e. Integration into future work

Our preceding research – Holocene Climate History from Coastal Ice – has identified the value of the specific characteristics of ice core records from coastal, low altitude sites [Bertler and 54 others 2005; Bertler et al. 2004a; Bertler et al. 2005a; Bertler et al. 2004b; Bertler et al. 2005b; Mayewski et al. 2005; Patterson et al. 2005] and showed how tropical phenomena, such as ENSO have a significant influence on the Ross Sea Region. In contrast to Antarctica's interior, which is influenced by temperature inversion and climatic cooling of the stratosphere, the coastal sites are dominated by cyclonic activity, and hence by the climate of the lower troposphere [King and Turner 1997]. As a result, coastal sites are especially climate sensitive and show potential to archive local, rapid climate change events that are subdued or lost in the 'global' inland ice core records, such as Vostok. It is those rapid climate change events that are of greatest concern to human civilisation in the near future. The NZ ITASE programme contains five objectives that are scientifically inter-linked to the following programmes.