1 January, 2012 by Richard Phillips
Capsule Great Skuas Stercorarius skua breeding in Scotland, Iceland, and Norway, winter in different areas. Aims To assess the winter distribution of adult Great Skuas breeding in different countries. Methods…1 January, 2012 by Hilmar Gudmundsson, Keith Makinson, Keith Nicholls
Recent GPS observations from a spatially extensive network across Ronne Ice Shelf show significant daily ice flow variations. At all sites, the almost-synchronous horizontal displacements occur at diurnal and semidiurnal…Read more on Diurnal and semidiurnal tide-induced lateral movement of Ronne Ice Shelf, Antarctica
1 January, 2012 by Katrin Linse
Chemosynthetic primary production by microbes supports abundant faunal assemblages at deep-sea hydrothermal vents, with zonation of invertebrate species typically occurring along physico-chemical gradients. Recently discovered vent fields on the East…1 January, 2012 by Carlos Martin Garcia, Hilmar Gudmundsson
Ice flow in divide areas is strongly anisotropic. The evolution of ice fabric, from the onset of divide flow towards steady state with a fully developed fabric, has been shown…1 January, 2012 by Pierre Mathiot
Short-term and decadal sea-ice prediction systems need a realistic initial state, generally obtained using ice–ocean model simulations with data assimilation. However, only sea-ice concentration and velocity data are currently assimilated.…Read more on Better constraints on the sea-ice state using global sea-ice data assimilation
1 January, 2012 by Jaume Forcada
The coastal spotted dolphin (Stenella attenuata graffmani) is one of the most common species of dolphin in inshore Pacific waters of Costa Rica. We conducted surveys in protected waters of…1 January, 2012 by Michael Meredith
The sensitivity of the overturning circulation in the Southern Ocean to the recent decadal strengthening of the overlying winds is being discussed intensely, with some works attributing an inferred saturation…1 January, 2012 by Anje-Margriet Neutel
It has been shown that in real food webs, the strongest omnivorous feedback, a three-link positive feedback, is a good indicator of system stability, suggesting that the strongest positive feedback…1 January, 2012 by Peter Convey
Few non-native species have colonized Antarctica, although increased human activity and accelerated climate change may increase their number, distributional range, and effects on native species on the continent. We searched…1 January, 2012 by Richard Phillips
Protection of the marine environment lags far behind that of terrestrial domains. To help ameliorate this circumstance, top predators are being tracked to identify important ocean habitats, biodiversity hotspots and…1 January, 2012 by Lloyd Peck, Michael Thorne, Simon Morley
To further investigate the previously reported limited acclimation capacities of Antarctic marine stenotherms, the Antarctic mud clam, Laternula elliptica (King and Broderip, 1830–1831), was incubated at 3.0 °C for 89…1 January, 2012 by Lloyd Peck, Melody Clark, Simon Morley
While, in lower latitudes, population-level differences in heat tolerance are linked to temperature variability, in the Southern Ocean remarkably stable year-round temperatures prevail. Temporal variation in the physiology of Antarctic…1 January, 2012 by Michael Thorne, Simon Morley
The thermal reaction norms of 4 closely related intertidal Nacellid limpets, Antarctic (Nacella concinna), New Zealand (Cellana ornata), Australia (C. tramoserica) and Singapore (C. radiata), were compared across environments with…1 January, 2012 by Richard Phillips
Seabirds are important components in marine ecosystems. However, knowledge of their ecology and spatial distribution during the non-breeding season is poor. More investigations during this critical period are required urgently,…1 January, 2012 by Howard Roscoe
We present surface layer measurements made over Hudson Bay seaice during February/March 2008 from the COBRA (Impact of combined iodine and bromine release on the Arctic atmosphere) experiment which formed…1 January, 2012 by Louise Sime, Richard Hindmarsh, Robert Mulvaney, Richard Hindmarsh
Rapid warming over the past 50 years on the Antarctic Peninsula is associated with the collapse of a number of ice shelves and accelerating glacier mass loss1, 2, 3, 4, 5,…Read more on Recent Antarctic Peninsula warming relative to Holocene climate and ice shelf history
1 January, 2012 by Andrew Clarke, Andrew Fleming, Eugene Murphy, Geraint Tarling, Iain Staniland, Jaume Forcada, Jonathan Watkins, Martin Collins, Michael Meredith, Nadine Johnston, Peter Enderlein, Paul Rodhouse, Philip Trathan, Peter Ward, Rachel Cavanagh, Sally Thorpe, Simeon Hill
