15 June, 2020 by Scott Hosking, Michelle McCrystall
While rapid changes in Arctic climate over recent decades are widely documented, the importance of different driving mechanisms is still debated. A previous study proposed a causal connection between recent…
12 June, 2020 by Andrew Fleming
Profound changes in Arctic sea-ice, a growing desire to utilize the Arctic’s abundant natural resources, and the potential competitiveness of Arctic shipping routes, all provide for increased industry marine activity…Read more on Sea-ice information and forecast needs for industry maritime stakeholders
11 June, 2020 by Jonathan Shanklin
We review the 2014 Antarctic ozone hole, making use of a variety of ground-based and space-based measurements of ozone and ultra-violet radiation, supplemented by meteorological reanalyses. Although the polar vortex…11 June, 2020 by Jonathan Shanklin
We reviewed the 2015 and 2016 Antarctic ozone holes, making use of a variety of ground-based and spacebased measurements of ozone and ultraviolet radiation, supplemented by meteorological reanalyses. The ozone…11 June, 2020 by Jonathan Shanklin
We review the 2017 Antarctic ozone hole, making use of various meteorological reanalyses, and in-situ, satellite and ground-based measurements of ozone and related trace gases, and ground-based measurements of ultraviolet…
8 June, 2020 by Jaume Forcada
The effective size of a population (Ne), which determines its level of neutral variability, is a key evolutionary parameter. Ne can substantially depart from census sizes of present-day breeding populations…Read more on Determinants of genetic variation across eco-evolutionary scales in pinnipeds
5 June, 2020 by Andrew Orr, Ella Gilbert, John King, Thomas Lachlan-Cope
Surface melting on Antarctic Peninsula ice shelves can influence ice shelf mass balance, and consequently sea level rise. We show that summertime cloud phase on the Larsen C ice shelf…
4 June, 2020 by Eugene Murphy
An important impact of climate change on agriculture and the sustainability of ecosystems is the increase of extended warm spells during winter. We apply crossing theory to the Central England…Read more on Trends in winter warm spells in the Central England temperature record
4 June, 2020 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
Tardigrades constitute one of the most important group in the challenging Antarctic terrestrial ecosystem. Living in various habitats, tardigrades play major roles as consumers and decomposers in the trophic networks…
3 June, 2020 by Felipe Simoes, Peter Convey
Parts of Antarctica were amongst the most rapidly changing regions of the planet during the second half of the Twentieth Century. Even so, today, most of Antarctica remains in the…
1 June, 2020 by Gareth Marshall, Henry Burgess
The Circumpolar North has been changing rapidly within the last decades, and the socioeconomic systems of the Eurasian Arctic and Siberia in particular have displayed the most dramatic changes. Here,…
1 June, 2020 by Jeremy Wilkinson
Rising Arctic maritime activities and hydrocarbon development increase the risk of an oil spill in and under Arctic sea-ice. Oil spilled under growing sea ice would be encapsulated within the…1 June, 2020 by Philip Trathan, Richard Phillips
Over evolutionary time, pathogen challenge shapes the immune phenotype of the host to better respond to an incipient threat. The extent and direction of this selection pressure depends on the…
1 June, 2020 by Adrian Jenkins
Evolving conditions at the terminus of Thwaites Glacier will be important in determining the rate of its future sea-level contribution over the coming decades. Here, we use remote-sensing observations to…
1 June, 2020 by Iain Staniland, Mark Belchier, Norman Ratcliffe, Philip Trathan, Richard Phillips
Marine protected areas can serve to regulate harvesting and conserve biodiversity. Within large multi‐use MPAs, it is often unclear to what degree critical sites of biodiversity are afforded protection against…
1 June, 2020 by Kevin Newsham
In this review, we examine the functional roles of microbial symbionts in plant tolerance to cold and freezing stresses. The impacts of symbionts on antioxidant activity, hormonal signaling and host…Read more on Functional roles of microbial symbionts in plant cold tolerance
1 June, 2020 by Eugene Murphy
Antarctic krill is a key species of important Southern Ocean food webs, yet how changes in ocean temperature and primary production may impact their habitat quality remains poorly understood. We…Read more on Circumpolar projections of Antarctic krill growth potential
