Grant Award View - GA64976

Despite their remote location, threats to Antarctic ecosystems are escalating in response to increasing human activity, pollution, biological invasions and climate change. It is therefore imperative to understand more about risks to Antarctic ecosystems and identify areas that warrant increased management or policy focus. The Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) is an internationally endorsed standard for identifying ecosystems, diagnosing threats and estimating relative risks, laying a foundation for systematic conservation planning and ecosystem management. RLE methods have been applied with tangible conservation outcomes worldwide, but application in the Antarctic is limited. We will use the RLE approach to describe, map and diagnose change in Antarctic terrestrial and nearshore ecosystems, assembling indicator data and assessing risks to key ecosystems. This will lay the foundation for a systematic continent-wide RLE and inform conservation planning, management and policy development.