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Slowdown of Antarctic Bottom Water export driven by climatic wind and sea ice changes
12 June, 2023 by Andrew Meijers, Povl Abrahamsen, Michael Meredith, Paul Holland, Shenjie Zhou
Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) is pivotal for oceanic heat and carbon sequestrations on multidecadal-to-millennial timescales. The Weddell Sea contributes nearly a half of global AABW through Weddell Sea Deep Water…Read more on Slowdown of Antarctic Bottom Water export driven by climatic wind and sea ice changes
Interhemispheric Coupling Study by Observations and Modelling (ICSOM): Concept, Campaigns, and Initial Results
9 June, 2023 by Andrew Kavanagh
An international joint research project, entitled Interhemispheric Coupling Study by Observations and Modelling (ICSOM), is ongoing. In the late 2000s, an interesting form of interhemispheric coupling (IHC) was discovered: when…Genomics of cold adaptations in the Antarctic notothenioid fish radiation
9 June, 2023 by Melody Clark
Numerous novel adaptations characterise the radiation of notothenioids, the dominant fish group in the freezing seas of the Southern Ocean. To improve understanding of the evolution of this iconic fish…Read more on Genomics of cold adaptations in the Antarctic notothenioid fish radiation
Extreme Relativistic Electron Fluxes in GPS Orbit: Analysis of NS41 BDD‐IIR Data
7 June, 2023 by Nigel Meredith, Richard Horne
Relativistic electrons in the Earth's outer radiation belt are a significant space weather hazard. Satellites in GPS-type orbits pass through the heart of the outer radiation belt where they may…Read more on Extreme Relativistic Electron Fluxes in GPS Orbit: Analysis of NS41 BDD‐IIR Data
The FORCIS database: A global census of planktonic Foraminifera from ocean waters
3 June, 2023 by Clara Manno
Planktonic Foraminifera are unique paleo-environmental indicators through their excellent fossil record in ocean sediments. Their distribution and diversity are affected by different environmental factors including anthropogenically forced ocean and climate…Read more on The FORCIS database: A global census of planktonic Foraminifera from ocean waters
Improving future climate prediction using palaeoclimate data: A community White Paper for consideration by the Natural Environment Research Council, UK
2 June, 2023 by Eric Wolff
This White Paper represents an outcome of “The Leverhulme Climate Symposium 2008 - Earth’s Climate: Past, Present and Future”, convened by H. Elderfield, M. Bickle, G. Allen and E. Shuckburgh,…West-warming east-cooling trend over Antarctica reversed since early 21st century driven by large-scale circulation variation
2 June, 2023 by John Turner
Antarctic climate changes prior to 2000 were characterized by a strong zonally asymmetric pattern. Over 90% of the land ice mass loss occurred around a limited area in West Antarctica,…A dynamic framework for assessing and managing risks to ecosystems from fisheries: demonstration for conserving the krill-based food web in Antarctica
2 June, 2023 by Philip Trathan, Victoria Warwick-Evans
The ecosystem approach to fisheries has been discussed since the 1980s. It aims to reduce risks from fisheries to whole, or components of, ecosystems, not just to target species. Precautionary…Geological sketch map and implications for ice flow of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica, from integrated aerogeophysical observations
2 June, 2023 by Fausto Ferraccioli, Tom Jordan
The geology beneath Thwaites Glacier, the Antarctic glacial catchment most vulnerable to climate change, is unknown. Thwaites Glacier lies within the West Antarctic Rift System, but details of the subglacial…
The role of large-scale drivers in the Amundsen Sea Low variability and associated changes in water isotopes from the Roosevelt Island ice core, Antarctica
1 June, 2023 by Liz Thomas
Here we examine the water stable-isotope data from the Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution (RICE) ice core. Roosevelt Island is an independent ice rise located at the northeastern margin of the…Viability of chemical and water isotope ratio measurements of RAID ice chippings from Antarctica
1 June, 2023 by Dieter Tetzner, Julius Rix, Robert Mulvaney
The British Antarctic Survey's (BAS) Rapid Access Isotope Drill (RAID), designed for rapid drilling to survey prospective ice core sites, has been deployed at multiple Antarctic locations over 6 years.…Evaluating the conservation impact of Antarctica’s protected areas
1 June, 2023 by Jasmine Lee
Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPAs) are a key regulatory mechanism for protecting Antarctic environmental values. Previous evaluations of the effectiveness of the ASPA system have focused on its representativeness and…Read more on Evaluating the conservation impact of Antarctica’s protected areas
The impacts of combined SAM and ENSO on seasonal Antarctic sea ice changes
1 June, 2023 by Paul Holland
Both the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) are critical factors contributing to Antarctic sea ice variability on interannual time scales. However, their joint effects on…Read more on The impacts of combined SAM and ENSO on seasonal Antarctic sea ice changes
Holocene deglaciation and glacier readvances on the Fildes Peninsula and King George Island (Isla 25 de Mayo), South Shetland Islands, NW Antarctic Peninsula
1 June, 2023 by Dominic Hodgson, Stephen Roberts
To provide insights into glacier-climate dynamics of the South Shetland Islands (SSI), NW Antarctic Peninsula, we present a new deglaciation and readvance model for the Bellingshausen Ice Cap (BIC) on…Berlin statement on legacy and emerging contaminants in polar regions
1 June, 2023 by Kevin Hughes
Polar regions should be given greater consideration with respect to the monitoring, risk assessment, and management of potentially harmful chemicals, consistent with requirements of the precautionary principle. Protecting the vulnerable…Read more on Berlin statement on legacy and emerging contaminants in polar regions
Stability Analysis of Ice Crystal Orientation
1 June, 2023 by Joseph Ulanowski
The stability of ice crystal orientation is studied by modeling the air flow around ice crystals at moderate Reynolds number, where an ice crystal is approximated by a cylinder with…Visual predation risk and spatial distributions of large Arctic copepods along gradients of sea ice and bottom depth
1 June, 2023 by Jennifer Freer
Changes in the community size structure of Arctic copepods toward smaller and less fat individuals or species have been linked to environmental changes. The underpinning mechanisms are, however, poorly understood.…Lower-ionosphere electron density and effective recombination coefficients from multi-instrument space observations and ground VLF measurements during solar flares
1 June, 2023 by Mark Clilverd
A new model to predict the electron density and effective recombination coefficient of the lower ionosphere under solar flare conditions is presented. This model relies on space-borne solar irradiance measurements…Holocene Palaeoenvironmental and Palaeoproductivity Changes in the Western Amundsen Sea Embayment of Antarctica
1 June, 2023 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand
The Amundsen Polynya (AP) on the inner and middle continental shelf of the western Amundsen Sea Embayment is the fourth largest coastal polynya around Antarctica. The AP is highly productive…Genetic history, structure and gene flow among populations of Belgica antarctica, the only free-living insect in the western Antarctic Peninsula
1 June, 2023 by Peter Convey
Changes in climate and environment can impact the sustainability of populations and biodiversity. Understanding population genetic diversity in the past and present can help us better predict species' responses to…Model-data comparison of Antarctic winter sea-ice extent and Southern Ocean sea-surface temperatures during Marine Isotope Stage 5e
1 June, 2023 by Claire Allen, Louise Sime, Matthew Chadwick, Maria Vittoria Guarino
Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5e (130-116 ka) represents a ‘laboratory’ for evaluating climate model performance under warmer-than-present conditions. Climate model simulations for MIS 5e have previously failed to produce Southern…A New Species of Bisexual Milnesium (Eutardigrada: Apochela) Having Aberrant Claws from Innhovde, Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica
1 June, 2023 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
There have been several records in the last 60 years for East Antarctica for Milnesium tardigradum Doyere, 1840 sensu lato, now considered a species complex. During the 56th Japanese Antarctic…MIST reunited
1 June, 2023 by Emma Woodfield, Thomas Daggitt
Emma Woodfield, Andy Smith and colleagues outline the research presented and discussed at the Autumn MIST meeting in November 2022.High Spatial Melt Rate Variability Near the Totten Glacier Grounding Zone Explained by New Bathymetry Inversion
28 May, 2023 by Irena Vankova, Keith Nicholls
