Heard Island and McDonald Islands

Template:Short description Template:Use Australian English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox islands

The Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands<ref name="CIA World Factbook">Template:Cite CIA World Factbook</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (HIMI<ref name="abbr">Template:Cite web</ref>) is an Australian external territory comprising a volcanic group of mostly barren Antarctic islands, about two-thirds of the way from Madagascar to Antarctica. The group's overall land area is Template:Convert and it has Template:Convert of coastline. Discovered in the mid-19th century, the islands lie on the Kerguelen Plateau in the Indian Ocean and have been an Australian territory since 1947.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite EBO</ref>

Heard Island and McDonald Islands contain Australia's only two active volcanoes. The summit of one, Mawson Peak, is higher than any mountain in all other Australian states, territories or claimed territories, except Dome Argus, Mount McClintock and Mount Menzies in the Australian Antarctic Territory. This Antarctic territory is a land claim unrecognised by most other countries,<ref name="auto">Template:Cite web</ref> meaning that Mawson Peak is the highest mountain with undisputed Australian sovereignty.

The islands are among the most remote places on Earth: They are located about Template:Convert southwest of Perth,<ref name="ga">Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Convert southwest of Cape Leeuwin, Australia, Template:Convert southeast of South Africa, Template:Convert southeast of Madagascar, Template:Convert north of Antarctica, and Template:Convert southeast of the Kerguelen Islands (part of French Southern and Antarctic Lands).<ref name="distancefromto">Template:Cite web</ref>

The islands, which are uninhabited, can be reached only by sea, and typically require a two-week voyage from Australia to visit.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

History

Early activities

File:FMIB 46007 Antarctic Sea-Elephant Fishery.jpeg

Heard Island 1887 by Henry Wood Elliott<ref>Goode, George Brown (1887) Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States, (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1887).</ref>

An early sighting of Heard Island is attributed to Peter Kemp of the British sealing snow Magnet on 27 November 1833.Template:Sfn However, the evidence that Heard Island was the land sighted by Kemp is limited.Template:Sfn Kemp Land in Antarctica was later named in his honour.Template:Sfn

An American sailor, John Heard, on the ship Oriental, sighted Heard Island on 25 November 1853, en route from Boston to Melbourne. He reported the discovery one month later and had the island named after him.<ref name=":1" /> His wife Fidelia Heard provided the first written description and drawings of the island.<ref name=":02">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> William McDonald aboard Samarang discovered the nearby McDonald Islands six weeks later, on 4 January 1854.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref>

No landing took place on the islands until March 1855, when American sealers from Corinthian, led by Erasmus Darwin Rogers, went ashore at a place called Oil Barrel Point. From 1855 to 1882 a number of other American sealers spent a year or more on the island, living in appalling conditions in dark smelly huts, also at Oil Barrel Point.<ref name=abc/> The island was also exploited by Australian sealers, including James William Robinson's 1858 expedition on behalf of Tasmanian merchant William Crowther. Robinson's memoir of the expedition was deposited in the W. L. Crowther Library and provides one of the most detailed accounts of early conditions on the island.Template:Sfn At its peak the community consisted of 200 people. By 1877, sealers had wiped out most of the seal population and left the island. In all, the islands furnished more than Template:Convert of elephant seal oil during this period.<ref name=abc>Template:Cite news</ref>

A number of wrecks have occurred in the vicinity of the islands. There is also an abandoned building left from John Heard's sealing station that is situated near Atlas Cove.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The shipwrecked crew of Trinity spent 15 months on Heard Island from the wreck in October 1880 until their rescue in January 1882.Template:Sfn

In April 1910, the Australian-chartered steamer Wakefield briefly visited Heard Island as part of an unsuccessful search for Template:Ship, which had disappeared in July 1909 en route from Australia to England.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In June 1910, a party from the whaling vessel Mangoro annexed Heard Island on behalf of the United Kingdom. The annexation was protested by the French consul in Durban, South Africa, on the grounds that the island was French territory.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The Kerguelen Whaling and Sealing Company, a South African enterprise, resumed sealing at Heard Island during the 1920s. Around this time the British Admiralty commissioned sealers to build a small wooden hut at Atlas Cove.Template:Sfn

