1 September, 2017 by Richard Phillips
Gelatinous zooplankton are a large component of the animal biomass in all marine environments, but are considered to be uncommon in the diet of most marine top predators. However, the…1 September, 2017 by Daniel Bannister, Scott Hosking
The Sichuan basin is one of the most densely populated regions of China, making the area particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts associated with future climate change. As such, climate…1 September, 2017 by David Barnes, Gail Ashton, Lloyd Peck, Melody Clark, Simon Morley
Forecasting assemblage-level responses to climate change remains one of the greatest challenges in global ecology [1 , 2 ]. Data from the marine realm are limited because they largely come…1 September, 2017 by David Pearce, Peter Convey
Arthrobacter alpinus R3.8 is a psychrotolerant bacterial strain isolated from a soil sample obtained at Rothera Point, Adelaide Island, close to the Antarctic Peninsula. Strain R3.8 was sequenced in order…1 September, 2017
The colossal squid Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni (Robson 1925) is the largest (heaviest) living invertebrate and although it is preyed upon by many top predators, its basic biology and ecology remain one…1 September, 2017
Injuries occurring in the remote environment present particular challenges to healthcare professionals, and decisions need to be carefully made on an individual basis. This report describes the successful management of…1 September, 2017 by Adrian Jenkins, David Vaughan
Pine Island Glacier Ice Shelf (PIGIS) has been thinning rapidly over recent decades, resulting in a progressive drawdown of the inland ice and an upstream migration of the grounding line.…1 September, 2017 by Woosok Moon
Motivated by a problem in climate dynamics, we investigate the solution of a Bessel-like process with a negative constant drift, described by a Fokker-Planck equation with a potential V(x) =…1 September, 2017 by Andrew Meijers
The processes regulating ocean ventilation at high latitudes are re-examined based on a range of observations spanning all scales of ocean circulation, from the centimetre scales of turbulence to the…Read more on High-latitude ocean ventilation and its role in Earth’s climate transitions
31 August, 2017 by Constantino Listowski, Thomas Lachlan-Cope
The first intercomparisons of cloud microphysics schemes implemented in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) mesoscale atmospheric model (version 3.5.1) are performed in the Antarctic Peninsula using the polar version…31 August, 2017 by Richard Phillips
Carry-over effects, whereby events in one season have consequences in subsequent seasons, have important demographic implications. Although most studies examine carry-over effects across 2 seasons in single populations, the effects…31 August, 2017 by Iain Staniland, Richard Phillips
There is increasing realisation that individuals in many animal populations differ substantially in resource, space or habitat use. Differences that cannot be attributed to any a priori way of classifying…31 August, 2017 by Richard Phillips
Almost all of the world's fisheries overlap spatially and temporally with foraging seabirds, with impacts that range from food supplementation (through scavenging behind vessels), to resource competition and incidental mortality.…21 August, 2017 by Andrew Tait, Jeremy Robst, Jeremy Wilkinson, Mark Preston
An array of novel directional wavebuoys was designed and deployed into the Beaufort Sea ice cover in March 2014, as part of the Office of Naval Research Marginal Ice Zone…14 August, 2017 by Hugh Corr
A high resolution (1 km line spacing) aerogeophysical survey was conducted over a region near the East Antarctic Ice Sheet's Dome C that may hold a 1.5 million year old climate…Read more on High resolution boundary conditions of an old ice target near Dome C, Antarctica
7 August, 2017 by Markus Frey, Xin Yang
Growing evidence suggests that the sea ice surface is an important source of sea salt aerosol and this has significant implications for polar climate and atmospheric chemistry. It also offers…Read more on Sea ice as a source of sea salt aerosol to Greenland ice cores: a model-based study
1 August, 2017 by Lloyd Peck, Simon Morley
Thermal acclimation capacity was investigated in adults of three tropical marine invertebrates, the subtidal barnacle Striatobalanus amaryllis, the intertidal gastropod Volegalea cochlidium and the intertidal barnacle Amphibalanus amphitrite. To test…1 August, 2017 by Ashleigh Massam, Robert Mulvaney
A model to estimate the annual layer thickness of deposited snowfall at a deep ice core site, compacted by vertical strain with respect to depth, is assessed using ultra-high-resolution laboratory…1 August, 2017 by Richard Phillips
Seabirds show remarkable variability in migration strategies among individuals and populations. In this study, we analysed 47 migrations of 28 brown skuas Catharacta antarctica lonnbergi breeding on King George Island…Read more on Consistent variation in individual migration strategies of brown skuas
