Ecological Studies in the Antarctic Sea Ice Zone, 2002 Results of EASIZ Midterm Symposium

Ten years ago Polar Biology published the book, Weddell Sea Ecology, containing the European "Polarstern" study EPOS in the Weddell Sea and Peninsula waters 1988/89. In certain respects, the present collection of papers, first published in Polar Biology in 2001, is a follow-up as it combines papers partly based on three "Polarstern" expeditions to the same region. Further articles relate to both land-based and shipborne studies, again primarily in the Atlantic sector and around the Antarctic Peninsula. The SCAR programme, "Ecology of the Antarctic Sea Ice Zone" (EASIZ), served as an umbrella for a truly international cooperation. Although funding came exclusively from national sources, 40% of the scientists on board "Polarstern" were foreigners. Out of the 35 papers of the present volume not less than 14 papers have multinational authorship. The scope of EASIZ is wider ilian the Southern Ocean Studies in JGOFS and GLOBEC. The Contents reflect emphasis on the study of benthos, which hitherto had not received the necessary attention in the attempt to understand key questions of evolution and zoogeography of fauna from the Southern Hemisphere. The information collected under EASIZ enhanced greatly our recognition of the rather high biodiversity of ilie Antarctic shelf benthos. In order to extend these studies to ilie deeper continental slopes and the deep sea, "Polarstern" is presently on her way for ilie first international survey of deep-sea benthos in the Atlantic sector of ilie Southern Ocean.

I. Biodiversity.- Antarctic marine benthic biodiversity in a world-wide latitudinal context 1.- New species of benthopelagic hydromedusae from the Weddell Sea.- A study on octopodids from the eastern Weddell Sea, Antarctica.- Diversity of reproductive features in some Antarctic polynoid and sabellid polychaetes, with a description of Demonax polarsterni sp. n. (Polychaeta, Sabellidae).- Deep-sea polychaetes in the Weddell Sea and Drake Passage: first quantitative results.- Great differences in peracarid crustacean density between the Arctic and Antarctic deep sea.- Potential impact of the main benthic amphipods on the eastern Weddell Sea shelf ecosystem (Antarctica).- Diversity of epibenthic habitats of gammaridean amphipods in the eastern Weddell Sea.- No evidence for slow-down of molecular substitution rates at subzero temperatures in Antarctic serolid isopods (Crustacea, Isopoda, Serolidae).- Microscopic anatomy and ultrastructure of the digestive system of three Antarctic shrimps (Crustacea: Decapoda: Caridea).- Synopsis of the pycnogonids from Antarctic and Subantarctic waters.- Cytogenetics of the bathydraconid fish Gymnodraco acuticeps (Perciformes, Notothenioidei) from Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea.- Seasonal fluctuations of vagile benthos in the uppermost sublittoral of a maritime Antarctic fjord.- Assemblages of necrophagous animals off Enderby land, East Antarctica.- II. Pelagobenthic coupling.- Are Antarctic suspension-feeding communities different from those elsewhere in the world?.- Primary production, light and vertical mixing in Potter Cove, a shallow bay in the maritime Antarctic.- Land forcing controls pelagic-benthic coupling in Adelie Cove (Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea).- Fluxes and composition of settling particles during summer in an Antarctic shallow bay of Livingston Island, South Shetlands.- Feeding strategies and diet composition of four Antarctic cnidarian species.- Foraging behaviour of Weddell seals, and its ecological implications.- III. Ice biota and ice impact on benthic communities.- On the direct impact of ice on marine benthic communities, a review.- Biogeochemistry of platelet ice: its influence on particle flux under fast ice in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica.- Meiofauna in sea ice of the Weddell Sea (Antarctica).- In situ oxygen microelectrode measurements of bottom-ice algal production in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica.- Recolonisation of meiofauna after catastrophic iceberg scouring in shallow Antarctic sediments.- Meiofauna response to iceberg disturbance on the Antarctic continental shelf at Kapp Norvegia (Weddell Sea).- Quantification of iceberg impact and benthic recolonisation patterns in the Weddell Sea (Antarctica).- The role of iceberg scours in niche separation within the Antarctic fish genus Trematomus.- IV. Ecophysiology.- Ecophysiology of Antarctic marine ectotherms: limits to life.- Acclimation of photosynthesis and pigments to seasonally changing light conditions in the endemic Antarctic red macroalga Palmaria decipiens.- Effects of solar radiation on growth and mycosporine-like amino acids content in Thalassiosira sp., an Antarctic diatom.- Distribution patterns of decapod crustaceans in polar areas: A result of magnesium regulation?.- Occurrence of the autofluorescent pigment, lipofuscin, in polar crustaceans and its potential as an age marker.- Production and respiration of Antarctic ascidians.- Temperature-dependent pH regulation in stenothermal Antarctic and eurythermal temperate eelpout (Zoarcidae): an in-vivo NMR study.- List of Referees.