Found 14053 items
1 January, 2012 by Fausto Ferraccioli, Hugh Corr, Tom Jordan
The bed of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is, in places, more than 1.5 km below sea level1, 2. It has been suggested that a positive ice-loss feedback may occur when…1 January, 2012 by Jean-Baptiste Sallee
The oceans slow the rate of climate change by absorbing about 25% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions annually. The Southern Ocean makes a substantial contribution to this oceanic carbon sink:…Read more on Localized subduction of anthropogenic carbon dioxide in the Southern Hemisphere oceans
1 January, 2012 by Dominic Hodgson
Accurate projections of future climate changes in regions susceptible to drought depend on a good understanding of past climate changes and the processes driving them. In the absence of longer…1 January, 2012 by Ryan Saunders
Current acoustic survey protocols for Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) abundance estimation are principally dependent upon 38-kHz backscatter data. This can constitute a substantial problem for robust stock assessment when 38-kHz…1 January, 2012 by Annette Scheffer, Philip Trathan
Investigating the responses of marine predators to oceanographic structures is of key importance for understanding their foraging behaviour and reproductive success. Using Global Positioning System (GPS) and Time-Depth-Temperature-Recorder (TDR) tags,…1 January, 2012 by Hugh Venables
The spawning success of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) is generally assumed to depend on substantial winter sea ice extent, as ice biota can serve as a food source during winter/spring…1 January, 2012 by Michael Meredith
The Southern Ocean is fundamental to the operation of the Earth system. It is the central connection among the major ocean basins and between the upper and lower layers of…1 January, 2012 by Andrew Fleming, Geraint Tarling, Will Goodall-Copestake
The high latitudes inhabited by Antarctic krill Euphausia superba Dana are characterised by extreme changes in seasonal conditions, with very low food availability, long periods of darkness and a massive…Read more on Seasonal and spatial influences on gene expression in Antarctic krill Euphausia superba
1 January, 2012 by Peter Convey
Lovastatin is an important fungal secondary metabolite inhibiting the enzyme which catalyzes a rate-limiting step in the biosynthesis of cholesterol. As microfungi of the genus Penicillium are active producers of…Read more on Production of Lovastatin by Penicillium spp. Soil microfungi
1 January, 2012 by Adrian Fox, Jonathan Shanklin
1 January, 2012 by Adrian Fox, Jonathan Shanklin
1 January, 2012 by Philip Trathan
The energetics of adult Streaked Shearwaters Calonectris leucomelas during the chick-rearing period were examined on Awa Island, Japan, in 2008 and 2009. Basal metabolic rates (BMR) were quantified using an…Read more on Basal and field metabolic rates of Streaked Shearwater during the chick-rearing period
1 January, 2012 by Emily Shuckburgh
This report examines public attitudes to climate science and its representation in the news media. It details the results of a survey of the UK population conducted in March 2011,…1 January, 2012 by Andy Smith, Andrew Tait, Dominic Hodgson, David Pearce, Rachel Clarke
Antarctic subglacial lakes are thought to be extreme habitats for microbial life and may contain important records of ice sheet history and climate change within their lake floor sediments. To…1 January, 2012 by Alistair Crame
Strata assigned to the Fossil Bluff Group on Alexander Island, Antarctica, contain Aptian to Albian highlatitude echinoderm faunas that lived at palaeolatitudes greater than 60 degrees south. The Pluto Glacier…1 January, 2012 by Peter Fretwell
Temporal and spatial patterns of relative sea level (RSL) change in the North of Britain and Ireland during the Holocene are examined. Four episodes, each defined by marked changes in…Read more on Patterns of Holocene relative sea level change in the North of Britain and Ireland
1 January, 2012 by Vsevolod Afanasyev
We determined, for the first time, individual linkages between breeding areas of nesting female scaly-sided mergansers Mergus squamatus in the Russian Far East and their previously unknown wintering grounds in…1 January, 2012 by Jaume Forcada, Philip Trathan
The development of models of marine ecosystems in the Southern Ocean is becoming increasingly important as a means of understanding and managing impacts such as exploitation and climate change. Collating…1 January, 2012 by Susie Grant
