Archives: Publications
Inland Thinning of Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica
1 January, 2001 by Hugh Corr
The Pine Island Glacier (PIG) transports 69 cubic kilometers of ice each year from ∼10% of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). It is possible that a retreat of the…Read more on Inland Thinning of Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica
Physical, chemical and biological processes in Lake Vostok and other Antarctic subglacial lakes
1 January, 2001
Over 70 lakes have now been identi®ed beneath the Antarctic ice sheet. Although water from none of the lakes has been sampled directly, analysis of lake ice frozen (accreted) to…Lithofacies Architecture and Construction of Volcanoes Erupted in Englacial Lakes: Icefall Nunatak, Mount Murphy, Eastern Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica
1 January, 2001
Mount Murphy is a large Miocene shield volcano flanked by several small basaltic satellite centres that were erupted beneath a thick (> 200 m) ice sheet. Three empirical models illustrating…History of Oligocene erosion, uplift and unroofing of the Transantarctic Mountains deduced from sandstone detrital modes in CRP-3 drillcore, Victoria Land basin, Antarctica
1 January, 2001
Detrital modes determined on 68 sandstone samples from CRP-3 drillcore indicate a continuation of the dynamic history of uplift-related erosion and unroofing previously documented in CRP-1 and CRP-2/2A. The source…Lithostratigraphy and volcanic evolution of Deception Island, South Shetland Islands
1 January, 2001
Deception Island is the most active volcano in the Antarctic Peninsula region. It is a large basalt–andesite shield volcano with a 10 km-wide restless caldera (Port Foster) and a complicated…Read more on Lithostratigraphy and volcanic evolution of Deception Island, South Shetland Islands
Geochemical characteristics and geotectonic setting of early Ordovician basalt lavas in the Ballantrae Complex ophiolite, SW Scotland
1 January, 2001
The consensus of several geochemical studies is a polygenetic origin for the basic volcanic sequence within the Ballantrae Complex ophiolite. This overall agreement masks differences of opinion regarding local geochemical…A quantitative estimate of the ducted whistler power within the outer plasmasphere
1 January, 2001 by Mark Clilverd
From a statistical study of ductedwhistlers observed at Halley, Antarctica, in 1996, which had propagated on paths in the range L=2.5–4.5, we report mean occurrence rates, numbers of components per…Read more on A quantitative estimate of the ducted whistler power within the outer plasmasphere
Whistler observations of the plasmasphere/plasmapause from stations of the British Antarctic Survey
1 January, 2001
VLF whistler observations from Eights Station, Antarctica were crucial to the discovery and exploration of the plasmapause (''Carpenter's knee'') by Don Carpenter in the mid-1960s. The Weddell Sea sector of…Observations on the distribution and relative abundance of the scyphomedusan Chrysaora hysoscella (Linne, 1766) and the hydrozoan Aequorea aequorea (Forskal, 1775) in the northern Benguela ecosystem
1 January, 2001
Observations on the abundance of medusae at the surface were conducted in the northern Benguela ecosystem, over the period August 1997–June 1998. The results suggest that Chrysaora hysoscella is found…The regurgitation of stomach contents in trawl caught whiting, evidence of a predator size effect
1 January, 2001 by Iain Staniland
The rate of regurgitation of food from the stomachs of trawl caught whiting Merlangius merlangus was negatively correlated with fish size. Increased musculature of the oesophageal sphincter in larger fish…Methyl bromide, other brominated methanes, and methyl iodide in polar firn air
1 January, 2001 by Robert Mulvaney
We report measurements of brominated, bromochlorinated, and iodinated methanes in air extracted from deep firn at three polar locations (two Antarctic and one Arctic). Using a firn diffusion model, we…Read more on Methyl bromide, other brominated methanes, and methyl iodide in polar firn air
Palaeontological studies for CRP-3: introduction
1 January, 2001
The drillhole at CRP-3 was the deepest of the project and offered early hopes of retrieving a long plalaeontological record. However, the reality was that the fossil content dropped off…Read more on Palaeontological studies for CRP-3: introduction
Solar flare induced ionospheric D-region enhancements from VLF amplitude observations
1 January, 2001 by Mark Clilverd
Enhancements of D-region electron densities caused by solar flares are determined from observations of VLF subionospheric amplitude changes and these enhancements are then related to the magnitudes of the X-ray…Read more on Solar flare induced ionospheric D-region enhancements from VLF amplitude observations
Flow transients in the postnoon ionosphere: The role of solar wind dynamic pressure
1 January, 2001 by Michael Pinnock
Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) HF radar, magnetometer, and satellite data are used to study ionospheric convection flow bursts in the sunward return flow in the 1200–1500 MLT auroral…Read more on Flow transients in the postnoon ionosphere: The role of solar wind dynamic pressure
Modelling the impact of fishery by-catches on albatross populations
1 January, 2001
Summary 1 Several albatross species, including the wandering albatross Diomedea exulans, have shown marked declines in abundance throughout their range. These seabirds are frequently taken as by-catch in longline fisheries…Read more on Modelling the impact of fishery by-catches on albatross populations
An operational, real-time cloud detection scheme for use in the Antarctic based on AVHRR data
