9 April, 2021 by Paul Anker
Icefin is a custom designed remotely or autonomously operated vehicle (ROV/AUV) for sub-ice deployments in polar environments with a primary focus on modularity for deploying multiple payloads throughout a season…Read more on Antarctic Deep Field Deployments and Design of the Icefin ROV
8 April, 2021 by Richard Horne
Severe space weather was identified as a risk to the UK in 2010 as part of a wider review of natural hazards triggered by the societal disruption caused by the…8 April, 2021 by Jakob Thyrring, Lloyd Peck
Whether global latitudinal diversity gradients exist in rocky intertidal a-diversity and across functional groups remains unknown. Using literature data from 433 intertidal sites, we investigated α-diversity patterns across 155° of…Read more on Global gradients in intertidal species richness and functional groups
5 April, 2021 by Scott Hosking
The most mature aspect of applying artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) to problems in the atmospheric sciences is likely post-processing of model output. This article provides some history and current…1 April, 2021 by Richard Phillips, William Mills
The non‐breeding period is critical for restoration of body condition and self‐maintenance in albatrosses, yet detailed information on diet and distribution during this stage of the annual cycle is lacking…
1 April, 2021 by Carrie Gunn, Richard Phillips
Young birds in cold environments face a range of age-specific thermal challenges. Studying the thermal biology of young birds throughout ontogeny may further our understanding of how such challenges are…1 April, 2021 by Oliver Marsh
Fox Glacier/Te Moeka o Tuawe is a fast-responding maritime glacier that has undergone multiple advance and retreat phases during recent decades. Here we use a combination of repeat photography, Structure…
1 April, 2021 by Hamish Pritchard, Steve Colwell
The seasonal snowpack is a globally important water resource that is notoriously difficult to measure. Existing instruments make measurements of falling or accumulating snow water equivalent (SWE) that are susceptible…1 April, 2021 by Gareth Marshall, Hua Lu, John King, John Turner, Steve Colwell, Tony Phillips
We present the first Antarctic-wide analysis of extreme near-surface air temperatures based on data collected up to the end of 2019 as part of the synoptic meteorological observing programs. We…
1 April, 2021 by Dominic Hodgson
Terrestrial biota in the Antarctic are more globally distinct and highly structured biogeographically than previously believed, but information on biogeographic patterns and endemism in freshwater communities is largely lacking. We…Read more on Diatoms define a novel freshwater biogeography of the Antarctic
1 April, 2021 by Povl Abrahamsen
Water-mass transformation by turbulent mixing is a key part of the deep-ocean overturning, as it drives the upwelling of dense waters formed at high latitudes. Here, we quantify this transformation…Read more on Mixing and transformation in a deep western boundary current: A case study
1 April, 2021 by Teal Riley
Late Triassic – Jurassic igneous rocks of the Antarctic Peninsula and Patagonia provide evidence for the evolution of the margin of southwestern Gondwana. We present new geochronological (LAICP-MS zircon U-Pb…
1 April, 2021 by Claire Allen, Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, Robert Larter
The Antarctic Peninsula’s Pacific margin is one of the best studied sectors of the Antarctic continental margin. Since the 1990s, several research cruises have targeted the continental rise with geophysical…
1 April, 2021 by Elaine Fitzcharles, Martin Collins, Philip Hollyman
Fishes of the genus Muraenolepis are regularly caught in commercial and research fishing in the waters around South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, but for many years there has…1 April, 2021 by James France
The rising number of operational biogas plants in the UK brings a new emissions category to consider for methane monitoring, quantification and reduction. Minimising methane losses from biogas plants to…Read more on Quantification of methane emissions from UK biogas plants
1 April, 2021 by Alex Burton-Johnson
During evolution of the South Sandwich subduction zone, which has consumed South American Plate oceanic lithosphere, somehow continental crust of both the South American and Antarctic plates have become incorporated…
