Workshop: Practical Biological Indicators of Human Impacts in Antarctica; College Station, TX; March 16-18, 2005

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The goal of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty is comprehensive protection of the Antarctic environment and dependent and associated ecosystems. In recognition of the responsibility of all nations acceding to the AntarcticTreaty to be stewards of the Antarctic environment, monitoring the impacts of humans in Antarctica has a high priority. Previous workshops developed guidelines for the design of monitoring programs, evaluated indicators of physical and chemical disturbances, and proposed standard analytical techniques. In the past, biological indicators of human impact were not developed to a point were these methods could be routinely used to inform management decisions in Antarctica. Recent advances in the science of biologicalindicators suggest that a re-evaluation of the status of biological indicators as practical measures of human impact is warranted. This award will support an international workshop, which aims to build on the extensive experience of countries in temperate climates in developing meaningful biological indicators of human impact while at the same time recognizing the special features of Antarctica. It is also important to recognize the limitations of current understanding of complex ecological systems and their coupling to human activities in order to provide realistic expectations for the outcomes that might be expected from these monitoring activities. While often biological resources are those systems most visible to people and the most frequently cited as possibly effected by humans, it is not necessarily true that direct monitoring of these elements of the Antarctic environment can provide the information necessary on time scales relevant to managing and mitigating human impacts. Biological organisms and the ecosystems that support them, are often a complex web whose structure and functioning if poorly understood. It istimely to assess the best practices for biological monitoring while at the same timeclearly delineating the expectations for these types of observations in support of theprotection of the Antarctic environment. The proposed workshop will have a range of broader impacts. The report produced will provide guidance to all nations that conductscience in Antarctica, which now number more than thirty. Many nations with limitedresources rely on these international collaborations to provide much neededinformation on how they can be stewards of the environment in Antarctica byminimizing human impact. The results of the workshop will also be reported in anInformation Paper to the Committee on Environmental Protection of the AntarcticTreaty System in Stockholm, Sweden in June, 2005. The report will be made widelyavailable on several national and international websites, where it can be easily accessed. The Steering Committee will involve both undergraduate and graduates students in organizing and hosting the workshop. Each foreign attendee will be matched with a Texas A&M University student from their country providing an important networking opportunity. This will provide an invaluable experience in translating science into policy and expose the students to a diverse international audience.