Antarctica and Southern Ocean are unique places to conduct study on ozone hole, atmospheric chemistry and dynamics, palaeoclimatic research from ice core and marine sediments (sun earth relationship, global climate change and genome research from cold regions). For environmental study, Antarctica provides a unique, unpolluted and stable environment for scientific observations. It is far away from all sources of environmental contamination and thus remains an unpolluted datum point from which global changes due to pollution could be monitored and therefore it is very important place to carry out significant study on environmental changes.
Environmental Protocol, which is also known as “Madrid Protocol” was adopted in 1991 in response to proposals that the wide range of provisions relating to protection of the Antarctic environment should be harmonized in a comprehensive and legally binding form. The Protocol on Environmental Protection to Antarctic Treaty and more commonly referred to as Environmental Protocol or Madrid Protocol came into force in 1998.
Environmental monitoring is a fundamental element of basic research, environmental management, and conservation. The organized and systematic measurement of selected variables provides for the establishment of baseline data and the identification of both natural and human-induced change in the environment” Monitoring data are important in the development of models of environmental processes, which in turn facilitate progress towards a predictive capability to detect environmental impact or change.