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
19 November, 2024 by Geraint Tarling, Ryan Saunders
Introduction: In the Southern Ocean, myctophids are the most successful pelagic fish group in terms of diversity, biomass, and abundance. They play a crucial role in linking primary consumers and…19 November, 2024 by Philip Leat
Visokoi is a small volcanic island in the remote South Sandwich Islands and is unique in being dominated by the basaltic andesite products of highly explosive eruptions. Here, its geology…18 November, 2024 by Andrew Orr, Scott Hosking, Kenza Tazi
The rivers of High-mountain Asia provide freshwater to around 1.9 billion people. However, precipitation, the main driver of river flow, is still poorly understood due to limited in situ measurements…18 November, 2024 by Liz Thomas
Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) contribute to the formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) through atmospheric oxidation. Previously detected SOA-markers in northern hemisphere ice cores from Alaska, Greenland, Russia, and…16 November, 2024 by Neil Cobbett, Tracy Moffat-Griffin
Meteoroids of sub-milligram sizes burn up high in the Earth's atmosphere and cause streaks of plasma trails detectable by meteor radars. The altitude at which these trails, or meteors, form…15 November, 2024 by Louise Sime
Stable water isotopes recorded in Antarctic ice cores have traditionally been used to infer past surface air temperatures (SATs). During the historical period (1850 onward), observational data and good-quality ice…14 November, 2024 by Dominic Hodgson
Here, we explore the profound impact of the Tasmanian Aboriginal (Palawa) people on Tasmanian landscapes by examining a 22,000-year record of landscape change from Lake Selina in western Tasmania, Australia.…Read more on Reconciling 22,000 years of landscape openness in a renowned wilderness
14 November, 2024 by Jennifer Jackson
Little is known about Antarctic blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus intermedia) movement and migration. In many baleen whales, distinct populations arose due to inherited fidelity to migration routes between breeding and…12 November, 2024 by Dieter Tetzner, Dorothea Moser, Liz Thomas
Peter I Island is situated in the Bellingshausen Sea, a region that has experienced considerable climate change in recent decades. Warming sea surface temperatures and reduced sea ice cover have…12 November, 2024 by Elizabeth Pearmain, Richard Phillips
The BirdLife Seabird Tracking Database (STDB) was established in 2004 to collate tracking data to address the incidental mortality of seabirds in fisheries and to contribute to identification of sites…7 November, 2024 by Millie Bond
Emission of NOx and HONO from the snowpack can have a significant impact on the oxidising capacity of the boundary layer in the polar regions. This thesis presents work that…Read more on The mysteries of reactive nitrogen species above polar snow
7 November, 2024 by Katrin Linse
The benthic biodiversity of the abyssal Labrador Sea was investigated using Agassiz trawl and in situ imagery. A megafaunal scaphopod associated with an epizoic anemone was recovered from soft sediments.…7 November, 2024 by Michael Meredith
The Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) has been experiencing rapid regional warming since at least the 1950s, however, the impacts of this warming at the local scale are variable and nuanced.…6 November, 2024 by Jaume Forcada
The Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella) is an important top predator and indicator of the health of the Southern Ocean ecosystem. Although abundant, this species narrowly escaped extinction due to…6 November, 2024 by Jack Humby, Robert Mulvaney
Conventional methods of inorganic impurity analysis do not provide high enough depth resolution for many scientific questions in ice core science. In this study, we present a setup of laser…5 November, 2024 by John Slattery, Louise Sime
Dansgaard–Oeschger (DO) events occurred throughout the last glacial period. Greenland ice cores show a rapid warming during each stadial to interstadial transition, alongside an abrupt loss of sea ice and…1 November, 2024 by Alistair Crame, Teal Riley
The Fossil Bluff Group of eastern Alexander Island records the exceptional preservation of more than 8 km of Mesozoic sedimentary rocks deposited into an accretionary forearc basin that developed unconformably…1 November, 2024 by Alistair Crame