Totten Glacier is a fast-moving East Antarctic outlet with the potential for significant future sea-level contributions. We deployed four autonomous phase-sensitive radars on its ice shelf to monitor ice-ocean interactions…Chapter One – The Falkland Islands marine ecosystem: A review of the seasonal dynamics and trophic interactions across the food web
25 May, 2023 by Simon Morley
The Falkland Islands marine environment host a mix of temperate and subantarctic species. This review synthesizes baseline information regarding ontogenetic migration patterns and trophic interactions in relation to oceanographic dynamics…Characterising ice slab in firn using seismic full waveform inversion, a sensitivity study
25 May, 2023 by Alex Brisbourne
The density structure of firn has implications for hydrological and climate modelling, and ice-shelf stability. The structure of firn can be evaluated from depth models of seismic velocity, widely obtained…The Influence of Bathymetry Over Heat Transport Onto the Amundsen Sea Continental Shelf
24 May, 2023 by Michael Haigh, Paul Holland
Ice streams such as Pine Island and Thwaites Glaciers which terminate at their ice shelves in the eastern Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica, are losing mass faster than most others about…Read more on The Influence of Bathymetry Over Heat Transport Onto the Amundsen Sea Continental Shelf
A continent-wide detailed geological map dataset of Antarctica
18 May, 2023 by Alex Burton-Johnson
A dataset to describe exposed bedrock and surficial geology of Antarctica has been constructed by the GeoMAP Action Group of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and GNS Science.…Read more on A continent-wide detailed geological map dataset of Antarctica
Snowpack nitrate photolysis drives the summertime atmospheric nitrous acid (HONO) budget in coastal Antarctica
17 May, 2023 by Anna Jones, Millie Bond, Freya Squires, Markus Frey
Measurements of atmospheric nitrous acid (HONO) amount fraction and flux density above snow were carried out using a long-path absorption photometer at Halley station in coastal Antarctica between 22 Jan-…Characteristics of surface “melt potential” over Antarctic ice shelves based on regional atmospheric model simulations of summer air temperature extremes from 1979/80 to 2018/19
15 May, 2023 by Andrew Orr, Ella Gilbert, Steve Colwell, Tony Phillips
We calculate a regional surface “melt potential” index (MPI) over Antarctic ice shelves that describes the frequency (MPI-freq, %) and intensity (MPI-int, K) of daily maximum summer temperatures exceeding a…Managing for climate resilient fisheries: Applications to the Southern Ocean
15 May, 2023 by Rachel Cavanagh
Climate change is having profound effects on populations of fished species and the ecosystems on which they depend, lending to a growing body of work that advocates for climate resilience…Read more on Managing for climate resilient fisheries: Applications to the Southern Ocean
New Insights on the Precursors to the Onset of Equatorial Plasma Irregularity Generation
12 May, 2023 by Subir Mandal
This work presents some new findings in terms of the vertical propagation speeds of gravity waves in the daytime as possible precursors to the ESF. These findings have resulted from…Contrasting life cycles of Southern Ocean pteropods alter their vulnerability to climate change
11 May, 2023 by Clara Manno, Geraint Tarling, Jessie Gardner, Victoria Peck
Pteropods are a key part of biogeochemical cycling and epipelagic food webs in the Southern Ocean. However, shelled pteropods are vulnerable to climate change, due to their aragonite shells being…Sustained, year-round oceanographic measurements from Rothera Research Station, Antarctica, 1997-2017
10 May, 2023 by Andrew Clarke, Ali Massey, Alice Clement, Aurelia Reichardt, Emma Stuart, Emma Bolton, Terri Souster, Helen Peat, Hugh Venables, Hollie London, Kate Hendry, Mairi Fenton, Marlon Clark, Michael Meredith, Petra ten Hoopen, Ryan Mathews, Sabrina Heiser, Sarah Reed, Samuel Pountney, Terri Souster, Zoe Waring
Oceanographic changes adjacent to Antarctica have global climatic and ecological impacts. However, this is the most challenging place in the world to obtain marine data due to its remoteness and…The effect of climate change on avian offspring production: A global meta-analysis
9 May, 2023 by Andrew Wood, Michael Dunn, Richard Phillips
Climate change affects timing of reproduction in many bird species, but few studies have investigated its influence on annual reproductive output. Here, we assess changes in the annual production of…Read more on The effect of climate change on avian offspring production: A global meta-analysis
