1 September, 2013 by Michael Meredith
The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is home to large breeding colonies of the ice-dependent Antarctic Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae). Although the entire inner continental shelf is highly productive, with abundant…31 August, 2013
U-Pb zircon ion-microprobe geochronology, whole rock geochemistry and feldspar Pb and Sm-Nd isotopic analyses carried out on granitoid rocks along a transect across the Nabitah fault zone suggest that it…28 August, 2013 by Hugh Corr
We analyze data acquired by the CryoSat-2 interferometric radar altimeter and demonstrate its novel capability to track topographic features on the Antarctic Ice Sheet. We map the perimeter and depth…Read more on Three-dimensional mapping by Cryosat 2 of subglacial lake volumes
21 August, 2013 by Simeon Hill, Tony Phillips
Antarctic krill is a cold water species, an increasingly important fishery resource and a major prey item for many fish, birds and mammals in the Southern Ocean. The fishery and…21 August, 2013 by Michael Thorne, Melody Clark
Background The Ice krill, Euphausia crystallorophias is one of the species at the base of the Southern Ocean food chain. Given their significant contribution to the biomass of the Southern…19 August, 2013 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand
This paper presents a glacial geomorphological map of over 17,000 landforms on the bed of a major palaeo-ice stream in Marguerite Bay, western Antarctic Peninsula. The map was compiled using…Read more on Glacial geomorphology of Marguerite Bay Palaeo-Ice stream, western Antarctic Peninsula
11 August, 2013
At the Earth’s surface, heat fluxes from the interior1 are generally insignificant compared with those from the Sun and atmosphere2, except in areas permanently blanketed by ice. Modelling studies show…7 August, 2013 by Katrin Linse
The phylogeny of the superfamily Chirostyloidea (Decapoda: Anomura) has been poorly understood owing to limited taxon sampling and discordance between different genes. We present a nine-gene dataset across 15 chirostyloids,…2 August, 2013 by Philip Trathan
Post-breeding migration in land-based marine animals is thought to offset seasonal deterioration in foraging or other important environmental conditions at the breeding site. However the inter-breeding distribution of such animals…Read more on A space oddity: Geographic and specific modulation of migration in Eudyptes penguins
1 August, 2013
The marine copepod, Calanus finmarchicus, is a crucial component of the pelagic food web in the North Atlantic and peripheral seas where it is a major player in biogeochemical cycles…1 August, 2013 by Katrin Linse
Large cetacean carcasses at the deep-sea floor, known as ‘whale falls’, provide a resource for generalist-scavenging species, chemosynthetic fauna related to those from hydrothermal vents and cold seeps, and remarkable…Read more on The discovery of a natural whale fall in the Antarctic deep sea
1 August, 2013 by Emilie Capron, Eric Wolff
An accurate and coherent chronological framework is essential for the interpretation of climatic and environmental records obtained from deep polar ice cores. Until now, one common ice core age scale…1 August, 2013 by Carlos Martin Garcia
The Fourth IPCC Assessment Report concluded that ice sheet flow models, in their current state, were unable to provide accurate forecast for the increase of polar ice sheet discharge and…Read more on Capabilities and performance of Elmer/Ice, a new-generation ice sheet model
1 August, 2013 by Kevin Hughes
The footprint of human activities within Antarctica is increasing, making it essential to consider whether current conservation/protection of environmental and scientific values is adequate. The Antarctic protected area network has…1 August, 2013 by Katrin Linse
Eleven specimens representing two hippolytid genera, EualusThallwitz, 1892 and LebbeusWhite, 1847 were sampled recently from the Scotia Sea (1517–2598 m). Seven specimens are described and illustrated as Eualus amandae sp.…1 August, 2013 by Lloyd Peck, Simon Morley
At all but the lowest latitudes, photoperiod varies through the year, resulting in seasonal variation in coastal primary productivity. This leads to a pronounced seasonality in the physiology of most…1 August, 2013 by Lloyd Peck
Growth rates in Antarctic marine ectotherms have been demonstrated to be slowed by two to five times compared to shallow-water temperate species, with no previous reports for octocorals. Here growth…1 August, 2013
Aim In the Northern Hemisphere, bird migration from the tropic to the temperate zone in spring is thought to proceed at a rate determined in large part by local phenology.…Read more on Phenological matching across hemispheres in a long-distance migratory bird
1 August, 2013 by Geraint Tarling, Ryan Saunders
