1 January, 2023 by Gareth Chisham, Mai Mai Lam, Mervyn Freeman, Rob Shore
Models of the high-latitude ionospheric electric field are commonly used to specify the magnetospheric forcing in thermosphere or whole atmosphere models. The use of decades-old models based on spacecraft data…1 January, 2023 by Eugene Murphy
The dynamics of marine systems at decadal scales are notoriously hard to predict—hence references to this timescale as the “grey zone” for ocean prediction. Nevertheless, decadal-scale prediction is a rapidly…1 January, 2023
Squid play a major role in the Southern Ocean food web. However, their age and growth remain poorly studied. Here, using upper and lower beaks of Moroteuthopsis longimana collected from…1 January, 2023 by Lloyd Peck
We present the results of our 14th horizon scan of issues we expect to influence biological conservation in the future. From an initial set of 102 topics, our global panel…Read more on A global biological conservation horizon scan of issues for 2023
1 January, 2023 by Richard Phillips
The increasing number of offshore wind farms (OWFs) proposed off the Brazilian coast is a biodiversity management challenge that needs to be addressed with strategic and targeted environmental impact assessments.…1 January, 2023 by Melody Clark
The Second International Symposium on Cellular and Organismal Stress Responses took place virtually on September 8–9, 2022. This meeting was supported by the Cell Stress Society International (CSSI) and organized…1 January, 2023 by Michael Thorne
On the Mekong River, north of Stung Treng town in northeastern Cambodia, and below the border with Laos, lies an area of riverine seasonally flooded forest designated as an internationally…1 January, 2023 by Andrew Kavanagh, Ingrid Cnossen
The SWIMMR (Space Weather Instrumentation, Measurement, Modelling and Risk) programme is improving the UK’s capability for space weather monitoring and prediction. The thermosphere part of the programme (SWIMMRT) focuses on…Read more on Days to Decades: Forecasting Neutral Densities in Low Earth Orbit
1 January, 2023 by James Kirkham, Kelly Hogan, Robert Larter
High-resolution 3D seismic data are used to analyse the infill of buried tunnel valleys in the North Sea. The level of detail provided by the high-resolution three-dimensional seismic data (6.25…Read more on Tunnel valleys as geohazards: new insights from high-resolution 3D seismic data
28 December, 2022 by Kaitlin Naughten, Paul Holland, Pierre Dutrieux
Warm ocean waters drive rapid ice-shelf melting in the Amundsen Sea. The ocean heat transport toward the ice shelves is associated with the Amundsen Undercurrent, a near-bottom current that flows…27 December, 2022 by Mark Clilverd
Geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) are induced in electrical power transmission networks during geomagnetic disturbances. Understanding the magnitude and duration of the GIC expected during worst-case extreme storm scenarios is vital…25 December, 2022 by Alex Brisbourne, Sofia-Katerina Kufner
Firn densification profiles are an important parameter for ice-sheet mass balance and palaeoclimate studies. One conventional method of investigating firn profiles is using seismic refraction surveys, but these are difficult…22 December, 2022 by Lloyd Peck, Simon Morley
Thermal tolerance windows are key indicators of the range of temperatures tolerated by animals and therefore, a measure of resilience to climate change. In the ocean, where ectotherms are immersed,…22 December, 2022 by James Smith, Kaitlin Naughten, Paul Holland, Pierre Dutrieux, Thomas Bracegirdle
Ocean-driven ice loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is a significant contributor to sea-level rise. Recent ocean variability in the Amundsen Sea is controlled by near-surface winds. We combine…22 December, 2022 by Elisabeth Biersma, Kevin Hughes, Peter Convey
Antarctic terrestrial biodiversity faces multiple threats, from invasive species to climate change. Yet no large-scale assessments of threat management strategies exist. Applying a structured participatory approach, we demonstrate that existing…Read more on Threat management priorities for conserving Antarctic biodiversity
21 December, 2022 by Dave Munday
