Our footprint on Antarctica competes with nature for rare ice-free land
Construction and operation of research stations present the most pronounced human impacts on the Antarctic continent across a wide range of environmental values. Despite Antarctic Treaty Parties committing themselves to comprehensive protection of the environment, data on the spatial extent of impac...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0237-y http://ecite.utas.edu.au/131134 |
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ftunivtasecite:oai:ecite.utas.edu.au:131134 2023-05-15T13:59:47+02:00 Our footprint on Antarctica competes with nature for rare ice-free land Brooks, ST Jabour, J van den Hoff, J Bergstrom, DM 2019 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0237-y http://ecite.utas.edu.au/131134 en eng Nature Publishing Group http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0237-y Brooks, ST and Jabour, J and van den Hoff, J and Bergstrom, DM, Our footprint on Antarctica competes with nature for rare ice-free land, Nature Sustainability, 2, (3) pp. 185-190. ISSN 2398-9629 (2019) [Refereed Article] http://ecite.utas.edu.au/131134 Environmental Sciences Environmental management Conservation and biodiversity Refereed Article PeerReviewed 2019 ftunivtasecite https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0237-y 2022-07-11T22:16:52Z Construction and operation of research stations present the most pronounced human impacts on the Antarctic continent across a wide range of environmental values. Despite Antarctic Treaty Parties committing themselves to comprehensive protection of the environment, data on the spatial extent of impacts from their activities have been limited. To quantify this, we examined the area of building and ground disturbance across the entire continent using geographic information system mapping of satellite imagery. Here, we report the footprint of all buildings to be >390,000 m 2 , with an additional disturbance footprint of >5,200,000 m 2 just on ice-free land. These create a visual footprint similar in size to the total ice-free area of Antarctica, and impact over half of all large coastal ice-free areas. Our data demonstrate that human impacts are disproportionately concentrated in some of the most sensitive environments, with consequential implications for conservation management. This high-resolution measurement of the extent of infrastructure across the continent can be used to inform management decisions to balance sustainable scientific use and environmental protection of the Antarctic environment. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica eCite UTAS (University of Tasmania) Antarctic The Antarctic Nature Sustainability 2 3 185 190 |
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Open Polar |
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eCite UTAS (University of Tasmania) |
op_collection_id |
ftunivtasecite |
language |
English |
topic |
Environmental Sciences Environmental management Conservation and biodiversity |
spellingShingle |
Environmental Sciences Environmental management Conservation and biodiversity Brooks, ST Jabour, J van den Hoff, J Bergstrom, DM Our footprint on Antarctica competes with nature for rare ice-free land |
topic_facet |
Environmental Sciences Environmental management Conservation and biodiversity |
description |
Construction and operation of research stations present the most pronounced human impacts on the Antarctic continent across a wide range of environmental values. Despite Antarctic Treaty Parties committing themselves to comprehensive protection of the environment, data on the spatial extent of impacts from their activities have been limited. To quantify this, we examined the area of building and ground disturbance across the entire continent using geographic information system mapping of satellite imagery. Here, we report the footprint of all buildings to be >390,000 m 2 , with an additional disturbance footprint of >5,200,000 m 2 just on ice-free land. These create a visual footprint similar in size to the total ice-free area of Antarctica, and impact over half of all large coastal ice-free areas. Our data demonstrate that human impacts are disproportionately concentrated in some of the most sensitive environments, with consequential implications for conservation management. This high-resolution measurement of the extent of infrastructure across the continent can be used to inform management decisions to balance sustainable scientific use and environmental protection of the Antarctic environment. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Brooks, ST Jabour, J van den Hoff, J Bergstrom, DM |
author_facet |
Brooks, ST Jabour, J van den Hoff, J Bergstrom, DM |
author_sort |
Brooks, ST |
title |
Our footprint on Antarctica competes with nature for rare ice-free land |
title_short |
Our footprint on Antarctica competes with nature for rare ice-free land |
title_full |
Our footprint on Antarctica competes with nature for rare ice-free land |
title_fullStr |
Our footprint on Antarctica competes with nature for rare ice-free land |
title_full_unstemmed |
Our footprint on Antarctica competes with nature for rare ice-free land |
title_sort |
our footprint on antarctica competes with nature for rare ice-free land |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0237-y http://ecite.utas.edu.au/131134 |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica |
op_relation |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0237-y Brooks, ST and Jabour, J and van den Hoff, J and Bergstrom, DM, Our footprint on Antarctica competes with nature for rare ice-free land, Nature Sustainability, 2, (3) pp. 185-190. ISSN 2398-9629 (2019) [Refereed Article] http://ecite.utas.edu.au/131134 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0237-y |
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Nature Sustainability |
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2 |
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3 |
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185 |
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190 |
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