1 June, 2020 by Caroline Holmes, Gareth Marshall, Scott Hosking, Thomas Bracegirdle
One of the major globally relevant systematic biases in previous generations of climate models has been an equatorward bias in the latitude of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) mid‐latitude tropospheric eddy…1 June, 2020 by David Barnes, Geraint Tarling, Henry Burgess, Michael Meredith
• The Arctic has warmed by around 2°C since 1850, approximately double the global average. Even if the Paris Agreement successfully limits global warming to a further 0.5°C, the Arctic…Read more on The Arctic and the UK: Climate, research and engagement
29 May, 2020 by Melody Clark
Much recent marine research has been directed towards understanding the effects of anthropogenic-induced environmental change on marine biodiversity, particularly for those animals with heavily calcified exoskeletons, such as corals, molluscs…Read more on Molecular mechanisms of biomineralization in marine invertebrates
28 May, 2020 by Andrew Kavanagh, Maude Gibbins
The mesosphere is one of the most difficult parts of the atmosphere to sample; it is too high for balloon measurements and too low for in situ satellites. Consequently, there…27 May, 2020 by Jane Francis
Drilling and coring during IODP Expedition 362 in the eastern Indian Ocean encountered probably the largest wood fragment ever recovered in scientific ocean drilling. The wood is Late Miocene in…
26 May, 2020 by Michael Thorne
Panagrolaimus sp. DAW1, a nematode cultured from the Antarctic, has the extraordinary physiological ability to survive total intracellular freezing throughout all of its compartments. While a few other organisms, all…25 May, 2020 by Irene Malmierca Vallet, Louise Sime
The shape and extent of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) during the Last Interglacial (LIG) is a matter of controversy, with different studies proposing a wide range of reconstructions. Here,…
21 May, 2020 by Chester Sands, David Barnes
Due to climate change, numerous ice bodies have been lost in the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP). As a consequence, deglaciation is expected to impact the marine environment and its biota…
20 May, 2020 by Elisabeth Biersma
The effects of soil succession after glacial retreat and fertilisation by marine animals are known to have major impacts on soil greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes in polar terrestrial ecosystems. While…
20 May, 2020 by Connor Bamford, Jennifer Jackson
As species recover from exploitation, continued assessments of connectivity and population structure are warranted to provide information for conservation and management. This is particularly true in species with high dispersal…
20 May, 2020 by Melody Clark, Victoria Sleight
A computationally predicted gene regulatory network (GRN), generated from mantle-specific gene expression profiles in the Antarctic clam Laternula elliptica, was interrogated to test the regulation and interaction of duplicated inducible…20 May, 2020 by Lloyd Peck, Peter Convey, Peter Fretwell
We present the first estimate of green snow algae community biomass and distribution along the Antarctic Peninsula. Sentinel 2 imagery supported by two field campaigns revealed 1679 snow algae blooms,…Read more on Remote sensing reveals Antarctic green snow algae as important terrestrial carbon sink
18 May, 2020 by Deborah Pardo, Richard Phillips
Invasive species present a major conservation threat globally and nowhere are their affects more pronounced than in island ecosystems. Determining how native island populations respond demographically to invasive species can…
17 May, 2020 by Iain Staniland, Jaume Forcada, Kayleigh Jones, Norman Ratcliffe
Sexual segregation has important ecological implications, but its initial development in early life stages is poorly understood. We investigated the roles of size dimorphism, social behavior, and predation risk on…
16 May, 2020 by Richard Horne
Electron Cyclotron Harmonic (ECH) waves driven by a loss cone distribution are studied in this work by self‐consistent particle‐in‐cell simulations. These waves have been suggested to play an important role…
15 May, 2020 by Anna Jones, Alison Ming, Lisa Hauge, Markus Frey, Holly Winton, Xin Yang
