Assessment of Deterioration in the Historic Huts of the Ross Sea Region of Antarctica

南极洲英雄时代的早期探险家们在南极考察期间，为了在极端环境中生存下来，建造了建筑物，并带来了大量物资。罗伯特·F·斯科特在发现探险队(1901-1904年)、欧内斯特·沙克尔顿和尼姆罗德探险队(1908年)、斯科特的Terra Nova探险队(1911年)和其他探险队期间建造的小屋在探险结束后被遗弃，留下了建筑和数千件文物。今天，这些历史遗迹提供了对过去的非凡看法。家具、科学仪器、食品店和其他物品被留在小屋里，提醒人们早期探险家的日常生活是什么样子。极端的极地环境保护了许多文物免受快速腐烂，但在过去的8到90年里，恶化变得越来越普遍。这个美国和新西兰的联合项目将研究与南极洲罗斯海地区历史小屋保护有关的问题。美国的科学努力将确定木结构中存在的劣化原因，确定木材的当前状况，并更好地了解导致劣化的独特生物和非生物降解过程。将对存在的木材破坏微生物进行评估，并确定它们在夏季短短几个月的活动期间的行动方式。将使用扫描和透射电子显微镜、X射线显微分析和化学分析进行微观形态研究，以研究发现的不同类型的变质。这些调查的结果将提供必要的信息，对于制定成功的保护计划，长期保护南极洲早期探险家留下的建筑、木质材料和其他历史文物至关重要。

The early explorers of Antarctica's heroic era erected buildings and brought large amounts of supplies to survive the extreme environment during their Antarctic exploration. Huts built by Robert F. Scott during the Discovery expedition (1901-1904), Ernest Shackleton and the Nimrod expedition (1908), Scott's Terra Nova expedition (1911) and others were abandoned once the expedition was over, leaving the buildings and thousands of artifacts behind. Today these historic sites provide a remarkable view into the past. Furniture, scientific apparatus, food stores, and other items are left in the huts as a reminder of what everyday life was like for the early explorers. The extreme polar environment has protected many of the artifacts from rapid decay but over the past 8 to 9 decades, deterioration has become increasingly more prevalent. This joint US-New Zealand project will examine issues related to preservation of historic huts in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica. The US scientific effort will identify the cause of the deterioration present in the wooden structures, determine the current condition of the wood and obtain a better understanding of the unique biological and non-biological degradation processes responsible for the deterioration. An assessment of the wood destroying microorganisms present will be made and their mode of action during the short summer months of activity determined. Micromorphological investigations using scanning and transmission electron microscopy, X-ray microanalyses and chemical analyses will be used to study the different types of deterioration found. The results from these investigations will provide needed information that is crucial to develop successful conservation plans for the long-term preservation of the buildings, wooden materials and other historic artifacts left by the early explorers of Antarctica.