Euphausiids are an important component of the northern North Atlantic ecosystem and several species are found in the Irminger Sea. However, data on euphausiids in this region are few, particularly…1 August, 2013 by Adrian Jenkins
The recent retreat and speedup of outlet glaciers, as well as enhanced surface melting around the ice sheet margin, have increased Greenland's contribution to sea level rise to 0.6±0.1 mm/yr…1 August, 2013 by Emilie Capron, Eric Wolff
The deep polar ice cores provide reference records commonly employed in global correlation of past climate events. However, temporal divergences reaching up to several thousand years (ka) exist between ice…1 August, 2013 by Roger Worland
This study compares the composition and biophysical properties of lipids in non-diapausing and diapausing fifth instar larvae of Ostrinia nubilalis Hubn. (Lepidoptera: Crambidae). The majority of fat body lipids in…30 July, 2013 by Philip Leat
An international 3-day meeting in which participants discussed geodynamic and multidisciplinary topics related to the evolution of the Scotia Arc was held at the Andalucía Institute of Earth Sciences (Spanish…27 July, 2013 by Mervyn Freeman
This study presents a nonlinear spatio-temporal analysis of 1167 station temperature records from the United States Historical Climatology Network covering the period from 1898 through 2008. We use the Empirical…Read more on A spatiotemporal analysis of U.S. station temperature trends over the last century
22 July, 2013 by David Barnes
The recent collapse of the Antarctic Larson ice shelves revealed a slow growing benthic community on the seabed below. But a revisit just four years later revealed rapid growth of…Read more on Marine biology: new light on growth in the cold
22 July, 2013 by Teal Riley
Earth history is punctuated by events during which large volumes of predominantly mafic magmas were generated and emplaced by processes that are generally accepted as being, unrelated to ‘normal’ sea-floor…21 July, 2013 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand
The East Antarctic ice sheet is believed to be Earth's most stable ice sheet. Changes in geochemical composition of offshore sediments suggest that its margin repeatedly retreated by at least…16 July, 2013 by Jaume Forcada, Michael Thorne
High-density SNP arrays developed for humans and their companion species provide a rapid and convenient tool for generating SNP data in closely-related non-model organisms, but have not yet been widely…12 July, 2013
Macrozooplankton are an important link between higher and lower trophic levels in the oceans. They serve as the primary food for fish, reptiles, birds and mammals in some regions, and…Read more on Distribution of known macrozooplankton abundance and biomass in the global ocean
5 July, 2013 by Eric Wolff
Snow and ice play their most important role in the nitrogen cycle as a barrier to land–atmosphere and ocean–atmosphere exchanges that would otherwise occur. The inventory of nitrogen compounds in…5 July, 2013 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, James Smith, Robert Larter
We present results of a multi-proxy study on marine sediment core JR179-PC466 recovered from the crest of a sediment drift off the West Antarctic Peninsula at approximately 2300 m water…1 July, 2013 by Robert Larter
Submarine gullies are common features of high latitude continental slopes and, over the last decade, have been shown to play a key role in continental margin evolution, submarine erosion, downslope…1 July, 2013 by Mark Belchier
The study of spatial and temporal distribution and diversity of ichthyoplankton (fish eggs and larvae) can provide fisheries-independent information on the population dynamics and recruitment processes of marine fish species.…1 July, 2013 by Lloyd Peck, Michael Thorne, Melody Clark
Future oceans are predicted to contain less oxygen than at present. This is because oxygen is less soluble in warmer water and predicted stratification will reduce mixing. Hypoxia in marine…Read more on Hypoxia impacts large adults first: consequences in a warming world
1 July, 2013 by Markus Frey
Here we report the measurement of the comprehensive isotopic composition (δ15N, Δ17O and δ18O) of nitrate at the air–snow interface at Dome C, Antarctica (DC, 75°06' S, 123°19' E), and…1 July, 2013 by Huw Griffiths, Katrin Linse, Mark Belchier, Rowan Whittle, Stephen Roberts
Recent scientific interest following the “discovery” of lithodid crabs around Antarctica has centred on a hypothesis that these crabs might be poised to invade the Antarctic shelf if the recent…1 July, 2013 by Adrian Jenkins, Paul Holland, Satoshi Kimura
Several different classes of ocean model are capable of representing floating glacial ice shelves. We describe the incorporation of ice shelves into Fluidity-ICOM, a nonhydrostatic finite-element ocean model with the…1 July, 2013 by Jonathan Kingslake
