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This text provides an insight into the early history of the Polar regions, and tells the stories of Man's first exploration of the Arctic and Antarctic, and subsequent expeditions. The history of individual Polar expeditions has been told many times, but usually only as personal accounts of individual adventures. This misses the overall context of polar exploration - why the British depended on ponies, or plant-eating animals (on the only continent where plants don't grow), why Franklin's men perished when the local Eskimos were eking out an existence around them (and reporting Franklin's demise), and why the Scandinavians were always better than anybody else. The first map of Antarctica was produced in 1556 - the Vikings visited the Arctic 1,000 years before. In 2001, the US Base at the South Pole is manned 365 days a year. The book tells the whole story of how the two last wildernesses, at either end of the world, were discovered, conquered and tamed.

Ground-based zenith sky UV–visible measurements of stratospheric bromine monoxide (BrO) slant column densities are compared with simulations from the SLIMCAT three-dimensional chemical transport model. The observations have been obtained from a network of 11 sites, covering high and midlatitudes of both hemispheres. This data set gives for the first time a near-global picture of the distribution of stratospheric BrO from ground-based observations and is used to test our current understanding of stratospheric bromine chemistry. In order to allow a direct comparison between observations and model calculations, a radiative transfer model has been coupled to the chemical model to calculate simulated slant column densities. The model reproduces the observations in general very well. The absolute amount of the BrO slant columns is consistent with a total stratospheric bromine loading of 20 ± 4 ppt for the period 1998–2000, in agreement with previous estimates. The seasonal and latitudinal variations of BrO are well reproduced by the model. In particular, the good agreement between the observed and modeled diurnal variation provides strong evidence that the BrO-related bromine chemistry is correctly modeled. A discrepancy between observed and modeled BrO at high latitudes during events of chlorine activation can be resolved by increasing the rate constant for the reaction BrO + ClO → BrCl + O2 to the upper limit of current recommendations. However, other possible causes of the discrepancy at high latitudes cannot be ruled out.

In Procellariiformes, parents guard the chick for some time after it has attained homeothermy. Such a strategy may have evolved to protect the chick from predation or inclement weather, but it is costly because only one parent can forage at a time. Therefore, the decision to leave the chick seems to be a trade-off between the chick's ability to care for itself, body condition of the parent present at the nest, and ability of the bird out foraging to return to the nest before its mate's body condition has degraded. We studied chick growth and survival together with number of days Snow Petrel (Pagodroma nivea) chicks were guarded before being left alone for the first time in relation to the parents body condition and ability to return to the nest in time. Parents in good body condition were more likely to produce a chick that survived the guard stage. They also guarded their chick for a longer period (range 2–8 days, x̄ = 4.5) and finally left it alone with a higher body mass than those in poor body condition. However, whether the foraging bird was able to return to the nest in time to relieve its mate was also strongly related to number of days the chick was guarded and its body mass. The chicks' survival from when they were left alone and until day 10 posthatch was positively related both to number of days they were guarded and their body condition (body mass corrected for age).

Protease-producing psychrotolerant bacteria were isolated from Antarctic biotopes on casein agar plates using different incubation temperatures. Most of the isolates were non-spore-forming Gram-negative motile rods with catalase activity, 30% were pigmented and none of them were glucose fermenters. All the strains were grown in liquid cultures at 20°C and protease secretion was tested using the azocasein method. Despite their capacity for production of a clear zone of hydrolysis in agar plates, some strains did not produce detectable levels of proteolytic activity in liquid cultures. The lowest apparent optimum temperature for protease activity found in culture supernatants was 40°C. Almost all the strains showed activation energy values about 10-20 kJ-mol?1 lower than that observed for a mesophilic Subtilisin. Most of the proteases showed optimal activity at neutral or alkaline pH values and developed a multiple-band profile on gelatine-SDS-PAGE. It was observed that the lower the strain isolation temperature was, the more stongly cold-adapted–in terms of optimal temperature and activation energy–were the proteases produced by them. This dependence of the characteristics of the proteases on the isolation temperature is an important factor to take into account in the design of screening programmes directed towards the isolation of psychrotolerant bacteria able to produce proteases strongly or weakly adapted to work in the cold. The Antarctic area explored proved to be a promising source of proteolytic bacteria with potential use in industrial processes to be carried out at low or moderate temperatures.

Article VII of the Antarctic Treaty entitles each Consultative Party to designate observers who shall have the right to carry out unannounced on-spot inspections. The purpose of these inspections is to promote the objectives of and ensure compliance with the provisions of the Antarctic Treaty and the easures adopted under it. The observers shall be accorded complete freedom of access at any time to all areas of Antarctica, including all stations within those areas, as well as vessels and aircrafts at points of embarkation and disembarkation. Article 14 of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty commit the Consultative Parties to undertake inspections under Article VII of the Antarctic Treaty in order to promote the protection of the Antarctic environment and dependent and associated ecosystems, and to ensure compliance with the Environmental Protocol.

We present evidence for the absence of the George VI Ice Shelf during a brief period in the mid-Holocene and during one or more earlier interstadials or interglacials. Barnacle Bathylasma corolliforme shells sampled from ice shelf moraines at Two Step Cliffs on Alexander Island have been dated to c, 5750–6000 14C yr BP(c. 6550–6850 cal yr BP) and imply seasonally open water in the George VI Sound during this period. Other shells are beyond the range of radiocarbon dating and imply open water during one or more previous interglacial or interstadial period, prior to 40 000 14C yr BP. Our results show that the ongoing collapse of some Antarctic Peninsula ice shelves is not unprecedented.

Stegosoladidus simplex (K. H. Barnard, 1930) and S. ingens (Chevreux, 1906) are both figured and redescribed. Three new species (Stegosoladidus antarcticus, S. complex and S. debroyeri) are described. The terminology used for classification of both setae and different setae arrangements is discussed, and the main types of setae are figured.

A large set of rocket measurements of the electron concentration [e] in the upper D region at four rocket sites (Molodezhnaya (Antarctic), Heiss Island (Arctic), Syowa (Antarctic), and Andoya/Kiruna (Arctic)) is considered. The dependence of [e] on the solar zenith angle X and geomagnetic activity index ∑Kp is analyzed. It has been shown that, the spread in [e] values reaches two orders of magnitude at any assigned value of χ. Nevertheless, it is possible to draw a lower envelope for the entire set of points and to obtain the [e] variation with χ in undisturbed conditions. In an analysis of the envelopes, it is seen that a corpuscular ionization source (presumably, electrons with an energy of above 40 keV) exists in the nonsunlit D region even in quiet conditions. An analysis of the electron concentration dependence on the daily sum of ∑Kp indices (∑Kp) shows that, at all heights considered, increases [e] with increasing ∑Kp to a certain boundary value ∑Kp and then remains either constant (with a rather wide spread in the data) or even decreases. This saturation effect may be caused by the auroral oval equatorward motion. As a result of this motion the site position may change: it may move toward the boundary between the auroral oval and polar cap or even be within the latter. The slope k of the [e] variation plotted versus ∑Kp at different χ is considered. It is shown that k grows with increasing χ and is maximal at χ> 100°.