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

《南极条约关于环境保护的议定书》的目标是全面保护南极环境及其附属和相关的生态系统。认识到所有加入《南极洲条约》的国家都有责任成为南极环境的管理者，监测人类对南极洲的影响具有高度优先性。以前的研讨会制定了监测程序设计指南，评估了物理和化学干扰指标，并提出了标准分析技术。过去，人类影响的生物指标没有发展到可以经常使用这些方法为南极洲的管理决策提供信息的程度。生物指标科学的最新进展表明，有必要重新评估生物指标作为人类影响的实际衡量标准的地位。该奖项将支持一个国际讲习班，其目的是利用温带气候国家在制定人类影响的有意义的生物指标方面的广泛经验，同时认识到南极洲的特点。同样重要的是要认识到目前对复杂生态系统及其与人类活动耦合的理解的局限性，以便对这些监测活动可能预期的结果提供现实的期望。虽然生物资源往往是人们最容易看到的系统，也是最常被认为可能受到人类影响的系统，但直接监测南极环境的这些要素不一定能够提供与管理和减轻人类影响有关的必要时间尺度的信息。生物有机体和支持它们的生态系统往往是一个复杂的网络，如果人们对其结构和功能知之甚少。现在是时候评估生物监测的最佳做法，同时明确描述对这些类型的观测的期望，以支持南极环境的保护。拟议的讲习班将产生一系列更广泛的影响。该报告将为所有在南极洲开展科学研究的国家提供指导，目前有30多个国家在南极洲开展科学研究。许多资源有限的国家依靠这些国际合作来提供急需的信息，告诉他们如何通过减少人类影响来管理南极洲的环境。讲习班的结果也将以一份资料文件的形式报告给2005年6月在瑞典斯德哥尔摩举行的南极条约系统环境保护委员会。该报告将在几个国家和国际网站上广泛发布，可以方便地访问。指导委员会将由本科生和研究生共同组织和主持研讨会。每位外国与会者将与来自他们国家的德克萨斯州农工大学学生配对，提供重要的交流机会。这将为将科学转化为政策提供宝贵的经验，并使学生接触到不同的国际受众。

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.