1 April, 2021 by Andrew Wood, Michael Dunn, Norman Ratcliffe, Philip Trathan, Stacey Adlard
Surveying seabirds in polar latitudes can be challenging due to sparse human populations, lack of infrastructure and the risk of disturbance to wildlife or damage to habitats. Counting populations using…1 April, 2021 by Richard Horne
The impact of radial diffusion in storm time radiation belt dynamics is well‐debated. In this study we quantify the changes and variability in radial diffusion coefficients during geomagnetic storms. A…1 April, 2021 by Mark Whiffin, Norman Ratcliffe
During the last 50 years, the breeding population of Continental Black-tailed Godwits Limosa limosa limosa in the United Kingdom has been relatively small (below 60 pairs) and largely concentrated in…Read more on Diagnosing the recent population decline of black-tailed godwits in the United Kingdom
31 March, 2021 by Kaitlin Naughten, Paul Holland
A potentially irreversible threshold in Antarctic ice shelf melting would be crossed if the ocean cavity beneath the large Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf were to become flooded with warm water from…Read more on Two-timescale response of a large Antarctic ice shelf to climate change
31 March, 2021 by Cameron Fox-Clarke, Camille Toscani, Claire Stainfield, Jaume Forcada
Allee effects play an important role in the dynamics of many populations and can increase the risk of local extinction. However, some authors have questioned the weight of evidence for…Read more on Evidence for an Allee effect in a declining fur seal population
28 March, 2021 by Louise Sime
Changes of the topography of the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) can complicate the interpretation of ice core water stable isotope measurements in terms of temperature. Here, we use a set…
28 March, 2021 by Nigel Meredith, Richard Horne
We use data from eight satellites to statistically examine the role of chorus as a potential source of plasmaspheric hiss. We find that the strong equatorial (|λm| < 6o) chorus…
26 March, 2021 by Alex Brisbourne, Andy Smith, Sofia-Katerina Kufner
Microseismicity, induced by the sliding of a glacier over its bed, can be used to characterize frictional properties of the ice‐bed interface, which are a key parameter controlling ice stream…
25 March, 2021 by Adrian Jenkins, Louis-Alexandre Couston, Paul Holland
We report an idealized numerical study of a melting and freezing solid adjacent to a turbulent, buoyancy-affected shear flow, in order to improve our understanding of topography generation by phase…Read more on Topography generation by melting and freezing in a turbulent shear flow
25 March, 2021 by Peter Convey
The Antarctic Peninsula is under pressure from non-native plants and this risk is expected to increase under climate warming. Establishment and subsequent range expansion of non-native plants depend in part…Read more on Warming impacts potential germination of non-native plants on the Antarctic Peninsula
25 March, 2021 by Hugh Corr
Curvilinear channels on the surface of an ice shelf indicate the presence of large channels at the base. Modelling studies have shown that where these surface expressions intersect the grounding…24 March, 2021 by Fabian Haumann, Michael Meredith
The Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean is the world’s main production site of Antarctic Bottom Water, a water-mass that is ventilated at the ocean surface before sinking and entraining…Read more on Ventilation of the abyss in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean
22 March, 2021 by Emma Woodfield, Jade Reidy, Johnathan Ross, Mark Clilverd, Nigel Meredith, Richard Horne, Sarah Glauert, Jade Reidy
Particle precipitation is a loss mechanism from the Radiation Belts whereby particles trapped by the Earth’s magnetic field are scattered into the loss cone due to wave‐particle interactions. Energetic electron…
20 March, 2021 by Emma Young, Simon Morley
While there is now strong evidence that many factors can shape dispersal, the mechanisms influencing connectivity patterns are species‐specific and remain largely unknown for many species with a high dispersal…19 March, 2021 by Maximilian Lowe