Dansgaard–Oeschger events in climate models: review and baseline Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS3) protocol
8 May, 2023 by Irene Malmierca Vallet, Louise Sime
Dansgaard–Oeschger (D–O) events, millennial-scale climate oscillations between stadial and interstadial conditions (of up to 10–15 ∘C in amplitude at high northern latitudes), occurred throughout the Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS3; 27.8–59.4 ka)…Direct measurement of warm Atlantic Intermediate Water close to the grounding line of Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden (79° N) Glacier, northeast Greenland
5 May, 2023 by James Smith
The Northeast Greenland Ice Stream has recently seen significant change to its floating margins and has been identified as vulnerable to future climate warming. Inflow of warm Atlantic Intermediate Water…Historical Mitogenomic Diversity and Population Structuring of Southern Hemisphere Fin Whales
3 May, 2023 by Danielle Buss, Jennifer Jackson
Fin whales Balaenoptera physalus were hunted unsustainably across the globe in the 19th and 20th centuries, leading to vast reductions in population size. Whaling catch records indicate the importance of…Summer surface air temperature proxies point to near-sea-ice-free conditions in the Arctic at 127 ka
2 May, 2023 by Irene Malmierca Vallet, Louise Sime, Rahul Sivankutty
The Last Interglacial (LIG) period, which had higher summer solar insolation than today, has been suggested as the last time that Arctic summers were ice free. However, the latest suite…Ecological consequences of a single introduced species to the Antarctic: Terrestrial impacts of the invasive midge Eretmoptera murphyi on Signy Island
1 May, 2023 by Kevin Newsham, Peter Convey
The nutrient-poor soils of Antarctica are sensitive to change. Recent increases in the number of anthropogenic introductions mean that understanding the impact of non-native species on Antarctic soils is pertinent,…Levels and distribution profiles of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in a high Arctic Svalbard ice core
1 May, 2023 by Jack Humby, Liz Thomas
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of persistent organic contaminants of which some are toxic and bioaccumulative. Several PFAS can be formed from the atmospheric degradation of precursors…Interactions between winter temperatures and duration of exposure may structure Arctic microarthropod communities
1 May, 2023 by Peter Convey
The Arctic has a diverse terrestrial microarthropod fauna which overwinters in situ in soil and vegetation. This fauna is involved in key ecosystem process, for example decomposition and pollination, and…Quantifying annual spatial consistency in chick-rearing seabirds to inform important site identification
1 May, 2023 by Richard Phillips
Animal tracking has afforded insights into patterns of space use in numerous species and thereby informed area-based conservation planning. A crucial consideration when estimating spatial distributions from tracking data is…Identifying Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems: An image-based vulnerability index for the Southern Ocean seafloor
1 May, 2023 by David Barnes
A significant proportion of Southern Ocean seafloor biodiversity is thought to be associated with fragile, slow growing, long-lived, and habitat-forming taxa. Minimizing adverse impact to these so-called vulnerable marine ecosystems…Breaking the Ring of Fire: How ridge collision, slab age, and convergence rate narrowed and terminated the Antarctic continental arc
1 May, 2023 by Alex Burton-Johnson
The geometry of the Antarctic-Phoenix Plate system, with the Antarctic Plate forming both the overriding plate and the conjugate to the subducting oceanic plate, allows quantification of slab age and…Influence of shelf break processes on the transport of warm waters onto the eastern Amundsen Sea continental shelf
1 May, 2023 by Povl Abrahamsen
The heat transported onto the continental shelf by Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) is the main driver of ice shelf basal melting in the Amundsen Sea. Here, we investigate the slope…Reversible ice sheet thinning in the Amundsen Sea Embayment during the Late Holocene
28 April, 2023 by Jonathan Adams, Joanne Johnson
Cosmogenic-nuclide concentrations in subglacial bedrock cores show that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) at a site between Thwaites and Pope glaciers was at least 35 m thinner than present in…Read more on Reversible ice sheet thinning in the Amundsen Sea Embayment during the Late Holocene
