Showing 11923 items
27 November, 2019 by Lloyd Peck, Peter Convey
Antarctica and the surrounding Southern Ocean are facing complex environmental change. Their native biota has adapted to the region’s extreme conditions over many millions of years. This unique biota is…Read more on Antarctic environmental change and biological responses
27 November, 2019 by Rachel Cavanagh, Susie Grant
The impacts of climate change and the socioecological challenges they present are ubiquitous and increasingly severe. Practical efforts to operationalize climate-responsive design and management in the global network of marine…Read more on Integrating climate adaptation and biodiversity conservation in the global ocean
25 November, 2019 by Melody Clark
Coastal ecosystems, including estuaries, are increasingly pressured by expanding hypoxic regions as a result of human activities such as increased release of nutrients and global warming. Hypoxia is often defined…21 November, 2019 by Michael Thorne
Most animal species reproduce sexually and fully parthenogenetic lineages are usually short lived in evolution. Still, parthenogenesis may be advantageous as it avoids the cost of sex and permits colonisation…
21 November, 2019 by Mark Clilverd
Observations of relativistic energetic electron fluxes in the outer radiation belt can show dropouts, i.e., sudden electron flux depletions during the main phase of a geomagnetic storm. Many recent studies…
20 November, 2019 by Andrew Clarke, David Pearce, Katrin Linse, Robert Larter
Faunal assemblages at hydrothermal vents associated with island-arc volcanism are less well known than those at vents on mid-ocean ridges and back-arc spreading centres. This study characterizes chemosynthetic biotopes at…20 November, 2019 by Maria Vittoria Guarino
The last extended time period when climate may have been warmer than today was during the Last Interglacial (LIG; ca. 129 to 120 thousand years ago). However, a global view…
19 November, 2019 by Peter Convey
Vegetation near bird and seal rookeries typically has high δ15N signatures and these high values are linked to the enriched δ15N values of rookery soils. However, Antarctic cryptogams are mostly…18 November, 2019 by Louis-Alexandre Couston
Bowman et al. reported low-frequency photometric variability in 164 O- and B-type stars observed with K2 and TESS. They interpret these motions as internal gravity waves, which could be excited…Read more on Low-frequency variability in massive stars: core generation or surface phenomenon?
9 November, 2019 by Chester Sands, Quentin Jossart
Poecilogony, or multiple developmental modes in a single species, is exceedingly rare. Several species described as poecilogenous were later demonstrated to be multiple (cryptic) species with a different developmental mode.…
8 November, 2019 by Richard Horne
Space weather phenomena have been studied in detail in the peer‐reviewed scientific literature. However, there has arguably been scant analysis of the potential socioeconomic impacts of space weather, despite a…8 November, 2019 by Peter Convey
Antarctica is isolated, surrounded by the Southern Ocean, and has experienced extreme environmental conditions for millions of years, including during recent Pleistocene glacial maxima. How Antarctic terrestrial species might have…8 November, 2019 by Joanne Johnson
We describe new Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) ice thickness constraints for three locations spanning the Weddell Sea Embayment (WSE) of Antarctica. Samples collected from the Shackleton Range, Pensacola Mountains, and…
7 November, 2019 by Chester Sands, David Barnes
Biodiversity tends to decrease with increasing isolation and reduced habitat size, and increase with habitat age. Ascension Island and its seamounts are small, isolated and relatively young, yet, within its…5 November, 2019 by Rebecca Vignols
The taxonomic composition of the biota of the Coralline Crag Formation (early Pliocene, eastern England) provides conflicting evidence of seawater temperature during deposition, some taxa indicating cool temperate conditions by…
4 November, 2019 by Peter Convey
Terrestrial cyanobacteria are very diverse and widely distributed in Antarctica, where they can form macroscopically visible biofilms on the surfaces of soils and rocks, and on benthic surfaces in fresh…1 November, 2019 by Kevin Newsham
