1 January, 2016
Cephalopods have a key role in the marine environment though knowledge of their distribution and trophic ecology is limited by a lack of observations. This is particularly true for Antarctic…1 January, 2016 by Andrew Orr, John King, Thomas Lachlan-Cope
The structure of leeside warming during foehn events is investigated as a function of cross-barrier flow regime linearity. Two contrasting cases of westerly flow over the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) are…1 January, 2016 by Simon Morley
The distribution of the Southern Ocean nearshore marine benthic fauna is the consequence of major geologic, oceanographic, and climatic changes during the last 50 Ma. As a result, a main…1 January, 2016 by Peter Convey
Fungi are known to produce a range of extracellular enzymes and other secondary metabolites. Investment in extracellular enzyme production may be an important element of the survival strategy of these…Read more on Production of extracellular hydrolase enzymes by fungi from King George Island
1 January, 2016 by Louise Sime, Max Holloway
Reconstructions of salinity are used to diagnose changes in the hydrological cycle and ocean circulation. A widely used method of determining past salinity uses oxygen isotope (δOw) residuals after the…1 January, 2016 by Peter Convey
At a global scale, there is no evidence for synchronous multi-decadal warm (‘Medieval Warm Period’, MWP) or cold (‘Little Ice Age’, LIA) periods in the late Holocene. On the other…1 January, 2016 by Lloyd Peck, Michael Thorne, Melody Clark
Understanding species’ responses to environmental challenges is key to predicting future biodiversity. However, there is currently little data on how developmental stages affect responses and also whether universal gene biomarkers…Read more on Age-related thermal response: the cellular resilience of juveniles
1 January, 2016 by John Turner, Liz Thomas
This study presents a high-resolution (~ 5.5 km) estimate of Surface Mass Balance (SMB) over the period 1979–2014 for the Antarctic Peninsula (AP), generated by the regional atmospheric climate model…1 January, 2016 by Alexandra Weiss, John King, Thomas Lachlan-Cope
Eight atmospheric reanalyses were compared against observed vertical profiles of temperature, specific humidity and wind speed collected by two research aircraft in February–March 2010 in the Antarctic Peninsula region. These…Read more on Validation of eight atmospheric reanalyses in the Antarctic Peninsula region
1 January, 2016 by Gabriele Stowasser, Richard Phillips, Rocio Moreno
Summary 1.Understanding interspecific interactions, and the influences of anthropogenic disturbance and environmental change on communities, are key challenges in ecology. Despite the pressing need to understand these fundamental drivers of…1 January, 2016 by Lloyd Peck
Temperature affects biological functions by altering reaction rates. Physiological rates usually double to treble for every 10°C rise, and 1–4 fold encompasses normal biological functions. However, in polar marine species…1 January, 2016 by Dominic Hodgson, Stephen Roberts
A regional network of quantitative reconstructions of past climate variability is required to test climate models. In recent studies, temperature calibration models based on the relative abundances of sedimentary glycerol…1 January, 2016 by Dave Munday
Adrian Gill’s (1968) model of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is reinterpreted for a stratified, reduced-gravity ocean, where the barotropic streamfunction is replaced by the pycnocline depth, and the bottom…1 January, 2016 by Lloyd Peck
This paper presents the results of our seventh annual horizon scan, in which we aimed to identify issues that could have substantial effects on global biological diversity in the future,…Read more on A horizon scan of global conservation issues for 2016
1 January, 2016 by Michael Meredith
The Southern Ocean exerts a profound influence on the functioning of the Earth System, in part because its location and unique bathymetric configuration enable direct linkages to the other major…1 January, 2016 by Paul Rodhouse
The jumbo, or Humboldt, squid Dosidicus gigas currently accounts for about one third of total world squid landings ( Arkhipkin et al., 2015). It is the largest and most abundant…Read more on Jumbo squid in the eastern Pacific Ocean: A quarter century of challenges and change
1 January, 2016 by Michael Meredith, Paul Holland
The thermodynamic balance of the Weddell Gyre is assessed from an inverse estimate of the circulation across the gyre's rim. The gyre experiences a weak net buoyancy gain that arises…1 January, 2016 by David Pearce, Michael Thorne, Will Goodall-Copestake
Recent attempts to explore marine microbial diversity and the global marine microbiome have indicated a large proportion of previously unknown diversity. However, sequencing alone does not tell the whole story,…1 January, 2016 by David Barnes, Lloyd Peck, Simon Morley
Seasonal measurements of the metabolic physiology of four Antarctic demosponges and their associated assemblages, maintained in a flow through aquarium facility, demonstrated one of the largest differences in seasonal strategies…Read more on Extreme phenotypic plasticity in metabolic physiology of Antarctic demosponges