Analysis of the operation of ocean ecosystems requires an understanding of how the structure of the ecosystem is determined by interactions between physical, chemical and biological processes. Such analysis needs…Read more on Spatial and Temporal Operation of the Scotia Sea Ecosystem
1 January, 2012 by Eugene Murphy, Nadine Johnston, Philip Trathan, Rachel Cavanagh, Simeon Hill
The Southern Ocean supports diverse and unique ecosystems that have been impacted by more than two centuries of exploitation and are now experiencing rapid changes in ocean temperature and seasonal…1 January, 2012 by Eugene Murphy
Southern Ocean ecosystems matter for us all because they are important in Earth System processes and contribute to food security; they are also undergoing some of the most rapid changes…1 January, 2012 by Michael Meredith
Due to its position as the principal connector of the major ocean basins, the Southern Ocean strongly impacts climate, sea level, biogeochemical cycles and biological productivity on a global scale.…1 January, 2012 by Richard Horne
This paper is a companion to a paper by Liang et al. (2011) which reports a causal connection between the intensification of electrostatic ECH waves and the postmidnight diffuse auroral…1 January, 2012 by Hugh Corr, Keith Makinson, Keith Nicholls
We have discovered a band of stones and coarse sand in the Ronne Ice Shelf, Antarctica, some 60m above the ice shelf’s base, 40km from its seaward edge and 420km…1 January, 2012 by Will Goodall-Copestake
Mating between relatives often results in negative fitness consequences or inbreeding depression. However, the expression of inbreeding in populations of wild cooperative mammals and the effects of environmental, maternal and…Read more on Inbreeding and inbreeding depression of early life traits in a cooperative mammal
1 January, 2012 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand
Reconstructing past detrital flux and provenance in the SouthernOcean provides information about changes in source regions associated with climate variations and transport pathways. We present a LastGlacial Maximum (LGM) to…1 January, 2012 by Peter Convey
During the last 50 years, the western coast of the Antarctic Peninsula and adjacent archipelagos, also known as the maritime Antarctic, has experienced notable climate warming. As a result, expansion…1 January, 2012 by Andrew Clarke, David Pearce, Eugene Murphy, Nadine Johnston
The Antarctic continent is almost entirely covered by a vast icecap that reaches 4 km in thickness. Despite this, the continent possesses a remarkable array of lake ecosystems, many of…1 January, 2012 by David Pearce, Kevin Newsham, Michael Thorne
Our current understanding of Antarctic soils is derived from direct culture on selective media, biodiversity studies based on clone library construction and analysis, quantitative PCR amplification of specific gene sequences…Read more on Metagenomic analysis of a a southern maritime Antarctic soil
1 January, 2012 by Dominic Hodgson, Peter Convey
Heterotrophic bacteria isolated from five aquatic microbial mat samples from different locations in continental Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula were compared to assess their biodiversity. A total of 2,225 isolates…Read more on Heterotrophic bacterial diversity in aquatic microbial mat communities from Antarctica
1 January, 2012 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
A new species of eutardigrade, Hebesuncus mollispinus, sp.nov. is described from Charcot Island, maritime Antarctica. The three knowm species of Hebesuncus are either widespread with questionable reports from the Antarctic…1 January, 2012 by Richard Phillips
Two hypotheses have been proposed to explain sex-related differences in foraging in sexually monomorphic seabirds. The ‘intersexual competition’ hypothesis suggests that parents are in competition and that the dominated sex…1 January, 2012 by Geraint Tarling, Peter Ward
Many calanoid copepods inhabiting high latitude environments overwinter at depth in the water column in a state of diapause and the large wax ester reserves that they contain are central…Read more on Wax ester composition influences the diapause patterns in the copepod Calanoides acutus
1 January, 2012
A new perspective on the role of lipids in zooplankton is proposed, with solid–liquid phase transitions of lipids being a factor regulating their buoyancy. These phase transitions are controlled by…1 January, 2012 by Geraint Tarling
Fatty acid biomarkers analysis was performed on juvenile and adult northern krill (Meganyctiphanes norvegica) to determine variability in diet between individuals and the consequences for their growth rates. Animals were…Read more on Diet and growth rates of Meganyctiphanes norvegica in autumn
1 January, 2012 by David Vaughan, Hamish Pritchard