Decadal Predictability of the North Atlantic Eddy-Driven Jet in Winter
28 April, 2023 by Thomas Bracegirdle
This paper expands on work showing that the winter North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is predictable on decadal timescales to quantify the skill in capturing the North Atlantic eddy-driven jet's location…Read more on Decadal Predictability of the North Atlantic Eddy-Driven Jet in Winter
The coupled system response to 250 years of freshwater forcing: Last Interglacial CMIP6–PMIP4 HadGEM3 simulations
27 April, 2023 by Louise Sime, Maria Vittoria Guarino
The lig127k-H11 simulation of the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project (PMIP4) is run using the HadGEM3-GC3.1 model. We focus on the coupled system response to the applied meltwater forcing. We show…The ST22 chronology for the Skytrain Ice Rise ice core – Part 2: An age model to the last interglacial and disturbed deep stratigraphy
27 April, 2023 by Jack Humby, Robert Mulvaney
We present an age model for the 651 m deep ice core from Skytrain Ice Rise, situated inland of the Ronne Ice Shelf, Antarctica. The top 2000 years have previously been…Overcoming the coupled climate and biodiversity crises and their societal impacts
21 April, 2023 by David Barnes
Earth’s biodiversity and human societies face pollution, overconsumption of natural resources, urbanization, demographic shifts, social and economic inequalities, and habitat loss, many of which are exacerbated by climate change. Here,…Read more on Overcoming the coupled climate and biodiversity crises and their societal impacts
First evidence of industrial fly-ash in an Antarctic ice core
21 April, 2023 by Dieter Tetzner, Liz Thomas
Spheroidal carbonaceous particles (SCPs) are a component of fly-ash, the particulate by-product of industrial high temperature combustion of fuel-oil and coal-series fuels. We provide the first evidence that these indelible…Read more on First evidence of industrial fly-ash in an Antarctic ice core
Continued glacial retreat linked to changing macronutrient supply along the West Antarctic Peninsula
20 April, 2023 by Michael Meredith
At the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP), continued atmospheric and oceanic warming is causing significant physical and biogeochemical changes to glaciers and the marine environment. We compare sediment sources and drivers…Projected Changes to Wintertime Air‐Sea Turbulent Heat Fluxes Over the Subpolar North Atlantic Ocean
20 April, 2023 by John King
In wintertime over the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean (SPNA), the strongest surface sensible and latent heat fluxes typically occur just downstream of the sea-ice edge. The recent retreat in Arctic…Ice shelf basal melt sensitivity to tide‐induced mixing based on the theory of subglacial plumes
19 April, 2023 by Josephine Anselin
Tidal currents are known to influence basal melting of Antarctic ice shelves through two types of mechanisms: local processes taking place within the boundary current adjacent to the ice shelf-ocean…Categorisation of the length of bowhead whales from British Arctic whaling records
19 April, 2023 by Gaelle Veyssiere, Jeremy Wilkinson
British whalers were the first and last from Europe to hunt bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) commercially from the Arctic whaling grounds of the Greenland Sea (East Greenland-Svalbard-Barents stock) and Davis…Read more on Categorisation of the length of bowhead whales from British Arctic whaling records
Identifying gravity waves launched by the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha′apai volcanic eruption in mesosphere/lower-thermosphere winds derived from CONDOR and the Nordic Meteor Radar Cluster
18 April, 2023
The Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha′apai volcano eruption was a unique event that caused many atmospheric phenomena around the globe. In this study, we investigate the atmospheric gravity waves in the mesosphere/lower-thermosphere…Illuminating the Living Lanterns of Antarctica
17 April, 2023 by Tracey Dornan, Anna Belcher, Jennifer Freer, Ryan Saunders, Tracey Dornan, Tracey Dornan
Lanternfish are a relatively small but very abundant fish. They live deep in the ocean’s “twilight” zone where there is not much light. A unique community of lanternfish live in…Assessing key influences on the distribution and life-history of Arctic and boreal Calanus: are online databases up to the challenge?
