The San Diego Union-Tribune - 26 July 2000
Current - Page 10 - Oceans Watch 

By Maria Vernet: Biological oceanographer in the Marine Research Division
at UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Oceans Watch, written by
Scripps scientists, appears the fourth Wednesday of the month.

ANTARCTICA IS A LIVING LABORATORY

Travelers to the southernmost continent on Earth, Antarctica, can
purchase an upside-down world map, in which Antarctica sits on top
of the planet, looking almost like a hat.

Because North America, Europe and Asia are found in the lower hemisphere,
it takes a minute to realize what you are looking at. There is almost a
feeling of falling through space.

Who would draw such a crazy map? Probably someone who wants us to
pause and consider for a minute if Antarctica is important to our 
everyday life.

Thousands of travelers go to Antarctica every year.  They visit
the south Pole in the middle of the continent or one of the many bases
close to the coast.  They navigate the seas, visiting penguin rookeries
and watching whales.

More than 14,000 tourists visited the Antarctic Peninsula during the
1999-2000 season.  Besides tourists, scientists are involved in visiting
Antarctica year-round.  The life in and around Antarctica has attracted
scientists for decades.  The Southern Ocean, surrounding the continent,
supports a large community of whales, seals and penguins.

Some of these large animals feed on krill, a shrimplike organism about 
1-inch long.  Krill feeds on microscopic algae (similar to the ones growing
in pools and ponds) called phytoplankton.  During summer months, phytoplankton 
can grow to large quantities to support an abundance of krill.

An international fishery catches krill in the northern part of the Antarctic
Peninsula, about 62 degrees south, a latitude comparable to Anchorage, Alaska,
and the Shetland Islands, north of Scotland.

The ecology of this region is under study through a long-term program that
started in 1991.  The Palmer Long Term Ecological Program, also known as
Palmer LTER, is part of a network of similar programs in the continental
United States, Alaska and Puerto Rico.

Changes that take several years or even several decades to become apparent 
are as important as those that happen in days or months, like changes induced
by a large storm or by the seasons.

The slower changes can be related to faraway phenomena like El Nino events from
the Equatorial Pacific (with 4- to 7-year cycles) or to sunspots (11-year
cycles).  In Antarctica, changes that take decades to be detected seem to be
related to the coverage of sea ice in the winter, a time when the continent
doubles in size because of ice formation.

But not all years are the same.  There are years with less than average ice 
and others with twice as much.  In the Antarctic Peninsula, there seems to be
a seven- to eight-year cycle, with several years of more ice.

More ice means more phytoplankton that can feed more krill.  The penguins and
their offspring get fat off the krill in the summer.

(c) The San Diego Union-Tribune. All rights reserved.