In this study, we present an estimate of the gravity signal of the slabs beneath the Alpine mountain belt. Estimates of the gravity effect of the subducting slabs are often…Read more on Gravity effect of Alpine slab segments based on geophysical and petrological modelling
17 March, 2021 by Robert Mulvaney
The spatial glaciochemical variability of snow samples collected along a transect from Zhongshan Station to Lambert Glacier Basin 69 (LGB69) in Antarctica was investigated. Sea-salt ion concentrations exponentially decreased with…
17 March, 2021 by Peter Convey
We assess the fungal diversity present in permafrost from different islands in the South Shetland Islands archipelago, maritime Antarctic, using next-generation sequencing (NGS). We detected 1,003,637 fungal DNA reads representing,…
16 March, 2021 by Richard Horne
Pc1 geomagnetic pulsations, equivalent to electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves in the magnetosphere, display a specific amplitude modulation, though the region of the modulation remains an open issue. To classify whether…
16 March, 2021 by Alexander Lozinski, Richard Horne, Sarah Glauert
Proton flux measurements from the Proton Telescope instrument aboard the CRRES satellite are revisited, and used to drive a radial diffusion model of the inner proton belt at 1.1 ≤…
16 March, 2021 by Sofia-Katerina Kufner
Break-off of part of the down-going plate during continental collision occurs due to tensile stresses built-up between the deep and shallow slab, for which buoyancy is increased because of continental-crust…Read more on The Hindu Kush slab break-off as revealed by deep structure and crustal deformation.
12 March, 2021 by Anna Jones, Alexandra Weiss, James France, Thomas Lachlan-Cope
The North Sea is Europe's key oil and gas (O&G) basin with the output currently meeting 3 %–4 % of global oil supply. Despite this, there are few observational constraints on the…Read more on Speciation of VOC emissions related to offshore North Sea oil and gas production
12 March, 2021 by Elaine Mawbey
Theory suggests that the ocean's biological carbon pump, the process by which organic matter is produced at the surface and transferred to the deep ocean, is sensitive to temperature because…9 March, 2021 by Joseph Ulanowski
The cloud particle concentration, size, and shape data from optical array probes (OAPs) are routinely used to parameterise cloud properties and constrain remote sensing retrievals. This paper characterises the optical…
9 March, 2021 by Fausto Ferraccioli
We present a new magnetic compilation for Central Gondwana conformed to a recent satellite magnetic model (LCS-1) with the help of an equivalent layer approach, resulting in consistent levels, corrections…Read more on East Antarctica magnetically linked to its ancient neighbours in Gondwana
8 March, 2021 by Mark Clilverd
In recent years there has been a growing body of direct experimental evidence demonstrating electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves driving energetic electron precipitation (EEP) at unexpectedly low, sub‐MeV energies —…
5 March, 2021 by James France
Sea ice is difficult, expensive, and potentially dangerous to observe in nature. The remoteness of the Arctic and Southern Oceans complicates sampling logistics, while the heterogeneous nature of sea ice…
5 March, 2021 by Claire Allen, Dieter Tetzner, Liz Thomas
The insoluble particulate matter deposited on ice sheets provide key information to reconstruct past climate. The low concentration of some insoluble particulate matter, such as terrigenous particles and microfossils, challenges…
4 March, 2021 by Connor Bamford, Iain Staniland, Jennifer Jackson, Philip Trathan, Victoria Warwick-Evans
The diet of Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) at South Georgia is dominated by Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba). During the breeding season, foraging trips by lactating female fur seals are…
3 March, 2021 by Amy King, Liz Thomas
The sub-Antarctic is one of the most data-sparse regions on earth. A number of glaciated Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands have the potential to provide unique ice core records of past…Read more on Physical properties of shallow ice cores from Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands
3 March, 2021 by Richard Phillips
