"Planning for the next season begins in October."
The decision, announced this afternoon, came after close consultation with other countries' programmes being run in the Ross Sea region.
It's also likely that research supported by the US National Science Foundation out of McMurdo Station – a short drive from the New Zealand outpost on Ross Island – will be disrupted by the pandemic.
Antarctica New Zealand chief executive Sarah Williamson said the key to keeping Scott Base virus-free was limit the number of people travelling to Antarctica and a strict managed isolation plan.
"Antarctica New Zealand is committed to maintaining and enhancing the quality of New Zealand's Antarctic scientific research," she said.
"However, current circumstances dictate that our ability to support science is extremely limited this season."
Priority engineering projects were still planned to go ahead, as was some work as part of Scott Base's multi-million dollar rebuild.
Operations general manager Simon Trotter said the call had been a difficult one.
"We acknowledge the impact this Covid-19 response will have on research this season, but these are unprecedented times," he said.
"Our focus is to keep Antarctica free from the virus, and the best way to do that is minimise its opportunity to get onto the continent."
Among those scientists affected were several Niwa researchers – among them marine physicist Dr Natalie Robinson.
She was hopeful her programme, focused on how ice shelves will melt as the ocean warmed, could be moved back a year.
"My work is part of a seven-year programme so because it's such a long one we have the ability to absorb a delay and still deliver within the timeframe," she said.
"It's a huge call but it's also in line with what other international programmes have decided. You can't do anything other than support the international efforts to keep the continent Covid-free."
Fellow marine physicist Dr Craig Stewart was also postponing his Antarctic field work, which included installing up to 12 radars on the Ross and McMurdo Ice Shelves to make continuous measurements of the ice thickness.
"It's a bit disappointing but completely understandable. We rely a lot on the US services and understand there would be limited search and rescue available this summer," he said.
"We would be camped on the ice hundreds of kilometres from Scott Base and would need to have good support in case it was needed."
Niwa also carried out annual maintenance in Antarctica at its atmospheric monitoring station Arrival Heights, and on its climate station at Scott base.
Plans to install a new climate station have been given approval to go ahead, while Niwa was also progressing a voyage to the region aboard its research vessel, Tangaroa.
Associate Professor Rob McKay, director of Victoria University's Antarctic Research Centre, said the decision didn't come as a great surprise.
"The shutdown affected the whole global supply chain and was already putting pressure on scientists to get their equipment into the country and ready to ship down to Antarctica," he said.
"We would've made it happen if it did go ahead, although we would've had to shift the goalposts in terms of what science could be done.
"We had all been working on the assumption that there would be a severely scaled back field season, and like all parts of the economy, things have to be adjusted for this crisis."
