Camilla Nichol | |
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 Nichol in 2016 | |
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| Discipline | Geology |
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Camilla Nichol FRGS is a geologist and museum curator. Since 2014 she is the Chief Executive of the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust. [1] [2]
Nichol studied Geology at the University of Edinburgh and a post-graduate course in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester. Nichol has worked for several museums. She was the Curator of Geology at the Yorkshire Museum, [3] the Head of Collections at Leeds Museums &Galleries, [4] and has also worked for the Hunterian Museum and the Scottish Football Museum. [2]
She is a Trustee of the Cromwell Museum [5] and the Burton Constable Foundation. [2]
Following the years of 2015-2016,Nichol’s publication of "Using Heritage to Engage Antarctic Tourists with Climate Change" allowed for the conclusion that tourism is an effective way to increase awareness of the effects of climate change in the Antarctic region;thereby initiating a greater spread of knowledge about the negative effects taking place in the ice regions of our world. [6]
In 2018,along with a team of researchers,Camilla became invested in a long-term study of penguins in the Antarctic region. Focusing mainly on the Gentoo Penguin (Pygoscelis papua),they were able to scrutinize the population trends of that particular species at a major tourist site in the Antarctic - Goudier Island. [7]
Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere:only one species,the Galápagos penguin,is found north of the Equator. Highly adapted for life in the water,penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage and flippers for swimming. Most penguins feed on krill,fish,squid and other forms of sea life which they catch while swimming underwater. They spend roughly half of their lives on land and the other half in the sea.
The Adélie penguin is a species of penguin common along the entire coast of the Antarctic continent,which is its only habitat. It is the most widely spread penguin species,as well as the most southerly distributed of all penguins,along with the emperor penguin. It is named after Adélie Land,in turn named for Adèle Dumont d'Urville,who was married to French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville,who first discovered this penguin in 1840. Adélie penguins obtain their food by both predation and foraging,with a diet of mainly krill and fish.
Macquarie Island is an island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean,about halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica. Regionally part of Oceania and politically a part of Tasmania,Australia,since 1900,it became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 1978 and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.
The British Antarctic Territory (BAT) is a sector of Antarctica claimed by the United Kingdom as one of its 14 British Overseas Territories,of which it is by far the largest by area. It comprises the region south of 60°S latitude and between longitudes 20°W and 80°W,forming a wedge shape that extends to the South Pole,overlapping the Antarctic claims of Argentina and Chile.
The emperor penguin is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is endemic to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size,reaching 100 cm (39 in) in length and weighing from 22 to 45 kg. Feathers of the head and back are black and sharply delineated from the white belly,pale-yellow breast and bright-yellow ear patches.
The chinstrap penguin is a species of penguin that inhabits a variety of islands and shores in the Southern Pacific and the Antarctic Oceans. Its name stems from the narrow black band under its head,which makes it appear as if it were wearing a black helmet,making it easy to identify. Other common names include ringed penguin,bearded penguin,and stonecracker penguin,due to its loud,harsh call.
The gentoo penguin is a penguin species in the genus Pygoscelis,most closely related to the Adélie penguin and the chinstrap penguin. The earliest scientific description was made in 1781 by Johann Reinhold Forster with a type locality in the Falkland Islands. The species calls in a variety of ways,but the most frequently heard is a loud trumpeting,which the bird emits with its head thrown back.
The leopard seal,also referred to as the sea leopard,is the second largest species of seal in the Antarctic. Its only natural predator is the killer whale. It feeds on a wide range of prey including cephalopods,other pinnipeds,sharks,krill,birds and fish. It is the only species in the genus Hydrurga. Its closest relatives are the Ross seal,the crabeater seal and the Weddell seal,which together are known as the tribe of Lobodontini seals. The name hydrurga means "water worker" and leptonyx is the Greek for "thin-clawed".
The macaroni penguin is a species of penguin found from the Subantarctic to the Antarctic Peninsula. One of six species of crested penguin,it is very closely related to the royal penguin,and some authorities consider the two to be a single species. It bears a distinctive yellow crest,and the face and upperparts are black and sharply delineated from the white underparts. Adults weigh on average 5.5 kg (12 lb) and are 70 cm (28 in) in length. The male and female are similar in appearance;the male is slightly larger and stronger with a relatively larger bill. Like all penguins,it is flightless,with a streamlined body and wings stiffened and flattened into flippers for a marine lifestyle.
The Antarctic Peninsula,known as O'Higgins Land in Chile and Tierra de San Martin in Argentina,and originally as Graham Land in the United Kingdom and the Palmer Peninsula in the United States,is the northernmost part of mainland Antarctica.
King George Island is the largest of the South Shetland Islands,lying 120 km off the coast of Antarctica in the Southern Ocean. The island was named after King George III.
The genus Pygoscelis ("rump-legged") contains three living species of penguins collectively known as "brush-tailed penguins".
The Antarctic fur seal,is one of eight seals in the genus Arctocephalus,and one of nine fur seals in the subfamily Arctocephalinae. Despite what its name suggests,the Antarctic fur seal is mostly distributed in Subantarctic islands and its scientific name is thought to have come from the German vessel SMS Gazelle,which was the first to collect specimens of this species from Kerguelen Islands.
The Weddell seal is a relatively large and abundant true seal with a circumpolar distribution surrounding Antarctica. The Weddell seal was discovered and named in the 1820s during expeditions led by British sealing captain James Weddell to the area of the Southern Ocean now known as the Weddell Sea. The life history of this species is well documented since it occupies fast ice environments close to the Antarctic continent and often adjacent to Antarctic bases.
Port Lockroy is a bay forming a natural harbour on the north-western shore of Wiencke Island in the Palmer Archipelago to the west of the Antarctic Peninsula. The Antarctic base with the same name,situated on Goudier Island in this bay,includes the most southerly operational post office in the world. The base has been unstaffed since 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The museum house is unlocked and remains open to individual visits. As of April 2022,the British Antarctic Survey is looking for applicants who will stay at the base from late 2022 to March 2023.
The Kerguelen Islands are part of the Southern Indian Ocean Islands tundra ecoregion that includes several subantarctic islands. In this cold climate plant life is mainly limited to grasses,mosses and lichens,although the islands are also known for the indigenous edible Kerguelen cabbage. The islands are at the Antarctic convergence,where cold water moving up from the Antarctic mixes with the warmer water of the Indian Ocean. As a consequence,marine mammals,especially seals,and seabirds and penguins are numerous.
The Vernadsky Research Base is a Ukrainian Antarctic Station at Marina Point on Galindez Island in the Argentine Islands,not far from Kyiv Peninsula. The region is under territorial claims between three countries. The single Ukrainian Antarctic station is named after the mineralogist Vladimir Vernadsky (1863–1945) who was the first president of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean,it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent,being nearly twice the size of Australia,and has an area of 14,200,000 km2 (5,500,000 sq mi). Most of Antarctica is covered by ice,with an average thickness of 1.9 km (1.2 mi).
Climate change in Antarctica is resulting in rising temperatures and increasing snowmelt and ice loss. A summary study in 2018 incorporating calculations and data from many other studies estimated that total ice loss in Antarctica due to climate change was 43 gigatons per year on average during the period from 1992 to 2002 but has accelerated to an average of 220 gigatons per year during the five years from 2012 to 2017. Total mass loss over the period 1992–2018 was likely 2720 gigatons for the grounded part of the Antarctic ice sheet.
Brian Birley Roberts was a British polar expert,ornithologist and diplomat who played a key role in the development of the Antarctic Treaty System. A biography of Roberts has been published.