24 June, 2014 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, James Smith, Philip Trathan, Robert Larter, William Dickens
We present a new, high resolution (300 m) bathymetric grid of the continental shelf surrounding the South Orkney Islands, northeast of the Antarctic Peninsula. The new grid, derived from a…24 June, 2014 by Jean-Baptiste Sallee
Variations in the world's ocean heat storage and its associated volume changes are a key factor to gauge global warming and to assess the Earth's energy budget. It is also…Read more on Consistency of the current global ocean observing systems from an Argo perspective
19 June, 2014 by David Vaughan
Changes in both global and regional mean sea level, and changes in the magnitude of extreme flood heights, are the result of a combination of several distinct contributions most, but…Read more on Sources of 21st century regional sea level rise along the coast of North-West Europe
18 June, 2014 by David Barnes
Millimeter-sized plastics are abundant in most marine surface waters, and known to carry fouling organisms that potentially play key roles in the fate and ecological impacts of plastic pollution. In…17 June, 2014 by John Turner
Two polar vessels, Akademik Shokalskiy and Xuelong, were trapped by thick sea ice in the Antarctic coastal region just to the west of 144°E and between 66.5°S and 67°S in…Read more on Cyclone-induced rapid creation of extreme Antarctic sea ice conditions
16 June, 2014 by David Barnes, Mairi Fenton
Life on Antarctica’s coastal seabed rollercoasters between food-rich, open-water, iceberg-scoured summers and food-sparse winters, when the sea surface freezes into ‘fast-ice’, locking up icebergs, reducing their seabed collisions (scouring). In…16 June, 2014
Whereas millennial to sub-millennial climate variability has been identified during the current interglacial period, past interglacial variability features remain poorly explored because of lacking data at sufficient temporal resolutions. Here,…16 June, 2014 by Richard Hindmarsh, Richard Hindmarsh
The rate of ice transport from the interior of ice sheets to their margins, and hence the rate with which it contributes to sea level, is determined by the balance…14 June, 2014 by Hugh Venables, Michael Meredith, Paul Holland
The horizontal and vertical circulation of the Weddell Gyre is diagnosed using a box inverse model constructed with recent hydrographic sections and including mobile sea ice and eddy transports. The…12 June, 2014 by Michael Dunn
Climate change is a major threat to global biodiversity. Antarctic ecosystems are no exception. Investigating past species responses to climatic events can distinguish natural from anthropogenic impacts. Climate change produces…11 June, 2014 by Emma Woodfield
Color mosaic CCDs use a matrix of different wide-band micro-filters in order to produce images with several (often three) color channels. These devices are increasingly employed in auroral studies to…Read more on Auroral spectral estimation with wide-band color mosaic CCDs
10 June, 2014 by Katrin Linse
Explaining patterns of commonness and rarity is fundamental for understanding and managing biodiversity. Consequently, a key test of biodiversity theory has been how well ecological models reproduce empirical distributions of…9 June, 2014 by Kevin Hughes
Fungi isolated from environmentally challenging habitats can have adaptations of potential value when developed as insect pest-controls. Fungal isolates collected from Antarctica, Geomyces sp. I, Geomyces sp. II, Mortierella signyensis…5 June, 2014 by Keith Makinson
In the early hours of 25 December 2012, an attempt to explore Subglacial Lake Ellsworth, West Antarctica, using a specially designed hot-water drill, was halted. This UK project, involving several…2 June, 2014 by Hugh Venables, Michael Meredith, Paul Holland
Full-depth measurements of δ18O from 2008 to 2010 enclosing the Weddell Gyre in the Southern Ocean are used to investigate the regional freshwater budget. Using complementary salinity, nutrients and oxygen…Read more on Freshwater fluxes in the Weddell Gyre: results from δ18O
2 June, 2014 by Damien Guihen, Sophie Fielding
The Antarctic continental shelves and slopes occupy relatively small areas, but, nevertheless, are important for global climate, biogeochemical cycling and ecosystem functioning. Processes of water mass transformation through sea ice…Read more on Ocean processes at the Antarctic continental slope
2 June, 2014 by Andrew Meijers
The Southern Ocean is an important part of the global climate system, but its complex coupled nature makes both its present state and its response to projected future climate forcing…Read more on The Southern Ocean in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5
2 June, 2014 by Michael Meredith
The densest waters in the Atlantic overturning circulation are sourced at the periphery of Antarctica, especially the Weddell Sea, and flow northward via routes that involve crossing the complex bathymetry…2 June, 2014 by Eric Wolff
Ice could play a role in identifying and defining the Anthropocene. The recurrence of northern hemisphere glaciation and the stability of the Greenland Ice Sheet are both potentially vulnerable to…1 June, 2014 by Huw Griffiths, Katrin Linse
The Latitudinal Gradient Program (2002–2011) aimed at understanding the marine and terrestrial ecosystems existing along the Victoria Land coast (Ross Sea), an area characterized by strong latitudinal clines in environmental…1 June, 2014 by Jean-Baptiste Sallee
