Evolution and biodiversity in the Antarctic: the response of life to change

International Biology Symposium was special in a number of ways. Amongst these, most importantly, its title was that of a SCAR Special Research Programme, indicating a convergence of the various disciplines within Antarctic biology, hitherto operating in more than one international research program. Until 2004 marine biologists on the one hand and terrestrial and limnetic biologists on the other operated alongside each other, with little interaction between them. Marine biological research played a dominant role in the framework of SCAR. With the collaborative research programmes BIOMASS (Biological Investigations of Marine Antarctic Systems and Stocks) and its successor EASIZ (Ecology of the Antarctic Sea Ice Zone) (Hempel 2007) the marine biologists were highly successful not least because the results were immediately applicable in developing management strategies in the framework of the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).