Investigations on Deterioration in the Historic Huts of the Ross Sea Region of Antarctica

南极英雄时代的探险者在南极探险的极端环境中建造了建筑物，并带来了大量的物资。罗伯特·f·斯科特和欧内斯特·沙克尔顿在20世纪初建造的小屋在探险结束后就被遗弃了，留下了小屋和成千上万的文物。极端的极地环境保护了许多文物免于迅速腐烂，但在过去的90年里，严重的退化已经变得明显。初步研究结果表明，独特的木材破坏真菌是在木材与地面接触时腐烂的，各种霉菌和纤维素降解真菌是在攻击皮革、纺织品和其他有机材料制成的人工制品。外部木材也受到非生物退化过程的破坏，包括盐、紫外线辐射和风蚀。棚屋内的化学破坏和土壤被石油产品产生的芳烃污染也被发现。该项目将确定导致退化的生物和非生物因素，研究腐烂过程中发生的机制和事件的渐进顺序，用于控制未来退化的测试方法，确定历史遗址土壤中环境污染物的程度，并评估小屋内的化学泄漏。这项研究将为保护人员提供所需的科学数据，帮助他们为子孙后代保护这些重要的历史遗址。它还将增加对南极微生物生物学的认识，在这种不寻常的环境中存在的微生物的生物多样性，并阐明独特的变质过程。

The 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 and Ernest Shackleton during the early 1900's were abandoned once the expedition was over, leaving the huts and thousands of artifacts behind. The extreme polar environment has protected many of the artifacts from rapid decay but over the past nine decades, serious deterioration has become apparent. Results obtained through preliminary studies indicate that unique wood destroying fungi are decaying wood in the contact with the ground and various molds and cellulose degrading fungi are attacking artifacts made of leather, textiles and other organic materials. Exterior woods are also being deteriorated by non-biological deterioration processes including salt, ultraviolet radiation and wind erosion. Chemical damage within the huts and soils contaminated with aromatic hydrocarbons from petroleum products have also been found. This project will identify the biological and non-biological agents responsible for causing the deterioration, study mechanisms and progressive sequence of events taking place during decay processes, test methods to be used to control future deterioration, determine the extent of environmental pollutants in soils at the historic site, and evaluate chemical spills within the huts. The research will provide the scientific data required by conservators to help protect these important historic site for future generations. It will also add to the knowledge of the biology of Antarctic microorganisms, the biodiversity of microbes present in this unusual environment, and elucidate unique deterioration processes.