Our publications

Showing: All publications

Found 14089 items

Linking predator and prey behaviour: contrasts between Antarctic fur seals and macaroni penguins at South Georgia

1 January, 2010 by Claire Waluda, Iain Staniland, Martin Collins, Philip Trathan

Antarctic fur seals Arctocephalus gazella and macaroni penguins Eudyptes chrysolophus are the two main land-based krill Euphausia superba consumers in the northern Scotia Sea. Using a combination of concurrent at-sea…

Read more on Linking predator and prey behaviour: contrasts between Antarctic fur seals and macaroni penguins at South Georgia

Estimating basal properties of ice streams from surface measurements: a non-linear Bayesian inverse approach applied to synthetic data

23 December, 2009 by Hilmar Gudmundsson

We propose a new approach to indirectly estimate basal properties of ice streams, i.e. bedrock topography and basal slipperiness, from observations of surface topography and surface velocities. We demonstrate how…

Read more on Estimating basal properties of ice streams from surface measurements: a non-linear Bayesian inverse approach applied to synthetic data

Photolysis imprint in the nitrate stable isotope signal in snow and atmosphere of East Antarctica and implications for reactive nitrogen cycling

16 November, 2009 by Markus Frey

The nitrogen (δ15N) and triple oxygen (δ17O and δ18O) isotopic composition of nitrate (NO3−) was measured year-round in the atmosphere and snow pits at Dome C, Antarctica (DC, 75.1° S,…

Read more on Photolysis imprint in the nitrate stable isotope signal in snow and atmosphere of East Antarctica and implications for reactive nitrogen cycling

Relationship between variability of the semidiurnal tide in the Northern Hemisphere mesosphere and quasi-stationary planetary waves throughout the global middle atmosphere

11 November, 2009

To investigate possible couplings between planetary waves and the semidiurnal tide (SDT), this work examines the statistical correlations between the SDT amplitudes observed in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) mesosphere and…

Read more on Relationship between variability of the semidiurnal tide in the Northern Hemisphere mesosphere and quasi-stationary planetary waves throughout the global middle atmosphere

Bringing home the trash: Do colony-based differences in foraging distribution lead to increased plastic ingestion in Laysan albatrosses?

28 October, 2009 by Vsevolod Afanasyev

When searching for prey, animals should maximize energetic gain, while minimizing energy expenditure by altering their movements relative to prey availability. However, with increasing amounts of marine debris, what once…

Read more on Bringing home the trash: Do colony-based differences in foraging distribution lead to increased plastic ingestion in Laysan albatrosses?

From the eye of the albatrosses: A bird-borne camera shows an association between albatrosses and a killer whale in the Southern Ocean

1 October, 2009 by Philip Trathan

Albatrosses fly many hundreds of kilometers across the open ocean to find and feed upon their prey. Despite the growing number of studies concerning their foraging behaviour, relatively little is…

Read more on From the eye of the albatrosses: A bird-borne camera shows an association between albatrosses and a killer whale in the Southern Ocean

Three-dimensional diffusion simulation of outer radiation belt electrons during the 9 October 1990 magnetic storm

30 September, 2009 by Nigel Meredith, Richard Horne

Relativistic (>1 MeV) electron flux increases in the Earth's radiation belts are significantly underestimated by models that only include transport and loss processes, suggesting that some additional acceleration process is…

Read more on Three-dimensional diffusion simulation of outer radiation belt electrons during the 9 October 1990 magnetic storm

Spatial distribution of average vorticity in the high-latitude ionosphere and its variation with interplanetary magnetic field direction and season

2 September, 2009 by Gareth Chisham, Mervyn Freeman

We present a technique to measure the magnetic field-aligned vorticity of meso-scale plasma flows in the F-region ionosphere using line-of-sight velocity measurements made by the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network…

Read more on Spatial distribution of average vorticity in the high-latitude ionosphere and its variation with interplanetary magnetic field direction and season

Spatial variation in seabed temperatures in the Southern Ocean: implications for benthic ecology and biogeography