The nitrogen stable isotopic composition in nitrate (δ15N-NO−3) measured in ice cores from low-snow-accumulation regions in East Antarctica has the potential to provide constraints on past ultraviolet (UV) radiation and…15 May, 2020 by Anna Jones
Dimethyl sulfide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are important for atmospheric chemistry. The emissions of biogenically derived organic gases, including dimethyl sulfide and especially isoprene, are not well constrained in…
13 May, 2020 by Elisabeth Biersma
Soil micro-organisms drive the global carbon and nutrient cycles that underlie essential ecosystem functions. Yet, we are only beginning to grasp the drivers of terrestrial microbial diversity and biogeography, which…Read more on Global radiation in a rare biosphere soil diatom
8 May, 2020 by Louis-Alexandre Couston
Planetary rotation organizes fluid motions into coherent, long-lived swirls, known as large-scale vortices (LSVs), which play an important role in the dynamics and long-term evolution of geophysical and astrophysical fluids.…8 May, 2020 by Sofia-Katerina Kufner
The 2016 Mw=7.8 Kaikōura earthquake (South Island, New Zealand) caused widespread complex ground deformation, including significant coastal uplift of rocky shorelines. This coastal deformation is used here to develop a…
2 May, 2020 by Caroline Holmes
Fully coupled climate models have long shown a wide range of Antarctic sea ice states and evolution over the satellite era. Here, we present a high‐level evaluation of Antarctic sea…1 May, 2020 by Gareth Marshall, Hua Lu, John Turner, Steve Colwell, Tony Phillips
Variability and change in near‐surface air temperature at 17 Antarctic stations is examined using data from the SCAR READER database. We consider the relationships between temperature, and atmospheric circulation, sea…Read more on Antarctic temperature variability and change from station data
1 May, 2020 by Alex Burton-Johnson, Teal Riley
Triassic orthogneisses of the Antarctic Peninsula provide evidence for the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic geological evolution of southern Gondwana within Pangaea. These rocks are sporadically exposed in southeastern Graham Land and…
1 May, 2020 by Teal Riley
Understanding the accretionary stages of Rodinia evolution and the arrangement of cratons and arc terranes is dependent upon high-precision geochronology from key piercing points of Mesoproterozoic rocks. U-Pb zircon dating…
1 May, 2020 by Steve Colwell
In July 2018, the Antarctic community came together to meet at the 13th Workshop on Antarctic Meteorology and Cli-mate (WAMC) in Madison, Wisconsin, USA (Fig. 1); and in the following…Read more on The 13th and 14th Workshops on Antarctic Meteorology and Climate
1 May, 2020 by Peter Convey
We surveyed the distribution and diversity of fungi present in moss fairy rings from the South Shetland Islands. In the different islands accessed, the mosses Bartramia patens, Brachythecium austrosalebrosum, Bryum…
1 May, 2020 by John Turner
The Antarctic, including the continent of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, is a critically important part of the Earth system. Research in Antarctic meteorology and climate has always been a…1 May, 2020 by Jennifer Jackson
The International Whaling Commission Scientific Committee (IWC SC) Southern Hemisphere (SH) subcommittee intersessional working group (WG) was established during SC68A and aimed to: seek funding to enable the project to…
30 April, 2020 by Jennifer Freer
Diel vertical migration (DVM) refers to the daily, synchronized movement of marine animals between the surface and deep layers of the open ocean. This behavior is the largest animal migration…
24 April, 2020 by Peter Convey
The ABCD conference format (All continents, Balanced gender, low Carbon transport, Diverse backgrounds) mixes live-streamed and pre-recorded talks with in-person ones to reflect a diverse range of viewpoints and reduce…Read more on A meeting framework for inclusive and sustainable science
22 April, 2020 by Mark Clilverd
The Daedalus mission has been proposed to the European Space Agency (ESA) in response to the call for ideas for the Earth Observation program's 10th Earth Explorer. It was selected…
21 April, 2020 by Huw Griffiths, Katrin Linse, Peter Convey
A founding principle of the Antarctic Treaty is that, in the interests of all humankind, Antarctica should continue to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes and should not become the…20 April, 2020 by Anna Jones, Neil Brough, Thomas Lachlan-Cope
