13 January, 2025 by Peter Convey
Polar marine macroalgae thrive in extreme conditions, often displaying geographic isolation and high degree of endemism. The “phycosphere” refers to the zone around the algae inhabited by microrganisms. Our study…8 January, 2025 by Lorena Romero Martinez
Diatom resting stages can remain viable in sediments for decades and germinate when exposed to suitable environmental conditions, inoculating the water column and the surface sediments with new populations of…7 January, 2025 by Alistair Monteath
The number of cryptotephra (non-visible volcanic ash) records from northeastern North America is unique in the continent. The resulting tephrostratigraphic framework includes ash deposits sourced from volcanic arcs across the…7 January, 2025 by Andrew Orr
In this study, we investigate the complex relationship between western disturbances (WDs), the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and extreme precipitation events (EPEs) in the western Himalaya (WH) during the extended…6 January, 2025 by Katrin Linse
Understanding how ecological, environmental and geographic features influence population genetic patterns provides crucial insights into a species' evolutionary history, as well as their vulnerability or resilience under climate change. In…2 January, 2025 by Thomas Bauska
Understanding the causes of past atmospheric methane (CH4) variability is important for characterizing the relationship between CH4, global climate and terrestrial biogeochemical cycling. Ice core records of atmospheric CH4 contain…Read more on Abrupt changes in biomass burning during the last glacial period
2 January, 2025 by Xu Zhang
Permafrost is a potentially important source of deglacial carbon release alongside deep-sea carbon outgassing. However, limited proxies have restricted our understanding in circumarctic regions and the last deglaciation. Tibetan Plateau…2 January, 2025 by Dave Munday, Dani Jones, Rachel Furner
Machine learning (ML) techniques have emerged as a powerful tool for predicting weather and climate systems. However, much of the progress to date focuses on predicting the short-term evolution of…Read more on The challenge of land in a neural network ocean model
2 January, 2025 by Raghul Parthipan
Atmospheric models used for weather and climate prediction are traditionally formulated in a deterministic manner. In other words, given a particular state of the resolved scale variables, the most likely…Read more on Machine learning for stochastic parametrization
1 January, 2025 by Joanne Johnson
We review successes and challenges from five recent subglacial bedrock drilling campaigns intended to find evidence for Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat during warm periods in the geologic past. Insights into…Read more on Lessons learned from shallow subglacial bedrock drilling campaigns in Antarctica
1 January, 2025 by Thomas Bauska
Beneath the surface of Antarctica lies a near perfect record of changes in the atmosphere composition over hundreds of thousands of years. This unique archive allows us to reconstruct atmospheric…1 January, 2025 by James Smith, Kelly Hogan
During Quaternary glaciations, ice sheets expanded from continental interiors across continental shelves and delivered large volumes of sediment, transported by meltwater, and icebergs to the marine environment. Glaciomarine sediments preserve…1 January, 2025 by Claire Allen, Dieter Tetzner
Here, we summarize the diatom research topics and applications that have the broadest relevance and importance for Antarctic studies. From the Southern Ocean we focus on biogeography, sea surface temperature…1 January, 2025 by Andrew Wood, Richard Phillips, Victoria Warwick-Evans
The Antarctic seasonal sea-ice zone (SIZ) is one of the most extensive and dynamic habitats on Earth. In summer, increased insolation and ice melt cause primary production to peak, sustaining…1 January, 2025 by Gareth Marshall
The Southern Annular Mode (SAM) is an important pattern of Southern Hemisphere circulation variability: it accounts for between 15 and 30 or more percent of the total variability of the…1 January, 2025 by Clara Manno
Monitoring the movement of plastic into marine food webs is central to understanding and mitigating the plastic pollution crisis. Bioindicators have been a component of the environmental monitoring toolkit for…1 January, 2025 by Rebecca Peel, Stephen Roberts
