The maritime Subantarctic: a distinct periglacial environment

Recent research on slope processes and weathering on Marion Island has highlighted distinctive attributes of the maritime Subantarctic periglacial environment, compared to other periglacial environments. This is reflected morphologically by sorted stripe characteristics and stratified solifluction forms, but the wind factor and low diurnal temperature range also results in differences with other diurnal frost environments. Its hyper-maritime setting at low mean annual temperatures results in very high frost cycle frequencies, with associated effectiveness in surface sediment transport and patterned ground development. In addition, a high frequency of wetting and drying cycles is observed in rocks. Small seasonal temperature ranges and steep temperature profiles indicate a high sensitivity to climate change in the Subantarctic, as reflected in a rich relict periglacial record on most islands. This sensitivity appears absent in high tropical environments of low annual temperature range. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.