We explore a mathematical model that couples together a thermomechanically evolving subglacial channel, distributed cavity drainage, and basal sliding along a subglacial flood path fed by a jökulhlaup lake. It…Read more on Modelling the coupling of flood discharge with glacier flow during jökulhlaups
1 July, 2013 by Andrew Orr, Gareth Marshall, John Turner
The scientific literature portrays a temporally invariant spatial relationship between the phase of the southern annular mode (SAM) and the sign of surface air temperature (SAT) anomalies across Antarctica. However,…1 July, 2013 by Hilmar Gudmundsson, Richard Hindmarsh, Richard Hindmarsh
Predictions of marine ice-sheet behaviour require models able to simulate grounding-line migration. We present results of an intercomparison experiment for plan-view marine ice-sheet models. Verification is effected by comparison with…1 July, 2013 by Peter Convey
During the austral summer of 2006–07, abundant Diptera were found in the sewage system of the Base Científica Antártica Artigas on King George Island. These are here identified as Trichocera…Read more on First record of Trichoceridae (Diptera) in the maritime Antarctic
1 July, 2013 by Peter Ward, Richard Phillips, Sally Thorpe
Shifts in the diet of top predators can be linked to changes in environmental conditions. In this study, we tested relationships between environmental variation and seasonal changes in diet of…28 June, 2013
The International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean (IBCSO) Version 1.0 is a new digital bathymetric model (DBM) portraying the seafloor of the circum-Antarctic waters south of 60° S. IBCSO…28 June, 2013 by Nigel Meredith, Richard Horne
The origin of plasmaspheric hiss, the electromagnetic emission responsible for the gap between the inner and outer radiation belts, has been debated for over four decades. Recently, a new theory…Read more on Global statistical evidence for chorus as the embryonic source of plasmaspheric hiss
26 June, 2013 by Mark Clilverd
The results of the first 18 months of the PLASMON project are presented. We have extended our three, existing ground-based measuring networks, AWDANet (VLF/whistlers), EMMA/SANSA (ULF/FLRs), and AARDDVARK (VLF/perturbations on…Read more on The plasmasphere during a space weather event: first results from the PLASMON project
26 June, 2013 by Terri Souster, Lloyd Peck, Melody Clark, Terri Souster
Juvenile stages are often thought to be less resistant to thermal challenges than adults, yet few studies make direct comparisons using the same methods between different life history stages. We…19 June, 2013 by Andrew Clarke
There is no generally accepted value for the lower temperature limit for life on Earth. We present empirical evidence that free-living microbial cells cooling in the presence of external ice…19 June, 2013 by Eric Wolff
Although the Arctic occupies less than 5% of the Earth's surface, it includes some of the strongest positive feedbacks in the climate system. Reconstructing the climate history of the Quaternary…Read more on Paleoclimate, Paleoclimate history of the Arctic
19 June, 2013 by Robert Mulvaney
Electrical measurements of ice cores are used to obtain high time resolution records of past climate. The electrical conductivity method is sensitive to the acidity of the ice. The dielectric…17 June, 2013 by Fausto Ferraccioli, Hugh Corr, Peter Fretwell, Tom Jordan
The Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains are regarded as a key nucleation site for the Antarctic Ice Sheet and they retain a unique long-term record of pre-glacial and early glacial landscape evolution.…15 June, 2013 by Andrew Orr, Gareth Marshall, Scott Hosking, John Turner, Tony Phillips
We develop a climatology of the Amundsen Sea low (ASL) covering the period 1979–2008 using ECMWF operational and reanalysis fields. The depth of the ASL is strongly influenced by the…13 June, 2013 by Adrian Jenkins, Deb Shoosmith
The glaciers draining into the Amundsen Sea Embayment are rapidly losing mass, making a significant contribution to current sea level rise. Studies of Pine Island Glacier (PIG) in this region…Read more on Oceanographic observations at the shelf break of the Amundsen Sea, Antarctica
12 June, 2013 by Michael Thorne, Melody Clark
An articulated endoskeleton that is calcified is a unifying innovation of the vertebrates, however the molecular basis of the structural divergence between terrestrial and aquatic vertebrates, such as teleost fish,…10 June, 2013 by David Newnham
This paper presents mesospheric carbon monoxide (CO) data acquired by the ground-based microwave radiometer of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS radiometer) stationed at Troll station in Antarctica (72° S, 2.5°…1 June, 2013 by Dominic Hodgson, Stephen Roberts