Microplastic pollution is a growing environmental problem. Consequently, an emerging area of research is the analysis of these micro-particles, to identify the distribution and impacts of plastic in the environment.…1 January, 2025 by Peter Convey
Increasing global morbidity is often associated with communicable or noncommunicable diseases; however, adverse drug effects have also been linked with an increase in mortality worldwide. This has emphasized the need…Read more on Chapter 36 – Biomedical applications of algal-based products
1 January, 2025 by Lloyd Peck
We discuss the outcomes of our 16th horizon scan of issues that are novel or represent a considerable step-change and have the potential to substantially affect conservation of biological diversity…Read more on A horizon scan of biological conservation issues for 2025
1 January, 2025 by Thomas Caton Harrison
The Central England Temperature (CET) series is one of the longest instrumental climate records in the world. The CET record from 1659 represents a roughly triangular area of England extending…Read more on An Update to the Central England Temperature Series—HadCET v2.1
1 January, 2025 by David Pearce
Microorganisms have traditionally accelerated the study of ecology and evolution owing to their relatively short generation times and astronomical population sizes. Indeed, their potential in helping us to understand the…Read more on Crucial stepping stones in freshwater microbiology [News]
1 January, 2025 by David Pearce
Arctic biodiversity is under threat from both climate-induced environmental change and anthropogenic activity. However, the rapid rate of change and the challenging conditions for studying Arctic environments mean that many…1 January, 2025 by Carlos Martin Garcia
Ice rises hold valuable records revealing the ice dynamics and climatic history of Antarctic coastal areas from the Last Glacial Maximum to today. This history is often reconstructed from isochrone…Read more on Investigating the dynamic history of a promontory ice rise using radar data
1 January, 2025 by Scott Hosking
Machine learning models have been used extensively in hydrology, but issues persist with regard to their transparency, and there is currently no identifiable best practice for forcing variables in streamflow…Read more on Streamflow prediction using artificial neural networks and soil moisture proxies
1 January, 2025 by Andrew McDonald, Scott Hosking
With the state-of-the-art IceNet model, deep learning has contributed to an important aspect of climate research by leveraging a range of climate inputs to provide accurate forecasts of Arctic sea…1 January, 2025
The NERC Environmental Data Service (EDS) provides a focal point for scientific data and information spanning environmental science domains: atmosphere and climate; earth observation, polar and cryosphere; marine, terrestrial and…Read more on NERC Environmental Data Services : API 4 AI project kickoff workshop report
31 December, 2024 by Timothy Jones
Behavioural plasticity is an important mechanism allowing animals to cope with changing environments. Theory has hypothesized the existence of ‘plasticity syndromes’—positive correlations in plasticity across multiple behaviours within an individual—affording…30 December, 2024 by Aidan Hunter, Arlie McCarthy, Clara Manno, Sally Thorpe
Marine microplastic is pervasive, polluting the remotest ecosystems including the Southern Ocean. Since this region is already undergoing climatic changes, the additional stress of microplastic pollution on the ecosystem should…28 December, 2024 by Elizabeth Collingwood, Gareth Marshall, Hua Lu, John King
Improvement of subseasonal to seasonal North Atlantic winter forecasting requires better prediction of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the dominant mode of variability in the Northern Hemisphere. Despite recent research…Read more on Meridional wind in the upper stratosphere: A source of winter NAO predictability
28 December, 2024 by Jonathan Adams, Joanne Johnson, Stephen Roberts
Constraining past West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) change helps validate numerical models simulating future ice sheet dynamics. Following rapid deglaciation during the mid-Holocene, ice near Thwaites Glacier was ∼35 m…27 December, 2024 by Peter Convey
Biomass is a key parameter in ecology, as it provides insight into ecosystem functioning. Length-mass estimations are widely used for this purpose due to the relatively simple and straightforward procedures…23 December, 2024 by Julie Jupe, Kevin Hughes