Interactions between eddies and mean flow are essential to close the momentum budget of the Southern Ocean, as well as to determine the structure of the global meridional overturning circulation.…Read more on Aspects of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current dynamics investigated with drifter data
1 June, 2014 by Adrian Jenkins, Dominic Hodgson, Gareth Marshall, Howard Roscoe, Jonathan Shanklin, John Turner, Michael Meredith, Peter Convey, Thomas Bracegirdle
We present an update of the ‘key points’ from the Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment (ACCE) report that was published by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) in…Read more on Antarctic climate change and the environment: an update
1 June, 2014 by Lloyd Peck, Michael Thorne, Melody Clark
RNA-Seq transcriptome data were generated from mantle tissue of the great scallop, Pecten maximus. The consensus data were produced from a time course series of animals subjected to a 56-day…Read more on Deep sequencing of the mantle transcriptome of the great scallop Pecten maximus
1 June, 2014 by Simeon Hill
‘Wasp-waist’ systems are dominated by a mid trophic-level species that is thought to exert top-down control on its food and bottom-up control on its predators. Sardines, anchovy, and Antarctic krill…Read more on Sardine cycles, krill declines, and locust plagues: revisiting ‘wasp-waist’ food webs
1 June, 2014 by Mark Belchier, Susan Gregory
New information on the biology and ecology of an abundant ‘rockcod’ species, Lepidonotothen squamifrons (family: Nototheniidae), found at South Georgia is presented. Data collected from twenty demersal trawl surveys carried…1 June, 2014 by Damien Guihen, Eugene Murphy, Sophie Fielding
A calibrated 120 kHz single-beam echo-sounder was integrated into an ocean glider and deployed in the Weddell Sea, Southern Ocean. The glider was deployed for two short periods in January…1 June, 2014 by David Vaughan, Hugh Corr, Richard Hindmarsh, Richard Hindmarsh
The potential for future dynamical instability of Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica, has been addressed in a number of studies, but information on its past remains limited. In this study…1 June, 2014 by Chester Sands, David Barnes, Lloyd Peck, Mark Belchier, Simon Morley
In order to allocate quotas for sustainable harvests, that account for climate warming, it is important to incorporate species vulnerabilities that will underlie likely changes in population dynamics. Hotspots, regions…1 June, 2014 by Rocio Moreno
Background: In oligotrophic tropical marine environments, the main mechanism explaining the coexistence of sympatric seabirds is segregation by habitat or segregation by prey within the same habitat. Both types of…1 June, 2014 by Anje-Margriet Neutel, Michael Thorne
The strength of interactions is crucial to the stability of ecological networks. However, the patterns of interaction strengths in mathematical models of ecosystems have not yet been based upon independent…1 June, 2014 by Michael Meredith
The first Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) Asian Workshop was successfully held in Shanghai, China in May 2013, attracting over 40 participants from six Asian nations and widening exposure to…Read more on The SOOS Asian Workshop: Exploring possibilities for collaboration
1 June, 2014 by Richard Phillips
In striking contrast to the general increase in diving ability with body mass in seabirds, amongst the Procellariiformes, the deepest dives appear to be by the smallest species. Here, we…1 June, 2014 by Geraint Tarling, Gabriele Stowasser, Peter Ward, Ryan Saunders
The Scotia Sea is one of the most productive regions of the Southern Ocean, but its surface waters are experiencing a rapid increase in temperature, which may be changing the…Read more on The trophodynamics of Southern Ocean Electrona (Myctophidae) in the Scotia Sea
22 May, 2014 by Ingrid Cnossen
The Earth’s upper atmosphere has shown signs of cooling and contraction over the past decades. This is generally attributed to the increasing level of atmospheric CO2, a coolant in the…22 May, 2014 by Roger Worland, Peter Convey
Low water availability is one of the principal stressors for terrestrial invertebrates in the polar regions, determining the survival of individuals, the success of species and the composition of communities.…19 May, 2014 by Anna Jones, Eric Wolff
Sea ice is a reflection of, and a feedback on the Earth's climate. We explore here, using a global atmospheric chemistry-transport model, the use of sea salt in Antarctic ice…Read more on Sea salt as an ice core proxy for past sea ice extent: a process-based model study
15 May, 2014 by Teal Riley
The great majority of continental flood basalts (CFBs) have a marked lithospheric geochemical signature, suggesting derivation from the continental lithosphere, or contamination by it. Here we present new Pb and…15 May, 2014 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand
Neodymium and hafnium isotopes and elemental concentrations (Sm, Nd, Hf, Zr) have been measured in three water column profiles south of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current in, and to the east…14 May, 2014 by Kevin Hughes, Peter Convey
The introduction of non-native species to Antarctica in association with human activities is a major threat to indigenous biodiversity and the region's unique ecosystems, as has been well-demonstrated in other…Read more on Alien invasions in Antarctica – is anyone liable?
