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Climate and Conservation pp 267–277Cite as

Antarctica

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Abstract

With parts of Antarctica warming at seven times the rate of the rest of the globe, climate change stands to significantly affect terrestrial and aquatic species and ecosystems. Disappearing sea ice, declines in Antarctic krill stocks, and expanding plant communities over the last several decades portend even more notable changes in the future. While many of the forty-nine signatory nations to the Antarctic Treaty engage in extensive climate change research, climate change has only recently become part of the treaty agenda. Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities in Antarctica are small within the global context, yet the symbolic value of reducing emissions from human activities in one of the world’s most vulnerable environments cannot be underestimated. Visionary thinking on climate change-adaptation, including strategic planning for large-scale protected or specially managed areas, will be required to achieve conservation goals into the future.

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Acknowledgments

This chapter grew out from an earlier contribution to an IUCN volume: T. Tin, D. Ainley, J. N. Barnes, and S. Hajost. 2010. “Impacts and Ecosystem-based Adaptation in the Antarctic and Southern Ocean.” In Building Resilience to Climate Change: Ecosystem-based Adaptation and Lessons from the Field, A. Andrade Pérez, B. Herrera Fernandez, and R. Cazzolla Gatti, eds., Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. Thanks to the editors and reviewers of both volumes for the opportunity to express our views and improve our text.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Alaska, USA

    Tina Tin

Authors
  1. David Ainley
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  2. Tina Tin
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, Berkeley, USA

    Jodi A. Hilty (director) (director)

  2. environmental politics at Brandeis University and the Fletcher School at Tufts University, USA

    Charles C. Chester (assistant professor) (assistant professor)

  3. Wildlife Conservation Society, USA

    Molly S. Cross (coordinator) (coordinator)

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© 2012 Island Press

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Ainley, D., Tin, T. (2012). Antarctica. In: Hilty, J.A., Chester, C.C., Cross, M.S. (eds) Climate and Conservation. Island Press/Center for Resource Economics. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-203-7_21

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