The southern cold temperate coasts, with special reference to South Africa

• Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 1960
• Subjects: Antarctic; New Zealand; Southern Ocean; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1960.0072; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.1960.0072

My own connexion with the southern ocean has been primarily during a ten-year residence in South Africa. I have also spent a year in Australia, but this was concerned with tropical shores. During the South African period a survey was made which revealed the presence of a cold temperate area on the South African coast, lying outside the Subtropical Convergence but affected by the upwelling of a body of cold water which may be antarctic intermediate water, although this attribution has been queried. Since then similar areas have been identified in southern Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand, and it was always clear that South America must possess such an area, although only recently do we know much about the ecology of its seashores. It has been possible to compare the populations of these several areas with one another and with those of some of the southern islands, not only by means of the published accounts, but in the light of conversations and correspondence with those who have visited them, assisted by very large numbers of photographs, both in colour and in monochrome. General studies of seashores are apt to lead to unexpected conclusions, especially if anything is taken for granted beforehand. For example, such work leads one to expect that any well-stocked shore will have representatives of various animal groups on it, such as periwinkles, barnacles, whelks, crabs, anemones and limpets. But in practice one can find shores on which any one of these groups (if not more than one) is missing. This is not necessarily because of special conditions, such as those prevailing in estuaries, where reductions would seem natural, but for no reason which has (as yet) been clearly determined. Similarly, where there is a circumpolar marine climate and a West Wind Drift, one would expect circumpolar marine populations. But this is just what we do not find. While acknowledging immediately that there are circumpolar species, genera and even families, we must realize that these have attracted so much attention as to obscure ...