The relevance of education and outreach (E&O) activities about the Antarctic Treaty has been recognized at the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings (ATCM) and at the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP).…21 December, 2024 by Alexander Tate, Alice Fremand
Knowledge about seafloor depth, or bathymetry, is crucial for various marine activities, including scientific research, offshore industry, safety of navigation, and ocean exploration. Mapping the central Arctic Ocean is challenging…Read more on The International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean Version 5.0
20 December, 2024 by Kate Hendry
Accelerated mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet leads to retreating glaciers and enhanced freshwater runoff to adjacent coastal regions, potentially providing additional essential nutrients, such as silicon, to downstream…20 December, 2024 by Matthew Lang
Solar-wind forecasting is critical for predicting events which can affect Earth's technological systems. Typically, forecasts combine coronal model outputs with heliospheric models to predict near-Earth conditions. Ensemble forecasting generates sets…Read more on Adapting Ensemble‐Calibration Techniques to Probabilistic Solar‐Wind Forecasting
19 December, 2024 by Andrew Meijers
Recent Antarctic sea-ice decline is a substantial source of concern, notably the record low in 2023 (ref. 1 ). Progress has been made towards establishing the causes of ice loss…Read more on Record-low Antarctic sea ice in 2023 increased ocean heat loss and storms
19 December, 2024 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, Robert Larter
Through the Cenozoic (66–0 Ma), the dominant mode of ocean surface circulation in the Southern Ocean transitioned from two large subpolar gyres to circumpolar circulation with a strong Antarctic Circumpolar Current…19 December, 2024 by Peter Convey
To better understand the long-distance dispersal of fungi between South America and Antarctica, we assessed aerial fungal diversity based on environmental DNA samples along a South Atlantic transect from Brazil…18 December, 2024 by Anna Belcher, Geraint Tarling, Gabriele Stowasser, Sophie Fielding
The Controls Over Mesopelagic Interior Carbon Storage (COMICS) cruise DY086 took place aboard the RRS Discovery in the South Atlantic during November and December, 2017. Physical, chemical, biogeochemical and biological…17 December, 2024 by Richard Horne, Sarah Glauert, Thomas Daggitt
The density of low energy charged particles trapped in Earth's magnetic field can influence how higher energy trapped electrons are affected by natural radio waves within the magnetic field. We…17 December, 2024 by Peter Convey
Despite increasing awareness of the threats they pose, exotic species continue to arrive in Antarctica with anthropogenic assistance, some of which inevitably have the potential to become aggressively invasive. Here,…17 December, 2024 by Xu Zhang
The Southern Ocean plays a key role in atmospheric CO2 sequestration, accounting for ~40-50% of the anthropogenic CO2 absorbed by the modern ocean (Landschützer et al., 2015; Gruber et al.,…17 December, 2024 by Kevin Hughes
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current reduces the oceanographic transport of organisms from adjacent temperate ecosystems southward. Additionally, the extreme environmental conditions in the Antarctic marine environment, in particular south of the…Read more on Marine non-native species in the Southern Ocean and Antarctica
16 December, 2024 by Tracy Moffat-Griffin
During austral winter, the southern high latitudes has some of the most intense stratospheric gravity wave (GW) activity globally. However, producing accurate representations of GW dynamics in this region in…13 December, 2024 by Nigel Meredith
Auroral precipitation is the second major energy source after solar irradiation that ionizes the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Diffuse electron aurora caused by wave-particle interaction in the inner magnetosphere (L <…11 December, 2024 by Louise Sime
Paleoclimate information has played an instrumental role in showing how fast climate can vary and how large these changes can be. It provided the first vivid demonstration of the relationships…11 December, 2024
The business and societal case for investing in resilience and adaptation is increasingly clear. Earth systems—such as ice sheets, ocean currents, and permafrost—are interconnected processes that regulate the planet’s climate,…Read more on Business on the Edge: Building Industry Resilience to Climate Hazards
10 December, 2024 by Jack Humby