The Southern Ocean and Antarctic region currently best represent one of the few places left on our planet with conditions similar to the preindustrial age. Currently, climate models have low…20 April, 2020 by Alex Brisbourne, Andy Smith, Keith Nicholls, Lianne Harrison, Paul Holland, Thomas Hudson, Thomas Hudson
In recent decades, rapid ice-shelf disintegration along the Antarctic Peninsula has had a global impact through enhancing outlet glacier flow, and hence sea level rise, and the freshening of Antarctic…Read more on An updated seabed bathymetry beneath Larsen C Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula
16 April, 2020 by Gareth Chisham
The open magnetic flux content of the magnetosphere varies during substorms as a result of dayside and nightside reconnection. The open flux can be calculated from the area of the…
16 April, 2020 by Mark Clilverd
Recent years have seen debate regarding the ability of electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves to drive EEP (energetic electron precipitation) into the Earth's atmosphere. Questions still remain regarding the energies…
14 April, 2020 by Stephen Roberts
A comprehensive database of paleoclimate records is needed to place recent warming into the longer-term context of natural climate variability. We present a global compilation of quality-controlled, published, temperature-sensitive proxy…Read more on A global database of Holocene paleotemperature records
8 April, 2020 by Gareth Chisham
The high-latitude atmosphere is a dynamic region with processes that respond to forcing from the Sun, magnetosphere, neutral atmosphere, and ionosphere. Historically, the dominance of magnetosphere–ionosphere interactions has motivated upper…8 April, 2020 by Liz Thomas, Louise Sime, Max Holloway
Improving our knowledge of the temporal and spatial variability of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) surface mass balance (SMB) is crucial to reduce the uncertainties of past, present, and future…8 April, 2020
The giant Antarctic Octopus Megaleledone setebos is the largest Southern Ocean octopod whose ecology is poorly known. Here, we study ontogenetic shifts of habitat and trophic ecology of M. setebos…
7 April, 2020 by Peter Convey
Despite the abundance of streams and rivers in Malaysia, the algal communities of these lotic ecosystems have remained largely unstudied. In a one-year floristic survey conducted from December 2014, 24…6 April, 2020 by Hua Lu
The boreal‐winter stratospheric polar vortex is more disturbed when the quasi‐biennial oscillation (QBO) in the lower stratosphere is in its easterly phase (eQBO), and more stable during the westerly phase…
1 April, 2020 by Holly Winton
In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of the state-of-knowledge of dust flux and variability in time and space in different sectors of East Antarctica during the Holocene. By…Read more on Holocene dust in East Antarctica: provenance and variability in time and space
1 April, 2020 by John King
The mountainous subantarctic island of South Georgia lies within the belt of strong westerly winds that blow around the Southern Ocean. Interaction of the prevailing circumpolar westerly winds with the…1 April, 2020 by Mark Evans
A previously unrecognized specimen of Protoichthyosaurus prostaxalis, LEICT G142.1991, from the Lower Jurassic of Barrow-upon-Soar, Leicestershire, UK, includes an almost complete three-dimensional skull that provides new information on the configuration…
1 April, 2020 by David Vaughan, David Barnes, Jonathan Shanklin, Kevin Hughes, Peter Convey, Simon Morley
The Antarctic is considered to be a pristine environment relative to other regions of the Earth, but it is increasingly vulnerable to invasions by marine, freshwater and terrestrial non‐native species.…
1 April, 2020 by Lara Perez Miguel
Ona Basin, the westernmost oceanic basin in the southern Scotia Sea, is affected by the opposite flows of Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) and Weddell Sea Deep Water (WSDW); thus, it…1 April, 2020 by Richard Horne, Sarah Glauert
Abstract The englacial stratigraphic architecture of internal reflection horizons (IRHs) as imaged by ice‐penetrating radar (IPR) across ice sheets reflects the cumulative effects of surface mass balance, basal melt,andice flow.IRHs,consideredisochrones,havetypicallybeentracedininterior,slow‐flowingregions.…
1 April, 2020 by Jennifer Freer