The early Cenozoic opening of the Tasmanian Gateway (TG) and Drake Passage (DP), alongside the synergistic action of the westerly winds, led to a Southern Ocean transition from large, subpolar…21 December, 2022 by Alessandro Cavallo, Lloyd Peck, Melody Clark, Victoria Sleight
Adult molluscs produce shells with diverse morphologies and ornamentations, different colour patterns and microstructures. The larval shell, however, is a phenotypically more conserved structure. How do developmental and evolutionary processes…21 December, 2022
Two commercially important scallop species of the genus Pecten are found in Europe: the north Atlantic Pecten maximus and the Mediterranean Pecten jacobaeus whose distributions abut at the Almeria–Orán front.…21 December, 2022 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand
Observations of rapid ongoing grounding line retreat, ice shelf thinning and accelerated ice flow from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) may forebode a possible collapse if global temperatures continue…17 December, 2022 by Mark Clilverd
Substorms are short-lived but significant reconfigurations of the geomagnetic field during which energetic particles are injected into the inner magnetosphere close to magnetic midnight. There is currently a need to…16 December, 2022 by Claire Waluda, Danielle Buss, Jennifer Jackson
Following their near extirpation by industrial whaling of the 20th century, the population status of Southern Hemisphere fin whales (SHFW) remains unknown. Systematic surveys estimating fin whale abundance in the…15 December, 2022 by Robert Larter
The end of the Eocene greenhouse world was the most dramatic phase in the long-term Cenozoic cooling trend. Here we use 75,000 km of multi/single channel seismic reflection data from…15 December, 2022 by Kate Hendry
The protection of organic carbon through association with iron minerals (FeR) is an important factor in its stabilisation, long-term storage, and burial efficiency in marine sediments. However, large uncertainties still…15 December, 2022
Cephalopods are important in Arctic marine ecosystems as predators and prey, but knowledge of their life cycles is poor. Consequently, they are under-represented in the Arctic ecosystems assessment models. One…14 December, 2022 by Ben Evans
The coastal protection function provided by the vegetation of tidal wetlands (e.g. salt marshes) will play an important role in defending coastlines against storm surges in the future and depend…14 December, 2022 by Elisabeth Biersma, Guy Hillyard, Kevin Newsham
The influence of climate change on microbial communities inhabiting the sparsely vegetated patterned ground soils that are widespread across the High Arctic is poorly understood. Here, in a four-year experiment…12 December, 2022
Environmental science is primarily concerned with assessing the impacts of changing environmental conditions on the state of the natural world. The UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has recently published…Read more on Developing an Information Management Framework for Environmental Digital Twins (IMFe).
8 December, 2022 by Jasmine Lee, Kevin Hughes
Antarctic and Southern Ocean environments are facing increasing pressure from multiple threats. The Antarctic Treaty System regularly looks to the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) for the provision of…6 December, 2022 by Jonathan Adams, Joanne Johnson, Stephen Roberts
Evidence for the timing and pace of past grounding line retreat of the Thwaites Glacier system in the Amundsen Sea embayment (ASE) of Antarctica provides constraints for models that are…6 December, 2022 by Peter Convey
We assessed the fungal and fungal-like sequence diversity present in marine sediments obtained in the vicinity of the South Shetland Islands (Southern Ocean) using DNA metabarcoding through high-throughput sequencing (HTS).…2 December, 2022 by John King, John Turner, Thomas Caton Harrison, Thomas Bracegirdle
Low-level easterly winds encircling Antarctica help drive coastal currents which modify transport of circumpolar deep water to ice shelves, and the formation and distribution of sea ice. Reanalysis datasets are…Read more on Reanalysis representation of low-level winds in the Antarctic near-coastal region
1 December, 2022 by Emma Woodfield
Jupiter has the most complex and energetic radiation belts in our Solar System and one of the most challenging space environments to measure and characterize in-depth. Their hazardous environment is…Read more on The in-situ exploration of Jupiter’s radiation belts