Australian administration

File:Group Captain S.A. Campbell (centre) officially opening the first Australian Post Office to be set up in Antarctica. Assistant is L. Macey, Coogee, New South Wales, Chief Radio Operator at Heard (6433727833).jpg

The Heard Island Post and Telegraph Office, c. 1950

In November 1947, the Chifley government announced a series of Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions under the command of Stuart Campbell, a former Royal Australian Air Force officer. Prime Minister Ben Chifley announced that the expeditions would establish weather stations on Heard Island and Macquarie Island, as well as a reserve fuel base on the French territory of Kerguelen Island, as part of a scheme to establish a permanent Australian base in Antarctica.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Campbell's expedition landed at Atlas Cove on 17 December 1947, establishing a forward base for 14 scientists.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Following the successful landing of all stores and equipment, a flag-raising ceremony was held on 29 December 1947.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In response, the U.S. Department of State issued a statement on 4 January 1948 that it did not recognise an Australian claim to the island, as it considered it to be an Antarctic territory and did not recognise any claims from other sovereign states over the Antarctic.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In February 1951, the Australian government announced that it had received confirmation from the British government that it had relinquished any prior claim over Heard Island and the McDonald Islands, backdated to 26 December 1947.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Australians continuously occupied a station at Atlas Cove from 1947 to 1955. The first of these ventures arrived in December 1947 and stayed until February 1949.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Two members of the 1952 wintering party died in May while returning to their hut: radio operator Richard James Hoseason was swept out to sea, while dog trainer Alastair Graham Forbes was rescued from the sea but died while attempting to return to the base.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The camp at Atlas Cove was again occupied by American scientists in 1969 and expanded in 1971 by French scientists. Another station was established in 1971 at Williams Bay on McDonald Island in the McDonald Islands.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Later expeditions used a temporary base at Spit Bay in the east, such as in 1988, 1992–1993, and 2004–2005.Template:Citation needed

There were at least five private expeditions to Heard Island between 1965 and 2000. Several amateur radio operators have visited Heard, often associated with scientific expeditions. The first activity there was in 1947 by Alan Campbell-Drury. Two amateur radio DXpeditions to the island took place in 1983 using the callsigns VK0HI (the Anaconda expedition)<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> and VK0JS and VK0NL (the Cheynes II expedition), with a further operation in January 1997 (VK0IR). The DXpedition in March 2016 (VK0EK) was organised by Cordell Expeditions,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and made over 75,000 radio contacts.Template:Citation needed The first recorded aircraft landing on McDonald Island was made by Australian scientists Grahame Budd and Hugh Thelander on 12 February 1971, using a helicopter.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="aad">Template:Cite web</ref> The DX code for Heard Island is 111.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Mawson Peak, atop Big Ben, was first climbed on 25 January 1965 by five members of the Southern Indian Ocean Expedition to Heard Island (sometimes referred to as the Patanela expedition).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The second ascent was made by five members of the Heard Island Expedition 1983 (sometimes referred to as the Anaconda expedition).<ref name=":0" /> A helicopter landing was made at the summit by an Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE) team on 21 December 1986. An Australian Army team was successful in making the third ascent in 2000.

In 1991, the islands were the location for the Heard Island feasibility test, an experiment in very long-distance transmission of low frequency sound through the ocean.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The United States Navy-chartered motor vessels Template:MV and Template:MV transmitted signals which were detected as far away as both ocean coasts of the United States and Canada.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Administration, economy and defence

File:Weather personnel at Heard Island ANARE Station releasing free hydrogen Radiosonde Balloon (6433880227).jpg

Weather station personnel at Heard Island ANARE Station releasing a free hydrogen Radiosonde Balloon (Template:Circa)

The islands are a territory (Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands) of Australia administered from Hobart by the Australian Antarctic Division of the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. The administration of the territory is established in the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Act 1953, which places it under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory, with the non-criminal laws of the Australian Capital Territory and the criminal laws of Jervis Bay Territory applying to the Territory.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The islands are contained within a Template:Convert marine reserve and are primarily visited for research, meaning that there is no permanent human habitation.<ref name="CIA World Factbook" />

File:Heard2.jpg

A research station on Heard Island

With the end of sealing, the only exploited resource is fish; the Australian government allows limited fishing in the surrounding waters.<ref name="CIA World Factbook" />