Accurate prediction of global sea-level rise requires that we understand the cause of recent, widespread and intensifying1, 2 glacier acceleration along Antarctic ice-sheet coastal margins3. Atmospheric and oceanic forcing have…Read more on Antarctic ice-sheet loss driven by basal melting of ice shelves
1 January, 2012
The dataset Future Flows Climate was developed as part of the project ''Future Flows and Groundwater Levels'' to provide a consistent set of climate change projections for the whole of…1 January, 2012 by Andrew Clarke, Eugene Murphy, Lloyd Peck, Nadine Johnston
It is widely accepted that marine biogeography is largely shaped by direct effects of temperature (Angel, 1991; Murawski, 1993). Temperature also influences biodiversity patterns at various latitudes (e.g.,Royet al.,1998; Astorga…1 January, 2012
In recent years, phytoplankton phenology has been proposed as an indicator to monitor systematically the state of the pelagic ecosystem and to detect changes triggered by perturbation of the environmental…1 January, 2012 by Norman Ratcliffe, Philip Trathan
Managing fisheries in an ecologically sensitive manner demands that catches do not depress stocks within the foraging areas used by predators to levels that reduce their reproductive success or survival.…1 January, 2012 by Richard Phillips
Petrels are highly mobile seabirds that face many threats and whose conservation is frequently hampered by a lack of understanding of their biology at sea. We used a combination of…1 January, 2012 by Katrin Linse
The Antarctic Peninsula has experienced a rapid increase in atmospheric temperature over the last 50 years. Whether or not marine organisms thriving in this cold stenothermal environment are able to…1 January, 2012 by Angelika Renner, Eugene Murphy, Jonathan Watkins, Michael Meredith, Sally Thorpe
Pathways and rates of ocean flow near the Antarctic Peninsula are strongly affected by frontal features, forcings from the atmosphere and the cryosphere. In the surface mixed layer, the currents…1 January, 2012 by Lloyd Peck, Simon Morley
There are areas on Earth where it is pressing that we obtain an understanding of the thermal limits and acclimationcapacities of the species living there. These are the zones where…Read more on Thermal acclimation capacity for four Arctic marine benthic species
1 January, 2012 by Teal Riley
New geological mapping combined with U–Pb ion microprobe zircon geochronology on the isolated but locally extensive exposures of crystalline basement inliers of eastern Graham Land has greatly improved our understanding…1 January, 2012 by Teal Riley
The Mesozoic fore-arc of the Antarctic Peninsula is exposed along its west coast. On Adelaide Island, a 2–3 km succession of turbiditic coarse sandstones and volcanic rocks is exposed. Four…1 January, 2012 by Michael Meredith
The Southern Ocean includes the only latitude band where the ocean circles the earth unobstructed by continental boundaries. This accident of geography has profound consequences for global ocean circulation, biogeochemical…1 January, 2012 by Mark Clilverd
In order to make best use of the opportunities provided by space missions such as the Radiation Belt Storm Probes, we determine the response of complementary subionospheric radiowave propagation measurements…1 January, 2012 by Andrew Clarke, Eugene Murphy, Nadine Johnston
Since its discovery Antarctica has held a deep fascination for biologists. Extreme environmental conditions, seasonality and isolation have lead to some of the most striking examples of natural selection and…Read more on Antarctic Ecosystems: An Extreme Environment in a Changing World
1 January, 2012 by Andrew Clarke, David Pearce, Katrin Linse, Robert Larter
Since the first discovery of deep-sea hydrothermal vents along the Galápagos Rift in 1977, numerous vent sites and endemic faunal assemblages have been found along mid-ocean ridges and back-arc basins…1 January, 2012 by Dominic Hodgson
210Pb-dated sediment cores taken from lakes on the Falkland Islands, the South Orkney Islands, and the Larsemann Hills in Antarctica were analyzed for fly ash particles to assess the temporal…1 January, 2012 by Fausto Ferraccioli, Hugh Corr, Tom Jordan
The bed of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is, in places, more than 1.5 km below sea level1, 2. It has been suggested that a positive ice-loss feedback may occur when…1 January, 2012 by Jean-Baptiste Sallee
The oceans slow the rate of climate change by absorbing about 25% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions annually. The Southern Ocean makes a substantial contribution to this oceanic carbon sink:…Read more on Localized subduction of anthropogenic carbon dioxide in the Southern Hemisphere oceans
