About Us

Background

The Antarctic Treaty and the various international agreements negotiated under the auspices of the Antarctic Treaty set high standards for environmental protection and the conservation and rational use of marine living resources. Emphasis is placed on the importance of Antarctic as a natural reserve devoted to peaceful use and scientific research.

To fulfil their obligations under the instruments of the Antarctic Treaty System, the Parties and other stakeholders need access to independent, relevant and up-to-date scientific information on Antarctic environments and human activities in the region. The Antarctic Environments Portal aims to provide such information.

Information that is available through the Portal is thoroughly peer-reviewed before being published. An Editor, supported by an Editorial Group oversees the review process and is responsible for ensuring information available through the Portal is accurate, apolitical and up-to-date.

The information available in the Portal is mainly provided in the form of Information Summaries.

Information Summaries

The Portal includes summaries of the current state of knowledge on issues of relevance to Antarctic managers and policy makers, and on environmental pressures likely to cause change into the future. Information Summaries are based on the best available science. They are intended to be concise, technically accurate, politically neutral and accessible to a broad audience. The briefings do not make policy recommendations.

All of the information summaries on the Portal are regularly reviewed to ensure that they are up to date.  Where summaries have been superseded by newer articles they are placed in the Archive in order that a record of the development of our knowledge on key topics is maintained.

Management of Content

Anyone can propose content for the Portal by contacting the Portal Editor: [email protected].

All content that is submitted to the Portal must be based on published, peer-reviewed science. The Guidelines for Authors can be found here. The Portal Editor organises a peer review of draft content. These reviews are done in conjunction with an Editorial Group before the content is made public. The process includes a number of review steps to ensure that only the highest-quality information that adequately summarises the current state of knowledge is published in the Portal.

In preparing Information Summaries, authors should consider that officials involved in the work of the Antarctic Treaty System are the primary audience for the Portal, although SCAR’s broader stakeholders are also a target audience.

Users who contribute to the Portal must clear any copyright issues before submitting to the Portal. Contributions to the Portal are held under a Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial – Share Alike 3.0 licence.

Management of the Antarctic Environments Portal

The Antarctic Environments Portal is managed by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research with funding and support in-kind generously provided by several Antarctic Treaty Parties.

The Portal Editor is Dr Ryan Fogt, USA.

The Portal Assistant Editor is Angharad Downes, SCAR Science and Operations Officer, UK.

The Portal Manager is Dr Chandrika Nath, SCAR Executive Director.

The Portal Management Board oversees the running of the Portal and consists of:

• Dr Chandrika Nath, the Portal Manager;
• Dr Carlota Escutia, SCAR Vice-President, and Senior Scientist at the Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad de Granada, Spain;
• Prof Deneb Karentz, Chair of the Biology Department at the University of San Francisco, USA;
• Dr Cassandra Brooks, Chief Officer of SCAR’s Standing Committee on the Antarctic Treaty System (SC-ATS), and Assistant Professor at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado Boulder, USA; and
• the Portal Editor, Dr Ryan Fogt, in an advisory role.

The Portal Editorial Board comprises: 

• Mr David Brown, Author, USA;
• Dr Rebecca Duncan, Post Doctoral Researcher, University of Technology Sydney, Australia;
• Dr Martin Andres Diaz, Researcher, National University of La Matanza, Argentina; 
• Dr Natasha Gardiner, Visiting Scholar, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and Senior Environmental Advisor, Antarctica New Zealand, New Zealand; 
• Dr Kevin Hughes, Environmental Research and Monitoring Manager, British Antarctic Survey, UK;
• Ms Amy Imdieke, Global Outreach Director, International Cryosphere Climate Initiative, USA; 
• Dr Shridhar Jawak, Scientist and Project Leader, Climate and Environmental Research Institute, Norway;
• Dr Richard Jones, Senior Research Fellow, Monash University, Australia; 
• Prof W Berry Lyons, Professor of Earth Sciences, School of Earth Sciences, and Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, Ohio State University, USA; 
• Dr Hanne Nielsen, Senior Lecturer in Antarctic Law and Governance, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Australia; 
• Prof Irina Repina, Deputy Director, A.M. Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics RAS, Russia; 
• Dr Nadine Steiger, Post Doctoral Researcher, LOCEAN, Sorbonne University, France; 
• Dr Anoop Tiwari, Scientist, National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, India; 
• Assoc Prof Chiew Yen Wong, Associate Professor, IMU University, Malaysia; and 
• Dr Hanna Yevchun, Research Fellow, State Institution National Antarctic Scientific Center, Ukraine. 

Support

The portal was established by Antarctica New Zealand and Manaaki Whenua / Landcare Research, and prior to moving to SCAR in January 2020, was hosted by the University of Canterbury, New Zealand with funding provided by the Tinker Foundation. To date, funding has generously been provided by Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Türkiye, and Korea, to support SCAR’s management of the Portal. SCAR thanks all countries that have financially supported the Portal. 

Credits

Many of our infographics were created by interns working with SCAR from the MSc Science Communication course at Imperial College London. These include:

• Southern Elephant Seals; Geothermal Environments; Non-native Species; Microplastics in the Southern Ocean – created by Emma Needham
• Antarctic Sea Ice #1-3; Ten scientific messages on risks and opportunities for life in the Antarctic – created by Alienor Hammer
• Warming of the Southern Ocean; Recovery of Antarctica’s giants; Antarctic krill and its fishery – created by Jaclyn Estrin
• Emperor Penguins in a Changing World; Marine non-native species in the Southern Ocean and Antarctica – created by Valentina Moya.

The header images for the Portal Information Summaries were kindly provided by Ramcharan Vijayaraghavan (Antarctic Wildlife Diseases, Important Bird Areas, Predicting Antarctic Climate Using Climate Models) and Unsplash.