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent anthropogenic contaminants, some of which are toxic and bioaccumulative. Perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs) and perfluoroalkyl sulfonic acids (PFSAs) can form during the atmospheric…10 December, 2024 by Madeleine Lewis
Madeleine Lewis explains how a needle and peristaltic pump system can be used to isolate supraglacial meltwater.Read more on Using a vacuum to collect glacial meltwater from ice
10 December, 2024 by Robert Mulvaney
Past climate and environmental changes can be reconstructed using paleoclimate archives such as ice cores, lake and marine sediment cores, speleothems, tree rings, and corals. The dating of these natural…8 December, 2024 by Chester Sands, George Foot, Kevin Newsham, Will Goodall-Copestake
The occurrence of mycothalli, symbioses between liverworts and fungi bearing similarities to mycorrhizas, is poorly documented in sub-Antarctica, and biogeographical patterns in Serendipita, one of the main fungal genera forming…Read more on A cosmopolitan Serendipita forms mycothalli with sub-Antarctic leafy liverworts
7 December, 2024 by Nigel Meredith, Richard Horne
Relativistic electrons cause internal charging on satellites and are a significant space weather hazard. In this study we analyze approximately 20 years of data from the US Global Positioning System…Read more on Strong Relativistic Electron Flux Events in GPS orbit
6 December, 2024 by Emma Woodfield, Richard Horne
An abundant multi-MeV electron population beyond the orbit of Io is required to explain the intense inner radiation belt (electrons >50 MeV) at Jupiter and its synchrotron radiation. In order…6 December, 2024 by Emma Woodfield, Richard Horne
The spatial distribution of whistler-mode wave emissions in the Jovian magnetosphere measured during the first 45 perijove orbits of Juno is investigated. A double-belt structure in whistler-mode wave intensity is…Read more on Jupiter’s Whistler-mode Belts and Electron Slot Region
6 December, 2024 by Peter Convey
The conservation of the Antarctic ecosystem is linked to scientific and tourism activities. The Colección Activa de Plantas Vasculares Antárticas at the Universidad de Concepción aims to help conserve the…5 December, 2024 by Caroline Holmes, Jeremy Wilkinson, Paul Holland, Thomas Bracegirdle
Most climate models do not reproduce the 1979–2014 increase in Antarctic sea ice cover. This was a contributing factor in successive Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports allocating low confidence…5 December, 2024 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is Earth's largest current flowing around Antarctica at all depths and connecting major ocean basins, thus representing an important component of Earth's climate. However, the…4 December, 2024 by Iain Rudkin
Arctic regions are among the fastest warming areas of the planet. Increasing average temperatures over the last five decades have deepened the thawing of the upper-most layer of permafrost across…Read more on PRA Melting-ICE Project: Svalbard 2022 Expeditions Report
3 December, 2024 by Michael Meredith
High-latitude pelagic marine ecosystems are vulnerable to climate change because of the intertwining of sea/continental ice dynamics, physics, biogeochemistry, and food-web structure. Data from the West Antarctic Peninsula allow us…Read more on Antarctic pelagic ecosystems on a warming planet
2 December, 2024 by Jakob Thyrring, Lloyd Peck
The availability of online biodiversity data has increased in recent decades, aiding our understanding of diversity patterns and species richness–environment relationships across temporal and spatial scales. However, even the most…2 December, 2024 by Richard Phillips
Knowledge of how animals respond to weather and changes in their physical environment is increasingly important, given the higher frequency of extreme weather recorded in recent years and its forecasted…Read more on Strong winds reduce foraging success in albatrosses
2 December, 2024 by Huw Griffiths, Stephen Roberts
The Arctic is undergoing dramatic changes, including an unprecedented decline in sea ice. Previous studies have shown the severe structuring impact of sea ice scour upon polar intertidal communities. A…2 December, 2024 by Simon Morley
The Antarctic marine environment has a unique geologic and climatic history that has contributed to the evolution of high species diversity. Given the current trend of environmental warming, understanding the…1 December, 2024 by Alex Brisbourne, Andy Smith