Migratory marine species cross political borders and enter the high seas, where the lack of an effective global management framework for biodiversity leaves them vulnerable to threats. Here, we combine…Read more on Global political responsibility for the conservation of albatrosses and large petrels
2 March, 2021 by Peter Convey
We evaluated the fungal diversity associated with carbonate veins and two types of salt encrustation in rocks in a polar desert region of continental Antarctica using DNA a metabarcoding approach.…
1 March, 2021 by Kevin Newsham
Despite nematodes routinely being the most frequent soil- and bryophyte-associated animals in maritime Antarctica, there is a lack of clarity about the influence of warming on their populations in the…
1 March, 2021 by Kevin Newsham, Marta Misiak, Roger Worland, Peter Convey
Temperatures approaching or exceeding 20 °C have been measured during summer in polar regions at the surfaces of barren fellfield soils under cloudless skies around solar noon. However, despite the…
1 March, 2021 by Andrew Orr, Emily Potter
Many of the glaciers in the Nepalese Himalaya are partially covered in a layer of loose rock known as debris cover. In the Dudh Koshi River Basin, Nepal, approximately 25%…
1 March, 2021 by Peter Convey
Climate change in the Antarctic over the past 50+ years has caused contraction of ice and snow cover, longer melt seasons and intensified glacier melting. These changes affect erosion and…1 March, 2021 by Simon Morley
Members of the trochoidean genus Margarella (Calliostomatidae) are broadly distributed across Antarctic and sub-Antarctic ecosystems. Here we used novel mitochondrial and nuclear gene sequences to clarify species boundaries and phylogenetic…
1 March, 2021 by Andrew Wood, Andrew Fleming, Mark Belchier, Norman Ratcliffe, Simeon Hill, Sophie Fielding, Susie Grant
AIM: Management of competition with predators is an important consideration for fisheries, particularly within marine protected areas (MPAs) where conservation is a primary objective. We aimed to test whether static…1 March, 2021 by James Kirkham
Snow dynamics play a crucial role in the hydrology of alpine catchments in the Himalaya. However, studies based on in-situ observations that elucidate the energy and mass balance of the…1 March, 2021 by Alex Brisbourne, Sofia-Katerina Kufner, Thomas Hudson, Thomas Hudson
Seismic arrays deployed using DAS generally suffer from a poorer SNR than those using conventional seismometers or geophones, however their high spatial resolution provides opportunities to supress noise and enhance…1 March, 2021 by Alex Brisbourne, Sofia-Katerina Kufner, Thomas Hudson, Thomas Hudson
Here, we present the first results of DAS deployed in Antarctica to interrogate icequake microseismicity. Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) can provide much higher density spatial sampling of an earthquake’s seismic…1 March, 2021 by Alex Brisbourne, Andy Smith, Sofia-Katerina Kufner, Thomas Hudson, Thomas Hudson
The use of fibre as a Distributed Acoustic Sensor (DAS) is a recently developed technology with enormous potential, and, until recently, never tested in Antarctica. Here we show how DAS…Read more on Listening to Ice Sheets – Fibre Optic Cables as Seismic Sensors in the Antarctic
1 March, 2021 by Simon Morley
Extrapolating patterns from individuals to populations informs climate vulnerability models, yet biological responses to warming are uncertain at both levels. Here we contrast data on the heating tolerances of fishes…Read more on Fish heating tolerance scales similarly across individual physiology and populations
1 March, 2021 by Dennis Mayk
A sphere might be the most common crystal habit in nature as it exists in a wide range of organic and inorganic material systems (Shtukenberg et al., 2012). These crystal…Read more on Transitional spherulitic layer in the muricid Nucella lapillus
27 February, 2021 by Amelie Kirchgaessner, John King
Föhn winds are warm, strong, downslope winds on the lee side of mountains, which can last from several hours to a few days. Recently Föhn conditions over the ice shelves…25 February, 2021 by Jaume Forcada
The Antarctic fur seal lives south of the Antarctic Polar Front and has never been reported breeding in Latin America. Individuals encountered occasionally, from Peru, norther Chile, and the Juan…Read more on Antarctic Fur Seal (Arctocephalus gazella, Peters 1875).