1 August, 2017 by Emilie Capron
Chemical and physical proxy data from a precisely dated early last glacial (∼113–110 ka, MIS5d) Sardinian stalagmite reveal a sub-millennial-scale, cool-dry climate event centered at 112.0 +0.52/-0.59 ka, followed by…1 August, 2017 by Claire Allen, Gabriele Stowasser
We report the identification of a range of C25 highly branched isoprenoid (HBI) alkenes and certain sterols in filtered phytoplankton samples obtained from western Svalbard (Arctic) and near South Georgia…1 August, 2017 by Kelly Hogan
Fast-flowing outlet glaciers currently drain the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS), delivering ice, meltwater and debris to the fjords around Greenland. Although such glaciers strongly affect the ice sheet's mass balance,…1 August, 2017 by Dominic Hodgson, Stephen Roberts
The East Antarctic Ice Sheet has relatively few field data to constrain its past volume and contribution to global sea-level change since the Last Glacial Maximum. We provide new data…Read more on Ice sheet retreat and glacio-isostatic adjustment in Lützow Holm Bay, East Antarctica
1 August, 2017 by Jean-Baptiste Sallee
Investigating ecological relationships between predators and their environment is essential to understand the response of marine ecosystems to climate variability and change. This is particularly true in polar regions, where…1 August, 2017 by Paul Holland
Idealised modelling studies have shown that the melting of ice shelves varies as a quadratic function of ocean temperature. However, this result is the equilibrium response, derived from steady ice—…Read more on The transient response of ice-shelf melting to ocean change
1 August, 2017 by Kevin Hughes
In order to evaluate trace element bioavailability and potential transfer into marine food chains in human impacted areas of the Fildes Peninsula (King George Island, South Shetland Islands Archipelago), element…1 August, 2017 by Roger Worland, Peter Convey
Mosses are dominant components of high-latitude environments, and Signy Island (maritime Antarctic) provides a representative example of polar cryptogam-dominated terrestrial ecosystems. In 2011, we mapped all moss banks, their characteristics…Read more on Ecology of moss banks on Signy Island (maritime Antarctic)
1 August, 2017 by Deborah Pardo
Individual heterogeneity in foraging behavior has been widely documented within predator populations. In highly social apex predators such as killer whales (Orcinus orca), specialization may occur at the matriline level.…1 August, 2017 by Richard Phillips
Although fisheries discards are recognized as a key food source for many seabirds, there have been few thorough assessments of their importance relative to natural prey, and of their influence…1 August, 2017 by Mark Clilverd
VLF radio amplitude and phase measurements are used to find the height and sharpness of the D region of the ionosphere at a mid- to high geomagnetic dip latitude of…Read more on Midlatitude ionospheric D region: height, sharpness and solar zenith angle
1 August, 2017 by Richard Phillips
Technological advances in recent years have seen an explosion of tracking and stable isotope studies of seabirds, often involving repeated measures from the same individuals. This wealth of new information…1 August, 2017 by Hayley Allison, Richard Horne, Sarah Glauert
Using 14 years of electron flux data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Polar Operational Environmental Satellites, a statistical study of the magnetic local time (MLT) distribution of the…1 August, 2017
We tracked eight adult northern lapwings Vanellus vanellus (six females and two males) from a Dutch breeding colony by light-level geolocation year-round, three of them for multiple years. We show…Read more on Individuality in northern lapwing migration and its link to timing of breeding
1 August, 2017 by Geraint Tarling
Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) is a crucial component of the Southern Ocean ecosystem, acting as the major link between primary production and higher trophic levels with an annual predator demand…1 August, 2017 by Mark Clilverd
Transpower New Zealand Limited has measured DC currents in transformer neutrals in the New Zealand electrical network at multiple South Island locations. Near-continuous archived DC current data exist since 2001,…1 August, 2017 by Mark Clilverd
We study the occurrence of relativistic microbursts observed by the Solar Anomalous Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX) satellite. An algorithm is used to identify 193,694 relativistic microbursts in the > 1.05…1 August, 2017 by Steve Colwell
Understanding the climate response of the Antarctic Peninsula ice sheet is vital for accurate predictions of sea-level rise. However, since climate models are typically too coarse to capture spatial variability…Read more on Regional climate of the Larsen B embayment 1980–2014
1 August, 2017 by Geraint Tarling
