Abstract: The Italian-French station Concordia at Dome C is the perfect site to conduct submillimetre observations.
Site testing started intensively in 2007-2008 and is still in progress. After SUMMIT08, the next step is to determine the stability of sky brightness with CAMISTIC, a bolometer camera, which will be installed on IRAIT, an infrared telescope built at Dome C.
To complete the Herschel Space Observatory and the ALMA interferometer observations, a large telescope facility at Concordia would study in the submillimetre range :
The early evolution of galaxies and the Universe
The formation of stars
The evolution of interstellar matter
The histories of planetary systems

Abstract: During the last 30years, at-sea studies of seabirds and marine mammals in the oceans south of the Subtropical Front have described an association with major frontal areas. More recently, the advancement in microtechnology has allowed the tracking of individuals and investigations into how these marine predators actually use the frontal zones. In this review, we examine 1) the relative importance to apex predators of the different frontal zones in terms of spatial distribution and carbon flux; 2) the processes that determine their preferential use; and 3) how the mesoscale dynamics of frontal structures drive at-sea foraging strategies of these predators. We review published results from southern waters and place them in a broader context with respect to what has been learned about the importance of fronts in oceans farther north.
Some fronts constitute important boundaries for seabird communities in southern waters. At a mesoscale the maximum values of seabird diversity and abundance correspond to the location of the main fronts. At-sea surveys show a strong curvilinear correlation between seabird abundance and sea surface temperatures. High mean species richness and diversity for whales and seabirds are consistently associated with the southern water mass boundary of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the Subtropical Front and the Subantarctic Front; in the case of the Polar Front mean seabird densities are more variable. At small-scales, variation in seabird occurrence has been directly related to the processes at fronts in a limited number of cases. A significant positive relation was found between some plankton feeding species and frontal temperature gradient-phytoplankton variables.
Telemetric studies have revealed that several apex predators (penguins, albatrosses, seals) perform long, directed foraging trips either to the Subtropical front or Polar Front, depending on locality. Seabirds with low flight costs, such as albatrosses, are able to reach fronts at long distances from colonies, showing variable foraging strategies as a function of the distances involved. Diving birds such as King penguins, that travel at a higher cost and lower speed, rely on the predictable spatial distribution of mesopelagic fish found close to the Polar Front. They may use the currents associated with eddies as oceanographic cues in the active search for frontal zones. Once in these areas they dive preferentially in and below the depth of the thermocline where catches per unit effort are high. Elephant seals concentrate foraging activity principally inside or at the boundary of cyclonic eddies. These mesoscale features appear to offer exceptional productivity favourable for foraging by various diving top predators.
The connection between biophysical parameters at fronts and predators is likely to be made through biological enhancement. Top predators appear to forage at locations where prey are advected by physical processes and others where prey are produced locally. Long-term research on at-sea distributions and demographic parameters of top predators are essential to assess the consequences of potential shift in front distributions in relation to global warming. Such environmental changes would add to the impact of fish extraction by the industrial fisheries on the southern food webs.

Abstract: Ecoregions are defined in terms of community structure as a function of abiotic or even anthropogenic forcing. They are meso-scale structures defined as the potential habitat of a species or the predicted communities geographic extent. We assume that they can be more easily defined for long-lived species, such as benthos or neritic fish, in the marine environment. Uncertainties exist for the pelagic realm because of its higher variability, plus little is known about the meso- and bathypelagic zones. A changing environment and modification of habitats will probably drive new communities from plankton to fish or top predators. We need baseline studies, such as those of the Census of Antarctic Marine Life, and databases like SCAR-MarBIN as tools for integrating all of these observations. Our objective is to understand the biodiversity patterns in the Southern Ocean and how these might change through time.