The superfamily Stromboidea is a clade of morphologically distinctive gastropods which include the iconic Strombidae, or ‘true conchs’. In this study, we present the most taxonomically extensive phylogeny of the…1 November, 2024 by Connor Bamford, Martin Collins, Philip Hollyman, Richard Phillips
Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) supports valuable fisheries across the Southern Ocean under the management of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. The fishery at South Georgia…1 November, 2024 by Teal Riley
Helium isotopes are unrivalled tracers of the origins of melts in the Earth’s convecting mantle but their role in determining melt contributions from the shallower and rigid lithospheric mantle is…Read more on Systematic behaviour of 3He/4He in Earth’s continental mantle
1 November, 2024 by Geraint Tarling, Melody Clark
Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba Dana) is a keystone species in the Southern Ocean ecosystem, with ecological and commercial significance. However, its vulnerability to climate change requires an urgent investigation of…1 November, 2024 by Andrew Clarke, Lloyd Peck
The embryonic development of marine ectotherms has been shown to be strongly temperature dependent across the world's oceans. However, at the coldest sites, in the polar regions, development is even…1 November, 2024 by Tom Jordan, Teal Riley
The Dufek layered mafic intrusion represents the only exposed, deep-seated, part of the Ferrar Large Igneous Province, which extends >3500 km across Antarctica and into parts of Tasmania and New Zealand.…Read more on Reinvestigating the Dufek Intrusion, through joint gravity and magnetic models
1 November, 2024 by Kevin Hughes
Protection of specific species, generally through the implementation of an associated action plan, is a conservation tool used commonly in areas under national jurisdiction. The Antarctic Treaty area is under…1 November, 2024 by Alexander Tate, Alice Fremand, Helen Peat, James Byrne, Petra ten Hoopen
This is a final report from the work undertaken by the NERC Environmental Data Service (EDS) funded by the UKRI Digital Research Programme grant: EDS UKRI DRI Phase 1b. The…1 November, 2024 by Ella Gilbert, Hua Lu, John King, Michael Haigh, Pierre Dutrieux, Ruth Price, Thomas Caton Harrison, Thomas Bracegirdle
Westerlies prevail at low levels over most of the Southern Ocean. Within about 400 km of Antarctica, the winds reverse direction and become the polar or coastal easterlies. Closer to the…Read more on Advances and next steps in observing and modeling Antarctica’s coastal winds
1 November, 2024 by Peter Convey
Hydrocarbon spillage has long been a concern in Antarctica as it can result in detrimental effects on Antarctic biota and ecosystems. Bioremediation, using microorganisms such as microalgae, represents one of…30 October, 2024 by Hannah Cubaynes, Jaume Forcada, Peter Fretwell
Regular counts of walruses (Odobenus rosmarus) across their pan-Arctic range are necessary to determine accurate population trends and in turn understand how current rapid changes in their habitat, such as…30 October, 2024 by Antony Siahaan
A parameterization of the impact of internal waves on momentum transfer at the sea-ice–ocean interface based on previous work by McPhee has been implemented in a sea-ice model for the…26 October, 2024 by George Day
A species' demographic history gives important context to contemporary population genetics and a possible insight into past responses to climate change; with an individual's genome providing a window into the…Read more on Revealing the Demographic History of the European Nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus)
21 October, 2024 by Louise Sime
Pleistocene Ice Ages display abrupt Dansgaard–Oeschger (DO) climate oscillations that provide prime examples of Earth System tipping points—abrupt transition that may result in irreversible change. Greenland ice cores provide key…18 October, 2024 by Thomas Bracegirdle
We review how the international modelling community, encompassing integrated assessment models, global and regional Earth system and climate models, and impact models, has worked together over the past few decades…18 October, 2024 by Keith Nicholls
Bottom water formation in the Weddell Sea and mass loss from the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf are tightly linked by the supply of Warm Deep Water to the continental shelf. Heavy…17 October, 2024 by Philip Trathan