1 January, 2016 by Jaume Forcada
Females of many species adaptively program their offspring to predictable environmental conditions, a process that is often mediated by hormones. Laboratory studies have shown, for instance, that social density affects…1 January, 2016 by Lloyd Peck, Melody Clark, Sabrina Heiser
Cold polar marine species have very slow embryonic and larval development rates. Antarctic echinoids, bivalve molluscs and brooding gastropods develop up to 12 times slower than temperate and tropical species,…Read more on Very slow embryonic and larval development in the Antarctic limpet Nacella polaris
1 January, 2016 by Hugh Corr, Keith Nicholls
Antarctica's ice shelves are thinning at an increasing rate, affecting their buttressing ability. Channels in the ice shelf base unevenly distribute melting, and their evolution provides insight into changing subglacial…1 January, 2016 by Mark Clilverd
The solar minimum of 2007–2010 was unusually deep and long lived. In the later stages of this period the electron fluxes in the radiation belts dropped to extremely low levels.…1 January, 2016 by Ingrid Cnossen
Previous studies have revealed that ion drift and neutral wind speeds at ~400 km in the polar cap (>80° magnetic latitude) are on average larger in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) than…1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
The provenance of sand-sized ice-rafted debris (IRD) sourced from Greenland is currently difficult to determine. Such knowledge, if it could be ascertained with a high degree of certainty, could be…1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
New geophysical techniques (multibeam echo sounding and 3D seismics) have revolutionized high-resolution imaging of the modern seafloor and palaeo-shelf surfaces in Arctic and Antarctic waters, generating vast quantities of data…Read more on Atlas of submarine glacial landforms: Modern, Quaternary and Ancient
1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
The landforms and sediments preserved on the Yermak Plateau (Figs 1, 2, 3) provide information on the glacial history and past dynamics of the northwestern-most sector of the Eurasian Ice…Read more on Landform assemblage produced by ice-grounding events on the Yermak Plateau
1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
The original version of this glossary was published almost 20 years ago in the landmark volume Glaciated Continental Margins: An Atlas of Acoustic Images (Bell et al. 1997). For the…Read more on Glossary of glaciated continental margins and related geoscience methods
1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Many glaciers on Svalbard thickened and advanced during the Little Ice Age (LIA), which occurred between about 1400 and 1920 in the archipelago (Werner 1993). A terminal transverse ridge, along…Read more on Little Ice Age terminal and retreat moraines in Kollerfjorden, NW Spitsbergen
1 January, 2016 by James Smith, Kelly Hogan, William Dickens
Subglacial and ice-marginal landforms produced during the Last Glacial Maximum and subsequent regional deglaciation become progressively more buried, especially when postglacial sedimentation rates are high. Sub-bottom profiling is usually used…1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Glacial landforms and sediments exposed sub-aerially have been the subject of description, analysis and interpretation for more than a century (e.g. De Laski 1864; De Geer 1889). Indeed, such features…Read more on Introduction: an atlas of submarine glacial landforms
1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Glacimarine processes affect about 20% of the global ocean today, and this area expanded considerably under cyclical full-glacial conditions during the Quaternary (Fig. 1) (Dowdeswell et al. 2016b). Many of…1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Today, the Greenland Ice Sheet reaches the sea via a number of fast-flowing outlet glaciers that are fed by ice draining from huge interior basins (Rignot & Kanagaratnam 2006). At…1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Linear to curvilinear depressions on high-latitude continental shelves have long been regarded as the signature of the ploughing action of iceberg keels impinging on the sedimentary seafloor (e.g. Woodworth-Lynas et…1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Fjords are deep valleys that have been flooded by encroaching seawater after ice retreat (Syvitski et al. 1987). They are produced mainly by glacial erosion, with the ice sometimes exploiting…Read more on Nordvestfjord: a major East Greenland fjord system
1 January, 2016 by Adrian Jenkins, Kelly Hogan, Keith Nicholls, Pierre Dutrieux
The huge cavities beneath floating Antarctic ice shelves have only been explored recently by autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Oceanic waters above the in situ freezing point melt those faces of…1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Prominent quasi-linear or lobate wedge-shaped sedimentary landforms, termed grounding-zone wedges (GZWs), are distributed widely on polar continental shelves. They are regarded as a product of the deposition of mainly subglacially…Read more on Grounding-zone wedges on the northern Larsen shelf, Antarctic Peninsula