1 December, 2022 by Gareth Marshall, John Turner
Early reanalyses are less than optimal for investigating the regional effects of ozone depletion on Southern Hemisphere (SH) high-latitude climate because the availability of satellite sounder data from 1979 significantly…1 December, 2022 by Alex Burton-Johnson, Kelly Hogan, Philip Leat, Teal Riley
The Cenozoic development of the Scotia Sea and opening of Drake Passage evolved in a complex tectonic setting with sea-floor spreading accompanied by the dispersal of continental fragments and the…Read more on Crustal block origins of the South Scotia Ridge
1 December, 2022 by Ryan Patmore
The vertical front of ice shelves represents a topographic barrier for barotropic currents that transport a considerable amount of heat towards the ice shelves. The blocking effect of the ice…Read more on The dynamics of a barotropic current impinging on an ice front
1 December, 2022 by Jeremy Wilkinson
Understanding and predicting Arctic change and its impacts on global climate requires broad, sustained observations of the atmosphere-ice-ocean system, yet technological and logistical challenges severely restrict the temporal and spatial…Read more on Emerging Technologies and Approaches for In Situ, Autonomous Observing in the Arctic
1 December, 2022 by Alex Burton-Johnson, Teal Riley
This paper applies magnetic fabric analyses to plutons of the East Pacific continental arc. Continental arc magmatism is strongly episodic, with voluminous granitic magma addition occurring during discrete high-flux events…1 December, 2022 by Dennis Mayk, Lloyd Peck
Heavy metals in coastal waters are a great environmental concern in the North Sea since the middle of the 20th century. Regulatory efforts have led to a significant reduction in…1 December, 2022 by Peter Convey
Twenty cyanobacterial strains of eight morphospecies isolated from deep-frozen (-15 °C) mat samples originally collected on Ross Island, in Victoria Land, and on the McMurdo Ice Shelf were screened for…1 December, 2022 by Andrew Wood, Elizabeth Pearmain, Richard Phillips
Bycatch is a conservation concern for marine biodiversity, including seabirds. Analyses of spatio-temporal overlap are an important tool for identifying areas and periods where birds are most at risk, but…1 December, 2022
We present the migrating tidal winds decomposed jointly from multiple meteor radars in four longitudinal sectors situated in the equatorial mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT). The radars are located in…1 December, 2022 by Elisabeth Biersma, Jennifer Jackson, Peter Convey
Two main hypotheses have been proposed to explain the contemporary distribution of Antarctic terrestrial biota. We assess whether the current distribution of maritime Antarctic populations of the freshwater copepod Boeckella…30 November, 2022 by Dominic Hodgson, Peter Fretwell, Tom Jordan, Teal Riley
The presence of subglacial lakes and subglacial hydrological networks under the East and West Antarctic ice sheets is now relatively well understood, whilst their influence on ice dynamics is the…27 November, 2022 by Tracy Moffat-Griffin
The solar tides of the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) show great variability on timescales of days to years, with significant variability at interannual timescales. However, the nature and causes…25 November, 2022 by Kate Hendry
Glacier meltwater supplies silicon (Si) and iron (Fe) sourced from weathered bedrock to downstream ecosystems. However, the extent to which these nutrients reach the ocean is regulated by the nature…Read more on Benthic dissolved silicon and iron cycling at glaciated Patagonian fjord heads
25 November, 2022 by David Barnes
Ice shelves cover ~1.6 million km2 of the Antarctic continental shelf and are sensitive indicators of climate change. With ice-shelf retreat, aphotic marine environments transform into new open-water spaces of…Read more on Antarctic Seabed Assemblages in an Ice-Shelf-Adjacent Polynya, Western Weddell Sea
23 November, 2022 by Dave Munday, Alexander Brearley, Laura Gerrish, Michael Meredith
Ocean mixing around Antarctica exerts key influences on glacier dynamics and ice shelf retreats, sea ice, and marine productivity, thus affecting global sea level and climate. The conventional paradigm is…Read more on Internal tsunamigenesis and ocean mixing driven by glacier calving in Antarctica
