4 January, 2021 by Kevin Newsham
The soils of the Maritime and sub‐Antarctic experience extreme environmental conditions but nonetheless host biological communities which can survive low temperatures, limited water availability and short‐day lengths or even the…Read more on Lean and keen: microbial activity in soils from the Maritime Antarctic
4 January, 2021
In the Southern Ocean and adjacent waters, early stages of cephalopods play an important role in food webs as prey to top predators, but few is known regarding their biology…2 January, 2021 by Hamish Pritchard
Glaciers in the Himalaya–Karakoram mountain ranges harbour approximately half of the ice volume in High-mountain Asia and modulate the flow of freshwater to almost 869 million people within the Indus,…Read more on Glacial change and hydrological implications in the Himalaya and Karakoram
1 January, 2021 by John King, Steve Colwell
A World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Extremes Evaluation Committee investigated an observation of −69.6 °C by Klinck Automatic Weather Station (AWS) in Greenland on 22 December 1991 as the lowest temperature…
1 January, 2021 by Huw Griffiths, Lloyd Peck
The calving of A‐68, the 5,800‐km2, 1‐trillion‐ton iceberg shed from the Larsen C Ice Shelf in July 2017, is one of over 10 significant ice‐shelf loss events in the past…
1 January, 2021 by Chester Sands, David Barnes
Precautionary conservation and cooperative global governance are needed to protect Antarctic blue carbon: the world’s largest increasing natural form of carbon storage with high sequestration potential. As patterns of ice‐loss…
1 January, 2021 by Lara Perez Miguel, Victoria Peck
Scotia Sea and the Drake Passage is key towards understanding the development of modern oceanic circulation patterns and their implications for ice sheet growth and decay. The sedimentary record of…
1 January, 2021 by Alexandra Weiss, John King, Thomas Lachlan-Cope
The Iceland and Greenland Seas are a crucial region for the climate system, being the headwaters of the lower limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Investigating the atmosphere–ocean–ice processes…1 January, 2021 by Lloyd Peck
We present the results from our 12th annual horizon scan of issues likely to impact biological conservation in the future. From a list of 97 topics, our global panel of…Read more on A 2021 horizon scan of emerging global biological conservation issues
1 January, 2021 by Tracy Moffat-Griffin
Atmospheric tides play a critical role in the dynamics and coupling of mesosphere and lower-thermosphere (MLT). Global Circulation Models (GCMs) that aim to span the lower, middle and upper atmosphere…
1 January, 2021 by Jennifer Jackson
The massive impact that open-boat historical whaling (18th to 20th centuries) had on whale populations has been traditionally estimated from records of oil and baleen plate production. However, an unknown…
1 January, 2021 by Nigel Meredith, Richard Horne
The resonant interaction of energetic particles with plasma waves, such as chorus and plasmaspheric hiss waves, plays a direct and crucial role in the acceleration and loss of radiation belt…Read more on Multi‐parameter chorus and plasmaspheric hiss wave models
1 January, 2021 by Peter Convey
We evaluated the fungal diversity in two lakes on the South Shetland Islands, using DNA metabarcoding through high-throughput sequencing (HTS). A microcosm experiment was deployed for two consecutive years in…
1 January, 2021 by Philip Trathan, Richard Phillips
The wandering albatross, Diomedea exulans, is a globally threatened species breeding at a number of sites within the Southern Ocean. Across the South Georgia archipelago, there are differences in population…
1 January, 2021 by Kevin Hughes, Peter Convey, Sally Thorpe
The non-native midge Eretmoptera murphyi is Antarctica’s most persistent non-native insect and is known to impact the terrestrial ecosystems. It inhabits by considerably increasing litter turnover and availability of soil…1 January, 2021 by Robert Larter
Executive Statement: Geology is the science of how the Earth functions and has evolved and, as such, it can contribute to our understanding of the climate system and how it…1 January, 2021 by Philip Leat
Abundant mantle-derived ultramafic xenoliths occur in Cenozoic (7.7-1.5 Ma) mafic alkaline volcanic rocks along the former active margin of West Antarctica, that extends from the northern Antarctic Peninsula to Jones…1 January, 2021
Cephalopods play an important role in the Antarctic ecosystem, being consumed by a wide range of predators such as whales, fish, seals, albatrosses and penguins. To understand predator-prey interactions between…Read more on Cephalopod beak guide for the Southern Ocean: An update on taxonomy (revised edition)
1 January, 2021 by Peter Convey
During the Penang Hill BioBlitz of October 2017, our survey team collected 16 morphospecies of subaerial algae for the first time from tree bark, branches and leaves, including tree tops.…Read more on First records of subaerial cyanobacteria and chlorophytes from Penang Hill.