Rising oil and gas activities in northern high latitudes have led to an increased risk of petroleum pollution in these ecosystems. Further, seasonal high UV radiation at high latitudes may…31 July, 2017 by Eugene Murphy, Geraint Tarling, Jonathan Watkins, Sally Thorpe, Sophie Fielding
Food webs in high-latitude oceans are dominated by relatively few species. Future ocean and sea-ice changes affecting the distribution of such species will impact the structure and functioning of whole…27 July, 2017 by Andrew Orr
Large vertical velocities were observed throughout the troposphere at Davis, East Antarctica, on 18 February 2014 by a VHF wind-profiling radar. Simulations using the Met Office Unified Model at 2.2,…27 July, 2017 by James France
Airborne measurements of a methane (CH4) plume over the North Sea from August 2013 are analyzed. The plume was only observed downwind of circumnavigated gas fields, and three methods are…Read more on A cautionary tale: A study of a methane enhancement over the North Sea
26 July, 2017 by Adrian Jenkins, Pierre Mathiot
Ice shelf/ocean interactions are a major source of fresh water on the Antarctic continental shelf and have a strong impact on ocean properties, ocean circulation and sea ice. However, climate…26 July, 2017 by Jeremy Wilkinson
Breakup of the near-continuous winter sea ice into discrete summer ice floes is an important transition that dictates the evolution and fate of the marginal ice zone (MIZ) of the…25 July, 2017 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, James Smith
Precise knowledge about the extent of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; c. 26.5–19 cal. ka BP) is important in order to 1) improve…24 July, 2017 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, Victoria Peck
The oceanic gateways of the Drake Passage and the Agulhas Current are critical locations for the inflow of intermediate-depth water masses to the Atlantic, which contribute to the shallow return…Read more on Deglacial changes in flow and frontal structure through the Drake Passage
21 July, 2017 by Lloyd Peck, Melody Clark
An increasing number of studies are showing that Antarctic mega- and macrofauna are highly diverse, however, little is known about meiofaunal biodiversity in sediment communities, which are a vital part…17 July, 2017 by Dave Munday, Michael Meredith
During the collection of ship-based observations, heaving of the vessel may lead to variation in the descent rate of a CTD package. This can result in the package being pulled…17 July, 2017 by Hamish Pritchard
Estimation of the surface elevation change of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is essential for understanding its response to recent and future climate change. Laser measurements from the NASA's Ice,…16 July, 2017 by Gareth Marshall, James Pope, Scott Hosking, John Turner, Pranab Deb, Thomas Bracegirdle, Tony Phillips
During Austral spring 2016 Antarctic sea ice extent (SIE) decreased at a record rate of 75 × 103 km2 day-1, which was 46% faster than the mean rate and 18% faster than in any…Read more on Unprecedented springtime retreat of Antarctic sea ice in 2016
16 July, 2017 by Robert Mulvaney
Black carbon (BC) and other biomass-burning (BB) aerosols are critical components of climate forcing but quantification, predictive climate modeling, and policy decisions have been hampered by limited understanding of the…Read more on Holocene black carbon in Antarctica paralleled Southern Hemisphere climate
15 July, 2017 by Dave Munday
The influence of changing the mean wind stress felt by the ocean through alteration of the variability of the atmospheric wind, as opposed to the mean atmospheric wind, on Southern…10 July, 2017 by Jonathan Kingslake
Supraglacial lakes can drain to the bed of ice sheets, affecting ice dynamics, or over their surface, relocating surface water. Focusing on surface drainage, we first discuss observations of lake…Read more on Modelling channelized surface drainage of supraglacial lakes
6 July, 2017 by Thomas Bracegirdle
Antarctic terrestrial biodiversity occurs almost exclusively in ice-free areas that cover less than 1% of the continent. Climate change will alter the extent and configuration of ice-free areas, yet the…Read more on Climate change drives expansion of Antarctic ice-free habitat
1 July, 2017 by Richard Phillips
South Georgia supports globally important populations of seabirds, including the wandering albatross Diomedea exulans, black-browed albatross Thalassarche melanophris and grey-headed albatross T. chrysostoma, currently classified by the world Conservation Union…1 July, 2017 by David Barnes
Climate-forced ice losses are increasing potential for iceberg-seabed collisions, termed ice scour. At Ryder Bay, West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) sea ice, oceanography, phytoplankton and encrusting zoobenthos have been monitored since…1 July, 2017 by Emma Boland, Emily Shuckburgh, Thomas Bracegirdle
