The Changing Pattern of Antarctic Botanical Studies

• Main Author: S. W. Greene
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Department of Botany, University of Birmingham 1967
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=96; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00000096/; https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=96&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1

Some of the major changes which have characterized the study of botany within the Antarctic Botanical Zone are briefly reviewed. Almost all the work in the pre-IGY phase was of a taxonomic or distributional nature, being based principally on preserved material. Since the IGY however, an increasing emphasis is being placed on the study of living material, one result being the rapid development of ecological programmes which so far, have concentrated on problems of vegetation description, environmental analysis and experimental autecology. Thus, a classification of the vegetation in the vicinity of the Antarctic Peninsula, based primarily on physiognomic criteria has recently been proposed. Environmental studies have been concentrated on descriptions of the microclimatic conditions occurring at plant level and have revealed aspects of the widely fluctuating conditions which prevail in the summer, in contrast to the remarkably uniform conditions that exist under the winter snow blanket. Studies on water availability in Antarctic mosses have also been reviewed. The experimental autecological work to date, has been concerned with the effects of microclimate on the growth and reproductive behaviour of various mosses as well as the two native Antarctic flowering plants, and attempts have been made to interpret the data from field studies by growing representatives of the field populations under controlled conditions in a phytotron.