1 January, 2021 by Philip Trathan
30 December, 2020 by Peter Convey
Collembola are an ancient and early diverging lineage of basal hexapods that occur in virtually all terrestrial habitats on Earth. Phylogenetic relationships between the different orders of Collembola are fiercely…29 December, 2020 by Irene Malmierca Vallet
Arctic Alaska lies at a climatological crossroads between the Arctic and North Pacific Oceans. The modern hydroclimate of the region is responding to rapidly diminishing sea ice, driven in part…
23 December, 2020 by Richard Phillips, William Mills
Mercury (Hg) is an environmental contaminant which, at high concentrations, can negatively influence avian physiology and demography. Albatrosses (Diomedeidae) have higher Hg burdens than all other avian families. Here, we…21 December, 2020 by Irene Malmierca Vallet, Louise Sime
Changes in the Greenland ice sheet (GIS) affect global sea level. Greenland stable water isotope (δ18O) records from ice cores offer information on past changes in the surface of the…21 December, 2020 by Xin Yang
Within the framework of the International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere (IASOA), we report a modelling-based study on surface ozone across the Arctic. We use surface ozone from six…Read more on Pan-Arctic surface ozone: modelling vs. measurements
18 December, 2020 by Chester Sands, Kevin Newsham
We report a previously undescribed member of the Helotiales that is superabundant in soils at two maritime Antarctic islands under Antarctic Hairgrass (Deschampsia antarctica Desv.). High throughput sequencing showed that…18 December, 2020 by Eugene Murphy
Disruptions to global science networks have followed COVID-19 restrictions. Rather than wait for a return to normal, we propose four areas that can ensure a productive and collaborative future for…Read more on Fostering global science networks in a post-COVID-19 world
16 December, 2020 by Richard Horne
Russian Alpha radio navigation system (RSDN‐20) emits F1=11.9kHz signals into the magnetosphere which propagate as whistler‐mode waves. Observed by waveform continuous burst mode from EMFISIS on Van Allen Probes, a…Read more on Alpha transmitter signal reflection and triggered emissions
15 December, 2020 by Philip Hollyman
The common whelk, Buccinum undatum, is a commercially important gastropod found throughout the North Atlantic. One method of age and life history analysis for gastropod species is the use of…
15 December, 2020 by Thomas Bracegirdle
The wintertime Southern Hemisphere extratropical circulation exhibits considerable zonal asymmetries. We investigate the roles of various surface boundary conditions in shaping the mean state using a semi-realistic, atmosphere-only climate model.…
15 December, 2020 by Simon Morley
In the Southern Ocean, warming and freshening are expected to be prominent signals of climate change and the reduced ability of Antarctic marine organisms to cope with changing environmental conditions…15 December, 2020 by Peter Convey
We assessed soil fungal diversity at two sites on Deception Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica using DNA metabarcoding analysis. The first site was a relatively undisturbed area, and the second…15 December, 2020 by David Barnes, Kevin Hughes, Simon Morley
The manuscript assesses the current and expected future global drivers of Southern Ocean (SO) ecosystems. Atmospheric ozone depletion over the Antarctic since the 1970s, has been a key driver, resulting…
12 December, 2020 by Andrew Orr, Gareth Marshall, James Pope
A suite of chemistry‐climate model simulations, forced by pairs of anthropogenic forcings [comprising greenhouse gases (GHGs), ozone depleting substances (ODSs), or aerosols], were employed to investigate whether the high‐latitude Southern…11 December, 2020 by Peter Convey
We assessed fungal diversity present in air and freshly deposited snow samples obtained from Livingston Island, Antarctica, using DNA metabarcoding through high throughput sequencing (HTS). A total of 740 m3…10 December, 2020 by Alex Brisbourne, Andy Smith, David Vaughan