17 April, 2023 by Geraint Tarling, Jennifer Freer
Despite the importance of calanoid copepods to healthy ecosystem functioning of the Arctic Ocean and Subarctic Seas, aspects of their biogeography, particularly in winter months, remain unresolved. At the same…Technical note: Sublimation of frozen CsCl solutions in an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) – determining the number and size of salt particles relevant to sea salt aerosols
14 April, 2023 by Xin Yang
We present a novel technique that elucidates the mechanism of the formation of small aerosolizable salt particles from salty frozen samples. We demonstrated that CsCl may be a suitable probe…Calcification response of planktic foraminifera to environmental change in the western Mediterranean Sea during the industrial era
14 April, 2023 by Aidan Hunter
The Mediterranean Sea sustains a rich and fragile ecosystem currently threatened by multiple anthropogenic impacts that include, among others, warming, pollution, and changes in seawater carbonate speciation associated to increasing…Strong Ocean Melting Feedback During the Recent Retreat of Thwaites Glacier
11 April, 2023 by Paul Holland
Accelerating ice loss from Thwaites Glacier is contributing approximately 5% of global sea-level rise, and could add tens of centimeters to sea level over the coming centuries. We use an…Read more on Strong Ocean Melting Feedback During the Recent Retreat of Thwaites Glacier
Counting animals in aerial images with a density map estimation model
7 April, 2023 by Philip Trathan
Animal abundance estimation is increasingly based on drone or aerial survey photography. Manual postprocessing has been used extensively; however, volumes of such data are increasing, necessitating some level of automation,…Read more on Counting animals in aerial images with a density map estimation model
High mid-Holocene accumulation rates over West Antarctica inferred from a pervasive ice-penetrating radar reflector
6 April, 2023 by David Vaughan
Understanding the past and future evolution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet is challenged by the availability and quality of observed paleo-boundary conditions. Numerical ice-sheet models often rely on these paleo-boundary…Sympatric and allopatric Alcolapia soda lake cichlid species show similar levels of assortative mating
6 April, 2023
Characterizing reproductive barriers such as mating preferences within rapid evolutionary radiations is crucial for understanding the early stages of speciation. Cichlid fishes are well-known for their adaptive radiations and capacity…Untangling the influence of Antarctic and Southern Ocean life on clouds
6 April, 2023 by Markus Frey
Polar environments are among the fastest changing regions on the planet. It is a crucial time to make significant improvements in our understanding of how ocean and ice biogeochemical processes…Read more on Untangling the influence of Antarctic and Southern Ocean life on clouds
DNA metabarcoding reveals cryptic diversity in forest soils on the isolated Brazilian Trindade Island, South Atlantic
1 April, 2023 by Peter Convey
Located 1140 km from the South American coastline in the South Atlantic Ocean and with an age of 4 million years, Trindade Island is the most recent volcanic component of…Divergent foraging habitat preferences between summer-breeding and winter-breeding Procellaria petrels
1 April, 2023 by Lily Bentley, Richard Phillips
Foraging niche specialisation is thought to occur when different members of speciose communities divide resources in either time or space. Here we compared habitat preferences of the congeneric Grey Petrel…Antarctica as a ‘natural laboratory’ for the critical assessment of the archaeological validity of early stone tool sites
1 April, 2023 by Teal Riley
Lithic technologies dominate understanding of early humans, yet natural processes can fracture rock in ways that resemble artefacts made by Homo sapiens and other primates. Differentiating between fractures made by…Antarctic toothfish Dissostichus mawsoni as a bioindicator of trace and rare earth elements in the Southern Ocean
1 April, 2023 by Jose Marques Queiros
