Reference
- SOUTHERN OCEANThe Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean) is the ring of ocean that circles Antarctica. Although the Antarctic continent provides a clear southern boundary, the northern limit of the Southern Ocean is not so clearly defined. Australian authorities and cartographers define it as including the entire body of water between Antarctica and the south coasts of Australia and New Zealand. The Southern Ocean differs from the other oceans in that its largest boundary, the northern boundary, does not abut a landmass, but merges into the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans. The Southern Ocean is notorious for having some of the strongest winds and largest waves on earth. Not only is it a major fishing resource, it is also of significant scientific research interest, and the health and conservation of Southern Ocean ecosystems involve a number of international treaty bodies and intergovernmental initiatives, including the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources and the International Whaling Commission.
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Credo Reference is an easy-to-use tool for starting research. Gather background information on your topic from hundreds of full-text encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, quotations, and subject-specific titles, as well as 500,000+ images and audio files and over 1,000 videos.
Perspectives
Wild sea : a history of the Southern Ocean
“The Southern Ocean is a wild and elusive place, an ocean like no other. With its waters lying between the Antarctic continent and the southern coastlines of Australia, New Zealand, South America, and South Africa, it is the most remote and inaccessible part of the planetary ocean, the only part that flows around Earth unimpeded by any landmass. It is notorious amongst sailors for its tempestuous winds and hazardous fog and ice. Yet it is a difficult ocean to pin down. Its southern boundary, defined by the icy continent of Antarctica, is constantly moving in a seasonal dance of freeze and thaw. To the north, its waters meet and mingle with those of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans along a fluid boundary that defies the neat lines of a cartographer.” So begins Joy McCann’s Wild Sea, the remarkable story of the world’s remote Southern, or Antarctic, Ocean. Unlike the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic Oceans with their long maritime histories, little is known about the Southern Ocean. This book takes readers beyond the familiar heroic narratives of polar exploration to explore the nature of this stormy circumpolar ocean and its place in Western and Indigenous histories. Drawing from a vast archive of charts and maps, sea captains’ journals, whalers’ log books, missionaries’ correspondence, voyagers’ letters, scientific reports, stories, myths, and her own experiences, McCann embarks on a voyage of discovery across its surfaces and into its depths, revealing its distinctive physical and biological processes as well as the people, species, events, and ideas that have shaped our perceptions of it. The result is both a global story of changing scientific knowledge about oceans and their vulnerability to human actions and a local one, showing how the Southern Ocean has defined and sustained southern environments and people over time. Beautifully and powerfully written, Wild Sea will raise a broader awareness and appreciation of the natural and cultural history of this little-known ocean and its emerging importance as a barometer of planetary climate change.
Biology of the Southern Ocean
First published in 1993, The Biology of the Southern Ocean has been referred to as international research at its best and an invaluable reference. Drawing on the considerable volume of information published in the last ten years, this second edition retains the format that made the first edition a popular bestseller, while updating the information with the latest research results available. The book begins with a description of the physico-chemical environment and, in a logical sequence, covers phytoplankton and primary production, the sea ice microbial communities and the secondary consumers, the zooplankton. The author includes an extended chapter on the biology and ecology of Antarctic krill that highlights its central position in the Southern Ocean food web. A series of chapters consider the higher consumers, nekton (with an emphasis on cephalopods) fish, seals, whales, and seabirds. The following chapters explore selected ecosystem components; the benthic communities, life beneath the fast ice and ice shelves, recent advances in understanding decomposition processes, and the role of bacteria and protozoa. The author synthesizes ecosystem dynamics, with an emphasis on the pelagic ecosystem. He covers resource exploitation, the impact of such exploitation on the marine ecosystem, and the problems involved in the management of the living resources. His epilogue summarizes the extent to which our understanding of the functioning of the Antarctic marine ecosystem has changed in the last 50 years; for example, there has been a dramatic change in our view of krill and its role in the Southern Ocean marine ecosystem. The book concludes with the statement that research carried out under the AGCS Programme and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) will continue to provide critical information on the functioning of Antarctic marine ecosystems. Intended for all those with an ongoing interest in Antarctic research, conservation, and management, this volume represents one of the most authoritative resources in the field as it covers all aspects of this important marine ecosystem.