23 November, 2022 by David Barnes, Huw Griffiths
Systematic long-term studies on ecosystem dynamics are largely lacking from the East Antarctic Southern Ocean, although it is well recognized that they are indispensable to identify the ecological impacts and…21 November, 2022 by Johnathan Ross, Richard Horne, Sarah Glauert
Efforts to model and predict energetic electron fluxes in the radiation belts are highly sensitive to local wave-particle interactions. In this study, we use multi-point measurements of precipitating and trapped…17 November, 2022 by Huw Griffiths
When pelagic organisms die and fall onto the deep-sea floor they create food falls, parcels of organic enrichment that subsidize deep benthic scavenging communities. The diversity and quantities of food…Read more on Food falls in the deep northwestern Weddell Sea
17 November, 2022 by Olivia Hicks
Animal-borne tagging (bio-logging) generates large and complex datasets. In particular, accelerometer tags, which provide information on behaviour and energy expenditure of wild animals, produce high-resolution multi-dimensional data, and can be…16 November, 2022
The use of cephalopod beaks in ecological and population dynamics studies has allowed major advances of our knowledge on the role of cephalopods in marine ecosystems in the last 60 years.…Read more on The significance of cephalopod beaks as a research tool: An update
12 November, 2022 by Peter Convey
Phenol is an important pollutant widely discharged as a component of hydrocarbon fuels, but its degradation in cold regions is challenging due to the harsh environmental conditions. To date, there…10 November, 2022 by Kevin Newsham, Marta Misiak
The climate of maritime Antarctica has altered since the 1950s. However, the effects of increased temperature, precipitation and organic carbon and nitrogen availability on the fungal communities inhabiting the barren…9 November, 2022 by Millie Bond
The absolute number density of ground state oxygen atoms, O(3P), present in a 100 mTorr oxygen plasma has been determined as a function of operating power using cavity ringdown spectroscopy…8 November, 2022 by Philip Trathan, Victoria Warwick-Evans
The west Antarctic Peninsula is an important breeding and foraging location for marine predators that consume Antarctic Krill (Euphasia superba). It is also an important focus for the commercial fishery…6 November, 2022 by Danielle Buss, Jennifer Jackson
Investigating resource partitioning of marine predators is essential for understanding coexistence of sympatric species and the functional role they play in marine ecosystems. Baleen whales are a key component of…5 November, 2022 by Michael McCarthy, Michael McCarthy
Supraglacial debris strongly modulates glacier melt rates and can be decisive for ice dynamics and mountain hydrology. It is ubiquitous in High-Mountain Asia, yet because its thickness and supply rate…Read more on Supraglacial debris thickness and supply rate in High-Mountain Asia
4 November, 2022 by Teal Riley
Apatite (U-Th)/He and apatite fission track thermochronology is used to constrain the cooling and uplift history of the southern Antarctic Peninsula where easterly-directed subduction of the Phoenix Plate, including ridge-trench…Read more on Thermal history of the southern Antarctic Peninsula during Cenozoic oblique subduction
4 November, 2022 by Keith Nicholls, Peter Davis, Pierre Dutrieux
Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf (FRIS) is the world’s largest ice shelf by volume. It helps regulate Antarctica’s contribution to global sea level rise, and water mass transformations within the sub-ice-shelf cavity…3 November, 2022 by Peter Convey
While diversity studies and screening for enzyme activities are important elements of understanding fungal roles in the soil ecosystem, extracting and purifying the target enzyme from the fungal cellular system…2 November, 2022 by Peter Convey
Littorinid snails are present in most coastal areas globally, playing a significant role in the ecology of intertidal communities. Laevilitorina is a marine gastropod genus distributed exclusively in the Southern…1 November, 2022 by Kevin Newsham