A resumption of climate warming in maritime Antarctica, arising from continued greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, is predicted to lead to further expansions of plant populations across the region,…
1 November, 2019 by Alistair Crame, Jane Francis, Rowan Whittle, Vanessa Bowman
Taxonomic and ecological recovery from the Cretaceous–Palaeogene (K–Pg) mass extinction 66 million years ago shaped the composition and structure of modern ecosystems. The timing and nature of recovery has been…
1 November, 2019 by Lara Perez Miguel
The Scotia Sea is a complex geological area located in the Southern Ocean which evolution is closely linked to the opening of the Drake Passage. Structural highs of continental nature…
1 November, 2019 by Hugh Venables
Climate change at the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is predicted to cause major changes in phytoplankton community composition, however, detailed seasonal field data remain limited and it is largely unknown…
1 November, 2019 by Aurelia Reichardt, Lloyd Peck, Simon Morley
For many types of seaweeds in Polar Regions, open questions remain about how their life cycle contributes to their overall adaptation to the extreme abiotic environment. This applies in particular…
1 November, 2019 by Katrin Linse
Traits are increasingly being used to quantify global biodiversity patterns, with trait databases growing in size and number, across diverse taxa. Despite growing interest in a trait‐based approach to the…Read more on sFDvent: a global functional trait database for deep-sea hydrothermal vent fauna
1 November, 2019 by Mark Clilverd
VLF radio signals with travel times ~100 ms were observed continuously for up to ~11 hours at night on Rarotonga (Cook Islands, ~21°S) at 21.4 kHz from US Navy transmitter…Read more on Very low latitude whistler‐mode signals: Observations at three widely spaced latitudes
1 November, 2019 by Hayley Allison, Nigel Meredith, Richard Horne, Sarah Glauert
In the Outer Radiation Belt, the acceleration and loss of high‐energy electrons is largely controlled by wave‐particle interactions. Quasilinear diffusion coefficients are an efficient way to capture the small‐scale physics…Read more on Variability of quasilinear diffusion coefficients for plasmaspheric hiss
1 November, 2019 by Katrin Linse
The recent discovery and exploration of deep-sea hydrothermal vent fields in the Mid-Cayman Spreading Centre, Caribbean Sea (Beebe Vent Field, 4956–4972 m depth) and the East Scotia Ridge, Southern Ocean…1 November, 2019 by Hugh Venables, Alexander Brearley, Michael Meredith
Oceanic heat strongly influences the glaciers and ice shelves along West Antarctica. Prior studies show that the subsurface onshore heat flux from the Southern Ocean on the shelf occurs through…1 November, 2019 by Alexander Brearley, Ryan Scott
A rapid, high‐resolution shipboard survey, using a combination of lowered and expendable hydrographic measurements and vessel‐mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler data, provided a unique three‐dimensional view of an Arctic anti‐cyclonic…1 November, 2019 by Mervyn Freeman
Sudden commencements (SCs) are rapid increases in the northward component of the surface geomagnetic field, related to sharp increases in the dynamic pressure of the solar wind. Large rates of…30 October, 2019 by Bianca Perren, Claire Allen
The sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia provides terrestrial and coastal marine records of climate variability, which are crucial for the understanding of the drivers of Holocene climate changes in the…29 October, 2019 by Richard Phillips
The Southern Ocean represents a continuous stretch of circumpolar marine habitat, but the potential physical and ecological drivers of evolutionary genetic differentiation across this vast ecosystem remain unclear. We tested…29 October, 2019 by Mervyn Freeman
We use National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalysis data to show that Antarctic surface air temperature anomalies result from differences in the daily-mean duskward component, By,…28 October, 2019 by John Turner
Recent major melting events in West Antarctica have raised concerns about a potential hydrofracturing and ice shelf instability. These events often share common forcings of surface melt-like anomalous radiative fluxes,…Read more on West Antarctic surface melt triggered by atmospheric rivers