The Antarctic toothfish Dissostichus mawsoni is a Southern Ocean long-lived top predator which is regularly captured on an annual fishery operating in the region. By its biological and ecological characteristics,…A seasonal transition in biological carbon pump efficiency in the northern Scotia Sea, Southern Ocean
1 April, 2023 by Clara Manno
The biological carbon pump (BCP) contributes to the oceanic CO2 sink by transferring particulate organic carbon (POC) into the deep ocean. The magnitude and efficiency of the BCP is likely…Ba/Ca of stylasterid coral skeletons records dissolved seawater barium concentrations
1 April, 2023 by Kate Hendry
The concentration of dissolved barium in seawater ([Ba]SW) is influenced by both primary productivity and ocean circulation patterns. Reconstructing past subsurface [Ba]SW can therefore provide important information on processes which…Read more on Ba/Ca of stylasterid coral skeletons records dissolved seawater barium concentrations
Towards a fully unstructured ocean model for ice shelf cavity environments: Model development and verification using the Firedrake finite element framework
1 April, 2023 by Keith Nicholls, Paul Holland
Numerical studies of ice flow have consistently identified the grounding zone of outlet glaciers and ice streams (the region where ice starts to float) as crucial for predicting the rate…Habitat severity characteristics structure soil communities at regional and local spatial scales along the Antarctica Peninsula
1 April, 2023 by Peter Convey
Antarctic soils provide an excellent setting to test biogeographical patterns across spatial and environmental scales given their relatively simple communities and the dominance of physical factors that create strong environmental…The Palmer ice core as a candidate Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point for the Anthropocene series
1 April, 2023 by Diana Vladimirova, Dieter Tetzner, Jack Humby, Liz Thomas
The remote Antarctic continent, distant from human industrial activity, should be one of the last places on Earth to capture Anthropogenic change. Hence, stratigraphic evidence of pollution and nuclear activity…The need for increased protection of Antarctica’s inland waters
1 April, 2023 by Kevin Hughes, Peter Convey
Protection of Antarctica's biodiversity and ecosystem values is enshrined in the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, which provides for the designation of Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPAs)…Read more on The need for increased protection of Antarctica’s inland waters
Heavy metal contamination in pristine environments: lessons from the Juan Fernandez fur seal (Arctocephalus philippii philippii)
29 March, 2023 by Jaume Forcada
Heavy metals, including mercury (Hg) and cadmium (Cd), occur naturally or anthropogenically and are considered toxic to the environment and human health. However, studies on heavy metal contamination focus on…Organic or junk food? Microplastic contamination in Antarctic krill and salps
29 March, 2023 by Clara Manno, Elisa Bergami, Emily Rowlands, Laura Wilkie Johnston
Microplastics (MP) have been reported in Southern Ocean (SO), where they are likely to encounter Antarctic zooplankton and enter pelagic food webs. Here we assess the presence of MP within…Read more on Organic or junk food? Microplastic contamination in Antarctic krill and salps
Projected West Antarctic Ocean Warming Caused by an Expansion of the Ross Gyre
28 March, 2023 by Antony Siahaan, Emma Young, Felipe Gomez Valdivia, Paul Holland, Pierre Dutrieux
We use United Kingdom Earth System Model simulations from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 6 to analyze the Ross Gyre (RG) dynamics during the historical 1850–2014 period and under two…Read more on Projected West Antarctic Ocean Warming Caused by an Expansion of the Ross Gyre
A pioneer morphological and genetic study of the intertidal fauna of the Gerlache Strait (Antarctic Peninsula)
28 March, 2023 by Peter Convey
The underexplored intertidal ecosystems of Antarctica are facing rapid changes in important environmental factors. Associated with temperature increase, reduction in coastal ice will soon expose new ice-free areas that will…The representation of sea salt aerosols and their role in polar climate within CMIP6
27 March, 2023 by Ananth Ranjithkumar, Markus Frey, Xin Yang