Off-shelf waters cover 66% of the planet. Growing concerns about the state of natural resources in these waters, and of future threats have led to a growing movement to improve…1 January, 2012 by Iain Staniland, Janet Silk, Philip Trathan
Telemetry-based techniques have revealed the foraging patterns of many land breeding marine predators, especially during the summer breeding season. However, during the winter, when freed from the constraints of provisioning…1 January, 2012 by Richard Phillips
Sexual segregation in foraging and migratory behaviour is widespread among sexually dimorphic marine vertebrates. It has also been described for a number of monomorphic species, yet the underlying mechanisms are…1 January, 2012 by Adrian Jenkins
Outlet glaciers draining the Antarctic ice sheet into the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) have accelerated in recent decades, most likely as a result of increased melting of their ice-shelf termini…1 January, 2012 by Richard Phillips
The migrations and winter distributions of most seabirds, particularly small pelagic species, remain poorly understood despite their potential as indicators of marine ecosystem health. Here we report the use of…1 January, 2012 by Dominic Hodgson, Stephen Roberts
The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the most rapidly warming regions on Earth, as evidenced by a recent increase in the intensity and duration of summer melting, the recession of…1 January, 2012 by Gabriele Stowasser, Martin Collins, Richard Phillips
The pelagic food web of the Scotia Sea was studied by analysing natural abundances of nitrogen and carbon stable isotopes of primary producers and pelagic consumers, sampled from the seasonal…Read more on Food web dynamics in the Scotia Sea in summer: A stable isotope study
1 January, 2012 by Gabriele Stowasser
Fatty acid analysis was used to study the trophic ecology of 10 demersal fish species in the South Georgia region. Principal component analysis grouped the species into three general clusters,…1 January, 2012 by Lloyd Peck
Our aim in conducting annual horizon scans is to identify issues that, although currently receiving little attention, may be of increasing importance to the conservation of biological diversity in the…Read more on A horizon scan of global conservation issues for 2012
1 January, 2012 by Eugene Murphy, Geraint Tarling, Gabriele Stowasser, Hugh Venables, Peter Ward
The biomass size structure of pelagic communities provides a system level perspective that can be instructive when considering trophic interactions. Such perspectives can become even more powerful when combined with…1 January, 2012 by Eugene Murphy, Geraint Tarling, Martin Collins, Peter Ward
The Scotia Sea has been a focus of biological- and physical oceanographic study since the Discovery expeditions in the early 1900s. It is a physically energetic region with some of…Read more on DISCOVERY 2010: Spatial and temporal variability in a dynamic polar ecosystem
1 January, 2012 by Peter Convey
Soil trampling is one of the most obvious direct negative human impacts in Antarctica. Through a range of experiments and field studies based on quantitative physical (soil penetration resistance) and…1 January, 2012 by Helen Peat, Peter Convey
Aim: To present a synthesis of past biogeographic analyses and a new approach based on spatially explicit biodiversity information for the Antarctic region to identify biologically distinct areas in need…1 January, 2012
A coupled biogeochemical-physical ocean model is used to study the seasonal and long–term variations of surface pCO2 in the North Atlantic Ocean. The model agrees well with recent underway pCO2…Read more on A model study of the seasonal and long-term North Atlantic surface pCO2 variability
1 January, 2012 by Kevin Newsham
Snow moulds are fungi and fungal-like microbes that occur frequently as pathogens of moss and vascular plant species in the Arctic and Antarctic, chiefly in maritime areas with permanent snow…1 January, 2012 by Pierre Dutrieux
We report the first simultaneous measurements of surface water pCO2, biological oxygen saturation (ΔO2/Ar) and dimethylsulfide (DMS) concentrations in polynya waters and the sea ice zone of the Amundsen Sea,…1 January, 2012 by Norman Ratcliffe, Philip Trathan
Macaroni penguins Eudyptes chrysolophus are thought to be one of the most important mesopredators in the Southern Ocean having a greater impact on prey availability and abundance than any other…1 January, 2012 by Andrew Clarke, Eugene Murphy, Jaume Forcada, Nadine Johnston, Philip Trathan
