A report describing environmental domains of Antarctica based on physical parameters has just been published. This study was commissioned by New Zealand Government agencies with the aim of facilitating environmental management in Antarctica.

The classification was designed to provide a data-derived, spatially explicit delineation of environmental variables in Antarctica, to be used for a range of management activities including the identification of priority sites for protection, environmental monitoring, and assessment of risks associated with human activities. Twenty-one groups of environments are described, although 400 individual environments were identified. Data layers included were air temperature, wind, solar radiation, slope, land/ice cover and geology.

An ideal platform has now been provided to supplement these environmental domains with biological data (for example, those that are already housed within the Australian Antarctic Data Centre's Biodiversity Database) to further aid the stated aims.

The Landcare Research media release can be read here.  A pdf of the final report can be downloaded below.