BIANZO II: Biodiversity of three representative groups of the Antarctic zoobenthos – Coping with change

Polar regions experience greater rates of climate change than any other region in the world. Their biota are highly adapted to the extreme environment they are living in and appear vulnerable to shifts in climate conditions. Antarctic marine species are especially sensitive to temperature variation as their physiology is set to a narrow range of temperatures. Because of the key‐role of the Southern Ocean in the global system and the growing impact of global environmental change, it is crucial to establish comprehensive baseline information on Antarctic marine biodiversity as a sound benchmark against which future change can reliably be assessed. It is equally important to better understand the ecological role of biodiversity in the functioning of the Southern Ocean ecosystem and to assess how its structural and functional characteristics might be affected by a changing climate. These aspects are addressed in the BIANZO II project, by focusing on benthic organisms and communities, specifically representatives from three different size classes of the zoobenthos: Nematoda (meiobenthos), Amphipoda (macrobenthos) and Echinoidea (megabenthos). BIANZO II has been accepted as an IPY activity (# 391) linked to CAML (IPY core activity). Its aims fully contribute to the objectives of the SCAR EBA programme. The BIANZO II consortium is also involved in the development of SCAR‐MarBIN, which was initiated by the BIANZO I project, and is currently implemented by the Belgian Biodiversity Platform. All partners are contributing to the IPY ANDEEP‐SYSTCO project, which is the continuation of the very successful ANDEEP collaboration. Additionally, UGent is involved in ClicOpen, also an IPY project (# 34).