Part 40Antarctic specially protected area No. 140

Part 40 Antarctic specially protected area No. 140

  Parts of Deception Island, South Shetland Islands.

  6257 S Latitude, 6038 W longitude.

  Deception Island is an active volcano. Recent eruptions occurring in 1967, 1969 and 1970 (Baker et al. 1975) altered many of the topographical features of the island and created new, and locally transient, surfaces for the colonisation of plants and other terrestrial biota (Collins 1969, Cameron & Benoit 1970, Lewis Smith 1984a, b). There are a number of sites of geothermal activity, some with fumaroles (Smellie et al. 2002).

  The flora of the island is unique in Antarctic terms, particularly where associated with these geothermal areas, but also because of the recently formed surfaces which provide known-age habitats for the study of colonisation and other dynamic ecological processes by terrestrial organisms (Lewis Smith 1988).

  Five small sites around the coast of Port Foster were adopted under Recommendation XIII–8 (ATCM XIII, Brussels, 1985) as Site of Special Scientific Interest No. 21 on the grounds that “Deception Island is exceptional because of its volcanic activity, having had major eruptions in 1967, 1969 and 1970. Parts of the island were completely destroyed, new areas were created, and others were covered by varying depths of ash. Few areas of the interior were unaffected. The island offers unique opportunities to study colonization processes in an Antarctic environment”.

  Following a detailed botanical survey of the island in 2002, the values specified in the original designation were reaffirmed and considerably augmented. The survey identified 11 sub-sites of unique botanical interest.

  Those interests were:

  The island has the greatest number of rare and extremely rare plant species of any site in the Antarctic. 28 of the 54 mosses recorded on the island, 4 of the 8 liverworts and 14 of the ca. 75 lichen are considered to be rare or extremely rare. Appendix A lists the plant species classed as rare or extremely rare in the Antarctic Treaty Area, which occur on Deception Island. These represent 25%, 17% and ca. 4% of the total number of mosses, liverworts and lichens, respectively, known from the Antarctic (Aptroot & van der Knaap 1993, Bednarek-Ochyra et al. 2000, Ochyra et al. in press, Øvstedal & Lewis Smith 2001). 13 species of moss (including two endemics), 2 species of liverwort and 3 species of lichen growing on Deception Island have not been recorded elsewhere in the Antarctic. No other site in the Antarctic is comparable. This suggests that there is a significant deposition of immigrant propagules (by wind and seabirds), particularly of southern South American provenance, over the Antarctic, which becomes established only where favourable germinating conditions prevail (e.g. the heat and moisture provided around fumaroles) (Lewis Smith 1984a, b). Such sites are unique in the Antarctic Treaty Area.