There are no active military installations nor defence personnel on the islands. However, as part of Operation Resolute, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and Australian Border Force deploy Template:Sclass2 and Template:Sclass patrol boats to carry out civil maritime security operations in both Australian mainland and offshore territories including the Heard and McDonald Islands.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In part to carry out this mission, Template:As of, the RAN's Armidale-class boats are in the process of being replaced by larger Template:Sclasss.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Despite the lack of population, the islands have been assigned the country code HM in ISO 3166-1 (ISO 3166-2:HM), hence the Internet top-level domain .hm. The time zone of the islands is UTC+5.<ref name="timegenie">Template:Cite web</ref>

In April 2025, as part of a sweeping campaign of tariffs against its trading partners, the US explicitly implemented a 10% tariff against the islands, despite the islands being uninhabited, earning the islands widespread media coverage.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":5">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":7">Template:Cite news</ref> The US claimed it had a trade deficit with the islands, an allegation that appeared to be calculated from incorrect trade data. An analysis of US import data and shipping records by The Guardian indicated some shipments were incorrectly labelled as coming from the remote islands instead of their correct countries of origin. According to export data from the World Bank, the US imported Template:USD (Template:AUD) of products from Heard Island and McDonald Islands in 2022, nearly all of which was "machinery and electrical" imports.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Geography

Template:Main Template:See also

File:Orthographic projection centred over the Heard Islands 2.png

Heard Island and McDonald Islands in the Southern Ocean

File:Heard Island and McDonald Islands map.png

A map of Heard Island and McDonald Islands

Heard Island, by far the largest of the group, is a Template:Convert mountainous island covered by 41 glaciers;<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 80% of the island is covered with ice.<ref name="CIA World Factbook" /> The Big Ben massif dominates the island: It has a maximum elevation of Template:Convert at Mawson Peak, the historically active volcanic summit of Big Ben, to which the average ascent from shore is steeper than that for any island of comparable size or larger; only seven smaller islands are steeper. A July 2000 satellite image from the University of Hawaii's Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) Thermal Alert Team showed an active Template:Convert and Template:Convert lava flow trending southwest from the summit of Big Ben.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The much smaller and rocky McDonald Islands are located Template:Convert to the west of Heard Island. They consist of McDonald Island (Template:Convert high), Flat Island (Template:Convert high) and Meyer Rock (Template:Convert high). They total approximately Template:Convert in area, where McDonald Island is Template:Convert. There is a small group of islets and rocks about Template:Convert north of Heard Island, consisting of Shag Islet, Sail Rock, Morgan Island, Drury Rock, and Black Rock. They total about Template:Convert in area.

Mawson Peak and McDonald Island are the only two active volcanoes in Australian territory. Mawson Peak is also one of the highest Australian mountains (higher than Mount Kosciuszko). It is surpassed by Dome Argus, Mount McClintock and Mount Menzies in the Australian Antarctic Territory,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> a territorial claim unrecognised by most other countries,<ref name="auto" /> meaning that Mawson Peak is the highest mountain over which Australia has true sovereignty. Mawson Peak has erupted several times since 2013 and as recently as May 2023.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> An earlier eruption was filmed on 2 February 2016.<ref>Rare glimpse of erupting Australian sub-Antarctic volcano. BBC News, 2 February 2016</ref> The volcano on McDonald Island, after being dormant for 75,000 years, became active in 1992 and has erupted several times since, most recently in 2005.<ref>Volcanic activity at McDonald Island – Heard Island. Australian Department of the Environment, Australian Antarctic Division, updated 1 March 2005</ref>

Heard Island and the McDonald Islands have no ports or harbours; ships must anchor offshore. The coastline is Template:Convert in extent, and Australia claims a Template:Convert territorial sea and Template:Convert exclusive fishing zone around the islands.<ref name="CIA World Factbook" />

Glacier retreat

Template:See also Heard Island is a heavily glaciated, subantarctic volcanic island located in the Southern Ocean, roughly Template:Convert southwest of Australia. Eighty percent of the island is covered in ice, with glaciers descending from Template:Convert to sea level.<ref name="Allis1986">Template:Cite journal</ref> Due to the steep topography of Heard Island, most of its glaciers are relatively thin (averaging only about Template:Convert in depth).<ref name="Ruddell">Template:Cite web</ref> The presence of glaciers on Heard Island provides an excellent opportunity to measure the rate of glacial retreat as an indicator of climate change.<ref name="aad2008">Template:Cite web</ref>

