1 August, 2018 by Andrew Orr, Ella Gilbert, John King
The occurrence of surface melt in Antarctica has hitherto been associated with the austral summer season, when the dominant source of melt energy is provided by solar radiation. We use…Read more on Intense winter surface melt on an Antarctic ice shelf
1 August, 2018 by Will Goodall-Copestake
Identifying genetic cues of functional relevance is key to understanding the drivers of evolution and increasingly important for the conservation of biodiversity. This study introduces nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) to…1 August, 2018 by Stephanie Winnard
Variation in the phenology of avian taxa has long been studied to understand how a species reacts to environmental changes over both space and time. Penguins (Sphenicidae) serve as an…1 August, 2018 by Richard Horne
This paper presents observations of EMIC waves from multiple data sources during the four GEM challenge events in 2013 selected by the GEM “Quantitative Assessment of Radiation Belt Modeling” focus…Read more on EMIC wave events during the four GEM QARBM challenge intervals
1 August, 2018 by Jaume Forcada
Recent advances in high throughput sequencing have transformed the study of wild organisms by facilitating the generation of high quality genome assemblies and dense genetic marker datasets. These resources have…1 August, 2018 by Philip Trathan
1.Collecting spatially extensive data on phenology and reproductive success is important for seabird conservation and management, but can be logistically challenging in remote regions. Autonomous time‐lapse camera systems offer an…1 August, 2018 by Eugene Murphy, Emma Young, Philip Trathan, Victoria Warwick-Evans
In the Southern Ocean, the at‐sea distributions of most predators of Antarctic krill are poorly known, primarily because tracking studies have only been undertaken on a restricted set of species,…1 August, 2018 by Brent Minchew, Hilmar Gudmundsson
Ice rheology governs how glaciers flow and respond to environmental change. The rheology of glacier ice evolves in response to a variety of mechanisms, including damage, heating, melting and the…1 August, 2018 by Keith Nicholls, Tun Jan Young
The phase-sensitive radio-echo sounder (pRES) is a powerful new instrument that can measure the depth of internal layers and the glacier bed to millimetre accuracy. We use a stationary 16-antenna…26 July, 2018 by Hamish Pritchard
Over the past 20 years satellite remote sensing has captured significant downwasting of glaciers that drain the West Antarctic Ice Sheet into the ocean, particularly across the Amundsen Sea Sector.…24 July, 2018 by Geraint Tarling, Sally Thorpe, Sophie Fielding
Diel vertical migration (DVM) behaviour in swarms of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba Dana, 1850) is notoriously variable, with swarms being found at a range of depths and in different shapes,…23 July, 2018 by Bianca Perren, Dominic Hodgson, Louise Sime, Stephen Roberts
The Southern Hemisphere westerly winds (SHW) play an important role in regulating the capacity of the Southern Ocean carbon sink. They modulate upwelling of carbon-rich deep water and, with sea…20 July, 2018 by Andy Smith, Claire Allen, Dominic Hodgson, Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, James Smith, James Smith, Kelly Hogan, Peter Fretwell, Robert Larter, Victoria Peck
The East Antarctic Ice Sheet discharges into the Weddell Sea via the Coats Land ice margin. We have used geophysical data to determine the changing ice sheet configuration in this…Read more on Deglaciation and future stability of the Coats Land ice margin, Antarctica
19 July, 2018
Ice shelf break-up and disintegration events over the past 5 decades have led to speed-up, thinning, and retreat of upstream tributary glaciers and increases to rates of global sea-level rise.…
17 July, 2018 by Sally Thorpe
Microbes occupy diverse ecological niches and only through recent advances in next generation sequencing technologies have the true microbial diversity been revealed. Furthermore, lack of perceivable marine barriers to genetic…16 July, 2018 by Fausto Ferraccioli, Tom Jordan
The second generation Antarctic magnetic anomaly compilation (ADMAP‐2) for the region south of 60oS includes some 3.5 million line‐km of aeromagnetic and marine magnetic data that more than doubles the…16 July, 2018 by Mark Clilverd
