BELDIVA is aimed at sampling representative habitats (potentially) containing microorganisms in an area of 200 km around the Belgian Princess Elisabeth Base (PES), Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica. The specific objectives can be articulated as follows: 1. Conduct an exploratory field campaign in an area of c. 50 km around Utsteinen during the Austral summer of 2008-2009. 2. Develop a relational database which will be integrated with national and international data repository centres. 3. Select potentially interesting sites and habitats based on an in-depth analysis of satellite and LIDAR images, and aerial pictures in an area of 200 km. 4. Organise and conduct a field campaign to sample the selected sites during the Austral summer of 2009-2010. 5. To verify the distribution in representative samples from the field campaigns of bacterial and cyanobacterial taxa selected during the AMBIO project, and study the diversity of algae, lichens and microarthropods (Arthropoda, Hexapoda, Collembola) of the family Isotomidae. . 6. To integrate findings on microbial taxa distribution with results from AMBIO. 7. To obtain a first description of pristine areas and assess their significance and originality. This information can be used to describe new ASPAs in the region, or select sites for future research.