1 January, 2012 by Dominic Hodgson
Accurate projections of future climate changes in regions susceptible to drought depend on a good understanding of past climate changes and the processes driving them. In the absence of longer…1 January, 2012 by Ryan Saunders
Current acoustic survey protocols for Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) abundance estimation are principally dependent upon 38-kHz backscatter data. This can constitute a substantial problem for robust stock assessment when 38-kHz…1 January, 2012 by Annette Scheffer, Philip Trathan
Investigating the responses of marine predators to oceanographic structures is of key importance for understanding their foraging behaviour and reproductive success. Using Global Positioning System (GPS) and Time-Depth-Temperature-Recorder (TDR) tags,…1 January, 2012 by Hugh Venables
The spawning success of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) is generally assumed to depend on substantial winter sea ice extent, as ice biota can serve as a food source during winter/spring…1 January, 2012 by Michael Meredith
The Southern Ocean is fundamental to the operation of the Earth system. It is the central connection among the major ocean basins and between the upper and lower layers of…1 January, 2012 by Andrew Fleming, Geraint Tarling, Will Goodall-Copestake
The high latitudes inhabited by Antarctic krill Euphausia superba Dana are characterised by extreme changes in seasonal conditions, with very low food availability, long periods of darkness and a massive…Read more on Seasonal and spatial influences on gene expression in Antarctic krill Euphausia superba
1 January, 2012 by Peter Convey
Lovastatin is an important fungal secondary metabolite inhibiting the enzyme which catalyzes a rate-limiting step in the biosynthesis of cholesterol. As microfungi of the genus Penicillium are active producers of…Read more on Production of Lovastatin by Penicillium spp. Soil microfungi
1 January, 2012 by Adrian Fox, Jonathan Shanklin
1 January, 2012 by Adrian Fox, Jonathan Shanklin
1 January, 2012 by Philip Trathan
The energetics of adult Streaked Shearwaters Calonectris leucomelas during the chick-rearing period were examined on Awa Island, Japan, in 2008 and 2009. Basal metabolic rates (BMR) were quantified using an…Read more on Basal and field metabolic rates of Streaked Shearwater during the chick-rearing period
1 January, 2012 by Emily Shuckburgh
This report examines public attitudes to climate science and its representation in the news media. It details the results of a survey of the UK population conducted in March 2011,…1 January, 2012 by Andy Smith, Andrew Tait, Dominic Hodgson, David Pearce, Rachel Clarke
Antarctic subglacial lakes are thought to be extreme habitats for microbial life and may contain important records of ice sheet history and climate change within their lake floor sediments. To…1 January, 2012 by Alistair Crame
Strata assigned to the Fossil Bluff Group on Alexander Island, Antarctica, contain Aptian to Albian highlatitude echinoderm faunas that lived at palaeolatitudes greater than 60 degrees south. The Pluto Glacier…1 January, 2012 by Peter Fretwell
Temporal and spatial patterns of relative sea level (RSL) change in the North of Britain and Ireland during the Holocene are examined. Four episodes, each defined by marked changes in…Read more on Patterns of Holocene relative sea level change in the North of Britain and Ireland
1 January, 2012 by Vsevolod Afanasyev
We determined, for the first time, individual linkages between breeding areas of nesting female scaly-sided mergansers Mergus squamatus in the Russian Far East and their previously unknown wintering grounds in…1 January, 2012 by Jaume Forcada, Philip Trathan
The development of models of marine ecosystems in the Southern Ocean is becoming increasingly important as a means of understanding and managing impacts such as exploitation and climate change. Collating…1 January, 2012 by Susie Grant
Off-shelf waters cover 66% of the planet. Growing concerns about the state of natural resources in these waters, and of future threats have led to a growing movement to improve…1 January, 2012 by Iain Staniland, Janet Silk, Philip Trathan
Telemetry-based techniques have revealed the foraging patterns of many land breeding marine predators, especially during the summer breeding season. However, during the winter, when freed from the constraints of provisioning…1 January, 2012 by Richard Phillips
Sexual segregation in foraging and migratory behaviour is widespread among sexually dimorphic marine vertebrates. It has also been described for a number of monomorphic species, yet the underlying mechanisms are…1 January, 2012 by Adrian Jenkins