While observed mesospheric polar nitric acid enhancements have been attributed to energetic particle precipitation through ion cluster chemistry in the past, this phenomenon is not reproduced in current whole-atmosphere chemistry-climate…6 July, 2018 by Sophie Fielding
The Southern Ocean is an important region for global nitrous oxide (N2O) cycling. The contribution of different source and sink mechanisms is, however, not very well constrained due to a…5 July, 2018 by Tejaswi Yarra
Mollusc shells are unique adaptations that serve to protect the organisms that make them, and are a defining feature of the phylum. However the molecular underpinnings of shell forming processes…Read more on Transcriptional profiling of shell calcification in bivalves
5 July, 2018
This thesis presents the first high-resolution palaeoceanographic study of environmental changes in the Amundsen Sea sector of the West Antarctic continental margin during the Late Quaternary. This part of the…5 July, 2018 by Ashleigh Massam
Three deep ice cores, obtained from Fletcher Promontory, Berkner Island, and James Ross Island across the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) and Weddell Sea region, preserve a climate record that can yield…5 July, 2018 by Hua Lu, Thomas Bracegirdle
The magnitude of observed multi‐decadal variations in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is at the upper end of the range simulated by climate models and a clear explanation for this…Read more on Do CMIP5 models reproduce observed low-frequency North Atlantic jet variability?
1 July, 2018 by Alex Burton-Johnson, Teal Riley
Long-lived continental margin arcs are characterized by episodes of large-volume magmatism (or flare-ups) that can persist for ∼30 m.y. before steady-state arc conditions resume. Flare-up events are characterized by the…1 July, 2018 by Roger Worland, Peter Convey
Ground temperatures in the top few centimetres of the soil profile are key in many biological processes yet remain very poorly documented, especially in the polar regions or over longer…1 July, 2018 by Richard Phillips, Thomas Clay, Thomas Clay
1.Senescence has been widely documented in wild vertebrate populations, yet the proximate drivers of age‐related declines in breeding success, including allocation trade‐offs and links with foraging performance, are poorly understood.…1 July, 2018 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand
Geochemical provenance studies of glacial-marine sediments provide a powerful approach to describe subglacial geology, sediment transport pathways, and past ice sheet dynamics. The marine-based West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is…1 July, 2018 by Richard Phillips
We present the first detailed data on the distribution and migration patterns of four pelagic seabird species in the Eastern Indian Ocean—the Lesser Noddy (Anous tenuirostris melanops), Brown Noddy (Anous…1 July, 2018 by Beatrix Schlarb-Ridley
Safe and accepted limits for nitrates in drinking water are exceeded in around one-third of the groundwater bodies in Europe. Whilst anion exchange (AEX) is an effective technology to strip…Read more on Growth of microalgae using nitrate-rich brine wash from the water industry
1 July, 2018 by Andrew Kavanagh, David Newnham, Mark Clilverd
Nitric oxide (NO) produced in the polar middle and upper atmosphere by energetic particle precipitation depletes ozone in the mesosphere and, following vertical transport in the winter polar vortex, in…1 July, 2018 by Katrin Linse
The Maud Rise seamount (65°07.80′S 2°39.60′E), a distinct habitat in the Southern Ocean, was studied during the ANDEEP-SYSTCO expedition in 2007–2008 to describe its unique benthic assemblage, characterised by higher…1 July, 2018 by Liz Thomas, Rebecca Tuckwell, Robert Mulvaney
West Antarctic climate and surface mass balance (SMB) records are sparse. To fill this gap, regional atmospheric climate modelling is useful, providing that such models are employed at sufficiently high…1 July, 2018 by Hugh Corr
The catchments of Pine Island Glacier and Thwaites Glacier in the Amundsen Sea Embayment are two of the largest, most rapidly changing, and potentially unstable sectors of the West Antarctic…Read more on Ocean access beneath the southwest tributary of Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica
1 July, 2018 by Robert Mulvaney
