TWO DUNDEE plant and environmental scientists are heading for Antarctica to study the ecology of ice-free parts of one of the most extreme environments.

Professor David Hopkins and Dr Paul Dennis of the Scottish Crop Research Institute at Invergowrie are to spend several months studying desert soils and the organisms that live in them.

The research will be on a 2000km stretch of coastline and islands where the land is largely ice-free.

Professor Hopkins said, “The aim is to determine which organisms live in the soils in different sites, how they live together in the different communities and how they are affected by changes to environmental factors such as temperature and the availability of liquid water.

“Knowing more about how the organisms are affected by changing environmental factors is important because Antarctica in general, and especially the part of Antarctica where this project will be based, is responding fastest to climate changes and is an important indicator for the rest of the world.

“We are not specifically going to explore only global warming but are trying to understand how climate affects organisms. By studying organisms in a place which is very sensitive to small changes we can help develop a fundamental understanding of how organisms and biological systems respond to environmental changes.”

SCRI director Professor Peter Gregory, said, “The changes in climate already observed in Scotland are very much in line with global trends.

“Our own weather data collected at Invergowrie indicates temperatures rising by about one centigrade over the last 40 years.”