24 October, 2019 by Dominic Hodgson, Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, James Smith, Michael Meredith, Stephen Roberts, William Dickens
The Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet is currently experiencing sustained and accelerating loss of ice. Determining when these changes were initiated and identifying the main drivers is hampered by the short…24 October, 2019 by Peter Convey
Biological invasions represent significant economic and conservation challenges, though it is widely acknowledged that their impacts are often poorly documented and difficult to predict. In the Antarctic, one non-native vascular…18 October, 2019 by Anna Belcher, Geraint Tarling, Simeon Hill
Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) are swarming, oceanic crustaceans, up to two inches long, and best known as prey for whales and penguins – but they have another important role. With…Read more on The importance of Antarctic krill in biogeochemical cycles
17 October, 2019 by Jennifer Jackson, Peter Fretwell
We test the ability of Very High Resolution satellite (VHR) imagery to detect stranded whales using both manual and automated methods. We use the 2015 mass mortality event in the…16 October, 2019 by Jennifer Jackson
The recovery of whale populations from centuries of exploitation will have important management and ecological implications due to greater exposure to anthropogenic activities and increasing prey consumption. Here, a Bayesian…Read more on Assessing the recovery of an Antarctic predator from historical exploitation
9 October, 2019 by Katrin Linse
Hydrothermal vents at the East Scotia Ridge (ESR) were the first vents to be visually confirmed and surveyed in the Southern Ocean. A trochoid snail was recovered from low diffuse…2 October, 2019 by Hugh Venables, Alexander Brearley, Michael Meredith, Sophie Fielding
The OceanGliders program started in 2016 to support active coordination and enhancement of global glider activity. OceanGliders contributes to the international efforts of the Global Ocean Observation System (GOOS) for…Read more on OceanGliders: a component of the integrated GOOS
2 October, 2019 by Claire Waluda, Norman Ratcliffe, Philip Trathan
There is growing evidence that microplastic pollution (Read more on Microplastics in gentoo penguins from the Antarctic region
2 October, 2019 by Keith Nicholls
Thinning rates of ice shelves vary widely around Antarctica, and basal melting is a major component of ice shelf mass loss. In this study, we present records of basal melting…2 October, 2019 by Keith Nicholls
The buttressing potential of ice shelves is modulated by changes in subshelf melting, in response to changing ocean conditions. We analyze the temporal variability in subshelf melting using an autonomous…1 October, 2019 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand
About 400 subglacial lakes are known from Antarctica. The question of whether life unique of subglacial lakes exists has been paramount since their discovery. Despite frequent evidence of microbial life…1 October, 2019 by Philip Trathan
The study of systematics in wide-ranging seabirds can be challenging due to the vast geographic scales involved, as well as the possible discordance between molecular, morphological and behavioral data. In…
1 October, 2019 by Peter Convey
In this study, two cyanobacterial strains (morphologically identified as Microcystis novacekii BA005 and Nostoc paludosum BA033) were exposed to different Mn concentrations: 7.0, 10.5, 15.7, 23.6 and 35.4 mg L−1 for BA005;…1 October, 2019 by Iain Staniland
Understanding how changes in oceanographic conditions affect predators and their prey is fundamental for interpreting variability in natural marine ecosystems. At South Georgia, Antarctic fur seals Arctocephalus gazella are known…1 October, 2019 by Jaume Forcada
Antarctic fur seal Arctocephalus gazella colonies are found on sub-Antarctic islands around the continent. These islands experience a range of conditions in terms of physical and biological habitat, creating a…Read more on Prey differences drive local genetic adaptation in Antarctic fur seals
1 October, 2019 by Liz Thomas
The progress of science is tied to the standardization of measurements, instruments, and data. This is especially true in the Big Data age, where analyzing large data volumes critically hinges…Read more on PaCTS 1.0: A Crowdsourced Reporting Standard for Paleoclimate Data