Ice core records from Antarctica show mostly synchronous temperature variations during the last deglacial transition, an indication that the climate of the entire continent reacted as one unit to the…1 July, 2018 by Andrew Meijers, Eugene Murphy, Geraint Tarling, Jamie Oliver, Jeremy Wilkinson, John Turner, Layla Batchellier, Linda Capper, Mark Belchier, Michael Meredith, Paul Holland, Philip Trathan, Simeon Hill
The vast frozen worlds of the Polar Regions are a major component of the Earth’s global climate system. The polar oceans are amongst the least understood environments on our planet.…Read more on The state of the polar oceans 2018: making sense of our changing world
1 July, 2018 by Richard Horne
Signals of powerful ground transmitters at various places have been detected by satellites in near‐Earth space. The study on propagation mode, ducted or nonducted, has attracted much attentions for several…Read more on Observed propagation route of VLF transmitter signals in the magnetosphere
28 June, 2018 by Emma Cross, Lloyd Peck
The inability of organisms to cope in changing environments poses a major threat to their survival. Rising carbon dioxide concentrations, recently exceeding 400 μatm, are rapidly warming and acidifying our…Read more on A 120-year record of resilience to environmental change in brachiopods
25 June, 2018 by Anna Belcher, Clara Manno, Geraint Tarling, Sally Thorpe
The abundance and flux of acantharian cysts were recorded for a period of 12 months from December 2012 to 2013 in a sediment trap deployed at 1500 m in the…25 June, 2018 by Emilie Capron, Max Holloway
Over the past 3.5 million years, there have been several intervals when climate conditions were warmer than during the preindustrial Holocene. Although past intervals of warming were forced differently than…Read more on Palaeoclimate constraints on the impact of 2 °C anthropogenic warming and beyond
20 June, 2018 by Alexander Tate, Hilary Blagbrough, Huw Griffiths, Katrin Linse, Oliver Hogg, Peter Enderlein, Philip Trathan, Susie Grant
The South Orkney Islands Southern Shelf (SOISS) Marine Protected Area (MPA) was the first MPA to be designated entirely within the high seas and is managed under the Commission for…Read more on Benthic biodiversity in the South Orkney Islands Southern Shelf Marine Protected Area
18 June, 2018 by Peter Convey
The South Sandwich Islands are a relatively pristine volcanic archipelago in the Southern Ocean that experience high levels of natural disturbance. The archipelago spans the biological transition between the sub-Antarctic…Read more on The South Sandwich Islands – a community of meta-populations across all trophic levels
16 June, 2018 by Xin Yang
The sea ice surface is thought to be a major source of sea salt aerosol, suggesting that sodium records of polar ice cores may trace past sea ice extent. Here…Read more on Sea ice versus storms: what controls sea salt in Arctic ice cores?
15 June, 2018 by Robert Larter
Pine Island Glacier is the largest current Antarctic contributor to sea level rise. Its ice loss has substantially increased over the last 25 years through thinning, acceleration and grounding line…Read more on Bathymetric controls on calving processes at Pine Island Glacier
14 June, 2018 by Peter Convey
In the present paper, we compare how the kelp gull, Larus dominicanus, utilizes various nest building materials, particularly vascular plants, bryophytes, lichens and other components, in the Fildes Peninsula area…13 June, 2018 by Hua Lu
Teleconnections between the Quasi Biennial Oscillation (QBO) and the Northern Hemisphere zonally averaged zonal winds, mean sea level pressure (mslp) and tropical precipitation are explored. The standard approach that defines…Read more on Surface impacts of the Quasi Biennial Oscillation
8 June, 2018 by Alex Brisbourne, Andy Smith, Hugh Corr, Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, Keith Nicholls, Paul Anker, Peter Davis, Sebastian Rosier
The Filchner‐Ronne Ice Shelf, the ocean cavity beneath it and the Weddell Sea that bounds it, form an important part of the global climate system by modulating ice discharge from…5 June, 2018 by Elisabeth Biersma, Jennifer Jackson, Katrin Linse, Peter Convey
From glacial reconstructions it is clear that Antarctic terrestrial life must have been extremely limited throughout Quaternary glacial periods. In contrast, recent biological studies provide clear evidence for long-term in…5 June, 2018 by Iain Staniland, Jaume Forcada, Norman Ratcliffe, Philip Trathan
