Geoenvironments of The Potter Peninsula, King George Island, Maritime Antartica

Abstract

The scientific community has great attention in the region of the Antarctic Maritime because of the climate changes detected since 1950. Mapping studies of Antarctic environments on detailed scales are limited, mainly due to the limitations of financial resources and logistics. The information generated by mappings makes it possible to detect environmental variations and contribute to the management of land use and occupation. The aim of this work was to identify and to map the geoenvironments of the Potter Peninsula, King George Island, Maritime Antarctica. For that, multi-criteria based analysis of geomorphology, landforms, vegetation and susceptibility to wind action were used to cluster their environmentalcharacteristics. Seven geoenvironments were identified and mapped: Marine terraces, Proglacial area with glaciofluvialaction, Marine terraces with anthropic influence, Marine terraces with vegetation colonization, Proglacial area with paraglacial action, Periglacial area and Glacier area. The ice-free area of the Peninsula has 668 ha and comprises six geoenvironments, with a predominance of terrains with convergent and concave forms and little or inexistent susceptibility to wind action. The seventh geoenvironment is located on the Polar Club glacier. In general, the geoenvironments of the marine terraces have greater fauna and flora biodiversity, while those in the inner part of the peninsula showed predominance of old and young moraines, exposed rocks and lakes.