1 October, 2019 by Iain Staniland
South American fur seals (Arctocephalus australis) are widely distributed, yet surprisingly little is known about their ecology. In particular, population data are sparse and outdated for many breeding locations, including…
30 September, 2019 by Jeremy Wilkinson
Snow thickness measurements over relatively smooth Arctic first-year sea ice, obtained near Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada (2014, 2016 and 2017) and near Elson Lagoon, Alaska, USA (2003 and 2006), are…
18 September, 2019 by Simon Morley
The dynamics of microfilament (Read more on Dynamics of marine debris ingestion by profitable fishes along the estuarine ecocline
18 September, 2019 by Richard Phillips
Penguins (Sphenisciformes) are a remarkable order of flightless wing-propelled diving seabirds distributed widely across the southern hemisphere. They share a volant common ancestor with Procellariiformes close to the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary…Read more on High-coverage genomes to elucidate the evolution of penguins
15 September, 2019 by Alex Brisbourne
We present a shear wave model of the West Antarctic upper mantle to ∼200 km depth with enhanced regional resolution from the 2016-2018 UK Antarctic Seismic Network. The model is…
10 September, 2019 by Adrian Jenkins, Paul Holland
Variability in the heat delivery by Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) is responsible for modulating the basal melting of the Amundsen Sea ice shelves. However, the mechanisms controlling the CDW inflow…Read more on Wind-driven processes controlling oceanic heat delivery to the Amundsen Sea, Antarctica
6 September, 2019 by Jaume Forcada
The Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella) is an abundant Antarctic otariid. Here, we present the complete mitochondrial DNA sequence of this species, which includes 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA…Read more on Complete mitochondrial genome of the Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella)
5 September, 2019 by Mark Clilverd
Particle observations from low Earth orbiting satellites are used to undertake superposed epoch analysis around clusters of substorms, in order to investigate radiation belt dynamical responses to mild geomagnetic disturbances.…
4 September, 2019 by Eugene Murphy, Geraint Tarling, Ryan Saunders, Simeon Hill
Myctophid fish are the most abundant and diverse mesopelagic fishes in the Southern Ocean. They are a conduit of energy between primary consumers and higher marine predators, and between the…2 September, 2019 by Andrew Meijers, Povl Abrahamsen, Michael Meredith
The lower limb of the Atlantic overturning circulation is resupplied by the sinking of dense Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) that forms via intense air–sea–ice interactions next to Antarctica, especially in…
2 September, 2019 by Victoria Peck
Rapid changes in ocean circulation and climate have been observed in marine-sediment and ice cores over the last glacial period and deglaciation, highlighting the non-linear character of the climate system…Read more on Consistently dated Atlantic sediment cores over the last 40 thousand years
1 September, 2019 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, Alexander Brearley, Michael Meredith
The Weddell Gyre (WG) is one of the main oceanographic features of the Southern Ocean south of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current which plays an influential role in global ocean circulation…Read more on The Weddell Gyre, Southern Ocean: present knowledge and future challenges
1 September, 2019 by Alex Brisbourne, Thomas Hudson, Thomas Hudson
Icequakes at or near the bed of a glacier have the potential to allow us to investigate theinteraction of ice with the underlying till or bedrock. Understanding this interaction is…Read more on Automated detection of basal icequakes and discrimination from surface crevassing
1 September, 2019 by Jacob Opher, Alexander Brearley, Michael Meredith
Biogeochemical cycling in high-latitude regions has a disproportionate impact on global nutrient budgets. Here, we introduce a holistic, multi-disciplinary framework for elucidating the influence of glacial meltwaters, shelf currents, and…Read more on The biogeochemical impact of glacial meltwater from Southwest Greenland