Leopard seals are an important Antarctic apex predator that can affect marine ecosystems through local predation. Here we report on the successful use of micro geolocation logging sensor tags to…1 June, 2018 by Huw Griffiths, Katrin Linse, Oliver Hogg
In recent years very large marine protected areas (VLMPAs) have become the dominant form of spatial protection in the marine environment. Whilst seen as a holistic and geopolitically achievable approach…1 June, 2018 by Joanne Johnson, Liz Thomas
Measurements of snow accumulation are critical for reliable prediction of future ice mass loss and hence projections of sea level change. However, there are currently very few published in situ…Read more on In situ measurements of snow accumulation in the Amundsen Sea Embayment during 2016
1 June, 2018 by Iain Staniland, Philip Trathan, Richard Phillips
Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) is becoming a key management approach throughout the world. The process includes the mapping of how humans and wildlife use the marine environment to inform the…1 June, 2018 by Alistair Crame
A survey of 759 predatory drill holes in Late Cretaceous and Paleogene molluscan and serpulid worm prey from Seymour Island (Antarctica) has allowed exploration of the effects of the K-Pg…1 June, 2018 by Hugh Venables, Alexander Brearley, Michael Meredith
The spatial distribution, biogeochemical cycling and external sources of dissolved iron and dissolved manganese (DFe and DMn) were investigated in Ryder Bay, a small coastal embayment of the West Antarctic…Read more on Evidences of strong sources of DFe and DMn in Ryder Bay, Western Antarctic Peninsula
1 June, 2018 by Mark Clilverd
Using data covering the years 2005‐2009, we study the linear and nonlinear responses of log10 relativistic electron flux measured at geosynchronous orbit to ULF Pc5, VLF lower band chorus, and…1 June, 2018 by Andrew Fleming, Chester Sands, David Barnes
Sea ice, including icebergs, has a complex relationship with the carbon held within animals (blue carbon) in the polar regions. Sea-ice losses around West Antarctica's continental shelf generate longer phytoplankton…Read more on Icebergs, sea ice, blue carbon and Antarctic climate feedbacks
1 June, 2018 by Michael Meredith
The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP; figure 1) is one of the most climatically sensitive regions on Earth and one of the most variable. The strong climatic variability gives us the…Read more on The marine system of the West Antarctic Peninsula: status and strategy for progress
1 June, 2018 by Hugh Venables, Michael Meredith, Sabrina Heiser
The West Antarctic Peninsula shelf is a region of high seasonal primary production which supports a large and productive food web, where macronutrients and inorganic carbon are sourced primarily from…1 June, 2018 by Hugh Venables, Michael Meredith
The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is a climatically sensitive region where periods of strong warming have caused significant changes in the marine ecosystem and food-web processes. Tight coupling between phytoplankton…1 June, 2018 by Michael Meredith
Glacial meltwater discharge from Antarctica is a key influence on the marine environment, impacting ocean circulation, sea level and productivity of the pelagic and benthic ecosystems. The responses elicited depend…Read more on Anatomy of a glacial meltwater discharge event in an Antarctic Cove
1 June, 2018 by Michael Meredith
The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is a highly productive marine ecosystem where extended periods of change have been observed in the form of glacier retreat, reduction of sea-ice cover and…Read more on Shelf-ocean exchange and hydrography west of the Antarctic Peninsula: A review
1 June, 2018 by Michael Meredith
Palmer Deep (PD) is one of several regional hotspots of biological productivity along the inner shelf of the West Antarctic Peninsula. The proximity of hotspots to shelf-crossing deep troughs has…1 June, 2018 by Hugh Venables, Michael Meredith
The Southern Ocean is a hotspot of the climate-relevant organic sulfur compound dimethyl sulfide (DMS). Spatial and temporal variability in DMS concentration is higher than in any other oceanic region,…1 June, 2018 by Mark Clilverd
Several periods of Geomagnetically Induced Currents (GIC) were detected in the Halfway Bush substation in Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand, as a result of intense geomagnetic storm activity during 06…1 June, 2018 by Michael Meredith, Paul Holland
