Actividad investigadora del CEDEX en la Antártida.

Since 2001 CEDEX has taken part in many Antarctic joint research projects with different' institutions from Spain and other countries, developing scientific activities in the International Camp Byers Peninsula (Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica). This place was designed as an Antarctic Specially Protected Area (No. 126) because the importance and value of its terrestrial and aquatic habitats. It is one of the largest ice free areas of maritime Antarctica, with the highest diversity of environments and geological, hydrological and biological processes in the whole region, all of them in a pristine state. Byers Peninsula is considered the most significant limnological area in the .Antarctic Peninsula region because it hosts a high number of lakes, ponds and streams, with an exceptional fauna and flora diversity ,including the most singular, representative or endemic Antarctic species. Furthermore, the lakes sedimentary record is one the widest and complete archives in Antarctic Peninsula region for the palaeoecological and climatic study of the Holocene. Because Byers Peninsula is an Antartic biodiversity "hotspot", and it is located in one of the areas in the Earth where global warming is being more significant, it must be considered as a suitable international al reference site for limnetic, terrestrial and coastal studies, and long term monitoring programmes.