KEY POINTS:
The Government is to spend $11.1 million over three years on research into Antarctica's role in climate change and global environmental systems, Prime Minister Helen Clark announced today.
The New Zealand contribution to International Polar Year included $6.6m towards a major international marine biodiversity study -- the Census of Antarctic Marine Life in the Ross Sea.
Miss Clark said $4.5m would go to a contestable fund to support International Polar Year research.
The Government would spend $3.6m sending the research ship Tangaroa to collect data for the census.
Analysis of the marine biodiversity research carried out for the survey would cost around $1m a year for three years.
Marine, climate, hydrographic and biodiversity samples and data would be collected during the voyage.
Miss Clark said the contestable fund would be administered by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. Successful applicants would get logistical support from Antarctica New Zealand.
A major priority for the research would be climate change but other important research would involve the protection of unique ecosystems of Antarctic and the Southern Ocean, and public information around "International Polar Year".
This began on March 1 and runs until March 2009. An estimated 50,000 researchers from more than 60 countries are taking part. The two-year period allows them to observe two polar cycles and gives them the chance to get into the Arctic and Antarctic over two summer seasons should unpredictable weather stop them at first.
There will be 26 scientists on the Tangaroa for its eight week voyage to the Ross Sea to collect information for the Census of Antarctic Marine Life.
Specific outcomes from this trip are expected to include assessments of ocean acidification arising from climate change and taxonomic identification of new species.
The last Polar Year was during 1957-59 when Sir Edmund Hillary established Scott Base in Antarctica, and drove his Massey Ferguson tractors to the South Pole in support of the British Trans-Antarctic Expedition led by Sir Vivian Fuchs. Miss Clark visited the base in January.
- NZPA