Despite the dominance of cyanobacteria in polar freshwater aquatic ecosystems, little is known about their past biodiversity and response to climate and environmental changes. We explored the use of light…Read more on Late Holocene changes in cyanobacterial community structure in maritime Antarctic lakes
1 June, 2013 by Hugh Venables, Michael Meredith
In the western Antarctic Peninsula region, micronutrient injection facilitates strong plankton blooms that support productive food webs, unlike large areas of the low-productivity Southern Ocean.We use naturally occurring radioisotopes of…1 June, 2013 by Alistair Crame
Small chorate dinoflagellate cysts are common in Upper Cretaceous to Quaternary sedimentary successions around the Antarctic margin. Taxonomic confusion surrounding dinoflagellate cysts and acritarchs of similar morphology throughout the southern…1 June, 2013 by Peter Convey
Current meta-community theories postulate that the structure of local communities depends on dispersal, environmental filtering, and biotic interactions. However, disentangling the relative effects of these factors in the field and…1 June, 2013 by Richard Phillips
Carry-over effects relate to events or processes that influence individual performance in a subsequent season, but their occurrence in the annual cycle of migratory avian taxa is seldom studied. We…1 June, 2013 by Richard Phillips
Moult entails costs related to the acquisition of energy and nutrients necessary for feather synthesis, as well as the impact of reduced flight performance induced by gaps in the wing…1 June, 2013 by Michael Meredith
Four repeat hydrographic sections across the eastern Weddell gyre at 30°E reveal a warming (by ~0.1°C) and lightening (by ~0.02–0.03 kg m−3) of the Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) entering the…Read more on Remotely induced warming of Antarctic Bottom Water in the eastern Weddell gyre
1 June, 2013 by Hilmar Gudmundsson, Hugh Corr
An interpolated bedrock topography is presented for Flask Glacier, one of the tributaries of the remnant part of the Larsen B ice shelf, Antarctic Peninsula. The ice thickness distribution is…1 June, 2013 by Richard Phillips
Aim Extensive development of human activities in combination with ocean warming is rapidly modifying marine habitats in the Arctic and North Atlantic regions. To understand the potential impacts on marine…1 June, 2013 by Peter Fretwell, Simeon Hill, Susie Grant
Systematic conservation planning for developing marine spatial protection includes analysis of the spatial distribution of fishing activities, existing management and ecological characteristics. This paper assesses the overlap between habitat (bioregion),…1 June, 2013 by Mervyn Freeman, Tracy Moffat-Griffin
Progress in the science of weather – on Earth and in space – depends on understanding the whole of the atmosphere, from the surface of the Earth into space. Tracy…Read more on From atmosphere to space: a new scientific frontier
1 June, 2013 by Katrin Linse
Iheyaspira bathycodon sp. nov. is described from the Von Damm Vent Field on the world's deepest spreading centre, the Mid-Cayman Spreading Centre (MCSC), Caribbean, at 2300 m depth. The new…1 June, 2013
Deriving glacier outlines from satellite data has become increasingly popular in the past decade. In particular when glacier outlines are used as a base for change assessment, it is important…Read more on On the accuracy of glacier outlines derived from remote-sensing data
1 June, 2013 by Alex Brisbourne
A passive seismology experiment was conducted across the main overdeepening of Storglaciaren in the Tarfala valley, northern Sweden, to investigate the spatial and temporal distribution of basal microseismic waveforms in…1 June, 2013
The global positioning system (GPS) phase scintillation caused by high-latitude ionospheric irregularities during an intense high-speed stream (HSS) of the solar wind from April 29 to May 5, 2011, was…1 June, 2013 by Katrin Linse
The hydrothermal vents on the East Scotia Ridge are the first to be explored in the Antarctic and are dominated by large peltospiroid gastropods, stalked barnacles (Vulcanolepas sp.) and anomuran…1 June, 2013 by Dominic Hodgson
A lack of quantitative high resolution paleoclimate data from the Southern Hemisphere limits the ability to examine current trends within the context of long-term natural climate variability. This study presents…Read more on A 950 yr temperature reconstruction from Duckhole Lake, southern Tasmania, Australia
1 June, 2013 by Michael Meredith
The spatial distribution of turbulent dissipation rates and internal wave field characteristics is analysed across two contrasting regimes of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), using microstructure and finestructure data collected…1 June, 2013 by Michael Thorne, Melody Clark