14 May, 2014 by Martin Collins, Philip Trathan
Most studies concerning the foraging ecology of marine vertebrates are limited to breeding adults, although other life history stages might comprise half the total population. For penguins, little is known…1 May, 2014 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, James Smith, Robert Larter
Recent palaeoglaciological studies on the West Antarctic shelf have mainly focused on the wide embayments of the Ross and Amundsen seas in order to reconstruct the extent and subsequent retreat…1 May, 2014 by Mark Clilverd, Neil Cobbett, Paul Breen
Sub-ionospheric radio-wave data from an AARDDVARK receiver located in Churchill, Canada, is analysed to determine the characteristics of electron precipitation into the atmosphere over the range 3 30 keV precipitation fluxes of…1 May, 2014 by Andrew Clarke, David Barnes, Huw Griffiths, Lloyd Peck, Peter Convey, Simon Morley
Patterns of environmental spatial structure lie at the heart of the most fundamental and familiar patterns of diversity on Earth. Antarctica contains some of the strongest environmental gradients on the…Read more on The spatial structure of Antarctic biodiversity
1 May, 2014 by Elaine Fitzcharles
Correct species identification is fundamental to all areas of biology, but particularly the policy related areas of conservation and fisheries management. To enable guidelines to be developed for environmental management…1 May, 2014 by Will Goodall-Copestake
The identification of salp species by morphological features alone can be challenging. This study combined morphological and molecular approaches to characterize different salp reproductive forms (oozooids and blastozooids) collected from…1 May, 2014 by Paul Holland
Unlike the rapid sea-ice losses reported in the Arctic, satellite observations show an overall increase in Antarctic sea ice concentration over recent decades. However, observations of decadal trends in Antarctic…1 May, 2014 by Anna Jones, Howard Roscoe, Neil Brough
Tropospheric BrO was measured by a ground-based remote-sensing spectrometer at Halley in Antarctica in spring 2007, and BrO was measured by satellite-borne remote-sensing spectrometers using similar spectral regions and similar…1 May, 2014 by Geraint Tarling, Sally Thorpe
Antarctic krill are known to have strong swimming capabilities, but direct observations of the speed and direction of krill-swarm movement within their natural environment are rare. We identified and examined…Read more on Instantaneous movement of krill swarms in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current
1 May, 2014 by Emma Woodfield, Richard Horne, Sarah Glauert
The intense inner radiation belt at Jupiter (>50 MeV at 1.5 RJ) is generally accepted to be created by radial diffusion of electrons from further away from the planet. However,…1 May, 2014 by Philip Trathan
Many animals migrate between breeding and wintering areas; however, whether each animal behaves consistently in space and time between consecutive years is less well understood. Furthermore, previous breeding state (successful…Read more on Individual consistency in migratory behaviour of a pelagic seabird
30 April, 2014 by Emilie Capron
During the last glacial cycle, Greenland temperature showed many rapid temperature variations, the so called Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events. The past atmospheric methane concentration closely followed these temperature variations, which implies…29 April, 2014 by Paul Holland
An ocean mixed-layer model has been incorporated into the Los Alamos sea ice model CICE to investigate regional variations in the surface-driven formation of Antarctic shelf waters. This model captures…Read more on Sea ice and the ocean mixed layer over the Antarctic shelf seas
28 April, 2014 by Richard Horne
We investigate the temporal evolution and the spatial distribution of electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves during the 8–11 June 2001 geomagnetic storm, one of the storms selected for study by…24 April, 2014 by Peter Convey
This study provides the description of the complete mitochondrial genome of the Antarctic collembola Folsomotoma octooculata. Since mitogenomic data are extensively used for phylogenetic reconstruction, we also provide a phylogenetic…24 April, 2014 by Mark Clilverd
Variation in solar irradiance is considered an important factor in natural climate forcing. Variations in the solar UV in particular are now regarded as a major source of decadal variability…22 April, 2014 by Ed King