Subglacial water plays an important role in ice sheet dynamics and stability. Subglacial lakes are often located at the onset of ice streams and have been hypothesised to enhance ice…
10 December, 2020 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand
A valuable analogue for assessing Earth's sensitivity to warming is the Last Interglacial (LIG; 129–116 ka), when global temperatures (0 to +2 ∘C) and mean sea level (+6 to 11 m) were higher…
9 December, 2020 by Peter Convey
Study of the potential of Antarctic microorganisms for use in bioremediation is of increasing interest due to their adaptations to harsh environmental conditions and their metabolic potential in removing a…
9 December, 2020 by Bianca Perren, Dominic Hodgson, Louise Sime, Stephen Roberts
Recent changes in the strength and location of the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds (SHW) have been linked to continental droughts and wildfires, changes in the Southern Ocean carbon sink, sea…
9 December, 2020
Trophic niche and diet comparisons among closely sympatric marine species are important to understand complex food webs, particularly in regions most affected by climate change. Using stable isotope analyses, all…
7 December, 2020 by Jonathan Shanklin
Cambridgeshire data collected for the BSBI’s Atlas 2020 project include 347,496 records at monad (1 km) or finer resolution. We used these data to cluster taxa by spherical k-means to…Read more on Geographical patterns in the flora of Cambridgeshire (v.c.29)
7 December, 2020 by Joseph Ulanowski
Small unmanned aircraft (SUA) have the potential to be used as platforms for the measurement of atmospheric particulates. The use of an SUA platform for these measurements provides benefits such…7 December, 2020 by Peter Convey
In a rapidly changing world, to confront biodiversity losses and the lack of appreciation for and knowledge about the most diverse groups of organisms, it is urgently necessary to stimulate…
3 December, 2020 by Norman Ratcliffe
The designation of Marine Protected Areas has become an important approach to conserving marine ecosystems that relies on robust information on the spatial distribution of biodiversity. We used GPS tracking…3 December, 2020 by Jeremy Wilkinson
To improve our understanding of how snow properties influence sea ice thickness retrievals from presently operational and upcoming satellite radar altimeter missions, as well as to investigate the potential for…Read more on Surface-based Ku- and Ka-band polarimetric radar for sea ice studies
1 December, 2020 by Huw Griffiths
The amphipod family Podosiridae is unusual in that it combines morphological elements of the disparate families Podoceridae and Eusiridae. Here, we describe a new species in the family from specimens…
1 December, 2020 by Lloyd Peck, Melody Clark, Tejaswi Yarra
Most molluscs possess shells, constructed from a vast array of microstructures and architectures. The fully formed shell is composed of calcite or aragonite. These CaCO3 crystals form complex biocomposites with…
1 December, 2020 by James Kirkham, Kelly Hogan, Robert Larter
Expanding multibeam bathymetric data coverage over the last two decades has revealed extensive networks of submarine channels incised into bedrock on the Antarctic inner continental shelf. The large dimensions and…Read more on Morphometry of bedrock meltwater channels on Antarctic inner continental shelves
1 December, 2020 by Alex Brisbourne, Tom Jordan
We determine crustal shear-wave velocity structure and crustal thickness at recently deployed seismic stations across West Antarctica, using a joint inversion of receiver functions and fundamental mode Rayleigh wave phase…
1 December, 2020 by Peter Convey
This study focused on the ability of the Antarctic bacterium Rhodococcus sp. strain AQ5-14 to survive exposure to and to degrade high concentrations of phenol at 0.5 g l-1. After…Read more on Optimization of phenol degradation by Antarctic bacterium Rhodococcus sp.