Marine environments have increased in temperature by an average of 1°C since preindustrial (1850) times [1]. Given that species ranges are closely allied to physiological thermal tolerances in marine organisms…Read more on Climate change drives poleward increases and equatorward declines in marine species
1 April, 2020 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, James Smith, Jane Francis, Robert Larter
The mid-Cretaceous period was one of the warmest intervals of the past 140 million years1,2,3,4,5, driven by atmospheric carbon dioxide levels of around 1,000 parts per million by volume6. In…Read more on Temperate rainforests near the South Pole during peak Cretaceous warmth
1 April, 2020 by Ed King
Recent advances in the measurement of bedforms beneath active ice streams have been made using ground-based grid profiling using impulse radar systems operating with centre frequencies in the 3–5 MHz…1 April, 2020 by Peter Convey
Heavy metals occur naturally within the earth crust; however, anthropogenic activities can artificially introduce these elements into the environment. Despite being the foremost isolated continent, Antarctica is not free from…Read more on Effects of zinc (Zn) and chromium (Cr) on the phenol-degrading bacteria growth kinetics
1 April, 2020 by David Goodger, Ed King, Michael McCarthy, Hamish Pritchard, Michael McCarthy
The thickness of glaciers in High-Mountain Asia (HMA) is critical in determining when the ice reserve will be lost as these glaciers thin but is remarkably poorly known because very…1 April, 2020 by Simon Morley
Whole-organism function is underpinned by physiological and biological processes, which respond to temperature over a range of time scales. Given that environmental temperature controls biological rates within ectotherms, different experimental…
28 March, 2020 by Tom Jordan
he englacial stratigraphic architecture of internal reflection horizons (IRHs) as imaged by ice‐penetrating radar (IPR) across ice sheets reflects the cumulative effects of surface mass balance, basal melt, and ice…Read more on Englacial architecture and age‐depth constraints across the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
27 March, 2020 by Anna Belcher, Holly Winton
Acquiring not only field-specific knowledge but also a set of transferable professional skills becomes increasingly important for Early Career Scientists (ECS) in Geosciences and other academic disciplines. Although the need…Read more on Successful practice in early career networks: insights from the polar sciences
23 March, 2020 by Chester Sands, David Barnes, Floyd Howard, Nadescha Zwerschke
Rising atmospheric CO2 is intensifying climate change but it is also driving global and particularly polar greening. However, most blue carbon sinks (that held by marine organisms) are shrinking, which…Read more on Blue carbon gains from glacial retreat along Antarctic fjords: what should we expect?
23 March, 2020 by Tony Phillips
A coordinated regional climate model (RCM) evaluation and intercomparison project based on observations from a July–October 2014 trans‐Arctic Ocean field experiment (ACSE‐Arctic Clouds during Summer Experiment) is presented. Six state‐of‐the‐art…
20 March, 2020 by Keith Nicholls
The Southern Ocean exerts a major influence on the mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, either indirectly, by its influence on air temperatures and winds, or directly, mostly through…Read more on The Southern Ocean and its interaction with the Antarctic Ice Sheet
20 March, 2020 by Jaume Forcada
Understanding the effects of human exploitation on the genetic composition of wild populations is important for predicting species persistence and adaptive potential. We therefore investigated the genetic legacy of large-scale…Read more on The genetic legacy of extreme exploitation in a polar vertebrate
18 March, 2020 by Hannah Cubaynes
By the mid-twentieth century, the majority of great whale species were threatened with extinction, following centuries of commercial whaling. Since the implementation of a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1985…
18 March, 2020 by Iain Staniland, Keith Nicholls, Norman Ratcliffe, Philip Trathan, Richard Phillips
Southern Ocean ecosystems are under pressure from resource exploitation and climate change. Mitigation requires the identification and protection of Areas of Ecological Significance (AESs), which have so far not been…Read more on Tracking of marine predators to protect Southern Ocean ecosystems
18 March, 2020 by Iain Staniland, Keith Nicholls, Norman Ratcliffe, Philip Trathan, Richard Phillips
The Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data (RAATD) is a Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research project led jointly by the Expert Groups on Birds and Marine Mammals and Antarctic Biodiversity…Read more on The retrospective analysis of Antarctic tracking data project
16 March, 2020 by Richard Phillips
Although there is a consensus about the evolutionary drivers of animal migration, considerable work is necessary to identify the mechanisms that underlie the great variety of strategies observed in nature.…
16 March, 2020 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
The 14th International Symposium on Tardigrada took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from 30 July to 3 August 2018. Approximately 140 participants, representing 28 countries from five continents attended the meeting,…15 March, 2020 by James France
Baseline mobile surveys of methane sources using vehicle-mounted instruments have been performed in the Fylde and Ryedale regions of Northern England over the 2016–19 period around proposed unconventional (shale) gas…12 March, 2020 by Andrew Meijers
A dynamically passive inert tracer was released in the interior South Pacific Ocean at latitudes of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Observational cross sections of the tracer were taken over 4…Read more on Tracking the spread of a passive tracer through Southern Ocean water masses
11 March, 2020 by Luca Telesca
The soft-shell clam Mya arenaria is one of the most ancient invaders of European coasts and is present in many coastal ecosystems, yet little is known about its genetic structure…
10 March, 2020 by Hannah Cubaynes, Jennifer Jackson, Jaume Forcada, Philip Trathan, Peter Fretwell
Great whales have been detected using very‐high‐resolution satellite imagery, suggesting this technology could be used to monitor whales in remote areas. However, the application of this method to whale studies…10 March, 2020 by Ingrid Cnossen
The strength and structure of the Earth's magnetic field is gradually changing. During the next 50 years the dipole moment is predicted to decrease by ∼3.5%, with the South Atlantic…9 March, 2020 by Andrew Meijers, Dani Jones, Emma Boland
The Southern Ocean features regionally varying ventilation pathways that transport heat and carbon from the surface ocean to the interior thermocline on timescales of decades to centuries, but the factors…9 March, 2020 by Dieter Tetzner, Emily Ludlow, Liz Thomas, Rebecca Tuckwell
ntarctica is well known to be highly susceptible to atmospheric and oceanic warming. However, due to the lack of long-term and in situ meteorological observations, little is known about the…6 March, 2020 by Thomas Bracegirdle
The ice sheet model intercomparison project for CMIP6 (ISMIP6) effort brings together the ice sheet and climate modeling communities to gain understanding of the ice sheet contribution to sea level…Read more on CMIP5 model selection for ISMIP6 ice sheet model forcing: Greenland and Antarctica
3 March, 2020 by Rebecca Vignols
In this project, a combination of field measurements, remote sensing data and regional climate model outputs were used to study recent and projected future changes in Northern Fennoscandian snow cover.…Read more on Understanding past and future changes in northern Fennoscandian snow cover
3 March, 2020 by George Foot
Symbioses between plants and fungi are ubiquitous in terrestrial ecosystems, in which they play key roles in plant nutrient acquisition and the cycling of elements. The plant host provides carbon…Read more on Liverwort-Fungal Associations: Novel Symbioses In Polar Regions?
3 March, 2020 by Richard Phillips
Prions Pachyptila are the most abundant seabirds in the Southern Ocean and comprise two main groups: those with and without bill lamellae to filter zooplankton. With few exceptions, each breeding…
3 March, 2020 by Richard Phillips
Prions Pachyptila are the most abundant seabirds in the Southern Ocean and comprise two main groups: those with and without bill lamellae to filter zooplankton. With few exceptions, each breeding…
2 March, 2020 by Anna Jones, David Jones, Markus Frey, Xin Yang
Two consecutive cruises in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica, in winter 2013 provided the first direct observations of sea salt aerosol (SSA) production from blowing snow above sea ice, thereby validating…Read more on First direct observation of sea salt aerosol production from blowing snow above sea ice