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Antarctic environment has valuable baseline information for understanding the global change. The objectives of this study were to investigate the impacts of human activities on Antarctic terrestrial ecosystem. Based on the investigation results and the sampling analysis of the environment of Fildes Peninsula, King George Island, Antarctica, it was shown that there are some artificial radioactive elements——137Cs in Antarctic environment: the radioactivity of 137Cs in the surface soil, the surface moss, the fruticose lichen and the crustaceous lichen are 6.00—14 80, 25 07, 29.04 and 58.07 Bq/kg separately; i.e. the sequence of 137Cs specific activity is as follows: crustaceous lichen>fruticose lichen>surface moss>surface soil, which demonstrates that the crustaceous lichen is one of the most sensitive monitor ways for the effect of the long term diffusion of 137Cs. The impacts of the scientific research activities on the partial ecosystem of Fildes Peninsula include: the changes of the landscape and the soil material have made a strong freezing thawing process, which decreases the stability of the ground surface, causes the degradation of the vegetation in the some small areas; some small lakes, runoff and lichens in middle areas of Fildes Peninsula have been affected by the wastes of the stations, in the surrounding areas of the expedition stations, the concentration of Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn in the lichen and the water are higher than that of the contrasting area. Fildes Peninsula is one of the most crowded areas of expedition stations, at some extent, the environment and terrestrial ecosystem have been affected by the human activities. The conservation of the environment and ecosystem should be an important aspect of Antarctic environmental sciences.