The Southern Ocean exhibits substantial spatio-temporal variation in biogeochemical processes that shape interactions and productivity across food webs. Stable isotopes in marine predators provide an opportunity to capture such variations,…17 October, 2024 by Ashley Bennison
The current highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 panzootic is having substantial impacts on wild birds and marine mammals. Following major and widespread outbreaks in South America, an incursion to Antarctica…16 October, 2024 by Andrew Kavanagh
The high latitude ionospheric evolution of the May 10‐11, 2024, geomagnetic storm is investigated in terms of Total Electron Content and contextualized with Incoherent Scatter Radar and ionosonde observations. Substantial…15 October, 2024 by Peter Convey
We isolated and characterized the community of cultivable fungi associated with marine macroalgae present in the Magellan sub-Antarctic straits and the South Shetland Islands, Maritime Antarctica, and evaluated their production…14 October, 2024 by James Kirkham
Ice shelves regulate the flow of the Antarctic ice sheet toward the ocean and its contribution to sea-level rise. Accurately monitoring the basal and surface melting of ice shelves is…13 October, 2024 by Aidan Hunter
The Arctic Ocean is characterized by substantial seasonal and inter-annual variability, of which the sources and impacts are not yet fully understood. Here, we analyze how much of the variability…
10 October, 2024 by Xin Yang
The acidity of sea ice and snow plays a key role in the chemistry of the cryosphere; an important example lies in the photochemical catalytic release of reactive bromine in…Read more on Freezing-induced acidification of sea ice brine
9 October, 2024 by Maximilian Lowe
This thesis utilises inverse and forward modelling of geophysical data to investigate the subglacial geology and influences on geothermal heat flow in northern Victoria Land and in Wilkes Subglacial Basin,…4 October, 2024 by Andrew Fleming, Dominic Hodgson, Peter Fretwell
The Antarctic Peninsula has experienced considerable anthropogenic warming in recent decades. While cryospheric responses are well defined, the responses of moss-dominated terrestrial ecosystems have not been quantified. Analysis of Landsat…Read more on Sustained greening of the Antarctic Peninsula observed from satellites
1 October, 2024 by Andrew Wood
Sexing bird species with monomorphic plumage is generally challenging, and sexual size dimorphism (SSD) is often used to develop morphometric-based sexing tools, e.g., using discriminant functions. Within species, local selection…1 October, 2024 by Lily Bentley, Richard Phillips
Aim: Competition is often proposed to drive niche segregation along multiple axes in speciose communities. Understanding spatial partitioning of foraging areas is particularly important in species that are constrained to…Read more on Habitat preferences of Phoebetria albatrosses in sympatry and allopatry
1 October, 2024 by Adriana Giles, Lloyd Peck, Melody Clark, Nadia Frontier, Simon Morley
There is a dearth of basic life history and physiological data from Southern Ocean species, particularly from benthic vagile predators. This is an important data gap because species inhabiting the…1 October, 2024 by Maximilian Lowe, Robert Larter, Tom Jordan
Bedrock geology from Antarctica remains largely unknown since it is hidden beneath thick ice sheets. Geophysical methods such as gravity and magnetic inverse modelling provide a framework to infer crustal…1 October, 2024 by Dominic Hodgson
Global sea levels during the last interglacial (LIG), 129,000–116,000 years ago, may have reached as much as 5–10 m higher than present. However, the elevation of the LIG highstand varies…Read more on Late Pleistocene sea-level constraints across Antarctica
1 October, 2024 by Clara Manno
The aim of this paper is to characterize the plastic and to study a potential relationship between plastic debris characteristics and the presence of fouling biota in an Antarctic Specially…1 October, 2024 by Maximilian Lowe, Robert Larter, Tom Jordan, Teal Riley
Direct geological information in Antarctica is limited to ice free regions along the coast, high mountain ranges, or isolated nunataks. Therefore, indirect methods are required to reveal subglacial geology and…1 October, 2024 by Caroline Holmes, Paul Holland, Thomas Bracegirdle
The reality of human-induced climate change is unequivocal and exerts an ever-increasing global impact. Access to the latest scientific information on current climate change and projection of future trends is…1 October, 2024 by Richard Horne