Fungi are highly diverse organisms, which provide multiple ecosystem services. However, compared with charismatic animals and plants, the distribution patterns and conservation needs of fungi have been little explored. Here…Read more on Global patterns in endemicity and vulnerability of soil fungi
1 November, 2022 by Jennifer Jackson, Philip Trathan, Sophie Fielding, Victoria Warwick-Evans
Following the cessation of whaling, the southwest Atlantic humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) population is thought to be close to pre-exploitation size, reversing 20th century changes in abundance. Using a model-based…1 November, 2022 by Simeon Hill
With rapid, sector-specific climatic changes impacting the Southern Ocean, we need circumpolar-scale biomass data of its plankton taxa to improve food web models, blue carbon budgets and resource management. Here,…1 November, 2022 by Bjorg Apeland, Clara Manno, Geraint Tarling, Gabriele Stowasser, Sophie Fielding
Estimating the amount of organic carbon leaving the upper water column and becoming sequestered in the deep ocean is a major challenge in our understanding the oceanic C cycle. This…1 November, 2022 by Geraint Tarling, Jennifer Freer, Martin Collins
Lanternfishes (Myctophidae) are one of the most species-rich families of mid-water fishes. They inhabit the mesopelagic zone, where physical barriers to dispersal and gene flow are permeable. Thus, modes of…1 November, 2022 by David Pearce
Parts of the Antarctic are experiencing dramatic ecosystem change due to rapid and record warming, which may weaken biogeographic boundaries and modify dispersal barriers, increasing the risk of biological invasions.…1 November, 2022 by Jennifer Freer, Philip Trathan, Sophie Fielding, Victoria Warwick-Evans
We used 22 years of seasonally and spatially consistent monitoring data to explore marine predator–prey numerical response relationships. Specifically, we tested whether indices of offspring performance (e.g. offspring mass near the…1 November, 2022 by Michael Meredith
Southern Ocean phytoplankton are especially subjected to pronounced seasonal and interannual changes in light availability. Although previous studies have examined the role of light in these environments, very few combined…1 November, 2022 by Mark Clilverd
Ground-based very low frequency (VLF) radio propagation in the Earth-ionosphere waveguide has enabled extensive electron number densities in the D region of the Earth’s ionosphere to be determined, by day…
27 October, 2022 by Anna Jones, Ella Gilbert, Oliver Marsh
26 October, 2022 by Jaume Forcada
The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is a group of genes comprising one of the most important components of the vertebrate immune system. Consequently, there has been much interest in characterising…19 October, 2022 by Andrew Wood, Richard Phillips
Advances in biologging techniques and the availability of high-resolution fisheries data have improved our ability to understand the interactions between seabirds and fisheries and to evaluate mortality risk due to…19 October, 2022 by Michael Meredith
Waters cooled below freezing point adjacent to Cape Darnley, Antarctica generate subsurface ice and produce dense waters that flood the global ocean abyss.Read more on Underwater Ice Boosts Production of the World Oceans’ Densest Waters
19 October, 2022 by Gareth Marshall
The vegetation at and beyond the northern edge of the world's boreal forest plays an important though imperfectly understood role in the climate system. This is particularly true within Russia,…18 October, 2022 by Katrin Linse
Gastropoda is the most speciose class in Mollusca, the second largest animal phylum, whose internal relationships remain largely unsettled, partly due to the insufficient data from key deep-water endemic lineages,…16 October, 2022 by Ingrid Cnossen
Climate change in the upper atmosphere (∼90 − 500 km altitude) has important impacts on practical applications. To prepare for these, realistic projections of future climate change are needed. The…Read more on A realistic projection of climate change in the upper atmosphere into the 21st century
15 October, 2022 by Bjorg Apeland, Clara Manno, Elisa Bergami, Peter Enderlein, Rad Sharma
Marine plastic pollution is a global and pervasive environmental issue. Knowledge on plastic degradation in natural settings is still very limited due to current technological limitations, hampering our understanding of…14 October, 2022 by Geraint Tarling, Helen Peat, Petra ten Hoopen, Peter Ward
