Admiralty Bay (South Shetland Islands) as a model area for the long-term marine monitoring program – reasons and opportunities

The objectives of this work are to demonstrate the unique character of Admiralty Bay, King George Island, South Shetlands (Subarea 48.1) in terms of its location, hydrology and existing numerous scientific, data archives, to compare biological, chemical and geological data with other Antarctic areas. Because of its location, semi‐closed nature, and history of intensive environmental and ecological research (hundreds of papers in various disciplines published in a variety of scientific journals). Admiralty Bay is an ideal and unique area to examine actual and further potential changes, and can be a model and possible indicator for the whole region. It would be a unique, comprehensive approach to these problems because of the availability of rich data collected two and three decades ago, as well as the multidisciplinary character of the planned monitoring program.