Antarctic Ecology and Antarctica

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Abstract
The Antarctic region, essentially that part of the globe within the Antarctic convergence, covers well over 50M km2. More than half of this is ocean, more than half is ice-covered for at least most of the year, and less than 1% is ice-free. All of this huge region is cold, but most of continental Antarctica is very arid and some sub-Antarctic islands are very wet; the maritime Antarctic is intermediate between the two. The range of habitat conditions, of ecosystem processes and of plant and animal adaptations, is therefore enormous. This is one of the greatest attractions that the Antarctic has for the scientist: the prospect of breaking new ground and of testing existing theories with extreme field examples. Because of the extraordinary environmental conditions, the Antarctic is a paradise for innovative techniques in scientific investigation, and many of these techniques were needed to accumulate the information in these two volumes.

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