Template for new SCAR Scientific Research

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; Southern Ocean; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.366.132; http://www.scar.org/researchgroups/progplanning/AntEco_Proposal_Apr12_upd.pdf

4. Estimated SCAR funding required over the total programme lifetime (in US$): $128, 000 over 8 years = $16, 000 per year 5. Abstract (250 words or less) Biological diversity is the sum of all those organisms that determine how ecosystems function, and underpins the life-support system of our planet. This programme has been designed to focus on past and present patterns of biodiversity across terrestrial, limnological, glacial and marine environments within the Antarctic, sub-Antarctic and Southern Ocean regions, to provide the scientific knowledge on biodiversity, including genetic diversity, species diversity and ecosystem diversity that, coupled with increased knowledge of species biology, can be used for the conservation and management of Antarctic ecosystems. Under the framework of EBA, initiatives such as CAML, SCAR-MarBIN and ANTABIF have demonstrated how internationally coordinated research and standardized techniques can rapidly advance knowledge of the state of Antarctic ecosystems. These have improved our understanding of key elements of Antarctic biodiversity, its linkage with global biodiversity and aspects of its phylogenetic and biogeographic history, and have further highlighted the importance of cross-disciplinary links with the oceanographic, glaciological and climate communities in particular. The new challenges are to further the knowledge on current biodiversity and patterns therein, to distinguish the impact of present processes from historical signals, and use this knowledge to develop scenarios of its future state through interdisciplinary approaches. To do so we will promote the use of both established and innovative technologies, on scales from the latest molecular analyses to remote sensing, that will provide the means for synthesis and integration across the entire region over physical and temporal scales and at resolutions that until now have not been possible.