The collapses of the Larsen A and B ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula in 1995 and 2002 confirm the impact of southward-propagating climate warming in this region. Recent mass…Read more on Marine ice regulates the future stability of a large Antarctic ice shelf
20 April, 2014 by Adrian Jenkins, Paul Holland
A laboratory experiment is constructed to simulate the density-driven circulation under an idealized Antarctic ice shelf and to investigate the flux of dense and freshwater in and out of the…Read more on The effect of geometry on ice shelf ocean cavity ventilation: a laboratory experiment
17 April, 2014 by David Jones, Hilmar Gudmundsson
The British Antarctic Survey's Halley Research Station is located on the Brunt Ice Shelf, Antarctica, where it is potentially vulnerable to calving events. Existing historical records show that the Brunt…Read more on Halley Research Station, Antarctica: calving risks and monitoring strategies
16 April, 2014 by Fausto Ferraccioli
Wilkes Land is a key region for studying the configuration of Gondwana and for appreciating the role of tectonic boundary conditions on East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) behavior. Despite this…Read more on The subglacial geology of Wilkes Land, East Antarctica
16 April, 2014 by Mark Clilverd
A summary is presented of experimental optical observations at 4278 Å from close to a powerful (~150 kW) VLF transmitter (call-sign JXN) with a transmission frequency of 16.4 kHz. Approximately…15 April, 2014 by Adrian Jenkins, Jan De Rydt, Paul Holland, Pierre Dutrieux
Observations beneath the floating section of Pine Island Glacier have revealed the presence of a subglacial ridge which rises up to 300 m above the surrounding bathymetry. This topographic feature…Read more on Geometric and oceanographic controls on melting beneath Pine Island Glacier
15 April, 2014 by Peter Convey
Climate change has played a critical role in the evolution and structure of Earth’s biodiversity. Geothermal activity, which can maintain ice-free terrain in glaciated regions, provides a tantalizing solution to…Read more on Geothermal activity helps life survive glacial cycles
10 April, 2014 by Carlos Martin Garcia
We use a full-Stokes thermo-mechanically coupled ice-flow model to study the dynamics of the glacier inside Scharffenbergbotnen valley, Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. The domain encompasses a high accumulation rate region…3 April, 2014 by Kevin Hughes
Annex V to the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (the Protocol) establishes a framework for designating Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPAs) and Antarctic Specially Managed Areas (ASMAs).…Read more on Specially protected and managed areas in Antarctica (updated)
2 April, 2014 by Richard Phillips
Individual wintering strategies and patterns of winter site fidelity in successive years are highly variable among seabird species. Yet, an understanding of consistency in timing of movements and the degree…2 April, 2014
Viruses from extreme environments are still largely unexplored and may harbor unseen genetic potential. Here, we present a first glance at the morphological diversity of virus like particles (VLPs) from…1 April, 2014 by Martin Black
This paper presents an investigation of image texture approaches for mapping sub-pixel fluvial grain-size features from airborne imagery, allowing for the rapid acquisition of surface sand and coarse fraction (>1.41…Read more on Mapping sub-pixel fluvial grain sizes with hyperspatial imagery
1 April, 2014 by Jennifer Jackson
Right whales (Eubalaena spp.) were the focus of worldwide whaling activities from the 16th to the 20th century. During the first part of the 19th century, the southern right whale…1 April, 2014
Cenozoic opening of the central Scotia Sea involved the tectonic translation of crustal blocks to form the North Scotia Ridge, which today is a major topographic constriction to the flow…1 April, 2014 by Lloyd Peck
This study examined high temperature survival and heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) responses to temperature variation for two marine invertebrate species on sub-Antarctic Marion Island. The isopod Exosphaeroma gigas Leach…1 April, 2014 by Dominic Hodgson, Huw Griffiths, Stephen Roberts
We present multibeam swath bathymetric surveys of the major fjords surrounding the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia to characterise the glacial geomorphology and to identify the relative timings and extent…1 April, 2014 by Hugh Corr, Richard Hindmarsh, Richard Hindmarsh