Available records show no apparent change in glacier mass balance between 1874 and 1929. Between 1949 and 1954, marked changes were observed to have occurred in the ice formations above Template:Convert on the southwestern slopes of Big Ben, possibly as a result of volcanic activity. By 1963, major recession was obvious below Template:Convert on almost all glaciers, and minor recession was evident as high as Template:Convert.<ref name="Budd1970">Template:Cite journal</ref>

The coastal ice cliffs of Brown and Stephenson Glaciers, which in 1954 were over Template:Convert high, had disappeared by 1963 when the glaciers terminated as much as Template:Convert inland.<ref name="Budd1970" /> Baudissin Glacier on the north coast, and Vahsel Glacier on the west coast have lost at least Template:Convert of ice vertically, respectively.<ref name="Budd1970" /> Winston Glacier, which retreated approximately Template:Convert between 1947 and 1963, appears to be a very sensitive indicator of glacier change on the island. The young moraines flanking Winston Lagoon show that Winston Glacier has lost at least Template:Convert of ice vertically within a recent time period.<ref name="Budd1970" /> Jacka Glacier on the east coast of Laurens Peninsula has also demonstrated marked recession since 1955.<ref name="Budd1970" />

Retreat of glacier fronts across Heard Island is evident when comparing aerial photographs taken in December 1947 with those taken on a return visit in early 1980.<ref name="Allis1986" /><ref name="Thost2008">Template:Cite journal</ref> Retreat of Heard Island glaciers is most dramatic on the eastern section of the island, where the termini of former tidewater glaciers are now located inland.<ref name="Allis1986" /> Glaciers on the northern and western coasts have narrowed significantly, while the area of glaciers and ice caps on Laurens Peninsula have shrunk by 30 to 65%.<ref name="Allis1986" /><ref name="Ruddell" />

Between 1947 and 1988, the total area of Heard Island's glaciers decreased by 11%, from Template:Convert (roughly 79% of the total area of Heard Island) to only Template:Convert.<ref name="Ruddell" /> A visit to the island in the spring of 2000 found that the Stephenson, Brown and Baudissin glaciers, among others, had retreated even further.<ref name="Ruddell" /><ref name="Thost2008" /> The terminus of Brown Glacier has retreated approximately Template:Convert since 1950.<ref name="aad2008" /> The total ice-covered area of Brown Glacier is estimated to have decreased by roughly 29% between 1947 and 2004.<ref name="Thost2008" /> This degree of loss of glacier mass is consistent with the measured increase in temperature of Template:Convert over that time span.<ref name="Thost2008" />

Possible causes of glacier recession on Heard Island include:

Volcanic activity
Southward movement of the Antarctic Convergence: such a movement might cause glacier retreat through a rise in sea and air temperatures
Climatic change

The Australian Antarctic Division conducted an expedition to Heard Island during the austral summer of 2003–2004. A small team of scientists spent two months on the island, conducting studies on avian and terrestrial biology and glaciology. Glaciologists conducted further research on the Brown Glacier in an effort to determine whether glacial retreat is rapid or punctuated. Using a portable echo sounder, the team took measurements of the volume of the glacier. Monitoring of climatic conditions continued, with an emphasis on the impact of Foehn winds on glacier mass balance.<ref name="heard">Template:Cite web</ref> Based on the findings of that expedition, the rate of loss of glacier ice on Heard Island appears to be accelerating. Between 2000 and 2003, repeat GPS surface surveys revealed that the rate of loss of ice in both the ablation zone and the accumulation zone of Brown Glacier was more than double average rate measured from 1947 to 2003. The increase in the rate of ice loss suggests that the glaciers of Heard Island are reacting to ongoing climate change, rather than approaching dynamic equilibrium.<ref name="Thost2008" /> The retreat of Heard Island's glaciers is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.<ref name="Allis1986" />

Wetlands

Template:Unreferenced section Heard Island has a number of small wetland sites scattered around its coastal perimeter, including areas of wetland vegetation, lagoons or lagoon complexes, rocky shores and sandy shores, including the Elephant Spit. Many of these wetland areas are separated by active glaciers. There are also several short glacier-fed streams and glacial pools. Some wetland areas have been recorded on McDonald Island but, due to substantial volcanic activity since the last landing was made in 1980, their present extent is unknown.