Global access to accurate biodiversity data is a prerequisite to our progress in understanding biodiversity dynamics in ecosystems and any changes that are occurring. Despite recent major advancements in sharing…Read more on Polar biodiversity data: from a national marine platform to a global data portal
14 October, 2022 by Geraint Tarling, Petra ten Hoopen, Peter Ward
Scientific sampling of zooplankton in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean has been undertaken since the 1920s but few analysed datasets are available to the research community. We provide…14 October, 2022 by Richard Hindmarsh, Richard Hindmarsh
The BRITICE-CHRONO consortium of researchers undertook a dating programme to constrain the timing of advance, maximum extent and retreat of the British–Irish Ice Sheet between 31 000 and 15 000 years before present.…13 October, 2022 by Johnathan Ross, Nigel Meredith, Richard Horne, Sarah Glauert
Kinetic wave-particle interactions in Earth's outer radiation belt energize and scatter high-energy electrons, playing an important role in the dynamic variation of the extent and intensity of the outer belt.…Read more on Temporal variability of quasilinear pitch-angle diffusion
13 October, 2022
Meteor radars have become widely used instruments to study atmospheric dynamics, particularly in the 70 to 110 km altitude region. These systems have been proven to provide reliable and continuous…12 October, 2022 by Peter Convey
The presence of marine vertebrates in dense reproductive colonies and other aggregations contributes to the input of organic matter and nutrients into the local environment and it is believed that…10 October, 2022 by Iain Staniland
The Southeast Pacific (SEP) or Chilean blue whale population is largely distributed between Northern Chilean Patagonia and the Eastern Tropical Pacific. Off South Georgia (SG), the majority of blue whales…10 October, 2022 by Hugh Corr, Keith Nicholls
Ice shelves play a key role in the stability of the Antarctic Ice Sheet due to their buttressing effect. A loss of buttressing as a result of increased basal melting…7 October, 2022 by Michael McCarthy, Michael McCarthy
The current Chilean megadrought has led to acute water shortages in central Chile since 2010. Glaciers have provided vital fresh water to the region’s rivers, but the quantity, timing and…Read more on Glacier contributions to river discharge during the current Chilean megadrought
7 October, 2022 by Adrian Jenkins, Antony Siahaan
The Antarctic Ice Sheet will play a crucial role in the evolution of global mean sea level as the climate warms. An interactively coupled climate and ice sheet model is…4 October, 2022 by Irena Vankova, Keith Nicholls
Fourteen phase-sensitive radars (ApRES) were deployed on the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf (FRIS) to measure variability in its basal melt rate. Melt rates from sites along the Ronne Depression vary seasonally,…4 October, 2022 by Michael Meredith
The Southern Ocean encircles Antarctica and extends north to abut the subtropics at ~30-35°S. The Southern Ocean is a difficult place to collect measurements because it is far from many…Read more on The warming of the Southern Ocean and its significance
2 October, 2022 by Claire Allen, Victoria Peck
Antarctica is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change on Earth and studying the past and present responses of this polar marine ecosystem to environmental change is a…Read more on Ancient marine sediment DNA reveals diatom transition in Antarctica
1 October, 2022 by Norman Ratcliffe
A wide range of biologging devices are now commonly deployed to study the movement ecology of birds, but deployment of these devices is not without its potential risks and negative…1 October, 2022 by Jasmine Lee
Antarctic biodiversity faces an unknown future with a changing climate. Most terrestrial biota is restricted to limited patches of ice-free land in a sea of ice, where they are adapted…1 October, 2022 by Peter Convey
Polar and alpine regions are changing rapidly with global climate change. Yet the impacts on biodiversity, especially on the invertebrate ectotherms which are dominant in these areas, remain poorly understood.…