1 September, 2019 by Susan Gregory
Sympatry can lead to higher competition under climate change and other environmental pressures, including in South Georgia, Antarctica, where the two most common octopod species, Adelieledone polymorpha and Pareledone turqueti,…
1 September, 2019
The Humboldt Current System presents high interannual variability, influenced by the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), whose implications in wildlife are not fully understood. We studied the isotopic niche of…
1 September, 2019 by John Turner
Between 2014 and 2016 the annual mean total extent of Antarctic sea ice decreased by a record, unprecedented amount of 1.6 3 106 km2, the largest in a record starting…1 September, 2019 by Paul Holland
Observed changes in Antarctic sea ice are poorly understood, in part due to the complexity of its interactions with the atmosphere and ocean. A highly simplified, coupled sea ice—ocean mixed…Read more on Sea ice – ocean feedbacks in the Antarctic shelf seas
1 September, 2019 by David Pearce
The considerable microbial diversity of soils and key role in biogeochemical cycling have led to growing interest in their global distribution and the impact that environmental change might have at…Read more on Biogeographical patterns in soil bacterial communities across the Arctic region
1 September, 2019 by Richard Phillips
We present the first objective quantitative assessment of the threats to all 359 species of seabirds, identify the main challenges facing them, and outline priority actions for their conservation. We…
30 August, 2019 by Anna Jones, Neil Brough
We present first observations of OH and (HO2 + RO2) carried out in Antarctica outside the summer season. Measurements were made over 23 days in spring at the coastal Antarctic…30 August, 2019 by Michael Meredith, Victoria Peck
The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) exhibits strong spatial and temporal oceanographic variability, resulting in highly heterogeneous biological productivity. Calcifying organisms that live in the waters off the WAP respond to…
28 August, 2019 by Amy King, Liz Thomas, Sarah Jackson
Investigation of organic compounds in ice cores can potentially unlock a wealth of new information in these climate archives. We present results from the first ever ice core drilled on…Read more on Organic compounds in a sub-Antarctic ice core: A potential suite of sea-ice markers
28 August, 2019 by Michael Meredith
Global climate is critically sensitive to physical and biogeochemical dynamics in the subpolar Southern Ocean, since it is here that deep, carbon-rich layers of the world ocean outcrop and exchange…Read more on Reframing the carbon cycle of the subpolar Southern Ocean
28 August, 2019 by Ingrid Cnossen
We simulated the effects of the 21 August 2017 total solar eclipse on the ionosphere‐thermosphere system with the Global Ionosphere Thermosphere Model (GITM). The simulations demonstrate that the horizontal neutral…Read more on The response of the ionosphere-thermosphere system to the August 21, 2017 solar eclipse
28 August, 2019 by Kira Rehfeld
Marine sediment cores offer a great number of proxies for reconstructions of past environmental conditions, such as ocean temperature, salinity, primary productivity, stratification of the upper water column and continental…26 August, 2019 by Mark Clilverd
Relativistic electron microbursts are an important electron loss process from the radiation belts into the atmosphere. These precipitation events have been shown to significantly impact the radiation belt fluxes and…Read more on Characteristics of relativistic microburst intensity from SAMPEX observations
22 August, 2019 by Emilie Capron
The penultimate deglaciation (PDG, ∼138–128 thousand years before present, hereafter ka) is the transition from the penultimate glacial maximum (PGM) to the Last Interglacial (LIG, ∼129–116 ka). The LIG stands out as…22 August, 2019 by David Vaughan, Lloyd Peck
The view from the south is, more than ever, dominated by ominous signs of change. Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are intrinsic to the Earth system, and their evolution is…Read more on Sustained Antarctic Research: A 21st Century Imperative
16 August, 2019 by Tracy Moffat-Griffin
The Utah State University (USU) Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (AMTM) was deployed at the Amundsen‐Scott South Pole Station in 2010 to measure OH temperature at ~87 km as part of…