Year‐round variability in the Ross Gyre (RG), Antarctica, during 2011‐2015, is derived using radar altimetry. The RG is characterized by a bounded recirculating component, and a westward ‘throughflow’ to the…1 June, 2018 by Nigel Meredith, Richard Horne, Tobias Kersten
We present a global model of plasmaspheric hiss, using data from eight satellites, extending the coverage and improving the statistics of existing models. We use geomagnetic activity dependent templates to…Read more on Global model of plasmaspheric hiss from multiple satellite observations
1 June, 2018 by Gareth Chisham
Accurate geolocation of ionospheric backscatter measured by the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) high‐frequency radars is critical for the integrity of polar ionospheric convection maps, which involve combining SuperDARN…Read more on Calibrating SuperDARN interferometers using meteor backscatter
1 June, 2018 by David Vaughan
Tectonic landforms reveal that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) lies atop a major volcanic rift system. However, identifying subglacial volcanism is challenging. Here we show geochemical evidence of a…Read more on Evidence of an active volcanic heat source beneath the Pine Island Glacier
1 June, 2018 by Philip Hollyman
In recent years, technical and analytical developments in sclerochronology, based on the analysis of accretionary hard tissues, have improved our ability to assess the life histories of a wide range…Read more on Innovative use of sclerochronology in marine resource management
1 June, 2018 by Mervyn Freeman
During geomagnetic substorms, around 1015 J of energy is extracted from the solar wind and processed by the Earth's magnetosphere. Prior to the onset of substorm expansion phases, this energy…31 May, 2018 by Robert Mulvaney
Results from ground-penetrating radar (GPR) measurements and shallow ice cores carried out during a scientific traverse between Dome Concordia (DC) and Vostok stations are presented in order to infer both…30 May, 2018 by Andrew Orr, Scott Hosking, John Turner, Pranab Deb
Satellite data and a 35‐year hindcast of the Amundsen Sea Embayment summer climate using the WRF model are used to understand how regional and large‐scale atmospheric variability affects thinning of…29 May, 2018 by Kelly Hogan
Submarine glacial landforms in fjords are imprints of the dynamic behaviour of marine-terminating glaciers and are informative about their most recent retreat phase. Here we use detailed multibeam bathymetry to…Read more on The Holocene retreat dynamics and stability of Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland
18 May, 2018 by Kevin Newsham
Different organic compounds have distinct residence times in soil and are degraded by specific taxa of saprotrophic fungi. It hence follows that specific fungal taxa should respire carbon of different…18 May, 2018 by Clara Manno, Geraint Tarling
Natural iron fertilization downstream of Southern Ocean island plateaus supports large phytoplankton blooms and promotes carbon export from the mixed layer. In addition to sequestering atmospheric CO2, the biological carbon…Read more on The role of diatom resting spores in pelagic–benthic coupling in the Southern Ocean
18 May, 2018 by Robert Mulvaney
Major ions were analysed in firn and ice cores located at Fimbul Ice Shelf (FIS), Dronning Maud Land – DML, Antarctica. FIS is the largest ice shelf in the Haakon…18 May, 2018 by Katrin Linse
Life stages of some animals, including amphibians and insects, are so different that they have historically been seen as different species. ‘Metamorphosis’ broadly encompasses major changes in organism bodies and,…Read more on Cryptic niche switching in a chemosymbiotic gastropod
17 May, 2018 by Rowan Whittle
The Marine Mesozoic Revolution (MMR, starting ~200 million years ago) changed the ecological structure of sea floor communities due to increased predation pressure. It was thought to have caused the…16 May, 2018 by Fausto Ferraccioli
East Antarctica hosts large subglacial basins into which the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) likely retreated during past warmer climates. However, the extent of retreat remains poorly constrained, making quantifying…Read more on Bedrock erosion surfaces record former East Antarctic Ice Sheet extent
