News from Antarctica.

Fact file

 (a) Area  14.2 million square km.

 (b) 5th largest continent and nearly twice the size of Australia.

 (c) Population density 0.00008 people per square km.

 (d) 98% Antarctica is covered by ice.

Human impact on Antarctica only increasing

Antarctica is considered one of the Earth's largest, most pristine remaining wilderness. Yet since its formal discovery 200 years ago, the continent has been accelerating and potentially impactful human activity. The continent has been more widely impacted by humans than previously thought, claims a study in the journal Nature. We take a look

Human Footprints on the Largest Desert

The human footprint across the continent has never been quantified before. Antarctica has no cities, agriculture or industry with much of it remaining largely unimpacted.

In a region often thought of as remote, we showed that in fact human human activity has been extensive, especially in ice-free and coastal areas where most of its biodiversity is found. This means that 'wilderness' areas do not capture many of the continent's important biodiversity sites, but that an opportunity exists to conserve the last of the wild.

                                      - Dr Bernard Coetzee, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

2.7 million

A team of researchers led by Monash University used a data set of 2.7 million human activity records.

They were able to show how extensive human use of Antarctica happened between the years 1819 and 2018.

With the exception of some large areas mostly in the central parts of the continent, humans have set foot almost everywhere.

Although many of these visited areas have only been negligibly affected by people, biodiversity is not as well represented within them as it should be.

Biodiversity Overlap

High human impact areas, like those where people build research stations or visit for tourism, often overlap with areas important for biodiversity.

16% of the continent's Important Bird Areas, areas identified internationally as critical for bird conservation, are located within negligibly impacted areas.

Tailpiece.

Got up at our usual time, the chores and was ready by a half past 9. Went out of the house to the nearby ATM and was back within ten minutes.