Although over 600 Antarctic subglacial lakes have been identified using radar and satellite observations, the bathymetry and bed properties, which are key to understanding conditions within the lake, have been…Read more on Bathymetry and bed conditions of Lago Subglacial CECs, West Antarctica
1 December, 2024 by Alex Brisbourne, Andy Smith, Ronan Agnew
We present seismic measurements of the firn column at Korff Ice Rise, West Antarctica, including measurements of compressional-wave velocity and attenuation. We describe a modified spectral-ratio method of measuring the…1 December, 2024 by Jeremy Wilkinson
A major consideration for maritime activity in the Southern Hemisphere is the northern limit of icebergs, or the Southern Ocean Limit Of Known Ice (SOLOKI). This analysis of historical reports…1 December, 2024 by Liz Thomas
Stable water isotope records of six firn cores retrieved from two adjacent plateaus on the northern Antarctic Peninsula between 2014 and 2016 are presented and investigated for their connections with…1 December, 2024 by Kevin Newsham
The surface temperatures of Antarctic soils and bryophyte colonies can fluctuate from close to freezing point to approximately 20 °C under clear skies around solar noon during midsummer. However, whether diurnally…Read more on Diurnal temperature fluctuation inhibits the growth of an Antarctic fungus
1 December, 2024 by Cameron Fox-Clarke, Camille Toscani, Claire Stainfield, Jaume Forcada
Immune defenses are crucial for survival but costly to develop and maintain. Increased immune investment is therefore hypothesized to trade-off with other life-history traits. Here, we examined innate and adaptive…1 December, 2024
Background - Assessing the historical dynamics of key food web components is crucial to understand how climate change impacts the structure of Arctic marine ecosystems. Most retrospective stable isotopic studies…Read more on Insights on long-term ecosystem changes from stable isotopes in historical squid beaks
1 December, 2024 by Peter Convey
Species arrival sequence in new habitats impacts plant community development. This ‘priority-effect’ is documented, but mechanisms by which early arriving plants dominate future communities are less clear, complicating our ability…1 December, 2024 by Keith Nicholls
Rift propagation, rather than basal melt, drives the destabilization and disintegration of the Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf. Since 2016, rifts have episodically advanced throughout the central ice-shelf area, with rapid…1 December, 2024 by Peter Convey
Microalgae are gaining considerable attention in the field of cosmeceuticals due to their unique profile. In particular, the diverse range of valuable bioactive compounds isolated from microalgae are known to…1 December, 2024 by Gaelle Veyssiere, Jeremy Wilkinson
Salt is often present in the snow overlying seasonal sea ice, and has profound thermodynamic and electromagnetic effects. However, its provenance and behaviour within the snow remain uncertain. We describe…1 December, 2024 by Peter Convey
Recent studies have demonstrated the presence of fungal taxa in the extreme ecosystems of Antarctica that are known to opportunistically infect humans and animals. Among these are members of the…1 December, 2024 by Alexandra Weiss, Daniel Beeden, Thomas Lachlan-Cope
The THINICE field campaign, based from Svalbard in August 2022, provided unique observations of summertime Arctic cyclones, their coupling with cloud cover, and interactions with tropopause polar vortices and sea…1 December, 2024 by Peter Convey
Arctic terrestrial invertebrate biodiversity is generally poorly known, but the archipelago of Svalbard has one of the most up-to-date inventories of its terrestrial and freshwater faunas of any Arctic region,…1 December, 2024 by Kevin Newsham
1. Wildfires are important natural disturbances with profound ecological impacts. However, our understanding of how to restore plant–soil microbiome interactions following wildfires remains limited, revealing a key knowledge gap in…1 December, 2024 by Keith Nicholls
The increase in iceberg discharge into the polar oceans highlights the importance of understanding how quickly icebergs are deteriorating and where the resulting freshwater injection is occurring. Recent advances in…1 December, 2024 by Ingrid Cnossen
The climate of the upper atmosphere, including the mesosphere, thermosphere and ionosphere, is changing. As data records are much more limited than in the lower atmosphere and solar variability becomes…1 December, 2024 by Claire Allen, Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand
Approximately 1,250,000 to 700,000 years ago, the pacing of glacial-interglacial cycles changed from 41,000 years to ∼100,000 years, a shift known as the ‘Mid-Pleistocene Transition’ (MPT). The cause – or…1 December, 2024 by Clara Manno, Emily Rowlands
The Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) play a critical role in promoting the so-called "blue carbon pathway" by producing a large amount of fast-sinking faecal pellets (FPs) which facilitate the transport…1 December, 2024 by Caroline Holmes, Hua Lu, Thomas Caton Harrison, Thomas Bracegirdle, Tony Phillips
In this study, available large ensemble datasets in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Phase 6 (CMIP6) archive were used to provide the first multi-variate overview of the evolution of extreme seasons…Read more on Antarctic extreme seasons under 20th and 21st century climate change
1 December, 2024 by Peter Convey
Wounds are generally caused by an injury to the skin such as a cut or a puncture. They can be considered in two groups, acute and chronic wounds. Poor wound…1 December, 2024 by Peter Convey
Interactions between a host organism and its associated microbiota, including symbiotic bacteria, play a crucial role in host adaptation to changing environmental conditions. Antarctica provides a unique environment for the…Read more on Wolbachia in Antarctic invertebrates: absent or undiscovered?
1 December, 2024 by Tom Jordan
An array of information about the Antarctic ice sheet can be extracted from ice-sheet internal architecture imaged by airborne ice-penetrating radar surveys. We identify, trace and date three key internal…1 December, 2024 by Kate Hendry
Greenland's fjord ecosystems are strongly influenced by meltwater discharge from glaciers. Marine-terminating glaciers can significantly enhance primary production during the melt season (compared to land-terminating glaciers), but their impact on…1 December, 2024 by Jonathan Rosser
The Earth’s climate is a complex system including key components such as the Arctic Summer Sea Ice and the El Niño Southern Oscillation alongside climate tipping elements including polar ice…1 December, 2024 by Beverley Ager, Kevin Hughes
Antarctica is governed through consensus-based decision-making by the 29 Consultative Parties to the Antarctic Treaty. Another 28 ‘non-Consultative Parties’ have acceded to the Treaty and agreed to be bound by…1 December, 2024 by Alex Brisbourne
Early borehole and surface distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) experiments have demonstrated the viability of the method in glacial settings and allowed new insights.28 November, 2024 by Alistair Crame
During an unexpected heatwave, just over 100 scientists, from more than 15 different countries attended 'Bivalves 2023–Where are we going?' held at the University of Cambridge (UK) between 5 and…Read more on Bivalves 2023—Where are we going? An overview of an international meeting
28 November, 2024 by Jennifer Jackson
The post-exploitation recovery of the south-west Atlantic southern right whale (SRW, Eubalaena australis) population has been affected by widespread calf mortalities, resulting in the development of an International Whaling Commission…26 November, 2024 by Martin Collins
Biologging has been used on a range of wild animals to document spectacular feats of migration and behaviour. We describe the pursuit, capture, and ingestion of an adult Atlantic bluefin…25 November, 2024 by Jeremy Wilkinson
This paper describes the overall design and recent deployments of the Heavyweight Ice Gateway Buoy (IGB-H), developed at the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory. IGB-H supports Arctic research both…Read more on Design and Field Testing of the Heavyweight Ice Gateway Buoy to Support Arctic Science
21 November, 2024 by Jennifer Jackson
After the near-complete cessation of commercial whaling, ship collisions have emerged as a primary threat to large whales, but knowledge of collision risk is lacking across most of the world’s…Read more on Ship collision risk threatens whales across the world’s oceans
21 November, 2024
Background Evolutionary divergence and genetic variation are often linked to differences in microbial community structure and diversity. While environmental factors and diet heavily influence gut microbial communities, host species contributions…Read more on The gut microbiota of three avian species living in sympatry