16 May, 2018 by Claire Waluda, Huw Griffiths, Kevin Hughes, Sally Thorpe
The Southern Ocean has the lowest densities of floating macroplastic litter in the world. It was thought that the region was relatively free of microplastic contamination. However, recent studies and…15 May, 2018 by James Pope
We examine the response of the Indian and East Asian summer monsoons to separate precession and obliquity forcing, using a set of fully coupled high-resolution models for the first time:…12 May, 2018 by Peter Convey
Antarctica is considered among the world’s last great wildernesses, but its current network of Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPAs) is inadequate, unrepresentative and at risk, needing urgent expansion due to…4 May, 2018 by Alex Brisbourne, Andy Smith, David Vaughan, Ed King
Projections of sea-level rise contributions from West Antarctica's dynamically thinning ice streams contain high uncertainty because some of the key processes involved are extremely challenging to observe. An especially poorly…1 May, 2018 by John King, Tracy Moffat-Griffin
New observations at South Georgia (an extremely intense source of gravity waves) are used to evaluate model simulations of gravity waves and wakes, paving the way for improved understanding of…1 May, 2018 by Terri Souster, Lloyd Peck, Simon Morley, Terri Souster
The waters of the Southern Ocean exhibit extreme seasonality in primary production, with marine life living below 0 °C for much of the year. The metabolic cold adaptation (MCA) hypothesis…Read more on Seasonality of oxygen consumption in five common Antarctic benthic marine invertebrates
1 May, 2018 by Alistair Crame
Aim The aim was to investigate those factors that influenced the differentiation of high-latitude and polar marine faunas on both ecological and evolutionary time-scales. Can a focus on a greenhouse…Read more on Differentiation of high-latitude and polar marine faunas in a greenhouse world
1 May, 2018 by Kevin Hughes
The Antarctic has significant environmental, scientific, historic, and intrinsic values, all of which are worth protecting into the future. Nevertheless, the area is subject to an increasing level and diversity…1 May, 2018 by Alistair Crame
We are beginning to appreciate that the origin of the modern Antarctic marine fauna is related to a series of key events throughout the Cenozoic era. In the first of…Read more on Key stages in the evolution of the Antarctic marine fauna
1 May, 2018 by Adrian Jenkins, James Jordan, Paul Holland, Robert Arthern
Synchronous coupling is developed between an ice sheet model and a z-coordinate ocean model (the MITgcm). A previously-developed scheme to allow continuous vertical movement of the ice-ocean interface of a…1 May, 2018 by Caroline Holmes, Emily Shuckburgh, Scott Hosking, Tony Phillips
Global climate model simulations from the "Half a degree Additional warming, Prognosis and Projected Impacts" (HAPPI) project were used to assess how wind power generation over Europe would change in…Read more on Changes in European wind energy generation potential within a 1.5°C warmer world
1 May, 2018 by Mark Clilverd
Relativistic electron flux at geosynchronous orbit depends on enhancement and loss processes driven by ULF Pc5, chorus, and EMIC waves, seed electron flux, magnetosphere compression, the "Dst effect", and substorms,…1 May, 2018 by Simon Morley
Microplastic contamination was investigated in the gut contents of an economically important estuarine top predator, Cynoscion acoupa, according to spatiotemporal and ontogenetic use of a tropical estuary. Microplastic contamination was…1 May, 2018 by Gabriele Stowasser, Norman Ratcliffe, Stacey Adlard
Optimal foraging theory predicts that when food is plentiful all individuals should take a small range of preferred prey types, but as competition increases less preferred prey will be included…1 May, 2018 by Dave Munday
The Southern Ocean (SO) surface westerly wind stress plays a fundamental role in driving the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and the global meridional overturning circulation. Here, the authors investigate the contributions…Read more on Mean, variability, and trend of Southern Ocean wind stress: role of wind fluctuations
1 May, 2018
Cephalopods play an important role in polar marine ecosystems. In this review, we compare the biodiversity, distribution and trophic role of cephalopods in the Arctic and in the Antarctic. Thirty-two…