1 September, 2009 by Andrew Clarke, David Barnes, Huw Griffiths, Michael Meredith, Susie Grant

The Antarctic seabed has traditionally been regarded as cold and thermally stable, with little spatial or seasonal variation in temperature. Here we demonstrate marked spatial variations in continental shelf seabed…

Read more on Spatial variation in seabed temperatures in the Southern Ocean: implications for benthic ecology and biogeography

Vertical and interhemispheric links in the stratosphere-mesosphere as revealed by the day-to-day variability of Aura-MLS temperature data

1 September, 2009

The coupling processes in the middle atmosphere have been a subject of intense research activity because of their effects on atmospheric circulation, structure, variability, and the distribution of chemical constituents.…

Read more on Vertical and interhemispheric links in the stratosphere-mesosphere as revealed by the day-to-day variability of Aura-MLS temperature data

Increased rate of acceleration on Pine Island Glacier strongly coupled to changes in gravitational driving stress

13 May, 2009 by Andy Smith, David Vaughan, Hilmar Gudmundsson, Hamish Pritchard

Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica, has been undergoing several related changes for at least two decades; these include acceleration, thinning and grounding line retreat. During the first major ground-based study between…

Read more on Increased rate of acceleration on Pine Island Glacier strongly coupled to changes in gravitational driving stress

Anatomy of a Dansgaard-Oeschger warming transition: High-resolution analysis of the North Greenland Ice Core Project ice core

27 April, 2009 by Eric Wolff, Liz Thomas, Robert Mulvaney

Large and abrupt temperature oscillations during the last glacial period, known as Dansgaard‐Oeschger (DO) events, are clearly observed in the Greenland ice core record. Here we present a new high‐resolution…

Read more on Anatomy of a Dansgaard-Oeschger warming transition: High-resolution analysis of the North Greenland Ice Core Project ice core

Tracer-derived freshwater composition of the Siberian continental shelf and slope following the extreme Arctic summer of 2007

2 April, 2009 by Povl Abrahamsen, Michael Meredith

We investigate the freshwater composition of the shelf and slope of the Arctic Ocean north of the New Siberian Islands using geochemical tracer data (δ18O, Ba, and PO4*) collected following…

Read more on Tracer-derived freshwater composition of the Siberian continental shelf and slope following the extreme Arctic summer of 2007

Consistent generation of ice-streams via thermo-viscous instabilities modulated by membrane stresses

25 March, 2009 by Richard Hindmarsh, Richard Hindmarsh

Accurate computation of ice-stream location and dynamics is a key aspiration for theoretical glaciology. Ice-sheet models with thermo-viscous coupling have been shown to exhibit stream-like instabilities using shallow-ice approximation mechanics,…

Read more on Consistent generation of ice-streams via thermo-viscous instabilities modulated by membrane stresses

A superposed epoch analysis of auroral evolution during substorm growth, onset and recovery: open magnetic flux control of substorm intensity

11 February, 2009

We perform two superposed epoch analyses of the auroral evolution during substorms using the FUV instrument on the Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Explorer ( IMAGE) spacecraft. The larger of the…

Read more on A superposed epoch analysis of auroral evolution during substorm growth, onset and recovery: open magnetic flux control of substorm intensity

Diet, individual specialisation and breeding of brown skuas (Catharacta antarctica lonnbergi): An investigation using stable isotopes

1 January, 2009 by Richard Phillips

The diet of brown skuas (Catharacta antarctica lonnbergi) on Bird Island, South Georgia was assessed using a combination of stable isotope analysis (SIA) and mixing model techniques. We found evidence…

Read more on Diet, individual specialisation and breeding of brown skuas (Catharacta antarctica lonnbergi): An investigation using stable isotopes

The past is a guide to the future? Comparing Middle Pliocene vegetation with predicted biome distributions for the twenty-first century

1 January, 2009

During the Middle Pliocene, the Earth experienced greater global warmth compared with today, coupled with higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations. To determine the extent to which the Middle Pliocene can be…

Read more on The past is a guide to the future? Comparing Middle Pliocene vegetation with predicted biome distributions for the twenty-first century