Natural aerosols and their interactions with clouds remain an important uncertainty within climate models, especially at the poles. Here, we study the behavior of sea salt aerosols (SSaer) in the…Read more on The representation of sea salt aerosols and their role in polar climate within CMIP6
Technical note: Unsupervised classification of ozone profiles in UKESM1
24 March, 2023 by Dani Jones
The vertical distribution of ozone in the atmosphere, which features complex spatial and temporal variability set by a balance of production, loss, and advection, is relevant for both surface air…Read more on Technical note: Unsupervised classification of ozone profiles in UKESM1
Basal mass balance and prevalence of ice tongues in the Western ross sea
23 March, 2023 by Oliver Marsh
Ice tongues at the fringes of the Antarctic ice sheet lose mass primarily through both basal melting and calving. They are sensitive to ocean conditions which can weaken the ice…Read more on Basal mass balance and prevalence of ice tongues in the Western ross sea
Nanoplastics in Urban Waters: Recent Advances in the Knowledge Base
21 March, 2023 by Elisa Bergami
This chapter describes the best current definitions for nanoplastics in terms of specific origin, size, properties, their behavior in aquatic media, and ecotoxic interactions with other aquatic pollutants and living…Read more on Nanoplastics in Urban Waters: Recent Advances in the Knowledge Base
The Importance of Eurekan Mountains on Cenozoic Sediment Routing on the Western Barents Shelf
21 March, 2023 by Teal Riley
The importance of topography generated by Eocene Eurekan deformation as a sediment source for sandstones deposited on the western Barents Shelf margin is evaluated through a sediment provenance study conducted…Multiproxy reconstructions of integral energy spectra for extreme solar particle events of 7176 BCE, 660 BCE, 775 CE and 994 CE
17 March, 2023 by Florian Mekhaldi
Extreme solar particle events (ESPEs) are rare and the most potent known processes of solar eruptive activity. During ESPEs, a vast amount of cosmogenic isotopes (CIs) 10Be, 36Cl and 14C…Sea level rise from West Antarctic mass loss significantly modified by large snowfall anomalies
17 March, 2023 by Paul Holland, Pierre Dutrieux
Mass loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is dominated by glaciers draining into the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE), yet the impact of anomalous precipitation on the mass balance of…Seasonal and habitat-based variations in vertical export of biogenic sea-ice proxies in Hudson Bay
16 March, 2023 by Amanda Burson
Despite their wide use in past sea-ice reconstructions, the seasonal, habitat and species-based sources of sedimentary sea-ice proxies are poorly understood. Here, we conduct direct observations of the community composition…How predictable are mass extinction events?
15 March, 2023 by Rowan Whittle
Many modern extinction drivers are shared with past mass extinction events, such as rapid climate warming, habitat loss, pollution and invasive species. This commonality presents a key question: can the…Visual Stratigraphy-Based Age Scale Developed for the Shallow Mount Siple Firn Core, Antarctica
15 March, 2023 by Dorothea Moser, Liz Thomas
Here we present a case study for using visual stratigraphy to date a shallow firn core from coastal West Antarctica. The Mount Siple ice core has the potential to reconstruct…The new Kr-86 excess ice core proxy for synoptic activity: West Antarctic storminess possibly linked to Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) movement through the last deglaciation
15 March, 2023 by Robert Mulvaney
Here we present a newly developed ice core gas-phase proxy that directly samples a component of the large-scale atmospheric circulation: synoptic-scale pressure variability. Surface pressure changes weakly disrupt gravitational isotopic…Holocene history of the 79° N ice shelf reconstructed from epishelf lake and uplifted glaciomarine sediments
15 March, 2023 by James Smith
Nioghalvfjerdsbrae, or 79∘ N Glacier, is the largest marine-terminating glacier draining the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS). In recent years, its ∼ 70 km long fringing ice shelf (hereafter referred to as the…