25 February, 2021 by Mark Clilverd
The lower-thermosphere–ionosphere (LTI) system consists of the upper atmosphere and the lower part of the ionosphere and as such comprises a complex system coupled to both the atmosphere below and…
23 February, 2021 by Adrian Jenkins, Christopher Bull, Irena Vankova, Paul Holland
Recent work on the Filchner‐Ronne Ice Shelf (FRIS) system has shown that a redirection of the coastal current in the southeastern Weddell Sea could lead to a regime change in…Read more on Remote control of Filchner‐Ronne Ice Shelf melt rates by the Antarctic Slope Current
23 February, 2021 by Pierre Dutrieux
The Getz region of West Antarctica is losing ice at an increasing rate; however, the forcing mechanisms remain unclear. Here we use satellite observations and an ice sheet model to…23 February, 2021 by Richard Phillips
Climate change, fisheries and invasive species represent three pervasive threats to seabirds, globally. Understanding the relative influence and compounding nature of marine and terrestrial threats on the demography of seabird…23 February, 2021 by Hugh Venables, Michael Meredith
The relative flow of carbon through the viral shunt and the microbial loop is a pivotal factor controlling the contribution of secondary production to the food web and to rates…23 February, 2021 by Huw Griffiths
Research vessels equipped with fibre optic and copper-cored coaxial cables support the live onboard inspection of high-bandwidth marine data in real time. This allows for towed still-image and video sleds…
22 February, 2021 by Richard Phillips
Background Inertial measurement units (IMUs) with high-resolution sensors such as accelerometers are now used extensively to study fine-scale behavior in a wide range of marine and terrestrial animals. Robust and…20 February, 2021 by Michael Collins, Melody Clark
The adaptive value of phenotypic plasticity for performance under single stressors is well documented. However, plasticity may only truly be adaptive in the natural multifactorial environment if it confers resilience…Read more on Transcriptional frontloading contributes to cross‐tolerance between stressors
18 February, 2021 by Cecilia Liszka, Clara Manno, Geraint Tarling, Gabriele Stowasser
Diel vertical migration is a widespread behaviour amongst zooplankton, yet its effect on the rate at which individuals respire remains poorly understood. To address this, we investigated the effect of…
17 February, 2021 by Peter Convey
Bioremediation of hydrocarbons has received much attention in recent decades, particularly relating to fuel and other oils. While of great relevance globally, there has recently been increasing interest in hydrocarbon…17 February, 2021 by Louis-Alexandre Couston
Trapped beneath the Antarctic ice sheet lie over 400 subglacial lakes, which are considered to be extreme, isolated, yet viable habitats for microbial life. The physical conditions within subglacial lakes…Read more on Dynamic flows create potentially habitable conditions in Antarctic subglacial lakes
17 February, 2021 by Lily Bentley, Richard Phillips
Diving is an ecologically important behaviour that provides air-breathing predators with opportunities to capture prey, but that also increases their exposure to incidental mortality (bycatch) in commercial fisheries. In this…
17 February, 2021 by Lily Bentley, Richard Phillips
Diving is an ecologically important behaviour that provides air-breathing predators with opportunities to capture prey, but that also increases their exposure to incidental mortality (bycatch) in commercial fisheries. In this…
16 February, 2021
Specified Dynamics Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model with thermosphere‐ionosphere eXtension simulations are used to investigate the solar migrating semidiurnal tide (SW2) around September equinox at middle to high latitudes in…16 February, 2021 by David Barnes, Samuel Hall, Simon Morley
Environmental conditions of the Southern Ocean around Antarctica have varied little for >5 million years but are now changing. Here we investigated how warming affects competition for space. Little considered…16 February, 2021 by David Barnes, Lloyd Peck, Simon Morley
Environmental conditions of the Southern Ocean around Antarctica have varied little for >5 million years but are now changing. Here we investigated how warming affects competition for space. Little considered…