Outlet glaciers draining the Antarctic ice sheet into the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) have accelerated in recent decades, most likely as a result of increased melting of their ice-shelf termini…1 January, 2012 by Richard Phillips
The migrations and winter distributions of most seabirds, particularly small pelagic species, remain poorly understood despite their potential as indicators of marine ecosystem health. Here we report the use of…1 January, 2012 by Dominic Hodgson, Stephen Roberts
The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the most rapidly warming regions on Earth, as evidenced by a recent increase in the intensity and duration of summer melting, the recession of…1 January, 2012 by Gabriele Stowasser, Martin Collins, Richard Phillips
The pelagic food web of the Scotia Sea was studied by analysing natural abundances of nitrogen and carbon stable isotopes of primary producers and pelagic consumers, sampled from the seasonal…Read more on Food web dynamics in the Scotia Sea in summer: A stable isotope study
1 January, 2012 by Gabriele Stowasser
Fatty acid analysis was used to study the trophic ecology of 10 demersal fish species in the South Georgia region. Principal component analysis grouped the species into three general clusters,…1 January, 2012 by Lloyd Peck
Our aim in conducting annual horizon scans is to identify issues that, although currently receiving little attention, may be of increasing importance to the conservation of biological diversity in the…Read more on A horizon scan of global conservation issues for 2012
1 January, 2012 by Eugene Murphy, Geraint Tarling, Gabriele Stowasser, Hugh Venables, Peter Ward
The biomass size structure of pelagic communities provides a system level perspective that can be instructive when considering trophic interactions. Such perspectives can become even more powerful when combined with…1 January, 2012 by Eugene Murphy, Geraint Tarling, Martin Collins, Peter Ward
The Scotia Sea has been a focus of biological- and physical oceanographic study since the Discovery expeditions in the early 1900s. It is a physically energetic region with some of…Read more on DISCOVERY 2010: Spatial and temporal variability in a dynamic polar ecosystem
1 January, 2012 by Peter Convey
Soil trampling is one of the most obvious direct negative human impacts in Antarctica. Through a range of experiments and field studies based on quantitative physical (soil penetration resistance) and…1 January, 2012 by Helen Peat, Peter Convey
Aim: To present a synthesis of past biogeographic analyses and a new approach based on spatially explicit biodiversity information for the Antarctic region to identify biologically distinct areas in need…1 January, 2012
A coupled biogeochemical-physical ocean model is used to study the seasonal and long–term variations of surface pCO2 in the North Atlantic Ocean. The model agrees well with recent underway pCO2…Read more on A model study of the seasonal and long-term North Atlantic surface pCO2 variability
1 January, 2012 by Kevin Newsham
Snow moulds are fungi and fungal-like microbes that occur frequently as pathogens of moss and vascular plant species in the Arctic and Antarctic, chiefly in maritime areas with permanent snow…1 January, 2012 by Pierre Dutrieux
We report the first simultaneous measurements of surface water pCO2, biological oxygen saturation (ΔO2/Ar) and dimethylsulfide (DMS) concentrations in polynya waters and the sea ice zone of the Amundsen Sea,…1 January, 2012 by Norman Ratcliffe, Philip Trathan
Macaroni penguins Eudyptes chrysolophus are thought to be one of the most important mesopredators in the Southern Ocean having a greater impact on prey availability and abundance than any other…1 January, 2012 by Andrew Clarke, Eugene Murphy, Jaume Forcada, Nadine Johnston, Philip Trathan
The Southern Ocean (Figure 11.1) is a major component within the global ocean and climate system. It not only unites the Atlantic Ocean with the Indian and Pacific Oceans, but…Read more on Environmental Forcing and Southern Ocean Marine Predator Populations
1 January, 2012 by Vsevolod Afanasyev
The small size of the billions of migrating songbirds commuting between temperate breeding sites and the tropics has long prevented the study of the largest part of their annual cycle…1 January, 2012 by Martin Collins
Many marine pelagic fish species are characterized by subtle but complex genetic structures and dynamics, depending on the balance between current-mediated larval dispersal and adult active homing behavior. The circumantarctic…1 January, 2012
New analysis of the relationships between geological structural data and radiometric ages for the Lassiter Coast Intrusive Suite indicate that the collisional mid-Cretaceous Palmer Land Event orogeny in the Antarctic…