The HIMI wetland is listed on the Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia and, in a recent analysis of Australian Commonwealth-managed wetlands, was ranked highest for nomination under the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar Convention) as an internationally important wetland.

Six wetland types have been identified from HIMI covering approximately Template:Convert: coastal 'pool complex' (Template:Convert); inland 'pool complex' (Template:Convert); vegetated seeps mostly on recent glaciated areas (Template:Convert); glacial lagoons (1103 ha); non-glacial lagoons (Template:Convert); Elephant Spit (Template:Convert) plus some coastal areas. On Heard Island, the majority of these types suites are found below Template:Convert asl. The wetland vegetation occurs in the 'wet mixed herbfield' and 'coastal biotic vegetation' communities described above.

The wetlands provide important breeding and feeding habitat for a number of Antarctic and subantarctic wetland animals. These include the southern elephant seal and macaroni, gentoo, king and eastern rockhopper penguins, considered to be wetland species under the Ramsar Convention. Non-wetland vegetated parts of the islands also support penguin and other seabird colonies.

Climate

File:Heard Island Karman vortex street.jpg

Vortex shedding as winds pass Heard Island resulted in this Kármán vortex street in the clouds.

The islands have an Antarctic climate, or tundra climate (ET) under the Köppen climate classification, tempered by their maritime setting. The weather is marked by low seasonal and daily temperature ranges; persistent and generally low-lying cloud cover; frequent precipitation and strong winds. Snowfall occurs throughout the year. Monthly average temperatures at Atlas Cove (at the northwestern end of Heard Island) range from Template:Convert, with an average daily range of Template:Convert in summer and Template:Convert in winter. The winds are predominantly westerly and persistently strong. At Atlas Cove, monthly average wind speeds range between around Template:Convert. Gusts in excess of Template:Convert have been recorded.

Annual precipitation at sea level on Heard Island is in the order of Template:Convert; rain or snow falls on about three out of four days.<ref>HIMI official website.</ref> According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Heard Island receives an average of 96.8 snowy days annually at Atlas Cove.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Meteorological records at Heard Island are incomplete. Template:Weather box

Biodiversity

Most of the flora species are mosses and lichens, with just twelve vascular plant species. The main indigenous animals are insects, along with large populations of ocean-going seabirds, penguins and seals.<ref>Template:WWF ecoregion</ref>

Template:See also

Flora

File:(The abode of science on Heard Island, BANZARE, 1929) (6173425701).jpg

This 1929 photo of a scientific expedition shows some of Heard Island's mosses in the background.

There is vegetation, mostly mosses and lichens, on almost Template:Convert of Heard Island's coastal, low-elevation areas.<ref name="plants">Template:Cite web</ref> There is not much plant diversity and there are very few flowering plant species and no trees or ferns.<ref name="plants" /> There are twelve vascular species on Heard Island, of which five are also on McDonald Island. The limited flora is due to the severe climate and limited ice-free areas.<ref name="plants" />

Vascular species: Template:Div col

Acaena magellanica
Azorella
Callitriche antarctica
Colobanthus kerguelensis
Deschampsia antarctica
Leptinella plumosa
Montia fontana
Poa annua
Poa cookii
Poa kerguelensis
Pringlea antiscorbutica
Ranunculus crassipes
Bryophytes (mosses and liverworts)<ref name="plants" />

Template:Div col end

Bryophytes, such as mosses and liverworts, can grow in places of the islands that other plants do not thrive in, such as on rock faces. Lichens grow in many places on Heard Island with exposed rocks.<ref name="plants" /> Seventy-one species of lichens have been recorded from Heard Island and they are common on exposed rock, dominating the vegetation in some areas.<ref>Part 3: A Description of the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve. Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve Management Plan. retrieved 5 February 2016.</ref> As with plants, a 1980 survey of McDonald Island found lower diversity there, with just eight lichen species and a number of non-lichenized fungi recorded.