1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Streamlined sedimentary and bedrock glacial landforms are widespread on high-latitude continental shelves and in fjords. It has been shown that they are orientated in the direction of past ice flow…Read more on Crag-and-tail landforms in outer Rijpfjorden, Nordaustlandet, Svalbard
1 January, 2016 by Philip Leat, Robert Larter
Submarine gullies are small-scale, confined channels on the order of tens of metres depth that form one of the most common morphological features of high-latitude continental slopes. Gully morphology varies…Read more on Submarine gullies on the southern Weddell Sea slope, Antarctica
1 January, 2016 by Philip Leat, Robert Larter
Trough-mouth fans (TMFs) are large depocentres of glacially influenced sediments formed at the mouths of some glacially carved cross-shelf troughs (Vorren et al. 1989). They develop in front of ice…Read more on Components of an Antarctic trough-mouth fan: examples from the Crary Fan, Weddell Sea
1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Evidence of the former extent and dynamics of the Greenland Ice Sheet is preserved on the continental margin of NE Greenland (Fig. 1). The continental shelf is incised by a…1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Subglacial landforms include a range of depositional and erosional features formed by the interaction of ice or meltwater with a soft sedimentary or bedrock substrate. The genesis of many such…1 January, 2016 by Dominic Hodgson, Kelly Hogan
Sub-Antarctic South Georgia (54° 17′ S, 36° 30′ W, 3755 km2) is a large heavily glacierized island that is 170 km long, 39 km wide and rises to elevations of…Read more on Terminal moraines in the fjord basins of sub-Antarctic South Georgia
1 January, 2016 by Adrian Jenkins, Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, James Smith, Kelly Hogan, Robert Larter
About 30% of ice draining the West Antarctic Ice Sheet discharges through several glacier systems into the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) (Fig. 1a). Two major ice-stream outlets, Pine Island and…1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Submarine landslide scars, including the huge Hinlopen–Yermak slide-scar north of Svalbard (Fig. 1) (Vanneste et al. 2006; Winkelmann et al. 2006), are relatively common geomorphological features on glaciated continental margins.…Read more on Geomorphology of the huge Hinlopen-Yermak landslide on the northern Svalbard margin
1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan, Robert Larter
Meltwater channels that have formed beneath glaciers and ice sheets have been observed on glaciated terrain, both terrestrial and submarine. Around Antarctica, channels incised into bedrock on the inner continental…Read more on Subglacial meltwater channels in Marguerite Trough, western Antarctic Peninsula
1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
The Barents Sea is a wide, relatively deep epicontinental sea consisting of shallower banks (c. 50–100 m depth) separated by broad, flat-bottomed troughs (c. 200–400 m depth) that radiate out…1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan, Robert Larter
Large sediment mounds on the continental rise around Antarctica have been interpreted as sediment drifts formed through interaction of downslope transport of mainly glacially derived sediments with alongslope bottom currents…Read more on Large sediment drifts on the upper continental rise west of the Antarctic Peninsula
1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
The Antarctic Peninsula comprises a thin spine of mountains and islands presently covered by an ice sheet up to 500 m thick that drains eastward and westward via outlet glaciers…1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan, Robert Larter
The seafloor of inner continental shelves on glaciated margins is sometimes stripped of most of the softer sediments, leaving bedrock exposed (Wellner et al. 2001). Examples of such exposed bedrock…Read more on Bedrock channels in Pine Island Bay, West Antarctica
1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Glacial cross-shelf troughs, often hundreds of metres deep and tens to hundreds of kilometres long, are characteristic components of most high-latitude continental shelves (e.g. Anderson 1999). Most Arctic shelves are…Read more on Three cross-shelf troughs on the continental shelf of SW Greenland from Olex data
1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Acoustically stratified sediments that infill glacially eroded bedrock basins are common in fjords (Seramur et al. 1997; Gilbert et al. 1998; Hogan et al. 2012; Dowdeswell & Vasquez 2013). Internally,…Read more on Stratified glacimarine basin-fills in West Greenland fjords
1 January, 2016 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, Kelly Hogan, Robert Larter
Most of the West Antarctic continental margin has prograded during Neogene and Quaternary times, due largely to sediment delivery to the shelf break by ice sheets (Larter & Cunningham 1993;…Read more on Debris-flow deposits on the West Antarctic continental slope
1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan, Robert Larter