16 August, 2019 by Thomas Bracegirdle
Many general circulation models fail to capture the observed frequency of atmospheric blocking events in the Northern Hemisphere; however, few studies have examined models in the Southern Hemisphere and those…
15 August, 2019 by Peter Convey, Peter Fretwell
Effective monitoring of changes in the geographic distribution of cryospheric vegetation requires high-resolution and accurate baseline maps. The rationale of the present study is to compare multiple feature extraction approaches…12 August, 2019 by Adrian Jenkins, Paul Holland, Thomas Bracegirdle
Recent ice loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has been caused by ocean melting of ice shelves in the Amundsen Sea. Eastward wind anomalies at the shelf break enhance…8 August, 2019 by Alexander Lozinski, Richard Horne, Sarah Glauert
The recent introduction of all‐electric propulsion on geosynchronous satellites enables lower‐cost access to space by replacing chemical propellant. However, the time period required to initially raise the satellite to geostationary…
8 August, 2019 by Jeremy Wilkinson
Rapid Arctic warming drives profound change in the marine environment that have significant socio-economic impacts within the Arctic and beyond, including climate and weather hazards, food security, transportation, infrastructure planning…
8 August, 2019 by Andrew Meijers, Michael Meredith
The Southern Ocean is disproportionately important in its effect on the Earth system, impacting climatic, biogeochemical and ecological systems, which makes recent observed changes to this system cause for global…
8 August, 2019 by Thomas Bauska
New ice cores retrieved from the Taylor Glacier (Antarctica) blue ice area contain ice and air spanning the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5–4 transition, a period of global cooling and…
7 August, 2019 by Robert Arthern
Changes in firn properties affect the shape of pulse-limited radar altimeter echoes acquired over the polar ice sheets. We apply a waveform deconvolution model to CryoSat-2 low-resolution mode echoes to…
5 August, 2019 by James Robbins
Cooperative feeding is often observed among predators with strong social bonds; however, it is unexpected in solitary predators. During 2016, several mass predation events were witnessed in St Andrews Bay…Read more on A rare observation of group prey processing in wild leopard seals (Hydrurga leptonyx)
2 August, 2019
Within the context of global climate change and overfishing of fish stocks, there is some evidence that cephalopod populations are benefiting from this changing setting. These invertebrates show enhanced phenotypic…Read more on Global patterns of species richness in coastal cephalopods
1 August, 2019 by Bianca Perren, Dominic Hodgson, Stephen Roberts
Unicellular free-living microbial eukaryotes of the order Arcellinida (Tubulinea; Amoebozoa) and Euglyphida (Cercozoa; SAR), commonly termed testate amoebae, colonise almost every freshwater ecosystem on Earth. Patterns in the distribution and…1 August, 2019 by Richard Phillips
Speciation through homoploid hybridization (HHS) is considered extremely rare in animals. This is mainly because the establishment of reproductive isolation as a product of hybridization is uncommon. Additionally, many traits…1 August, 2019 by Andrew Wood, Deborah Pardo, Richard Phillips, Thomas Clay, Thomas Clay
1.Incidental mortality (bycatch) in fisheries remains the greatest threat to many large marine vertebrates and is a major barrier to fisheries sustainability. Robust assessments of bycatch risk are crucial for…
1 August, 2019 by Adrian Jenkins, Dave Munday, Kaitlin Naughten, Keith Nicholls, Paul Holland, Ruth Mugford
Open-ocean polynyas in the Weddell Sea of Antarctica are the product of deep convection, which transports Warm Deep Water (WDW) to the surface and melts sea ice or prevents its…Read more on Modeling the influence of the Weddell Polynya on the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf cavity
1 August, 2019 by Keith Nicholls, Peter Davis
Increased ocean‐driven basal melting beneath Antarctic ice shelves causes grounded ice to flow into the ocean at an accelerated rate, with consequences for global sea level. The turbulent transfer of…Read more on Turbulence observations beneath Larsen C Ice Shelf, Antarctica