Antarctic polar deserts can be of considerable scientific interest, but can also exhibit great environmental sensitivity. A variety of factors, including Australia's legal obligations under the Madrid Protocol, public expectations, certain research opportunities and ethical considerations, demand a very high standard of environmental protection. A survey outside the Davis Station limits in the Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica, identified 66 sites at which past human activities had left long-term impacts on the physical environment. Nearly half of all observed impacts were the result of geoscientific research that had left old pit and trench sites, vehicular tracks, partly excavated palaeontological material, rock sampling and drilling sites, localised slope instability caused by disturbance, and discarded equipment and markers. Comparisons between rehabilitated sites and others where little, if any, rehabilitation appears to have been attempted suggest natural processes alone are generally insufficient to heal the damage, but that effective rehabilitation is often possible if undertaken immediately after the initial disturbance.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Earth Sciences
Research Group:	Other Earth Sciences
Research Field:	Earth Sciences not elsewhere classified
Objective Division:	Environment
Objective Group:	Land and Water Management
Objective Field:	Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic Land and Water Management
Author:	Kiernan, K (Dr Kevin Kiernan)
Author:	McConnell, A (Ms Anne McConnell)
ID Code:	22348
Year Published:	2001
Web of Science® Times Cited:	3
Deposited By:	Geography and Environmental Studies
Deposited On:	2001-08-01
Last Modified:	2011-08-03
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