Abstract: Plate tectonics provides a highly successful framework to describe a wide range of geological observations invoking the motion of lithospheric plates. In its simplest form the plates are rigid and earthquakes are confined to boundaries where plates move relative to each other.

Abstract: One of the main conservation objectives for marine systems is to identify areas of ecological importance for biodiversity and essential species habitats which can be used as scientific reference areas for monitoring global change in the absence of major human impacts. The Antarctic silverfish, Pleuragramma antarctica is a keystone pelagic species, that has been assessed on the IUCN Red list of threatened species as a species with “Least Concern”. However, this species is unique as it is placed at one extreme of the notothenioid evolutionary/ecological axis that ranges from benthic to secondary pelagic life style. Its different life stages occur in unique environments such as the platelet ice for eggs, some of the inner shelf canyons for young larvae and at the shelf break with Antarctic krill swarms for juveniles and adults. The winter habitats are not known. In addition to the effects of climate change, a threat to this species is its bycatch in krill fisheries; however it has not been directly harvested since the 1980s. As a midtrophic species, P. antarctica is sensitive to environmental changes and should be monitored in protected scientific reference areas to obtain information on global change. For a midtrophic fish in a supposed wasp-waist ecosystem, strict regulation of bycatch and monitoring should be carried out in parallel with the monitoring of Antarctic krill and ice krill. The designation of protected areas is an important mechanism for preserving the essential habitats of P. antarctica in the Southern Ocean.

Abstract: Due to its year-round accessibility and excellent on-site infrastructure, Kongsfjorden and the Ny-Ålesund Research and Monitoring Facility have become established as a primary location to study the impact of environmental change on Arctic coastal ecosystems. Due to its location right at the interface of Arctic and Atlantic oceanic regimes, Kongsfjorden already experiences large amplitudes of variability in physico/chemical conditions and might, thus, be considered as an early warning indicator of future changes, which can then be extrapolated in a pan-Arctic perspective. Already now, Kongsfjorden represents one of the best-studied Arctic fjord systems. However, research conducted to date has concentrated largely on small disciplinary projects, prompting the need for a higher level of integration of future research activities. This contribution, thus, aims at identifying gaps in knowledge and research priorities with respect to ecological and adaptive responses to Arctic ecosystem changes. By doing so we aim to provide a stimulus for the initiation of new international and interdisciplinary research initiatives.

Abstract: Conduction of integrated seismo-geophysical studies in the Antarctic region is a challenge as well as very much warranted to explore the region for its better geo-scientific understanding. Seismogenesis and seismic potential of the Antarctic region have not yet been well understood because of lack of common consensus on various issues, besides its unique and complex geotectonic settings associated with intriguing landscape evolution of the Antarctic plate since the breakup of Gondwana, West Antarctic Rift System (WARS), different patterns of exhumation events that occurred between the Early Cretaceous and Cenozoic. The hostile climatic situation and inaccessibility of the region due to the huge spatial distribution of thicker ice sheets hindered the mission of conducting comprehensive seismo-geophysical studies for the Antarctic Peninsula due to severe constraints of installations of ground-based sophisticated seismo-geophysical equipments in the region. Several causative factors associated with natural and anthropogenic are found still enigmatic in the sense to unravel the fact how the genesis of earthquakes are related to the glacial-dynamics and glacial mass change-induced earthquakes (GMCIE). It has become important to decipher the role and contribution of the East and the West Antarctic microplates and West Antarctic rift systems (WARS) in seismogenesis using advanced methodologies of geosciences. Seismicity of the Antarctic continent region is confined to different tectonic blocks, distributed into the southern ocean, continental margin, Lutzow-Holm Bay, Antarctic Peninsula, and in the volcanic regions in and around Deception Island, which helped estimate the seismic structure of Antarctica. In this chapter, a comprehensive overview of seismo-geophysical studies has been made to understand seismo-geodynamical implications for the Antarctic region in light of the Plate Reconstruction and seismo-geophysical structures of Antarctica.