Séminaire Ecobio - Pete Convey (British Antarctic Survey)

Terrestrial and freshwater life in Antarctica is surprisingly poorly known. Today it is dominated by lower plants and lichens, microarthropods and other microinvertebrates, and microbial groups, although that has not always been the case. Most currently ice-free ground in Antarctica and on at least some of the surrounding sub-Antarctic islands would have been covered and scoured by glacial advances at the Last Glacial Maximum and previous maxima. However, as new baseline survey data become available, combined with modern molecular biological analysis, it has become clear that isolation, long-term persistence, and regionalisation are general features of the Antarctic terrestrial and freshwater biota. As well as creating a new paradigm in which to consider the evolution and adaptation of Antarctic terrestrial and freshwater biota, important new crossdisciplinary linkages have opened in the fields of understanding the geological and glaciological history of the continent itself and its neighbouring landmasses, and of the climatic and oceanographic process that can both lead to isolation and support colonisation processes. This new and more complex understanding of Antarctic biogeography also provides important practical challenges for management and conservation in the region as is required under the Antarctic Treaty System, in the face of growing human activity and impacts, and of considerable regional climate change.