Isolation and characterization of macaroni penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus) microsatellite loci and their utility in other penguin species (Spheniscidae, AVES)

1 January, 2009 by Philip Trathan

We report the characterization of 25 microsatellite loci isolated from the macaroni penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus). Thirteen loci were arranged into four multiplex sets for future genetic studies of macaroni penguin…

Read more on Isolation and characterization of macaroni penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus) microsatellite loci and their utility in other penguin species (Spheniscidae, AVES)

Nitrogen fixation in the western equatorial Pacific: Rates, diazotrophic cyanobacterial size class distribution, and biogeochemical significance

1 January, 2009 by Pierre Dutrieux

A combination of 15N2 labeling, Tyramide Signal Amplification–Fluorescent in Situ Hybridization (TSA-FISH) assay, and chemical analyses were performed along a trophic gradient (8000 km) in the equatorial Pacific. Nitrogen fixation…

Read more on Nitrogen fixation in the western equatorial Pacific: Rates, diazotrophic cyanobacterial size class distribution, and biogeochemical significance

Where do penguins go during the inter-breeding period? Using geolocation to track their winter dispersion of the macaroni penguin

1 January, 2009 by Philip Trathan

Although penguins are key marine predators from the Southern Ocean, their migratory behaviour during the inter-nesting period remains widely unknown. Here, we report for the first time, to our knowledge,…

Read more on Where do penguins go during the inter-breeding period? Using geolocation to track their winter dispersion of the macaroni penguin

Movements, at-sea distribution and behaviour of a tropical pelagic seabird: the wedge-tailed shearwater in the western Indian Ocean

1 January, 2009 by Richard Phillips

This is the first study using geolocators (global location sensing, GLS) to track the movements of a pelagic tropical seabird. We used GLS to describe at-sea distribution and activity patterns…

Read more on Movements, at-sea distribution and behaviour of a tropical pelagic seabird: the wedge-tailed shearwater in the western Indian Ocean

Triggers of the HSP70 stress response: environmental responses and laboratory manipulation in an Antarctic marine invertebrate (Nacella concinna)

1 January, 2009 by Lloyd Peck, Melody Clark

The Antarctic limpet, Nacella concinna, exhibits the classical heat shock response, with up-regulation of duplicated forms of the inducible heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) gene in response to experimental manipulation…

Read more on Triggers of the HSP70 stress response: environmental responses and laboratory manipulation in an Antarctic marine invertebrate (Nacella concinna)

Surviving the cold: molecular analyses of insect cryoprotective dehydration in the Arctic springtail Megaphorura arctica (Tullberg)

1 January, 2009 by Guy Hillyard, Michael Thorne, Roger Worland, Melody Clark

Background: Insects provide tractable models for enhancing our understanding of the physiological and cellular processes that enable survival at extreme low temperatures. They possess three main strategies to survive the…

Read more on Surviving the cold: molecular analyses of insect cryoprotective dehydration in the Arctic springtail Megaphorura arctica (Tullberg)

Remote sensing space weather events: Antarctic-Arctic radiation-belt (Dynamic) Deposition-VLF Atmospheric Research Konsortium network

1 January, 2009 by Mark Clilverd, Neil Cobbett

[1] The Antarctic-Arctic Radiation-belt (Dynamic) Deposition-VLF Atmospheric Research Konsortium (AARDDVARK) provides a network of continuous long-range observations of the lower ionosphere in the polar regions. Our ultimate aim is to…

Read more on Remote sensing space weather events: Antarctic-Arctic radiation-belt (Dynamic) Deposition-VLF Atmospheric Research Konsortium network

Environmental change and human impacts on terrestrial ecosystems of the sub-Antarctic islands between their discovery and the mid-twentieth century

1 January, 2009 by Peter Convey

Sub-Antarctic islands share many similarities in their history of human interaction and impacts before the mid-twentieth century. Large impacts on land were associated with marine exploitation industries of sealing and…

Read more on Environmental change and human impacts on terrestrial ecosystems of the sub-Antarctic islands between their discovery and the mid-twentieth century