15 February, 2021 by Huw Griffiths, James Smith, Katrin Linse, Paul Anker
The seafloor beneath floating ice shelves accounts roughly a third of the Antarctic’s 5 million km2 of continental shelf. Prior to this study, our knowledge of these habitats and the…12 February, 2021 by Louis-Alexandre Couston
Iceberg meltwater is a critical freshwater flux from the cryosphere to the oceans. Global climate simulations therefore require simple and accurate parametrizations of iceberg melting. Iceberg shape is an important…
11 February, 2021 by Richard Phillips, William Mills
Northern Macronectes halli and southern giant petrels M. giganteus are opportunistic predators and the dominant avian scavengers in sub-Antarctic and Antarctic ecosystems. At South Georgia, there are globally important breeding…Read more on Long-term inter- and intraspecific dietary variation in sibling seabird species
9 February, 2021 by Lara Perez Miguel, Victoria Peck
International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 382 in the Scotia Sea's “Iceberg Alley” recovered among the most continuous and highest resolution stratigraphic records in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica spanning…7 February, 2021 by Dani Jones
Dotson Ice Shelf (DIS) in West Antarctica is undergoing rapid basal melting driven by intrusions of warm, saline Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) onto the continental shelf. Meltwater from DIS is…
4 February, 2021 by Thomas Bauska
During the last glacial period, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) closely followed Antarctic temperature on millennial timescales. This strong correlation between Antarctic climate and atmospheric CO2 has led to suggestions that…Read more on Abrupt changes in the global carbon cycle during the last glacial period
4 February, 2021
Cephalopods play a major role in marine ecosystems, yet very little is known about the dynamics of their habitat use and trophic ecology across the stages of their life cycle,…
3 February, 2021 by Peter Convey
Collembola are a key component of the soil biota globally, playing an important role in community and ecosystem dynamics. Equally significant are their associated microbiomes, that can contribute to key…
3 February, 2021 by Gaelle Veyssiere, Jeremy Wilkinson
Arctic sea ice is shifting from a year-round to a seasonal sea ice cover. This substantial transformation, via a reduction in Arctic sea ice extent and a thinning of its…
2 February, 2021 by David Barnes, Martin Collins, Simon Morley
Bluenose warehou (Hyperoglyphe antarctica) is a popular commercial fish in Australia and New Zealand, but its biology and ecology are very poorly known in other regions where it is found.…
1 February, 2021 by Peter Convey
Assessment of the diversity of algal assemblages in Antarctica has until now largely relied on traditional microbiological culture approaches. Here we used DNA metabarcoding through high-throughput sequencing (HTS) to assess…
1 February, 2021 by David Pearce
The Tibetan Plateau, also termed ‘the Third Pole’ harbors the largest number of high-altitude lakes in the world. Due to the presence of extreme conditions such as low temperature and…Read more on Bacteria in the lakes of the Tibetan Plateau and polar regions
1 February, 2021 by Kevin Hughes, Peter Convey
The flightless midge Eretmoptera murphyi is thought to be continuing its invasion of Signy Island via the treads of personnel boots. Current boot-wash biosecurity protocols in the Antarctic region rely…
1 February, 2021 by Jane Francis
Paleocene leaf floras are rare in high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere, where studies have shown higher taxonomic diversity compared to Northern Hemisphere equivalents. The floras provide valuable insights into…Read more on Paleocene high-latitude leaf flora of Antarctica Part 1: Entire-margined angiosperms
1 February, 2021 by Jane Francis
Carbon and oxygen isotopes (δ13C and δ18O) in tree rings are widely used to reconstruct palaeoclimate variables such as temperature during the Holocene (12 thousand years ago - present), and…
1 February, 2021 by Clara Manno, Emily Rowlands
Polar marine ecosystems may have higher sensitivity than other ecosystems to plastic pollution due to recurrent physical and biological features; presence of ice and high UV radiation, slow growth rates…