The proposed project focuses the efforts of 20 scientists in 9 countries to produce a series of benchmark data sets for the International Polar Year. Those data sets culminate in the first quantification of the total rate of ice loss by flow from the Antarctic Ice Sheet. This work will be conducted by young scientists mentored by professional scientists to help train the next generation of scientists in the use of remote sensing data of the polar regions. Satellite data include ICESat laser altimetry, Landsat optical imagery and various European and Canadian synthetic aperture radar data.

The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the Earth’s three most rapidly warming regions: most of the glaciers there are in retreat and large ice shelves have broken up. This project investigates the impact of these changes on the plants and animals that live on the land, the shore and coastal sea around the Antarctic Peninsula. Organisms are facing a barrage of complex effects including warming, decreased ice and snow cover, increased iceberg grounding, sedimentation and freshening. A wide range of apparatus and techniques will be used from remote operated vehicles (ROV) and simple underwater light meters to satellite imagery and counting microscopic life. ClicOPEN scientists from 15 countries will study changes in the environments and organisms around a number of retreating glaciers of the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Most of Antarctica's very rich biodiversity lives nowhere else in the world and we know little about how it will responding to such exceptional and unprecedented warming.

Involving a team of scientists from 11 countries, this project will measure the temperature, saltiness and flow speed of the water from continental shelf and slope, including under ice environments. This is something scientists know very little about, but the data are crucial for developing better global climate models. The few recent measurements we have suggest that the water close to Antarctica is getting fresher (less salty). But where is this extra fresh water coming from? Only by measuring – especially during winter – the properties of the water and how fast it is flowing will we be able to understand the processes that are going on, and make sure that these are put into our climate models correctly. There has never been a concerted effort to make measurements on the Antarctic continental shelf and slope during the winter. IPY is enabling everyone to work together to make this happen, by leaving instruments on the sea bed and in the water for a year, even when the ice is covering the sea surface above them. Each nation is going to deploy instruments so that a circumpolar coverage can be obtained for the first time. As well gathering data during IPY, some of SASSI's instruments will be left in place after IPY, providing an important legacy for future research.

The SCAR-programme EBA (2004-13) will address the impacts of climate change on species biodiversity, evolutionary adaptations and depletion of marine fisheries on community dynamics in the Southern Ocean. A better understanding of the effect of such changes will be obtained by investigating the acclimatory responses to high latitudes. It will contribute to development of a baseline understanding of sensitive ecosystems.

"The APICS project is an effort to understand all aspects of the ice and climate system in one of the most rapidly-changing regions on Earth - the Antarctic Peninsula' Larsen B embayment. In 2002, a huge section of this ice shelf collapsed, after decades of record-warm summers. Following this collapse, glaciers in the region accelerated abruptly. Coastal ecology and nearby ocean currents changed drastically due to the loss, and a preliminary survey of the newly-exposed ocean floor showed previously unknown sub-ice life forms still present after the break-up. The APICS project is intended to use the dynamic Larsen B ice shelf region as a natural laboratory for what to expect from climate warming in Antarctica. It is a collaborative effort among 11 major U.S. research institutions, and four other countries (Spain, Belgium, Argentina, and England) to coordinate research across several disciplines, using the US research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer as a platform. The work will include an ice core at the crest of the ice ridge above the Larsen B, remote robotic systems for glacier measurements, extensive flights to visit unique rock outcrops that may reveal the history of the region, and a remotely piloted vehicle for exploring the new life forms and ocean sediment changes. The first field season is currently planned for February/March of 2008."

CAML will investigate the distribution and abundance of Antarctic marine biodiversity, how it will be affected by climate change and how climate change will affect the ecosystem and the planet. Its key focus is a major ship based research programme in the austral summer of 2007-2008. Scientists from 30 countries and 50 institutions will collate data providing a robust benchmark against which future change can be measured.