Discussion on the preceding papers

J . E. Smith. May I ask, at the outset of our discussion of this morning’s papers, whether there is any evidence of long- or short-term secular changes of climate in the Signy Island area? G. de Q. Robin. J. A. Heap, in preparing an ice atlas of the Antarctic seas, drew upon the long period of meteo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: The Royal Society 1967
Subjects:
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
General Business, Management and Accounting
Materials Science (miscellaneous)
Business and International Management
Antarctic
The Antarctic
Argentine
Signy Island
Laurie
Orcadas
Grytviken
Laurie Island
Antarc*
Elephant Seal
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1967.0013
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.1967.0013
Description
Summary:J . E. Smith. May I ask, at the outset of our discussion of this morning’s papers, whether there is any evidence of long- or short-term secular changes of climate in the Signy Island area? G. de Q. Robin. J. A. Heap, in preparing an ice atlas of the Antarctic seas, drew upon the long period of meteorological records from the Argentine station ‘Orcadas’ on Laurie Island, South Orkney Island, and from the British station at Grytviken, South Georgia. He was able to show that in the late 1920s there were several years with mean annual temperatures 1 or 2 degC below average, while in the 1950-60 period moderate fluctuations in climate could be associated with fluctuations in the pack ice. M. W. Holdgate. Because of the lack of suitable ‘indicator species’ in the land flora, pollen analysis from the Antarctic zone is not likely to help in this problem. However, some evidence of climatic change may be derived from the fluctuating fortunes of the small elephant seal population at Signy Island. When first studied by R. M. Laws in 1948 this was producing 80 to 100 pups annually: latterly numbers have fallen off dramatically and in some seasons only four or five have been born. This is a marginal population of a species not penetrating deeply within the ice zone, and hence will probably be a good indicator of changing climate and ice conditions.

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