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探险期间，为了在极端的环境中生存，他们建造了建筑物，并带来了大量的物资。 由罗伯特·F。发现探险期间的斯科特（1901-1904年）、欧内斯特·沙克尔顿和尼姆罗德探险（1908年）、斯科特的新大陆探险（1911年）和其他探险结束后就被放弃了，留下了建筑物和数千件文物。 今天，这些历史遗迹为我们提供了一个回顾过去的非凡视角。 家具、科学仪器、食品储备和其他物品都留在小屋里，以提醒人们早期探险家的日常生活是什么样的。 极端的极地环境保护了许多文物免于快速腐烂，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保护南极洲罗斯海地区历史性小屋有关的问题。美国的科学工作将确定木结构中存在的退化原因，确定木材的当前状况，并更好地了解导致退化的独特生物和非生物降解过程。 将对目前破坏木材的微生物进行评估，并确定它们在短暂的夏季活动期间的作用方式。 利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的微形态学调查将用于研究发现的不同类型的退化，这些调查的结果将提供必要的信息，这些信息对于制定成功的保护计划以长期保护南极洲早期探险者留下的建筑物、木制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.