Heard Island does not have human-introduced plants, but the island does have one non-native plant: Poa annua, a European grass. It may have come naturally from the Kerguelen Islands, where it is widely present. The Poa annua grass may have been spread to the island by winds and by animals such as seabirds and seals.<ref name="plants" />

Mammals

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File:Sea-Elephant Fishery 2 bis.jpg

Processing elephant seals on Heard Island – a 19th-century scene.

Sealing at Heard Island lasted from 1855 to 1910, during which time 67 sealing vessels are recorded visiting, nine of which were wrecked off the coast.Template:Sfn Relics that survive from that time include try pots, casks, hut ruins, graves, and inscriptions. Sealing caused the seal populations on Heard Island to either become locally extinct or reduced to levels too low to exploit economically. Modern sealers visited from Cape Town, South Africa, in the 1920s.Template:Sfn Since then the seal populations generally have increased and are protected. Seals breeding on Heard include the southern elephant seal, the Antarctic fur seal, and the subantarctic fur seal. Leopard seals visit regularly in winter to haul-out though they do not breed on the islands. Crabeater, Ross and Weddell seals are occasional visitors.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Birds

Template:Further Heard Island and the McDonald Islands are free from introduced predators and provide crucial breeding habitat in the middle of the vast Southern Ocean for a range of birds. The surrounding waters are important feeding areas for birds and some scavenging species also derive sustenance from their cohabitants on the islands. The islands have been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area because they support very large numbers of nesting seabirds.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Nineteen species of birds have been recorded as breeding on Heard Island<ref>Woehler, E.J. & Croxall, J.P. 1991. 'Status and conservation of the seabirds of Heard Island and the McDonald Islands', in Seabird – status and conservation: a supplement, ICBP Technical Publication 11. International Council for Bird Preservation, Cambridge. pp 263–277.</ref> and the McDonald Islands, although recent volcanic activity at the McDonald Islands in the last decadeTemplate:When is likely to have reduced vegetated and un-vegetated nesting areas.<ref name="Woehler, E.J. 2006">Woehler, E.J. (2006). 'Status and trends of the seabirds of Heard Island, 2000', in Heard Island: Southern Ocean Sentinel. ed. Green, K. & Woehler, E. Surrey Beattie.</ref>

Penguins are by far the most abundant birds on the islands, with four breeding species present, comprising king, gentoo, macaroni, and eastern rockhopper penguins. The penguins mostly colonise the coastal tussock and grasslands of Heard Island, and have previously been recorded as occupying the flats and gullies on McDonald Island.

Other seabirds recorded as breeding at Heard Island include three species of albatross (wandering, black-browed, and light-mantled albatrosses), southern giant petrels, Cape petrels, four species of burrowing petrels (Antarctic and Fulmar prions, common and South Georgia diving petrels), Wilson's storm petrels, kelp gulls, subantarctic skuas, Antarctic terns, and the Heard shag.<ref name="Woehler, E.J. 2006" /> Although not a true seabird, the Heard Island subspecies of the black-faced sheathbill also breeds on the island. Both the shag and the sheathbill are endemic to Heard Island.

A further 28 seabird species are recorded as either non-breeding visitors or have been noted during 'at-sea surveys' of the islands. All recorded breeding species, other than the Heard Island sheathbill, are listed marine species under the Australian Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act (1999, four are listed as threatened species and five are listed as migratory species. Under the EPBC Act a recovery plan has been made for albatrosses and giant petrels, which calls for ongoing population monitoring of the species found at HIMI, and at the time of preparing this plan a draft recovery plan has also been made for the Heard Island cormorant (or shag) and Antarctic tern.

The recorded populations of some seabird species found in the Reserve have shown marked change. The king penguin population is the best-studied seabird species on Heard Island and has shown a dramatic increase since first recorded in 1947–1948, with the population doubling every five years or so for more than 50 years.Template:When

A paper reviewing population data for the black-browed albatross between 1947 and 2000–2001 suggested that the breeding population had increased to about three times that present in the late 1940s,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> although a Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources CCAMLR) Working Group was cautious about the interpretation of the increasing trend given the disparate nature of the data,<ref>SC–CAMLR 2002. Report of the Working Group on Fish Stock Assessment. Report of the Twenty-First Meeting of the Scientific Committee for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, Hobart, Australia.</ref> as discussed in the paper. The discovery of a large, previously unknown, colony of Heard shags in 2000–2001 at Cape Pillar raised the known breeding population from 200 pairs to over 1000 pairs.<ref name="Woehler, E.J. 2006" /> The breeding population of southern giant petrels decreased by more than 50% between the early 1950s and the late 1980s.

