Antarctica has long held the intrigue of humankind. Its vastness and crystal clear air renders measurement of scale difficult at best. Its bounty of wildlife, mostly marine, is legendary, and its heroic era has been the fodder of many a classic tale. Are the many nations invested in Antarctica there simply for geopolitical reasons? Or on the other hand, does Antarctica hold insights, even answers, to fundamental scientific questions with global implications?
In her highly readable Secrets of the Ice, Veronika Meduna lays to rest any lingering concerns that the science of Antarctica is superfluous and not worthy of our support. Her book, with its decidedly New Zealand perspective and generally Ross Sea focus, is divided into four major sections: 1) Uncovering the Past, 2) Life on Ice, 3) True Antarcticans, and 4) Oasis in a Frozen Desert. In an accompanying short introduction Meduna dangles the allure of discovering life in the waters of Lake Vanda buried deep within the icy polar plateau, while in a similarly brief Coda she discusses the exploitation of Antarctica as a means of peering beyond our galaxy. These elements provide nice bookends to the four major sections. Complementing the prose throughout the book are numerous outstanding colour photographs, each with highly informative captions.
In Uncovering the Past the author explores the Gondwanian origins of Antarctica, introducing the reader, as she does so effectively throughout her book, to the heart and soul of individual scientists, and in this case to several at the forefront of studying Antarctica’s geological past. Highlighting the ontogeny of drilling projects carried out over the past fifty years in the deep Southern Ocean, at Cape Roberts in McMurdo Sound, and in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Meduna weaves a compelling story of how these largely international projects have provided insights into how our earth’s climate has changed over the course of millions of years. The author then summarizes two relatively recent, key ice-sheet drilling projects, the first carried out at Vostok Station, the second 600 km distant, that have provided an immensely important 800 000 year chronology of our earth’s atmospheric temperatures and levels of carbon dioxide. This information, unlocked from air trapped in ice cores, has provided incontrovertible evidence of humankind’s role in the production of greenhouse gases that are driving rapid global warming. A brief description follows on the circulation of the Southern Ocean (e.g. the Antarctic Circumpolar Current; the world’s largest), known to influence global patterns of oceanic circulation and thus climate. The author wraps up this section with an overview of those individuals involved in the discovery, elucidation and, via the Montreal Protocol, potential mitigation of the anthropogenically induced thinning of the ozone layer (ozone hole) over Antarctica.
In Life on Ice the author selects a suite of Antarctic wildlife and through the eyes of leading scientists describes aspects of their ecology, life history, and unique behavioural, morphological, physiological and molecular adaptations to low temperature. Included are the emperor and especially the Adélie penguins, a variety of species of fish, and the seafloor invertebrates that comprise rich communities structured primarily by biotic factors and ice scour. The author reminds us that a remarkably diverse marine biota has been further brought to light by recent scientific collaborative programmes such as the International Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML).
True Antarcticans introduces readers to a collection of terrestrial organisms that have somehow managed to make Antarctica home. Nematodes, minute cylindrical worms whose biodiversity is as far reaching as their biogeography, lead the way. Once again by introducing us to key scientists, Meduna describes the nematodes of Antarctic soils and their subcellular adaptations to survive extremes of desiccation and cold. Equally fascinating is Antarctica’s one and only insect, the springtail, whose small size complements its blink-of-an-eye life cycle. While I would politely argue that Antarctica’s true forests are comprised of the rich forests of towering macroalgae that populate the coastal seafloor of the western Antarctic Peninsula, beyond Antarctica’s two tiny flowering plants, the author’s stated choice of Antarctic forests are two-dimensional. Here, the rich diversity and biology of lichens, mosses and liverworts on the western Antarctica Peninsula are presented, and the fungi discussed in the context of their troublesome decomposition of huts constructed during the heroic era. A brief description of studies of the extremophile bacteria occupying hot seeps at the 3794 m summit of Mount Erebus rounds out this section of the book.
In the book’s final major section, Oasis in a Frozen Desert, Meduna turns her focus to the McMurdo Dry Valleys. She first describes dry valley geology and then the discovery of a rich microbial diversity in a presumptive lifeless environment. Every potential habitat is exploited; even the soil beneath mummified seal carcasses harbours bacterial ecosystems while cyanobacteria thrive in aqueous environments of ice covered lakes. Fittingly, in the end, the author tells the compelling story of scientists and technicians drilling almost four kilometres below the ice cap to sample the waters of Lake Vostok, its potential for life fraught with extra-terrestrial implications. Despite Meduna finishing this tantalizing book before the Vostok samples were analysed, I suspect her prose would have celebrated their biodiversity.
Overall this is a superb book that will nicely complement several others written without a New Zealand focus; yet similarly address the importance of Antarctic science through the eyes of its scientists. Meduna is well versed in science and professional writing and it shows. This is one of those rare books that can be enthusiastically recommended to both scientist and layperson alike.