1 December, 2020 by Teal Riley
The Permian–Triassic is a critical period for interpreting and understanding the development of West Antarctica and its correlations into Patagonia, South America. The Antarctic Peninsula preserves isolated outcrops of Permian–Triassic…
1 December, 2020 by Ingrid Cnossen
Monitoring climatic changes in the thermosphere and ionosphere and understanding their causes is important for practical purposes. To support this effort and facilitate comparisons between observations and model results, a…
1 December, 2020 by Kevin Hughes, Peter Convey
To date, Antarctica is the only continent to have escaped the COVID-19 pandemic. This was facilitated by the continent's isolation and low human presence, combined with the global emergence of…Read more on Implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for Antarctica
1 December, 2020 by Scott Hosking
If financial markets are to realign towards truly sustainable development the financial sector needs to differentiate commercial actors more accurately on their climate and environmental performance. A potential breakthrough to…Read more on Spatial finance: Challenges and opportunities in a changing world
1 December, 2020 by Keith Nicholls
In this letter, a novel high-frequency to very-high-frequency wire-mesh dipole antenna design for use in polar regions is discussed and evaluated. The antenna was designed to be lightweight, readily demountable,…Read more on HF Wire-Mesh Dipole Antennas for Broadband Ice-Penetrating Radar.
1 December, 2020 by Peter Convey
The Diego Ramírez and Cape Horn archipelagos are located at the southern end of the Magellanic subantarctic ecoregion. The fauna of insects and other terrestrial invertebrates has been poorly characterized.…1 December, 2020 by Peter Convey
The Yendegaia National Park, located to the south of Tierra del Fuego and at the eastern margin of the Darwin Mountain Range, forms part of the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve…
30 November, 2020 by Melody Clark
Marine hard-bottom communities are undergoing severe change under the influence of multiple drivers, notably climate change, extraction of natural resources, pollution and eutrophication, habitat degradation, and invasive species. Monitoring marine…
28 November, 2020 by Tracy Moffat-Griffin
Atmospheric gravity waves (GWs) are key drivers of the atmospheric circulation, but their representation in general circulation models (GCMs) is challenging, leading to significant biases in middle atmospheric circulations. Unresolved…
27 November, 2020 by Clara Manno, Eugene Murphy, Geraint Tarling, Gabriele Stowasser, Sally Thorpe, Sophie Fielding
Antarctic krill play an important role in biogeochemical cycles and can potentially generate high-particulate organic carbon (POC) fluxes to the deep ocean. They also have an unusual trait of moulting…
27 November, 2020 by Peter Convey
Springtails and mites are the dominant groups of terrestrial arthropods in Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems. Their Antarctic diversity includes a limited number of species, which are frequently endemic to specific regions…26 November, 2020 by Gaelle Veyssiere, Jeremy Wilkinson
When the air is very cold, water at the surface of the ocean freezes, forming sea ice. Parts of the Arctic Ocean are covered by sea ice during the entire…25 November, 2020 by Andrew Fleming, Jeremy Wilkinson
To successfully operate in a harsh environment like the Arctic Ocean, one must be able to understand and predict how that environment will evolve over different spatial and temporal scales.…Read more on Improving Situational Awareness in the Arctic Ocean
24 November, 2020 by Amelie Kirchgaessner, John King, Jenny Turton
Warm, dry föhn winds are observed over the Larsen C Ice Shelf year-round and are thought to contribute to the continuing weakening and collapse of ice shelves on the eastern…20 November, 2020 by Martin Collins
Planktonic stages of benthic octopuses can reach relatively large sizes in some species, usually in oceanic, epipelagic waters while living as part of the macroplankton. These young octopuses appear to…Read more on Extended pelagic life in a bathybenthic octopus.