On parts of glaciated continental margins, especially the inner shelves around Antarctica, grounded ice has removed pre-existing sedimentary cover, leaving subglacial bedforms on eroded substrates (Anderson et al. 2001; Wellner…Read more on Crag-and-tail features on the Amundsen Sea continental shelf, West Antarctica
1 January, 2016 by Jeremy Wilkinson, Kelly Hogan
The life history of sea ice is written in its basal morphology. Sea ice progresses through several stages during its lifecycle, including frazil, nilas and pancake ice, until it bonds…Read more on The three-dimensional shape of sea ice revealed by multibeam sonar
1 January, 2016 by Robert Larter
The DRAKE-SCOTIA SEA GATEWAYS is a new multidisciplinary International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) drilling proposal aimed at determining the time of opening and pattern of development of gateways in the…20 December, 2015 by Hugh Venables
The Scotia Sea region contains some of the most productive waters of the Southern Ocean. It is also a dynamic region through the interaction of deep water masses with the…18 December, 2015 by Richard Horne
Fast mode magnetosonic waves are typically confined close to the magnetic equator and exhibit harmonic structures at multiples of the local, equatorial proton cyclotron frequency. We report observations of magnetosonic…Read more on Observations of discrete magnetosonic waves off the magnetic equator
11 December, 2015 by John Turner, Thomas Bracegirdle, Tony Phillips
Climate models exhibit large biases in sea ice area (SIA) in their historical simulations. This study explores the impacts of these biases on multimodel uncertainty in Coupled Model Intercomparison Project…3 December, 2015 by Emily Ludlow, Scott Hosking, Liz Thomas, Rebecca Tuckwell
The Amundsen Sea sector of the West Antarctic ice sheet has been losing mass in recent decades; however, long records of snow accumulation are needed to place the recent changes…Read more on Twentieth century increase in snowfall in coastal West Antarctica
3 December, 2015 by Richard Hindmarsh, Richard Hindmarsh
Large parts of the Antarctic ice sheet lying on bedrock below sea level may be vulnerable to marine-ice-sheet instability (MISI)1, a self-sustaining retreat of the grounding line triggered by oceanic…1 December, 2015 by Michael Thorne, Melody Clark
454 RNA-Seq transcriptome data were generated from foot tissue of the Antarctic brooding gastropod mollusc Margarella antarctica. A total of 6195 contigs were assembled de novo, providing a useful resource…Read more on Transcriptome of the Antarctic brooding gastropod mollusc Margarella antarctica
1 December, 2015 by Xin Yang
At present, anthropogenic halogens and oceanic emissions of Very Short-Lived Substances (VSLS) are responsible for stratospheric ozone destruction. Emissions of the, mostly long-lived, anthropogenic halogens have been reduced, and as…Read more on Oceanic bromine emissions weighted by their ozone depletion potential
1 December, 2015 by Katrin Linse
Hydrothermal vents on mid-oceanic ridges are patchily distributed and host many taxa endemic to deep-sea chemosynthetic environments, whose dispersal may be constrained by geographical barriers. The aim of this study…1 December, 2015 by Elisabeth Biersma, Peter Convey
The extreme polar environment creates challenges for the resident invertebrate communities and the stress tolerance of some of these animals has been examined over many years. However, although it is…1 December, 2015 by Roger Worland, Peter Convey
As small bodied poikilothermic ectotherms, invertebrates, more so than any other animal group, are susceptible to extremes of temperature and low water availability. In few places is this more apparent…Read more on Responses of invertebrates to temperature and water stress: A polar perspective
1 December, 2015 by Iain Staniland
Despite global declines in the abundance of marine predators, knowledge of foraging ecology, necessary to predict the ecological consequences of large changes in marine predator abundance, remains enigmatic for many…1 December, 2015 by Zhaomin Wang
Surface roughness which partitions surface net radiation into energy fluxes is a key parameter for estimation of biosphere–atmosphere interactions and climate variability. An earth system model of intermediate complexity (EMIC),…Read more on Contribution of surface roughness to simulations of historical deforestation
1 December, 2015 by Dominic Hodgson
Higher homologues of widely reported C86 isoprenoid diglycerol tetraether lipid cores, containing 0–6 cyclopentyl rings, have been identified in (hyper)thermophilic archaea, representing up to 21% of total tetraether lipids in…1 December, 2015 by Dave Munday, Dani Jones
On planetary scales, surface wind stress and differential buoyancy forcing act together to produce isopycnal surfaces that are relatively flat in the tropics/subtropics and steep near the poles, where they…Read more on Planetary-geometric constraints on isopycnal slope in the Southern Ocean
1 December, 2015 by David Jones, Michael Rose
The Halley VI Antarctic Research station was designed as a series of linked, ski-mounted modules. This makes it possible to relocate the station in the event that changing Antarctic conditions…1 December, 2015 by Emilie Capron