The proteome can be regarded as a molecular phenotype, as changes in protein expression patterns have a direct effect on organismal physiology and fitness. The analysis of the proteome can…Read more on Proteome response to heat stress in the Antarctic clam Laternula elliptica
1 June, 2013 by Zhaomin Wang
In order to estimate biogeophysical effects of historical land cover change on climate during last three centuries, a set of experiments with a climate system model of intermediate complexity (MPM-2)…Read more on Simulation of the influence of historical land cover changes on the global climate
1 June, 2013 by Simeon Hill
Decision-makers charged with implementing ecosystem-based management (EBM) rely on scientists to predict the consequences of decisions relating to multiple, potentially conflicting, objectives. Such predictions are inherently uncertain, and this can…1 June, 2013 by Richard Horne
Electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) waves have long been considered a potential driver of diffuse aurora in Earth's magnetotail. However, the scarcity of intense ECH emissions in the outer magnetotail suggests…Read more on Quasi-steady, marginally unstable electron cyclotron harmonic wave amplitudes
1 June, 2013 by Ingrid Cnossen
The daily amplitude of the solar quiet (Sq) magnetic variation of the horizontal intensity, H, of observatories at low and midlatitudes is analyzed, in search of significant long-term trends. These…28 May, 2013
Climate sensitivity is commonly taken to refer to the equilibrium change in the annual mean global surface temperature following a doubling of the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. Evaluating this variable…28 May, 2013
Society is increasingly impacted by natural hazards which cause significant damage in economic and human terms. Many of these natural hazards are weather and climate related. Here, we show that…Read more on Persistent regimes and extreme events of the North Atlantic atmospheric circulation
28 May, 2013 by David Vaughan
We use satellite observations to show that, between 1992 and 2011, the Pine Island Glacier hinge line retreated at a rate of 0.95 ± 0.09 km yr−1 despite a progressive steepening and…27 May, 2013 by Hua Lu, Tony Phillips
We provide statistical evidence of the effect of the solar wind dynamic pressure (Psw) on the northern winter and spring circulations. We find that the vertical structure of the Northern…21 May, 2013 by Elisabeth Biersma, Richard Phillips
The Long-tailed Skua, a small (15 May, 2013
The composition of marine ecosystems is determined by spatial and temporal patterns of global biogeochemical cycles. Shifts in marine ecosystem composition driven by changes in climate can in turn affect…Read more on Rapid climatic driven shifts of diatoms at high latitudes
15 May, 2013 by Claire Allen, Dominic Hodgson, James Smith, Stephen Roberts
The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest-warming regions on Earth, but its palaeoenvironmental history south of 63° latitude is relatively poorly documented, relying principally on the marine geological record…15 May, 2013 by Eric Wolff, Louise Sime
Changes in the strength and position of Southern Hemisphere westerly winds during the Last Glacial cycle have been invoked to explain both millennial and glacial–interglacial climate fluctuations. However, neither paleo…14 May, 2013 by Andrew Clarke, Lloyd Peck, Melody Clark
Understanding the relationship between life-history variation and population structure in marine invertebrates is not straightforward. This is particularly true of polar species due to the difficulty of obtaining samples and…7 May, 2013 by Norman Ratcliffe
The Falkland Islands currently supports one of the largest Southern Rockhopper Penguin (Eudyptes c. chrysocome) populations. Archipelago-wide censuses conducted in 2000 and 2005 revealed that the number of breeding pairs…2 May, 2013 by Emilie Capron, Robert Mulvaney
Correct estimation of the firn lock-in depth is essential for correctly linking gas and ice chronologies in ice core studies. Here, two approaches to constrain the firn depth evolution in…1 May, 2013 by Richard Phillips
Understanding the behaviour of animals in the wild is fundamental to conservation efforts. Advances in bio-logging technologies have offered insights into the behaviour of animals during foraging, migration and social…1 May, 2013 by Emilie Capron, Eric Wolff, Louise Sime
Measurements of Last Interglacial stable water isotopes in ice cores show that central Greenland d18O increased by at least 3& compared to present day. Attempting to quantify the Greenland interglacial…1 May, 2013 by Eric Wolff, Robert Mulvaney
Over the past 50 years, warming of the Antarctic Peninsula has been accompanied by accelerating glacier mass loss and the retreat and collapse of ice shelves. A key driver of…