19 November, 2020 by Andrew Wood, Jennifer Jackson, Martin Collins
Blue whales Balaenoptera musculus at South Georgia were heavily exploited during 20th century industrial whaling, to the point of local near-extirpation. Although legal whaling for blue whales ceased in the…Read more on South Georgia blue whales five decades after the end of whaling
18 November, 2020
The wintertime atmospheric circulation in the southern hemisphere is characterised by a zonally asymmetric, spiral-like pattern. This includes a strong jet over the Indian Ocean region, which bifurcates downstream into…Read more on The dynamics of the South Pacific split jet in austral winter
18 November, 2020 by Liz Thomas
Ice cores are an important record of the past surface mass balance (SMB) of ice sheets, with SMB mitigating the ice sheets' sea level impact over the recent decades. For…
17 November, 2020 by Kaitlin Naughten
Understanding changes in Antarctic ice shelf basal melting is a major challenge for predicting future sea level. Currently, warm Circumpolar Deep Water surrounding Antarctica has limited access to the Weddell…Read more on Necessary conditions for warm inflow towards the Filchner Ice Shelf, Weddell Sea
16 November, 2020 by Alex Brisbourne, Andy Smith, Robert Arthern
Hydraulically‐forced crevassing is thought to reduce the stability of ice shelves and ice sheets, affecting structural integrity and providing pathways for surface meltwater to the bed. It can cause ice…Read more on Breaking the ice: Identifying hydraulically-forced crevassing
16 November, 2020 by Fabian Haumann, Paul Holland
Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) supplies the lower limb of the global overturning circulation, ventilates the abyssal ocean and sequesters heat and carbon on multidecadal to millennial timescales. AABW originates on…16 November, 2020 by Tom Jordan
George VI Sound is a ~600 km long curvilinear channel on the west coast of the southern Antarctic Peninsula separating Alexander Island from Palmer Land. The Sound is a geologically…
15 November, 2020 by Lara Perez Miguel
Cryospheric events in the Arctic Ocean have been largely studied through the imprints of ice sheets, ice shelves and icebergs in the seafloor morphology and sediment stratigraphy. Subglacial morphologies have…12 November, 2020 by Philip Trathan
We analyzed diel vertical migration (DVM) of overwintering Antarctic krill at South Georgia, a region that remains ice-free during the austral winter. We considered DVM in relation to krill body…
10 November, 2020 by Alex Burton-Johnson, Carlos Martin Garcia
Antarctic geothermal heat flow (GHF) affects the temperature of the ice sheet, determining its ability to slide and internally deform, as well as the behaviour of the continental crust. However,…Read more on Geothermal heat flow in Antarctica: Current and future directions
10 November, 2020 by Kayleigh Jones
The behavioural transition from filial dependence to weaning in harbour seal pups is poorly understood. Here we trace progressive changes in pup behaviour with the mother at two pupping sites…8 November, 2020 by Emilie Capron
The biogeochemical cycles encompass the exchange of chemical elements between reservoirs such as the atmosphere, ocean, land and lithosphere. Those exchanges involve biological, geological and chemical processes, hence the term…Read more on Biogeochemical Cycles and Aerosols Over the Last Million Years.
6 November, 2020 by Sally Thorpe
Increasing influence of Atlantic water in the Arctic Ocean has the potential to significantly impact regional water temperature and salinity. Here we use a rDNA barcoding approach to reveal how…Read more on Implications of increasing Atlantic influence for Arctic microbial community structure
6 November, 2020 by Alex Brisbourne, Andy Smith, Thomas Hudson, Thomas Hudson
Improving our understanding of glacial sliding is crucial for constraining basal drag in ice dynamics models. We use icequakes, sudden releases of seismic energy as the ice slides over the…Read more on Icequake source mechanisms for studying glacial sliding
5 November, 2020 by Joseph Marlow
Sponges are a major component of benthic ecosystems across the world and fulfil a number of important functional roles. However, despite their importance, there have been few attempts to compare…Read more on Interocean patterns in shallow water sponge assemblage structure and function
5 November, 2020 by Connor Bamford, Gabriele Stowasser, Jennifer Jackson, Philip Trathan
Around 176500 whales were killed in the sub-Antarctic waters off South Georgia (South Atlantic) between 1904 and 1965. In recent decades, whales have once again become summer visitors, with the…4 November, 2020 by Jennifer Jackson, Philip Trathan, Richard Phillips
The massive number of seabirds (penguins and procellariiformes) and marine mammals (cetaceans and pinnipeds) – referred to here as top predators – is one of the most iconic components of…
3 November, 2020 by Katrin Linse
Plastic pollution in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean has been recorded in scientific literature since the 1980s; however, the presence of microplastic particles (3 November, 2020 by Geraint Tarling
Species of the genus Euphausia dominate the euphausiid biomass of the Southern Ocean, the three largest being Euphausia superba, E. triacantha and E. crystallorophias. We measured a number of morphological…