The Southern Ocean (Figure 11.1) is a major component within the global ocean and climate system. It not only unites the Atlantic Ocean with the Indian and Pacific Oceans, but…Read more on Environmental Forcing and Southern Ocean Marine Predator Populations
1 January, 2012 by Vsevolod Afanasyev
The small size of the billions of migrating songbirds commuting between temperate breeding sites and the tropics has long prevented the study of the largest part of their annual cycle…1 January, 2012 by Martin Collins
Many marine pelagic fish species are characterized by subtle but complex genetic structures and dynamics, depending on the balance between current-mediated larval dispersal and adult active homing behavior. The circumantarctic…1 January, 2012
New analysis of the relationships between geological structural data and radiometric ages for the Lassiter Coast Intrusive Suite indicate that the collisional mid-Cretaceous Palmer Land Event orogeny in the Antarctic…1 January, 2012 by Philip Leat
Subduction-related Mesozoic mafic dykes in eastern Palmer Land, Antarctic Peninsula, record the development of an intra-oceanic arc terrane, the Dyer Arc, probably of late Permian–Triassic age, represented by a tholeiitic…1 January, 2012
New structural and geochronological data from the Eastern Palmer Land Shear Zone, in the vicinity of Beaumont Glacier, provide the first evidence of dated structural control on emplacement of the…1 January, 2012
The possibility that the tsunami, generated as a consequence of the large Mw 9.0 Tohoku-Oki earthquake of March 11th 2011, could be recorded by the tide gauge stations located in…Read more on Has the Mediterranean Sea felt the March 11th, 2011, Mw 9.0 Tohoku-Oki earthquake?
1 January, 2012 by Hugh Venables, Michael Meredith, Peter Ward
The fronts in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) comprise the Southern ACC Front (SACCF), the Polar Front (PF) and Sub-Antarctic Front (SAF), which, together with the Southern Boundary (SB), separate…1 January, 2012 by Peter Convey
In September 2011, Aberdeen (UK) hosted the World Conference on Marine Biodiversity (WCMB). Within this Conference, the multidisciplinary international Science Research Programme (SRP) of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research…1 January, 2012 by Dominic Hodgson, Stephen Roberts
Polar lakes respond quickly to climate-induced environmental changes. We studied the chemical limnological variability in 127 lakes and ponds from eight ice-free regions along the East Antarctic coastline, and compared…1 January, 2012 by Mark Belchier, Richard Phillips
Wide-ranging, surface-feeding pelagic seabirds are the most numerous functional group of birds in the Southern Ocean. The mesoscale habitat use of these birds is increasingly being quantified by relating their…1 January, 2012 by Claire Waluda, Helen Peat, Philip Trathan, Simeon Hill
We analysed summer diet and fledging mass of macaroni penguins Eudyptes chrysolophus breeding at Bird Island, South Georgia, during the crèche period (January and February) between 1989 and 2010. Crustaceans…1 January, 2012 by Norman Ratcliffe
The impacts of predation by invasive mammals on island fauna are a major driver of insular biodiversity loss. Devastating, hitherto unsuspected impacts of predatory house mice on breeding seabirds have…Read more on Predation of Atlantic Petrel chicks by house mice on Gough Island
1 January, 2012 by Geraint Tarling, Peter Ward
Mesozooplankton distribution and community structure was investigated during 3 cruises to the Scotia Sea in austral spring, summer and autumn. Three mesh sizes of Bongo nets were used during each…1 January, 2012 by Geraint Tarling, Gabriele Stowasser, Hugh Venables, Martin Collins, Peter Enderlein, Peter Ward, Sally Thorpe, Sophie Fielding
Bioregionalisation, the partitioning of large ecosystems into functionally distinct sub-units, facilitates ecosystem modelling, management and conservation. A variety of schemes have been used to partition the Southern Ocean, based variously…Read more on Food web structure and bioregions in the Scotia Sea: A seasonal synthesis
1 January, 2012 by Geraint Tarling, Peter Enderlein, Peter Ward
If Southern Ocean plankton communities are changing in response to climate, biases in various nets need to be evaluated to help understand regional and temporal differences between historical and contemporary…1 January, 2012 by Lloyd Peck, Simon Morley
There is great concern over the future effects of ocean acidification on marine organisms, especially for skeletal calcification, yet little is known of natural variation in skeleton size and composition…1 January, 2012 by Geraint Tarling
