Week 11: Humans in Antarctica

Lecture 1: Impacts of human activities in Antarctica (Dr Martin Riddle)
What do people do in Antarctica, what environmental impacts do they cause and what does it matter? Antarctica is often thought of as pristine but this is no longer the case - years of activity and occupation have caused localised environmental impacts. The lecture will discuss the major causes of impacts, will put the scale of impacts in a global perspective and will consider some questions on how best to manage human activity to minimise impacts in Antarctica.

Lecture 2: Polar Medicine(Dr Jeff Ayton)
A doctor in Antarctica faces many challenges that do not confront a typical GP. This lecture looks at the training of the medical personnel for Antarctic duty and some of the situations that can occur in the isolated communities on Antarctic stations and on ships in the Southern Ocean.

Lecture 3: Inshore Benthic Communities (Dr Jonny Stark)
What lives on the sea-bed of Antarctica? What are the major characteristics of Antarctic benthic communities - how are they similar to benthic communities from other regions and how do they differ? How do they respond to pollution and disturbance and how do we measure the effects of disturbance in benthic communities?