Isolated areas of high basal drag, or ‘sticky spots’, are important and poorly understood features in the force balance and dynamics of West Antarctic ice streams. Characterizing sticky spots formed…1 April, 2014 by Dominic Hodgson, Peter Convey
With direct meteorological data on the Antarctic Peninsula only dating back to the 1950s, scientists must search elsewhere for climate change records of the distant past. A series of expeditions…1 April, 2014 by Andrew Clarke
Living organisms on Earth are characterized by three necessary features: a set of internal instructions encoded in DNA (software), a suite of proteins and associated macromolecules providing a boundary and…1 April, 2014 by Alistair Crame, Jane Francis, Vanessa Bowman
In an effort to improve understanding of faunal evolution and its relationship to climate change, the PALEOPOLAR project is challenging existing theories about the Early Cenozoic era using an integrated,…1 April, 2014
The cold ice shelf water (ISW) that formed below the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf in the southwestern Weddell Sea, Antarctica, escapes the ice shelf cavity through the Filchner Depression and spills…Read more on On the Seasonal Signal of the Filchner Overflow, Weddell Sea, Antarctica
1 April, 2014 by Katrin Linse
The cold stenothermal nature of the Southern Ocean, and highly adapted fauna living within, raises the question of how much intra-specific variation there is among invertebrate populations, and how variation…1 April, 2014
Bryophytes are unable to control tissue water content although physiological adaptations allow growth in a wide range of habitats. Carbon isotope signals in two mosses (Syntrichia ruralis and Chorisodontium aciphyllum)…1 April, 2014 by Lloyd Peck, Melody Clark
Many early life-stage response studies to ocean acidification utilize gametes/offspring obtained from ambient-sourced parents, which are then directly introduced to experimentally altered seawater pH. This approach may produce a stress…1 April, 2014
We have recently suggested that the warming in the sea surface temperature (SST) since 1900, did not occur smoothly and slowly, but with two rapid shifts in 1925/1926 and 1987/1988,…Read more on Evidence for two abrupt warming events of SST in the last century
1 April, 2014
Long records of the latitude and speed of the North Atlantic eddy-driven jet stream since 1871 are presented from the newly available Twentieth Century Reanalysis. These jet variations underlie the…Read more on Twentieth century North Atlantic jet variability
28 March, 2014 by Jane Francis
General Circulation Model simulations of the mid-Pliocene warm period (mPWP, 3.264 to 3.025 Myr ago) currently underestimate the level of warming that proxy data suggest existed at high latitudes, with…27 March, 2014 by Hua Lu, Thomas Bracegirdle, Tony Phillips
This study provides a mechanistic explanation of why the Holton-Tan (HT) effect, a phenomenon in which the strength of northern stratospheric winter polar vortex synchronizes with the equatorial quasi-biennial oscillation…Read more on Mechanisms for the Holton-Tan relationship and its decadal variation
24 March, 2014 by Jennifer Jackson, Katrin Linse
The skeleton of a natural whale fall discovered in the Southern Ocean at 1,445 m was densely covered by one small, janirid isopod. Jaera tyleri sp. nov. is the first…21 March, 2014 by David Newnham
This paper describes the stratospheric and mesospheric ozone profiles retrieved from spectral measurements of the 249.96 GHz O3 line, using the British Antarctic Survey's ground-based Microwave Radiometer at Troll (BAS-MRT),…17 March, 2014 by Peter Convey
Mosses, dominant elements in the vegetation of polar and alpine regions, have well-developed stress tolerance features permitting cryptobiosis. However, direct regeneration after longer periods of cryptobiosis has been demonstrated only…Read more on Millennial timescale regeneration in a moss from Antarctica
17 March, 2014 by Vsevolod Afanasyev
Scaly-sided Mergansers Mergus squamatus breed on freshwater rivers in far eastern Russia, Korea and China, wintering in similar habitats in China and Korea, but nothing was known of their moulting…15 March, 2014 by Jean-Baptiste Sallee
Low levels of iron limit primary productivity across much of the Southern Ocean. At the basin scale, most dissolved iron is supplied to surface waters from subsurface reservoirs, because land…Read more on Surface-water iron supplies in the Southern Ocean sustained by deep winter mixing