Better an iceberg or a penguin? Relative importance of cultural ecosystem services in Antarctica

Overview

The tourism industry is rapidly expanding in Antarctica, increasing by an order of magnitude over the past two decades. The resilience of this industry depends on the resilience of the Antarctic ecosystem but which element of Antarctica is the most important? Is it better a penguin or an iceberg?

The proposed study will make use of social media channels to collect data on Antarctica tourism. By assessing photos’ captions and Twitter hashtags, the study aims to determine how frequently terms such as 'Antarctica', 'icebergs', 'whales' etc are utilised together or in isolation. Using social network analyses, the study will determine the eigenvector centrality of closely related terms as a proxy of their relative importance. Social media analysis remains a new frontiers of data science and has previously been applied to several environmental issues such as poaching, wildlife tourism and nature utilisation. X (formerly known as Twitter) represents a viable platform for collecting data for this project.

The project lies within the umbrella of the bigger project Safeguarding Antarctica Environmental Future (SAEF), an ARC Special Research Initiative, and the results of this study will provide a fine-scale assessment of cultural ecosystem services among tourists of Antarctica, complementing an in-progress study which compares values of tourism operators’ and tourists in Antarctica and Australia, and focus on management actions and the legislative framework of the two countries.

Learn more about the Safeguarding Antarctica Environmental Future initiative

Research activities

The data will be available from the Digital Observatory given obtainment of Ethical Approval (which will be sought after by the PI). The student will be involved in every other aspect of the project from data analyses, literature review and drafting of a final report which, if appropriate, will then be submitted as a scientific article of which the student will be co-author.

Dr. Valeria Senigaglia will be the main supervisor and will provide support in data analyses and interpretation. The student will also benefit from additional support from other academics and students within SAEF.

Contact Dr Valeria Senigaglia via email valeria.senigaglia@qut.edu.au or on LinkedIn.

Outcomes

The execution of this project allows the use of AI to gain insight in human behaviour and Antarctica tourism and can act as a key component in ensuring long-term sustainability of both the industry and the environment.

The study aims to produce one peer-reviewed publication with the opportunity for further studies applying similar methodology to other locations and can be used to prioritize of conservation initiatives.

The student will gain:

• invaluable coding skills
• multidisciplinary research experience
• an in-depth knowledge of Antarctica governance and tourism industry
• experience in writing a scientific paper
• experience in delivering power point presentations
• experience in developing material for STEMM communication.

Based on the student interests and performance, possibilities to expand the project as part of a honours of MSc degree can be explored but will be subjected to funding availabilities.

Skills and experience

• Some knowledge of coding in R and an interest in multidisciplinary research are required.
• Knowledge of environmental management and policies would be advantageous.

Keywords

• Antarctica
• tourism
• megafauna
• social media

Contact

Contact the supervisor for more information.