The Arctic is currently undergoing drastic changes in climate, largely thought to be due to so-called ‘Arctic amplification’, whereby local feedbacks enhance global warming. Recently, a number of observational and…Read more on Assessment of sea ice-atmosphere links in CMIP5 models
1 July, 2017 by Richard Phillips
The Convention on Biological Diversity aspires to designate 10% of the global oceans as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), but so far, few MPAs protect pelagic species in the high seas.…1 July, 2017 by Peter Fretwell, Richard Phillips
This study is the first to utilize 30-cm resolution imagery from the WorldView-3 (WV-3) satellite to count wildlife directly. We test the accuracy of the satellite method for directly counting…Read more on Using super-high resolution satellite imagery to census threatened albatrosses
1 July, 2017 by Emilie Capron
The Last Interglacial (LIG, ∼129-116 thousand years ago, ka) represents an excellent case study to investigate the response of sensitive components of the Earth System and mechanisms of high-latitude amplification…1 July, 2017 by Woosok Moon
The noise forcing underlying the variability in the Arctic ice cover has a wide range of principally unknown origins. For this reason, the analytical and numerical solutions of a stochastic…1 July, 2017 by Amelie Kirchgaessner, John King, Jenny Turton
The ice shelves on the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) have been disintegrating for over two decades. Surface melting induced by föhn winds has been proposed as a…1 July, 2017 by Ed King, Hamish Pritchard, Kelly Hogan, Robert Larter
Ice stream bed topography contains key evidence for the ways ice streams interact with, and are potentially controlled by, their beds. Here we present the first application of two–dimensional Fourier…1 July, 2017 by Emma Young
Commercial fisheries data, collected as part of an observer programme and covering the period 1997–2014, were utilized in order to define key reproductive traits and spawning dynamics of the Patagonian…1 July, 2017 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, James Smith, Robert Larter, Stephen Roberts
Glaciological and oceanographic observations coupled with numerical models show that warm Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) incursions onto the West Antarctic continental shelf cause melting of the undersides of floating ice…Read more on West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat driven by Holocene warm water incursions
1 July, 2017 by Elisabeth Biersma, Jennifer Jackson, Katrin Linse, Peter Convey
A bipolar disjunction is an extreme, yet common, biogeographic pattern in non-vascular plants, yet its underlying mechanisms (vicariance or long-distance dispersal), origin and timing remain poorly understood. Here, combining a…Read more on Global biogeographic patterns in bipolar moss species
1 July, 2017 by Richard Phillips
In seabirds, the extent of population genetic and phylogeographic structure varies extensively among species. Genetic structure is lacking in some species, but present in others despite the absence of obvious…1 July, 2017 by Robert Mulvaney
Reproducible climate reconstructions of the Common Era (1 CE to present) are key to placing industrial-era warming into the context of natural climatic variability. Here we present a community-sourced database…Read more on A global multiproxy database for temperature reconstructions of the Common Era
1 July, 2017 by Nigel Meredith, Richard Horne
Relativistic electrons (E > 500 keV) cause internal charging and are an important space weather hazard. To assess the vulnerability of the satellite fleet to these so-called “killer” electrons, it…1 July, 2017 by Peter Convey
Tropical estuaries often have a low buffering capacity and may experience acidification, both naturally through microbial degradation and run-off from acid sulphate soils (ASS), or from various anthropogenic sources. Here,…30 June, 2017 by Peter Convey
Cryptobiosis is a reversible ametabolic state of life characterized by the ceasing of all metabolic processes, allowing survival of periods of intense adverse conditions. Here we show that 1) entire…Read more on Moss survival through in situ cryptobiosis after six centuries of glacier burial
28 June, 2017 by Andrew Orr, Gareth Marshall, James Pope, Paul Holland, Tony Phillips
We assess the impact of El Niño-induced wind changes on seasonal West Antarctic sea ice concentrations using reanalysis data and sea ice observations. A novel ice budget analysis reveals that…Read more on The impacts of El Niño on the observed sea ice budget of West Antarctica
27 June, 2017 by Andrew Orr, Constantino Listowski, Pranab Deb
A better understanding of regional-scale precipitation patterns in the Himalayan region is required to increase our knowledge of the impacts of climate change on downstream water availability. This study examines…27 June, 2017 by Chester Sands, David Barnes
High latitude benthos are globally important in terms of accumulation and storage of ocean carbon, and the feedback this is likely to have on regional warming. Understanding this ecosystem service…Read more on Functional group diversity is key to Southern Ocean benthic carbon pathways
