In Antarctica polar conditions of real cold, desiccation and salinity extremes lie away from the sea edge. Here, where there is sufficient moisture for life to be found at all it is invariably dominated by cyanobacteria, sometimes in a profusion unmatched elsewhere in the world. Now that much of the descriptive ecology and physiology is completed where should ecology be going? There are two possibilities: 1) an ecosystem approach to the functioning of Antarctic inland areas; 2) a molecular approach to the genetic controls on survival in cold, saline and desiccated conditions.

Forty six taxa of testate amoebae were found in 45 samples of aquatic environments ranging from small pools to lakes. Four assemblages were distinguished which, to some degree, can be related ecologically to different pH ranges, and to differences in the habitat structure. The Nebela collaris assemblage occurs in acid pools mostly vegetated with mosses. The Centropyxis gibba gibbosa–Euglypha tuberculata–Difflugia globularis/globulus assemblage is found in the sediments of circumneutral to slightly alkaline lakes. Both of the other assemblages are mainly found in pools, which are more (for the Trinema assemblage) or less vegetated with mosses, in slightly acid (the Difflugia penardi–Centropyxis aerophila assemblage) or circumneutral to slightly alkaline (the Trinema lineare assemblage) conditions. A generic comparison with the Arctic fauna indicates differences, especially in the role of Difflugia as a dominant genus in aquatic habitats.

Soil samples from eight sites at Marble Point and Pram Point, McMurdo Sound region, contaminated by human activities were examined for heavy metal content, using sequential extraction methods. The redistribution of lead, zinc and copper arising from point sources of these metals was demonstrated. The levels found are not considered to represent serious pollution but do indicate that human activities can change the chemistry of the Antarctic environment in localized areas.

Subantarctic Marion Island is one of the few localities where the congeneric albatrosses Phoebetria fusca and P. palpebrata breed sympatrically. Chicks of both species at Marion Island were induced to regurgitate their stomach contents after being fed. Liquid formed over half the diet by mass. Cephalopods occurred most frequently in both species' diets. In terms of mass, cephalopods formed the larger part of the diet of sooty albatrosses, whereas fish was more important to light-mantled sooty albatrosses. Crustaceans and birds were also recorded for both species. Squid of the families Onychoteuthidae, Histioteuthidae, Chiroteuthidae and Cranchiidae occurred most abundantly in both species. Most squid taken by both albatrosses were of species known to float after death, suggesting that scavenging plays an important role in the species' foraging behaviour. Light-mantled sooty albatrosses consumed more squid restricted to the south of the Antarctic Polar Front than did sooty albatrosses, supporting a trend to latitudinal segregation of the two species while foraging.

A female Antarctic krill loses 34% of its body mass when it lays a batch of eggs. This represents a considerable input of energy which was estimated using a combination of measured mass and energy differences in female krill and from the measured energetic content of ovarian tissue. Large (c. 50 mm) female krill lose 2.9–3.8 kJ each time a batch of eggs is laid. Calculations using this figure indicate that multiple spawning by Antarctic krill in a season would require above average phytoplankton concentrations (> 0.5 μg chl a 1−1) and filtration rates which are close to the maximum reported (> 10 l h−1).

To provide data on the degree of contamination of the marine ecosystem isomer-specific concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls, including planar, mono- and di-ortho congeners, were measured in the Weddell seal, the Adélie penguin, the south polar skua, and in two species of Antarctic fish (Trematomus bernacchii and Chionodraco hamatus) from Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica. The results show a clear relation between PCB concentrations and trophic level, in the order fish < Adélie penguin < Weddell seal. The higher values found in the skua appear to be related to its migration to more contaminated lower latitudes. The data for the various PCB congeners were used to calculate toxic potential in the different animals. The 2,3,7,8-TCDD toxic equivalents of coplanar congeners were estimated by the “toxic equivalent factors” (TEFs) approach. The highest values of TEFs were found in the south polar skua and Weddell seal. Values in the other species were considerably lower.