The population dynamics, individual growth rates and productivity of the hyperiid amphipod Themisto gaudichaudii were studied in Cumberland Bay, a fjord on the north-eastern coast of South Georgia. The study…1 January, 2012 by Robert Larter
Multichannel seismic reflection lines collected in the western Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) provide an insight into the sedimentary cover on the shelf, which documents glacial processes. Numerous columnar, reflection-poor structures…1 January, 2012 by Hugh Venables
The Scotia Sea area has high productivity relative to the Southern Ocean as a whole, but this displays strong latitudinal and longitudinal gradients. Elucidating the extent of these from a…1 January, 2012 by Alistair Crame, Katrin Linse, Rowan Whittle
Nuculid bivalves of the Cape Melville Formation (Early Miocene, King George Island) are reviewed. Ten bivalve taxa are listed from the formation in the families Nuculidae (two species), Sareptidae, Malletiidae,…1 January, 2012 by Rosie Williams, Robert Arthern, Richard Hindmarsh, Richard Hindmarsh
Changes at the grounding line of ice streams have consequences for inland ice dynamics and hence sea level. Despite substantial evidence documenting upstream propagation of frontal change, the mechanisms by…1 January, 2012 by Robert Larter
We present a reconstruction of the Antarctic topography at the Eocene–Oligocene (ca. 34 Ma) climate transition. This provides a realistic key boundary condition for modeling the first big Antarctic ice…Read more on Antarctic topography at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary
1 January, 2012 by Emilie Capron
Insoluble trace gases are trapped in polar ice at the firn-ice transition, at approximately 50 to 100 m below the surface, depending primarily on the site temperature and snow accumulation.…1 January, 2012 by Eric Wolff, Markus Frey
The Carrington Event of 1859 is considered to be among the largest space weather events of the last 150 years. We show that only one out of 14 well-resolved ice…Read more on The Carrington event not observed in most ice core nitrate records
1 January, 2012 by Eric Wolff
Chemical and isotopic records obtained from polar ice cores have provided some of the most iconic datasets in Earth system science. Here, I discuss how the different records are formed…Read more on Chemical signals of past climate and environment from polar ice cores and firn air
1 January, 2012 by Simeon Hill
This study provides the first description of the feeding ecology of the smooth lanternshark Etmopterus pusillus based on stomach contents of specimens caught as bycatch in the Algarve (southern Portugal)…1 January, 2012 by Povl Abrahamsen
In search of an explanation for some of the greenest waters ever seen in coastal Antarctica and their possible link to some of the fastest melting glaciers and declining summer…Read more on The Amundsen Sea Polynya International Research Expedition (ASPIRE)
1 January, 2012 by Philip Trathan
Foraging trip duratiom of breeding seabirds is affected by characteristics of available feeding habitat in the marine environment, which may in turn, generate inter-colony difference in the patterns of nest…1 January, 2012 by Eugene Murphy, Emma Young, Mark Belchier, Michael Meredith
Waters around South Georgia are amongst the most productive in the Southern Ocean, and support internationally important fisheries. However, there is significant inter-annual variability in fish stocks, and some species…1 January, 2012 by Peter Convey
Despite a widespread recognition of the role of seabird colonies in the fertilization of nutrient-poor polar terrestrial ecosystems, qualitative and quantitative data documenting any consequential influence on soil invertebrate communities…1 January, 2012
The tracking of small avian migrants has only recently become possible by the use of small light-level geolocators, allowing the reconstruction of whole migration routes, as well as timing and…1 January, 2012 by Dominic Hodgson
The Antarctic continent, including its ice shelves, has an area of 13.8 million km2, about half the size of North America and 1.3 times the size of Europe. It is…7 December, 2011
A mesospheric front was observed with an allsky airglow imager on the night of 9–10 July 2007 at Ferraz Station (62 degrees S, 58 degrees W), located on King George…2 December, 2011 by Jean-Baptiste Sallee, Michael Meredith
