Bücher der Reihe Studies in Polar Research

Negotiations to create an International Arctic Science Committee have increased public awareness of issues involving the Arctic. This book provides a timely review of the situation from a social, political and human standpoint and provides an in-depth study of contemporary global controversies involving the Arctic.

Arctic atmospheric pollution is now a major international issue. This volume presents the most authoritative review of this increasingly important subject for an audience of both scientists and administrators concerned with worldwide, as well as polar, pollution problems. Arctic Air Pollution is an edited collection of papers, first presented at a conference helo as the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge in 1985. Building on foundations established at earlier meetings, this volume examines the problem of Arctic air pollution in an integrated, multidisciplinary fashion, with contributions from leading authorities in chemistry, ecology, climatology and epidemiology. To chemists, physicists and climatologists, it presents scientific problems. Ecologists are concerned with environmental threats; medical researchers with potential threats to human health. International lawyers and administrators are concerned with the legal implications of pollutants transferred across continents. Overall hangs the major question; can man-made pollution affect the delicate energy balance of the Arctic, and precipitate major climatic change worldwide?

Areas of barren rock and scree around the edge of Antarctica provide a breeding ground for two of the continent's most well-known species of bird: the south polar skua and the Adelie penguin. This book considers the relationship between these two species, taking as its study site Ross Island. Through detailed observations of the foraging ecology of the skua, the traditional view that skuas are totally dependent on penguin eggs and chicks for food is challenged. In addition, studies of the impact of skuas on penguin breeding and the extent to which the skua breeding cycle is functionally related to that of the penguin provide further evidence to suggest that the two species occur together independently as a consequence of limited breeding space, rather than as a result of a distinct predator-prey relationship.

This book describes the effects of cold climates on the surface of the earth. Using scientific principles, the authors describe the evolution of ground thermal conditions and the origin of natural features such as frost heave, solifluction, slope instabilities, patterned ground, pingos and ice wedges.

In this survey, a study group, brought together by the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies, looks at the political and environmental questions raised by the potentially conflicting interests in the Antarctic.

The work provides, in chapters by different authors, an in-depth review of the outstanding environmental, technological, political, economic, social and legal issues associated with arctic resource use, development and management.

The Antarctic Treaty regime is a uniquely successful legal system which preserves Antarctica for peaceful purposes and guarantees freedom of scientific research. This volume based on an international conference, examines the legal, political and environmental issues that it raises.

The introduction earlier this century of Norwegian reindeer to the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia provided scientists with the unusual opportunity of studying the interaction between a large arctic herbivore and a southern ecosystem that had not previously been exposed to grazing by mammals.

Macquarie Island, a speck of land rising from the Southern Ocean about 1,000 km south-east of Tasmania, is a wild and beautiful place. Declared a nature reserve in 1933, the island is of immense scientific interest, providing scientists with an opportunity to study unique geological features and to examine the special characteristics of a southern island ecosystem.

This book describes in mathematical, physical and biological terms, the growth and decay of ice - in water, air, earth and living organisms - on a scale ranging from molecular to macroscopic. Consideration of the growth of ice in each of the above contexts provides a clearer understanding of the processes involved.

This book reviews the biology of bryophytes and lichens in the polar tundra, where these plants may form a dominant component of the vegetation. It considers adaptation to severe environments in terms of growth form, physiology and reproduction.

In this survey, a study group, brought together by the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies, looks at the political and environmental questions raised by the potentially conflicting interests in the Antarctic.

A wide-ranging and up-to-date review of permafrost science, unique in presenting the Russian viewpoint. This English edition brings the standard Russian work on geocryology to a larger readership, allowing the value of the knowledge and concepts developed to be realised more widely.

This book describes the development of Antarctic science over three centuries against a background of advances in techniques of travelling and working in the polar environment and changing political attitudes to a remote and unknown part of the world.

Wind as a Geomorphic Agent in Cold Climates, first published in 2004, presents a description and explanation of wind-generated polar landforms, both modern-day and those in the geological record. It provides an important introduction to this area of geocryology for graduate students and researchers in geomorphology, geology and environmental science.

This is a translation of Vera Aleksandrova's classic book, first published in Russian, which characterizes the vegetation of this rather special botanical region.

This book provides a structured account of the full range of environments in Antarctica and of the microbial communities that live within them.

The crossing of the Northwest Passage in August 1985 by a US icebreaker, without requesting authorisation, raised the whole question of Canada's sovereignty over the waters of its Arctic Archipelago.

In this book Professor Orrego Vicuna examines in depth the legal framework - the Antarctic Treaty, sovereignty, jurisdiction, and the law of the sea - as it relates to the exploitation of Antarctic minerals.

This account of the life of the tundra provides a fascinating insight into the ways in which animals, plants and climate interact in an inhospitable environment.