A note from the (southern) Chair

Over the past (austral) summer, I was fortunate to visit the peatlands of subantarctic Kerguelen Island, under a joint project with the French Polar Institute. Not surprisingly, the Kerguelen peatlands had many similarities with the peatlands of the Australian subantarctic – Macquarie and Heard Islands. However, the rate of glacial retreat and the impacts of climate change came as a surprise. While the subantarctic is predicted to undergo major climatic change in the near future, it is clear that change is already occurring. It is quite dramatic to see the exposed glacial moraines now visible for ten kilometres from their original extent, with plant colonisation occurring right up to the edge of the retreating glacier. Our French colleagues are recording the species that colonise newly deglaciated sites and quantifying the rate of plant expansion. The combination of increased rabbit numbers and reduced precipitation has meant that there has been a loss of plant diversity in some peatlands in the eastern part of the archipelago. The establishment and spread of alien species is likely to increase as climatic conditions ameliorate. It is not clear whether all or some of the peatlands on Kerguelen are still accumulating peat.

In Australia there has been a major win for the conservation of Sphagnum peatlands in the Victorian Alps. After decades of debate and the earlier removal of cattle and/or sheep from the Alps of New South Wales and Tasmania, it appears that the long campaign by alpine scientists and conservationists to remove summer cattle grazing from the Victorian Alpine National Park has been successful. Besides compensation for the graziers who use the alpine national park for summer grazing, there is funding for weed and feral pest management, as well as Sphagnum mire restoration works. Decades of cattle grazing combined with the intense bushfires of January 2003 have resulted in large areas of Sphagnum peatlands that have been destroyed or degraded.

IMCG is entering a hectic phase, with the upcoming RAMSAR convention in Uganda – which will include a focus on the Global Action for Peatlands Program – with the IMCG field symposium in Tierra del Fuego in November and with the new combined IMCG/IPS journal. All these activities will continue to raise the profile of the ecological importance of peatlands.

Jennie Whinam