LTSER Zone Atelier Antarctique - Antarctica

This Zone Atelier brings together researches in the middle and long term, about changes in biodiversity and ecosystems functionning in antarctic and sub-antarctic regions which are under both human and climate influences. It covers a vast territory from Antarctica (Adélie Land) to subtropical waters of the Indian Ocean Islands (St. Paul & Amsterdam) through two groups of sub-Antarctic islands (Crozet archipelago, Kerguelen islands), including the southern ocean survey. Our research is based on long-term data sets on the environment and its changes. This network of observatories is unique in its remoteness from inhabited continents and its distribution along a latitudinal transect across the Southern and Indian oceans. Biological communities studied in this Zone Atelier have long been isolated and preserved, but, despite their remoteness, they are now subject to an increasing anthropogenic pressure both on land and at sea: intentional or unintentional introductions of species (rabbits, rats, mice ... but also plants and invertebrates), fisheries... In addition they are very sensitive to the current climate change.This Zone Atelier relies on thirteen research programmes supported by the French Polar Institute (IPEV). The disciplines involved are numerous (ecology, ecophysiology, ethology, genetics, parasitology ... ), as biological models (marine birds and mammals, oceanic communities, terrestrial plants and invertebrates, introduced vertebrates...). Some series of observations on the environment were recorded continuously for many years, even decades, and some new ones are still created.