Invertebrates

Template:Unreferenced section Heard Island supports a relatively low number of terrestrial invertebrate species compared to other Southern Ocean islands, in parallel with the low species richness in the flora–that is, the island's isolation and limited ice-free area. Endemism is also generally low and the invertebrate fauna is exceptionally pristine with few, if any, (successful) human-induced introductions of alien species. Two species, including the thrips Apterothrips apteris and the mite Tyrophagus putrescentiae are thought to be recent, possibly natural, introductions. An exotic species of earthworm, Dendrodrilus rubidus, was also collected in 1929 from a dump near Atlas Cove, and has recently been collected from a variety of habitats including wallows, streams and lakes on Heard Island.

The arthropods of Heard Island are comparatively well known, with 54 species of mite and tick, one spider, and eight springtails recorded. A study over the summer of 1987–1988 at Atlas Cove showed overall densities of up to 60,000 individual springtails per square metre (10.75 sq ft) in soil under stands of Pringlea antiscorbutica. Despite a few recentTemplate:When surveys, the non-arthropod invertebrate fauna of Heard Island remain poorly known.

Beetles and flies dominate Heard Island's known insect fauna, which comprises up to 21 species of ectoparasite (associated with birds and seals) and up to 13 free-living species. Approximately half of the free-living insects are habitat-specific, while the remainder are generalists found in a variety of habitats, being associated with either supralittoral or intertidal zones, Poa cookii and Pringlea antiscorbutica stands, bryophytes, lichen-covered rocks, exposed rock faces, or the underside of rocks. There is a pronounced seasonality to the insect fauna, with densities in winter months dropping to a small percentage (around 0.75%) of the summer maximum. Distinct differences in relative abundances of species between habitats has also been shown, including a negative relationship between altitude and body size for Heard Island weevils (genus Ectemnorhinus).

The fauna of the freshwater pools, lakes, streams and mires found in the coastal areas of Heard Island are broadly similar to those on other subantarctic islands of the southern Indian Ocean. Many species reported from Heard Island are found elsewhere. Some sampling of freshwater fauna has been undertaken during recent expeditions and records to dateTemplate:When indicate that the freshwater fauna includes a species of Protista, a gastrotrich, two species of tardigrade, at least four species of nematode, 26 species of rotifer, six species of annelid, and 14 species of arthropod.

As with the other shore biota, the marine macro-invertebrate fauna of Heard Island is similar in composition and local distribution to other subantarctic islands, although relatively little is known about the Heard Island communities compared with the well-studied fauna of some other islands in the subantarctic region, such as Macquarie and Kerguelen.

Despite Heard Island's isolation, species richness is considered to be moderate, rather than depauperate, although the number of endemic species reported is low. The large macro-alga Durvillaea antarctica supports a diverse array of invertebrate taxa and may play an important role in transporting some of this fauna to Heard Island.

The rocky shores of Heard Island exhibit a clear demarcation between fauna of the lower kelp holdfast zone and the upper shore zone community, probably due to effects of desiccation, predation, and freezing in the higher areas. The limpet Nacella kerguelensis is abundant in the lower part of the shore, being found on rock surfaces and on kelp holdfasts. Other common but less abundant species in this habitat include the chiton Hemiarthrum setulosum and the starfish Anasterias mawsoni. The amphipod Hyale sp. and the isopod Cassidinopsis sp. are closely associated with the kelp. Above the kelp holdfast zone, the littornid Laevilitorina (Corneolitorina) heardensis and the bivalve mollusk Kidderia bicolor are found in well-sheltered situations, and another bivalve, Gaimardia trapesina trapesina, has been recorded from immediately above the holdfast zone. Oligochaetes are also abundant in areas supporting porous and spongy layers of algal mat.

References

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Sources

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External links

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