The 23–24 April 2023 double-peak (SYM-H intensities of −179 and −233 nT) intense geomagnetic storm was caused by interplanetary magnetic field southward component Bs associated with an interplanetary fast-forward shock-preceded…Read more on The April 2023 SYM‐H = −233 nT Geomagnetic Storm: A Classical Event
1 October, 2024 by Clara Manno, Kate Hendry
The aim of this document is to detail the key determinands, sampling preparation, methodology, and analyses required for the NERC program BIOPOLE, with the overall objective of maintaining consistency in…Read more on BIOPOLE cookbook: parameters and analysis V7. October 2024
1 October, 2024 by Peter Convey
In aquatic insects, body size and shape are key traits that may indicate phenotypic plasticity or adaptations to their hydrological landscape. Liodessus chilensis is a small and poorly-known aquatic beetle…1 October, 2024 by Kevin Hughes
Ireland has a rich Antarctic history, with Bransfield, Crozier, Shackleton, Crean and others acting as key Irish individuals in Antarctic exploration. Recognized as a source of Irish national pride, memorials,…1 October, 2024 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand
Here, we report the first discovery of Antarctic fossil resin (commonly referred to as amber) within a ~5 cm-thick lignite layer, which constitutes the top part of a ~3 m-long…Read more on First discovery of Antarctic amber [Short note]
1 October, 2024 by Peter Convey
Deception Island is an Antarctic Specially Managed Area that houses historically important sites such as the remains of historical wooden buildings. The impacts of fungal communities on wood in polar…1 October, 2024 by Peter Convey
Regional warming rates experienced in the Antarctic Peninsula since the mid-twentieth century, linked to global climate change, have been amongst the world's fastest. The majority of studies of change in…27 September, 2024
Understanding the genetic and fitness consequences of anthropogenic bottlenecks is crucial for biodiversity conservation. However, studies of bottlenecked populations combining genomic approaches with fitness data are rare. Theory predicts that…27 September, 2024 by Florian Mekhaldi
Extreme solar particle events (ESPEs) are infrequent yet highly potent manifestations of solar activity. These events result in the production of significant amounts of cosmogenic isotopes(CIs): 10Be, 36Cl, and 14C,…26 September, 2024 by Anthony Fox, Ashley Bennison, Dan McKenzie, Elizabeth Holmes, Elaine Fitzcharles, Freya Blockley, George Day, Isabel Stubbs, Jennifer Forster Davidson, Jaume Forcada, Kevin Hughes, Marcia Blyth, Michael Dunn, Norman Ratcliffe, Richard Phillips, Rosamund Hall, Steven Marshall, Simon Morley, Stacey Adlard
Capsule: HPAI H5N1 was documented for the first time in the subantarctic region on Bird Island, South Georgia, resulting in the mortality of Brown Skuas Stercorarius antarcticus, Gentoo Penguins Pygoscelis…26 September, 2024 by David Pearce, Michael Dunn, Peter Convey, Stacey Adlard
The gut microbiomes of Antarctic penguins are important for the fitness of the host birds and their chicks. The compositions of microbial communities in Antarctic penguin guts are strongly associated…24 September, 2024 by Geraint Tarling, Sophie Fielding
The South Georgia region of the Southern Ocean represents the northernmost range edge for Antarctic krill. Of concern is the extent to which rapid warming of surface water temperatures and…24 September, 2024 by Andrew Kavanagh
Long-term reduction (∼20 km) in the height of the ionospheric F2 layer, hmF2, is predicted to result from increased levels of tropospheric greenhouse gases. Sufficiently long sequences of ionospheric data exist…Read more on Calibrating estimates of ionospheric long-term change
24 September, 2024 by Pierre Dutrieux
The Marine Ice Sheet–Ocean Model Intercomparison Project – phase 2 (MISOMIP2) is a natural progression of previous and ongoing model intercomparison exercises that have focused on the simulation of ice-sheet…23 September, 2024 by Peter Convey
Elevation gradients are often used as a proxy for climate change as they allow comparisons of ecological responses over much larger temporal and spatial scales than is possible through experimental…19 September, 2024 by Andrew Meijers, Povl Abrahamsen, Hugh Venables, Alexander Brearley, Michael Meredith, Natasha Lucas
The South Scotia Ridge, in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean, is a key region for water mass modification. It is the location of the Weddell-Scotia Confluence, an area…