Future Science Opportunities in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean
Antarctica and the surrounding Southern Ocean remains one of the world's last frontiers. Covering nearly 14 million km² (an area approximately 1.4 times the size of the United States), Antarctica is the coldest, driest, highest, and windiest continent on Earth. While it is challenging to live and work in this extreme environment, this region offers many opportunities for scientific research. Ever since the first humans set foot on Antarctica a little more than a century ago, the discoveries made there have advanced our scientific knowledge of the region, the world, and the Universe--but there is still much more to learn. However, conducting scientific research in the harsh environmental conditions of Antarctica is profoundly challenging. Substantial resources are needed to establish and maintain the infrastructure needed to provide heat, light, transportation, and drinking water, while at the same time minimizing pollution of the environment and ensuring the safety of researchers. "Future Science Opportunities in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean" suggests actions for the United States to achieve success for the next generation of Antarctic and Southern Ocean science. The report highlights important areas of research by encapsulating each into a single, overarching question. The questions fall into two broad themes: (1) those related to global change, and (2) those related to fundamental discoveries. In addition, the report identified key science questions that will drive research in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean in coming decades, and highlighted opportunities to be leveraged to sustain and improve the U.S. research efforts in the region.
Studying Oceans
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new window
Lamb joins a New Zealand research vessel in the Southern Ocean. Oceanographers explain deep water sampling techniques for climate change data.
Mystery Beneath the Ice
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowKrill are tiny, shrimp-like creatures crucial to the Antarctic ecosystem and, maybe, to the future of all oceans. Join the research ship Polarstern in the vast Antarctic ice pack in search of ice caves and juvenile krill. Scientists test the theory that as climate change alters the ice pack, the life cycle of krill is disrupted, implying that shifts in the timing of the seasons may impact the natural world across the globe.
The Last Ocean
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With stunning footage of Antarctica’s unique landscapes and wild life, The Last Ocean profiles the international battle over commercial fishing in the Ross Sea, the last pristine ocean ecosystem on earth.
Online Resources
- Krill excretion boosts microbial activity in the Southern OceanAntarctic krill are known to release large amounts of inorganic and organic nutrients to the water column. Here we test the role of krill excretion of dissolved products in stimulating heterotrophic bacteria on the basis of three experiments where ammonium and organic excretory products released by krill were added to bacterial assemblages, free of grazers. Our results demonstrate that the addition of krill excretion products (but not of ammonium alone), at levels expected in krill swarms, greatly stimulates bacteria resulting in an order-of-magnitude increase in growth and production. Furthermore, they suggest that bacterial growth rate in the Southern Ocean is suppressed well below their potential by resource limitation. Enhanced bacterial activity in the presence of krill, which are major sources of DOC in the Southern Ocean, would further increase recycling processes associated with krill activity, resulting in highly efficient krill-bacterial recycling that should be conducive to stimulating periods of high primary productivity in the Southern Ocean.
- Unrecognized Antarctic Biodiversity: A Case Study of the Genus Odontaster (Odontasteridae; Asteroidea)Antarctica has a complex and multifaceted geologic and oceanographic history that has influenced and shaped patterns of marine invertebrate diversity. This evolutionary history consists of major events on a wide range of time scales such as the formation of the Antarctic Polar Front (25–41 million years ago) to repeated glacial cycles during the past million years. These factors variably influenced genetic connectivity of fauna to produce a highly unique, but incredibly diverse marine community. Use of molecular phylogeographic methods is creating the need to revise our understanding of Antarctic patterns of biodiversity. In particular, almost every phylogeographic study carried out to date, suggests that the biodiversity of Antarctic marine shelf fauna is considerably underestimated. In discovering this diversity, some lineages (i.e., cryptic lineages) show no diagnostic morphological differences whereas others (i.e., unrecognized species) show differences that were unknown to science. The sea star genus Odontaster is among the best-studied of Antarctic invertebrate groups. Nonetheless, two unrecognized lineages were recently discovered along the Antarctic Peninsula, which is one of the best-studied regions in Antarctica. Herein, we elucidate the molecular and morphological uniqueness of these species and name them O. roseus and O. pearsei. The latter is in honor of John Pearse, an Antarctic biologist, as well as past President and long-time member of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology.
Great Southern Ocean
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowThe Southern Ocean holds forty percent of ocean carbon dioxide. The Circumpolar Current is the largest ocean current; plunging currents absorb CO2 below the surface. Scientists gather data to monitor the Southern Ocean.