The Last Interglacial (LIG) represents an invaluable case study to investigate the response of components of the Earth system to global warming. However, the scarcity of absolute age constraints in…1 December, 2015 by Philip Trathan
The relationship between ammonia (NH3) concentrations downwind from a penguin colony and local surface greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes was investigated on the remote sub-Antarctic Bird Island (54°00′S, 38°03′W) during summer…1 December, 2015 by Dani Jones, Richard Phillips
Rationale The main limitation of isotopic tracking for inferring distribution is the lack of detailed reference maps of the isotopic landscape (i.e. isoscapes) in the marine environment. Here, we attempt…1 December, 2015 by Lloyd Peck, Michael Thorne, Melody Clark
Background The capacity of marine species to survive chronic heat stress underpins their ability to survive warming oceans as a result of climate change. In this study RNA-Seq and 2-DE…1 December, 2015 by Martin Wearing, Richard Hindmarsh, Richard Hindmarsh
We investigate the relationship between four ice-shelf characteristics in the area close to the calving front: ice flow speed, strain rate, ice thickness and shelf width. Data are compiled for…1 December, 2015 by Eugene Murphy
The Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER) project aims at developing a comprehensive understanding of and accurate predictive capacity of ocean responses to accelerating global change and the consequent…Read more on IMBER – Research for marine sustainability: Synthesis and the way forward
1 December, 2015 by Hua Lu, Ian White, Tony Phillips
Wave–mean flow interactions associated with the Holton–Tan effect (HTE), whereby the tropical quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) modulates the Northern Hemisphere wintertime stratospheric polar vortex, are studied using the ERA-Interim dataset. Significant…1 December, 2015 by Pierre Mathiot
The Younger Dryas cooling event disrupted the overall warming trend in the North Atlantic region during the last deglaciation1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Climate change during the Younger Dryas…Read more on Multiple causes of the Younger Dryas cold period
1 December, 2015 by Geraint Tarling, Gabriele Stowasser, Peter Ward, Ryan Saunders, Simeon Hill
Myctophids are the most abundant mesopelagic fishes in the Southern Ocean, although their trophic role within the predominantly krill-based food web in regions south of the Antarctic Polar Front (APF)…1 December, 2015 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
Antarctica contains some of the most challenging environmental conditions on the planet due to freezing temperatures, prolonged winters and lack of liquid water. Whereas 99.7% of Antarctica is permanently covered…Read more on Mitochondrial DNA analyses reveal widespread tardigrade diversity in Antarctica
1 December, 2015 by Mervyn Freeman
We present a new quantitative technique that determines the times and durations of substorm expansion and recovery phases and possible growth phases based on percentiles of the rate of change…28 November, 2015 by Mark Clilverd
Electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves are thought to be important drivers of energetic electron losses from the outer radiation belt through precipitation into the atmosphere. While the theoretical possibility of…Read more on High-resolution in situ observations of electron precipitation-causing EMIC waves
27 November, 2015 by Ingrid Cnossen
This special issue bundles some of the latest results on decadal-scale variations in the stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and ionosphere, following on from the 8th Workshop on Long-Term Changes and Trends…18 November, 2015 by Andrew Gray
Recent research has tried to calculate the "total cost of publication" in the British academic sector, bringing together the costs of journal subscriptions, the article processing charges (APCs) paid to…Read more on Considering Non-Open Access Publication Charges in the “Total Cost of Publication”
13 November, 2015 by David Barnes
The Antarctic Peninsula (AP) is one of the three places on Earth that registered the most intense warming in the last 50 years, almost five times the global mean. This…Read more on Climate change and glacier retreat drive shifts in an Antarctic benthic ecosystem
13 November, 2015 by Emily Shuckburgh
In the last century, the Earth has undergone a very fast and unusual change in the radiative forcing of its climate, resulting from human actions. This change in forcing has…Read more on Feedbacks on climate in the Earth system: introduction
1 November, 2015 by Hugh Venables, Michael Meredith
Iron (Fe) is an essential micronutrient for phytoplankton, and is scarce in many regions including the open Southern Ocean. The western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP), an important source region of Fe…1 November, 2015 by Peter Convey
Sea ice algae are primary producers of the ice-covered oceans in both polar regions. Changes in sea ice distribution are potentially altering exposure to photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and ultraviolet-B…Read more on Aspects of resilience of polar sea ice algae to changes in their environment