Drake Passage is the narrowest constriction of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) in the Southern Ocean, with implications for global ocean circulation and climate. We review the long-term sustained monitoring…1 December, 2011 by Nigel Meredith, Richard Horne
We simulate the spatial and spectral distributions of plasmaspheric hiss using a technique that involves extensive ray tracing. The rays are injected in the equatorial chorus source region outside the…Read more on Modeling the wave power distribution and characterisitics of plamaspheric hiss
1 December, 2011 by Adrian Jenkins
Subglacial meltwater draining along the bed of fast-flowing, marine-terminating glaciers emerges at the grounding line, where the ice either goes afloat to form an ice shelf or terminates in a…16 November, 2011 by Ed King, Richard Hindmarsh, Richard Hindmarsh
Bedrock uplift in Antarctica is dominated by a combination of glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) and elastic response to contemporary mass change. Here, we present spatially extensive GPS observations of Antarctic…4 November, 2011 by Mervyn Freeman
We present an analysis of ionospheric electric field data observed during a geomagnetic storm by the recently deployed HF radar located on the Falkland Islands. On 3 August 2010 at…4 November, 2011 by Mervyn Freeman
Meteor wind data from the first year of operation of the Falkland Islands SuperDARN radar (52° S, 59° W) are used to characterize the atmospheric tides and background winds in…1 November, 2011 by Mark Clilverd
Observed phases and amplitudes of VLF radio signals propagating on very long paths are used to validate electron density parameters for the lowest edge of the (D region of the)…Read more on Daytime D region parameters from long-path VLF phase and amplitude
1 November, 2011 by Angelika Renner, Sally Thorpe
We present observations of high-frequency current variability on the continental shelf and the slope of the Antarctic Peninsula using Lagrangian surface drifters deployed as part of the Antarctic Drifter Experiment:…27 October, 2011 by Ailsa Stroud, Liz Thomas, Louise Sime, Robert Mulvaney
Recent developments in ice melter systems and continuous flow analysis (CFA) techniques now allow higher-resolution ice core analysis. Here, we present a new method to aid interpretation of high-resolution ice…22 October, 2011 by Robert Mulvaney
The accumulation, isotopic and chemical signals of an ice core from James Ross Island, Antarctica, are investigated for the interval from 1967 to 2008. Over this interval, comparison with station,…Read more on Environmental signals in a highly resolved ice core from James Ross Island, Antarctica
21 October, 2011 by Ed King
The Antarctic Ice Sheet loses mass to the surrounding ocean mainly by drainage through a network of ice streams: fast-flowing glaciers bounded on either side by ice flowing one or…Read more on Ice stream or not? Radio-echo sounding of Carlson Inlet, West Antarctica
16 October, 2011
All-sky CCD observations of mesospheric gravity waves have been made from Halley Station Antarctica (75.5°S, 26.7°W) as part of a collaborative research program between British Antarctic Survey, U.K. and Utah…Read more on The evolution of a breaking mesospheric bore wave packet
16 October, 2011 by Alexandra Weiss, John King, Thomas Lachlan-Cope
We study the effective aerodynamic roughness length z0_eff and scalar roughness length for temperature zT_eff over different compact sea ice types in the Antarctic Weddell Sea by aircraft measurements during…Read more on On the effective aerodynamic and scalar roughness length of Weddell Sea ice
1 October, 2011 by Eric Wolff, Robert Mulvaney
Valuable information about the environment and climate of the past is preserved in ice cores which are drilled through ice sheets in polar and alpine regions. A pivotal part of…Read more on Bayesian Glaciological Modelling to quantify uncertainties in ice core chronologies
1 October, 2011 by Nigel Meredith, Richard Horne
Using the statistical CRRES measurements of the electric field intensities of lower band chorus (LBC) and upper band chorus (UBC) around L = 6 under geomagnetically moderate conditions, we evaluate…29 September, 2011 by Louise Sime
The sensitivity of interglacial Greenland temperature to orbital and CO2 forcing is investigated using the NorthGRIP ice core data and coupled ocean-atmosphere IPSL-CM4 model simulations. These simulations were conducted in…21 September, 2011 by Markus Frey
Measurements of e-folding depth, nadir reflectivity and stratigraphy of the snowpack around Concordia station (Dome C, 75.10 S, 123.31 E) were undertaken to determine wavelength dependent coefficients (350 nm to…