A coastal ichthyological survey was carried out in Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea during the Italian Antarctic Expedition 1987/1988. Vacchi et al. (1992) described the composition of the coastal fish community. Stomach content analysis was conducted on Trematomus bernacchii and T. pennellii to evaluate the trophic overlap (Vacchi et al. 1994). During the survey, several specimens of T. newnesi were caught at 92 m depth. This fish is a coastal species widespread in the high-Antarctic Zone and also known from the South Shetland Islands and the South Orkney Islands (DeWitt et al. 1990). Although T. newnesi was found down to 400 m depth (Tiedtke & Kock 1989), it seems more abundant in very shallow inshore waters (Naito & Iwami 1982, Williams 1988). Andriashev (1970) and Williams(1988) stated T. newnesi was a cryopelagic species associated with the underside of the sea-ice. At Signy Island, T. newnesi was described as semipelagic species eating amphipods (Richardson 1975). Eastman & DeVries (1982) consider it to be both a cryopelagic and benthic species in McMurdo Sound. Targett (1981) found that T. newnesi feeds on krill and plankton at the South Orkney Islands. Planktivory has also been indicated at the South Shetland Islands (Casaux et al. 1990).

Properties of the surface and bottom circulation in the north-west Weddell and south Scotia seas in the region 59–66°S, 36–46°W are examined. The bottom currents have been recorded at different heights from 5–800 m above the seabed, and surface velocities have been obtained from the drift tracks of ARGOS buoys deployed in ice floes. The tidal regime is mixed and the power of motions at inertial frequencies is very variable and most dominant in the Scotia Sea. Flow is influenced by topography, effects of which are seen in eddy features and the damping of inertial motions in some areas. The sea ice motion is shown to be influenced by the bottom topography at very low frequencies whilst tidal periodicities observed in the north-western Weddell Sea are below the level of the noise in the region of the study. In this area the higher frequency ice motion is mainly wind driven with little of the energy being transferred to the underlying deep water.

Megafloral remains recovered from the Jetty Member and the upper part of the Flagstone Bench Formation, Amery Group include Dicroidium and Pagiophyllum. Dicroidium zuberi and D. crassinervis forma stelznerianum occur with Pteruchus dubius and support a Mid to Late Triassic age. A new species of conifer, Pagiophyllum papillatus, is recognized along with an undetermined conifer pollen cone.

A fossil hydrothermal system on Barton Peninsula, King George Island, Antarctica, formed a series of lead-zinc- and pyrite + native sulphur-bearing epithermal quartz ± calcite veins, filling fault-related fractures in hydrothermally altered volcanic rocks of Eocene age. The lead-zinc veins occur within argillic hydrothermal alteration zones, whereas the pyrite + native sulphur veins are found within advanced argillic alteration zones. Fluid inclusion data indicate that the vein formation occurred at temperatures between about 125° and 370°C (sphalerite deposition formed at 123–211°C) from fluids with salinities of 0.5–4.6 wt.% eq. NaCl. Equilibrium thermodynamic interpretation of mineral assemblages indicates that the deposition of native sulphur in the upper and central portions of the hydrothermal system was a result of the mixing of condensates of ascending magmatic gases and meteoric water giving rise to fluids which had lower pH (<3.5) and higher fugacities of oxygen and sulphur than the lead-zinc-depositing fluids at depth. The δ34S values of sulphide minerals from the lead-zinc veins (δ34S = −4.6 to 0.7‰) are much higher than the values of pyrite and native sulphur from the pyrite + native sulphur veins (δ34S = −12.9 to −20.1‰). This indicates that the fluids depositing native sulphur had higher sulphate/H2S ratios under higher fo2 conditions. Sulphur isotope compositions indicate an igneous source of sulphur with a δ34SΣS value near 0‰, probably the Noel Hill Granodiorite. Measured and calculated δ18O and δD values of the epithermal fluids (δ18Owater = −6.0 to 2.7‰, δDwater = −87 to −75‰) indicate that local meteoric water played an important role for formation of lead-zinc and native sulphur-bearing quartz veins.

