University of Waikato
This research will deliver a bio geographical characterisation for the entire Ross Sea region, together with a predictive model for the effects of climate change. We will achieve this by greatly extending and upgrading our existing model that links the biodiversity with landscape and environmental features.
We plan to extend its coverage to include biota in all ice-free regions of the Ross Sea region and increase its prediction capability by importing detailed analyses of the physical, chemical and biological drivers responsible for the biodiversity combined with a sensitivity analysis of the model using detailed survey and ecophysiological studies of biodiversity hotspots. This will allow us to test various climate change scenarios and to determine the impacts and risks of changing global climate.
GIS analysis, biological samples (soil microorganism, invertebrate and plant), automatic weather station data and vegetation and invertebrate surveys to determine the terrestrial biocomplexity of the McMurdo Dry Valleys