1 - Instituto de Biologia da UFRJ

Team Leader
Dr. Antônio Batista Pereira
Vice-Team Leader
Dr. Maria Virgínia Petry
Introduction
The module theme “Global Change Impact on the Antarctic
Environment,” which investigates the impact of global
change on terrestrial environment, develops a set of research
areas thaw of Antarctica, to obtain data which help to
explain the effects of environmental change on biological
communities. Besides trying to understand the dynamics
of populations and their relationships.
The study of vegetation develops surveys to describe
and map the plant communities in ice-free areas, aiming
to understand their evolution, the relationships with
the soil microbial community and birds colony and the
emission of greenhouse gases that contribute to global
warming. With the data obtained are expected to contribute
to the monitoring of ice-free ecosystems, assessing the
possible environmental impacts by human occupation
or natural phenomena. Based on this objective, was
chosen two indicators, “plant biodiversity” and “plant
cover”. The use of “plant biodiversity” as an indicator of
environmental impacts, based on the fact that most plants
that grow in ice-free areas of Antarctica can be classified
into ornithocropróphylous or ornithocopróphobous. Soon,
all changes that occur in bird populations will be reflected
in the biodiversity of plant communities. The “plant cover”
is important because the global changes are altering the ice
cover in Antarctica, contributing to changing environments
and expansion of ice-free areas. With the data obtained will
be possible to identify, locate and describe each plant every
community. Through georeferencing of each community
will be possible to prepare maps of vegetation, which can
be compared with those developed in the period 1995-
2012, thus allowing the assessment of the evolution of each
community, and contribute to building methodologies for
monitoring plant communities of ice-free areas. The study
of soil microbial communities and the gases flow that
contribute to global warming started in 2010/2011 will
continue collecting data in the same areas associated with
working on vegetation.
The main goal of studying the distribution and dynamics
of seabird populations is understand the complex relations
between populations and oceanic factors. Seabirds are useful
as tools for understand and monitor the effects of global
change whereas they provide a link between marine and
terrestrial environments. It is, many population measures we
obtain in land are reflection of conditions that the birds are
experiencing off sea. Sea climate and productivity can affect
the foraging efficiency of seabirds and affect their breeding
decisions. Seabirds are on the top of food webs, then, they
reflect the status of all the levels above. As they rely on sea
productivity – Zooplankton, Krill, fishes and squids – any
abrupt changes on lower levels of the food webs can affect
demography parameters such as number of breeding pairs,
survival, breeding success, breeding desertion rates, and so
on. All factors are connected: the productivity on Antarctic
waters clearly depends on the balance of sea-ice-sheets
dynamic which is correlated to sea-surface warming, sea
level pressure and wind regime shifts. All those changes can
directly or indirectly influence seabirds.
As a linkage between sea and land, seabirds drive the
structure of terrestrial communities, be they microbial,
plants, lichens or invertebrates, by “fertilizing” soils and
inputting energy from the ocean on the land. Measure
all those connections is necessary so the whole picture of
terrestrial communities responses to global changes can
be achieved.
Furthermore, seabirds can forage far from breeding
grounds, many reaching subantarctic waters at north or
going south into the Antarctic Circumpolar Currents,
as demonstrated by the study “Oceanic habitat use of an
Antarctic Southern Giant Petrel population during breeding
period”. Through geolocation techniques we were able to
access the ocean areas used by the species. Giant Petrels
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