Holocene reconstruction of terrestrial habitats and dispersal pathways in the Antarctic Peninsula and sub-Antarctic Islands

Terrestrial environments of the sub-Antarctic and Antarctic present extreme challenges for life. However, during the last glacial period (and previous periods), Antarctic terrestrial life faced even more extreme environmental conditions, in particular with a drastic reduction in available terrestrial habitats (1). However, our current understanding of terrestrial biological range changes and dispersal processes in Antarctica as a consequence of changing environmental conditions throughout glacial cycles remains unclear. A combination of peat cores, monoliths, and pollen traps obtained in recent years in BAS, SOGES, and collaborating projects along the length of the Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Arc provide a unique opportunity to advance this field. This project will use them to reconstruct vegetation dispersal and distribution (pollen, spores) and other biological proxies (e.g. guano-derived geochemistry) (2), contained invertebrate and microbial community elements (3)) across the latitudinal range from South Georgia (53S) to northern Alexander Island (69S). We will analyse, over short- and long-term, dispersal processes and the impacts of major drivers of change (e.g. climate) on life on land across this paradigmatic region for studies of climate change. The use of moss/peat cores allows, in particular, inference of biological processes occurring in summer, increasing the biological relevance of our reconstructions.