At Terra Cotta Mountain, in the Taylor Glacier region of south Victoria Land, a 237 m thick Ferrar Dolerite sill is intruded along the unconformity between basement granitoids and overlying Beacon Supergroup sedimentary rocks. Numerous Ferrar Dolerite dykes intrude the Beacon Supergroup and represent later phases of intrusion. Major and trace element data indicate variation both within and between the separate intrusions. Crystal fractionation accounts for much of the geochemical variation between the intrusive events. However, poor correlations between many trace elements require the additional involvement of open system processes. Chromium is decoupled from highly incompatible elements consistent with behaviour predicted for a periodically replenished, tapped and fractionating magma chamber. Large ion lithophile element-enrichment and depletion in Nb, Sr, P and Ti suggests the addition of a crustal component or an enriched mantle source. The trace element characteristics of the Dolerites from Terra Cotta Mountain are similar to those of other Ferrar Group rocks from the central Transantarctic Mountains and north Victoria Land, as well as with the Tasmanian Dolerites. This supports current ideas that the trace element signature of the Ferrar Group is inherited from a uniformly enriched mantle source region.

The Ahlmannryggen-Borgmassivet area of western Dronning Maud Land comprises a relatively undeformed, unmetamorphosed sequence of sedimentary-volcanogenic rocks, the Ritscherflya Supergroup, intruded by a suite of continental tholeiites, the Borgmassivet Intrusions. New Rb-Sr and Sm-Nd whole rock data from the Högfonna Formation at Grunehogna indicate a depositional age of ≈1080 Ma, the first reported direct dating of any member of the Ritscherflya Supergroup. These rocks are interpreted as a molasse-type deposit following the Kibaran orogeny at 1200–1100 Ma, and correlation is made with the Umkondo and Koras groups of southern Africa. The Ritscherflya Supergroup is intruded by the Grunehogna and Kullen sills; the ≈1000 Ma Grunehogna sill intruded unconsolidated sediments, causing partial melting of the sediments. Rb-Sr data from the Kullen sill yield an age of 1429 Ma, clearly inconsistent with these data. Combined Sr and Nd data are compatible with crustal contamination of this sill, producing a Rb-Sr pseudo-isochron with no geological age significance. By comparison with other outcrops of the Borgmassivet Intrusions at Robertskollen and Annandagstoppane, it is concluded that contamination and pseudo-isochrons may be responsible for the wide range in reported ages older than 1000 Ma. Thus the intrusive age of the Borgmassivet Intrusions is concluded to be ≈1000 Ma old. Nd model age data indicate that all rock types were ultimately derived from material separated from a depleted mantle source at ≈2200 Ma.

Livingston Island contains several, distinctive sedimentary and volcanic sequences, which document the history and evolution of an important part of the South Shetland Islands magmatic arc. The turbiditic, late Palaeozoic–early Mesozoic Miers Bluff Formation (MBF) is divided into the Johnsons Dock and Napier Peak members, which may represent sedimentation in upper and lower mid-fan settings, respectively, prior to pre-late Jurassic polyphase deformation (dominated by open folding). The Moores Peak breccias are formed largely of coarse clasts reworked from the MBF. The breccias may be part of the MBF, a separate unit, or part of the Mount Bowles Formation. The structural position is similar to the terrigenous Lower Jurassic Botany Bay Group in the northern Antarctic Peninsula, but the precise stratigraphical relationships and age are unknown. The (?) Cretaceous Mount Bowles Formation is largely volcanic. Detritus in the volcaniclastic rocks was formed mainly during phreatomagmatic eruptions and redeposited by debris flows (lahars), whereas rare sandstone interbeds are arkosic and reflect a local provenance rooted in the MBF. The Pleistocene–Recent Inott Point Formation is dominated by multiple, basaltic tuff cone relicts in which distinctive vent and flank sequences are recognized. The geographical distribution of the Edinburgh Hill Formation is closely associated with faults, which may have been reactivated as dip-slip structures during Late Cenozoic extension (arc splitting).

Considerable controversy surrounds the biostratigraphic and palaeoclimatic interpretation of Antarctic marine Pliocene sequences (Webb & Harwood 1991). The object of this note is to document and reassess a marine Pliocene diatom assemblage from the Larsemann Hills and to discuss its significance with respect to other Antarctic Neogene deposits.