Describe the past, understand the present, predict the future

Evolution and Biodiversity in the Antarctic: The Response of Life to Change or EBA is an international, multidisciplinary programme that has been approved by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) for 2006 - 2013.

This programme combines the research communities and aims of the past SCAR programmes of RiSCC, EVOLANTA and EASIZ.

EBA seeks to:

1. Understand the evolution and diversity of life in the Antarctic;
2. Determine how these have influenced the properties and dynamics of present Antarctic ecosystems and the Southern Ocean system;
3. Make predictions on how organisms and communities are responding and will respond to current and future environmental change; and
4. Identify EBA science outcomes that are relevant to conservation policy and communicate this science via the SCAR Antarctic Treaty System Committee.

EBA aims to facilitate collaboration between key researchers from other disciplines through workshops and conferences and maximize international and multidisciplinary involvement. By integrating research in marine, terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems in a manner never before attempted, EBA hopes to advance evolutionary and ecological science globally using model systems and organisms from the Antarctic.
Under the SCAR umbrella, EBA is the flagship scientific research programme of SCAR's Standing Scientific Group on the Life Sciences. As well as several other active SCAR programmes, EBA incorporates the Census on Antarctic Marine Life (CAML), the Southern Ocean Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey (SO-CPR), SCAR-MarBIN, the Expert Group on Birds and Marine Mammals, and SCAR services like the Antarctic Biodiversity Database. All of these contribute in one way or another to EBA.
The EBA team is also working closely with the SCAR scientific research programme on Antarctica and the Global Climate System (AGCS) to produce a book length review on "Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment" (ACCE), which is intended to be an equivalent of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment.
EBA will provide biological information of interest and use to Treaty Parties, including the activities of the Committee on Environmental Protection (CEP) and the Commission on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). From time to time papers on EBA results and implications will be forwarded to the meetings of the CEP and CCAMLR as appropriate. As do all SCAR programmes, EBA stands ready to listen to the needs of other groups with interests in both marine and terresterial biology.