22 June, 2017 by Andy Smith, David Vaughan
Constraining how much and how fast the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) will change in the coming decades has recently been identified as the highest priority in Antarctic research (National…22 June, 2017 by Mark Clilverd
This paper describes the recommended solar forcing dataset for CMIP6 and highlights changes with respect to CMIP5. The solar forcing is provided for radiative properties, namely total solar irradiance (TSI),…20 June, 2017 by Peter Convey
The type strain Planococcus donghaensis JH1T is a psychrotolerant and halotolerant bacterium with starch-degrading ability. Here, we determine the carbon utilization profile of P. donghaensis JH1T and report the first…Read more on Complete genome sequence of Planococcus donghaensis JH1T, a pectin-degrading bacterium
16 June, 2017 by Alex Burton-Johnson
A new method for modelling heat flux shows the upper crust contributes up to 70% of the Antarctic Peninsula's subglacial heat flux, and that heat flux values are more variable…13 June, 2017 by Xin Yang
Atmospheric chemistry and transport of mercury play a key role in the global mercury cycle. However, there are still considerable knowledge gaps concerning the fate of mercury in the atmosphere.…13 June, 2017 by Hugh Corr
The Institute Ice Stream (IIS) in West Antarctica may be increasingly vulnerable to melting at the grounding line through modifications in ocean circulation. Understanding such change requires knowledge of grounding-line…13 June, 2017 by Michael Meredith
The coastal ocean of the climatically-sensitive west Antarctic Peninsula is experiencing changes in the physical and (photo)chemical properties that strongly affect the phytoplankton. Consequently, a shift from diatoms, pivotal in…5 June, 2017 by Dominic Hodgson, Peter Convey
Recent climate change on the Antarctic Peninsula is well documented [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], with warming, alongside increases in precipitation, wind strength, and melt season length [1, 6, 7],…Read more on Widespread biological response to recent rapid warming on the Antarctic Peninsula
1 June, 2017 by David Barnes
Little is known about colonization of remote island coasts by marine invertebrates, other than corals. The structure of hard substrata assemblages was investigated across Ascension Island's littoral zone in comparison…Read more on Marine colonization and biodiversity at Ascension Island and remote islands
1 June, 2017 by Jonathan Watkins, Mark Belchier, Ryan Saunders
Myctophid fish play an important role in the Southern Ocean pelagic food web. The lanternfish Krefftichthys anderssoni is one of the most common myctophids in the region, but its ecology…1 June, 2017 by Philip Trathan
Quantification of the physical and biological environmental factors that influence the spatial distribution of higher trophic species is central to inform management and develop ecosystem models, particularly in light of…1 June, 2017 by Liz Thomas
Antarctic sea ice has shown an increasing trend in recent decades, but with strong regional differences from one sector to another of the Southern Ocean. The Ross Sea and the…1 June, 2017 by Peter Convey
Historical views have characterized Antarctica as a frozen desert with low diversity, although recent studies suggest that this may not be true for microscopic organisms. For microbes, assessing endemism in…1 June, 2017 by Kevin Hughes, Susie Grant
Globally, few protected areas exist in areas beyond the jurisdiction of a single state. However, for over 50 years the Antarctic protected areas system has operated in a region governed…1 June, 2017 by Jeremy Wilkinson
Arctic sea ice has displayed significant thinning as well as an increase in drift speed in recent years. Taken together this suggests an associated rise in sea ice deformation rate.…Read more on Thin ice and storms: Sea ice deformation from buoy arrays deployed during N-ICE2015
1 June, 2017 by Iain Staniland
Conditions experienced during the nonbreeding period have profound long-term effects on individual fitness and survival. Therefore, knowledge of habitat use during the nonbreeding period can provide insights into processes that…1 June, 2017 by Peter Convey
In this study we used a polyphasic taxonomy approach to analyse three bacterial strains coded L10.10T, A4R1.5 and A4R1.12, isolated in the course of a study of quorum-quenching bacteria occurring…Read more on Pseudomonas versuta sp. nov., isolated from Antarctic soil
1 June, 2017 by Clara Manno, Geraint Tarling, Jessie Gardner, Victoria Peck
The impact of anthropogenic ocean acidification (OA) on marine ecosystems is a vital concern facing marine scientists and managers of ocean resources. Euthecosomatous pteropods (holoplanktonic gastropods) represent an excellent sentinel…Read more on Shelled pteropods in peril: Assessing vulnerability in a high CO2 ocean