1 January, 2001 by Gareth Marshall, John Turner
A description is given of an automatic cloud detection scheme that has been developed for year-round, routine use on full (1.1 km) horizontal-resolution, five-channel Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR)…The simulation of Antarctic sea ice in the Hadley Centre Climate Model (HadCM3)
1 January, 2001 by John Turner
An assessment is presented of the extent and variability of Antarctic sea ice in the non-flux-corrected version of the Hadley Centre's coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model (HadCM3). The results are…Read more on The simulation of Antarctic sea ice in the Hadley Centre Climate Model (HadCM3)
An extreme wind event at Casey Station, Antarctica
1 January, 2001 by Gareth Marshall, John Turner, Thomas Lachlan-Cope
Model output, satellite data, and in situ observations are used to investigate the conditions that gave rise to an extreme wind event at the Australian Casey Station (66.27°S, 110.53°E) on…Read more on An extreme wind event at Casey Station, Antarctica
Climate change: Devil in the detail
1 January, 2001 by David Vaughan, Gareth Marshall, John King, Robert Mulvaney
Global surface temperatures have increased by 0.6 � 0.2°C in the last century, but this warming has not been evenly distributed across the globe. Some regions, such as the Antarctic…A review of Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica: hypotheses of instability vs. observations of change
1 January, 2001 by Adrian Jenkins, Andy Smith, David Vaughan, Hugh Corr
The Pine Island Glacier ice-drainage basin has been cited as the part of the West Antarctic ice sheet most prone to substantial retreat on human time-scales. Here we review the…Statistical physics of random searches
1 January, 2001 by Vsevolod Afanasyev
We apply the theory of random walks to quantitatively describe the general problem of how to search efficiently for randomly located objects that can only be detected in the limited…Lévy flights search patterns of biological organisms
1 January, 2001 by Vsevolod Afanasyev
We discuss recent findings suggesting that an inverse square probability density distribution P(ℓ)∼ℓ−2 of step lengths ℓ leads to an optimal random search strategy for organisms that can search efficiently…Read more on Lévy flights search patterns of biological organisms
Surface oceanography of the inferred hatching grounds of Illex argentinus (Cephalopoda: Ommastrephidae) and influences on recruitment variability
1 January, 2001 by Claire Waluda, Paul Rodhouse, Philip Trathan
In this study, we consider the influence of mesoscale oceanographic processes around the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) in the South-west Atlantic, during the period in which the commercial squid fishery…Remotely sensed mesoscale oceanography and the distribution of Illex argentinus in the South Atlantic
1 January, 2001 by Claire Waluda, Paul Rodhouse, Philip Trathan
In this study, we consider the influence of mesoscale oceanographic processes around the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) in the South-west Atlantic, during the period in which the commercial squid fishery…The deep-sea copepod fauna of the Southern Ocean: patterns and processes
1 January, 2001 by Peter Ward
In recent years, much attention has been paid to the Antarctic epipelagic fauna, as a result of the desire to increase our knowledge of ecosystem function and resource management. Unfortunately,…Read more on The deep-sea copepod fauna of the Southern Ocean: patterns and processes
Petrogenesis of the Cambrian Liv Group, a bimodal volcanic rock suite from the Ross orogen, Transantarctic Mountains
1 January, 2001 by Teal Riley
Cambrian volcanic rocks of the Liv Group, defined here as including the Wyatt, Ackerman, Taylor, Fairweather, and Leverett Formations, occur along the paleo-Pacific margin of Gondwana, in the Queen Maud…Comparison of VLF sferics intensities at Halley, Antarctica, with tropical lightning and temperature
1 January, 2001 by Mark Clilverd
We compare measurements for 1998 of VLF sferics-generated noise power at Halley, Antarctica, with the predictions of the long wave noise prediction (LNP) noise model. We compare the highest-ranked predicted…Lightning atmospherics count rates observed at Halley, Antarctica
1 January, 2001 by Mark Clilverd
Lightning is considered to be a sensitive indicator of global change in the troposphere. In this paper we report the first results from the lightningatmospherics (sferics) counter deployed as part…Read more on Lightning atmospherics count rates observed at Halley, Antarctica
Testing the SOC hypothesis for the magnetosphere
1 January, 2001 by Mervyn Freeman
As noted by Chang, the hypothesis of self-organised criticality provides a theoretical framework in which the low dimensionality seen in magnetospheric indices can be combined with the scaling seen in…Read more on Testing the SOC hypothesis for the magnetosphere
Ambiguities in determination of self-affinity in the AE-index time series
1 January, 2001 by Mervyn Freeman
The interaction between the Earth's magnetic field and the solar wind plasma results in a natural plasma confinement system which stores energy. Dissipation of this energy through Joule heating in…Read more on Ambiguities in determination of self-affinity in the AE-index time series
What can we infer about the underlying physics from burst distributions observed in an RMHD simulation?
1 January, 2001 by Mervyn Freeman
We determine that the sizes of bursts in mean-square current density in a reduced magnetohydrodynamic (RMHD) simulation follow a power-law probability density function (PDF). The PDFs for burst durations and…Influence of environmental variability on breeding effort in a long-lived seabird, the yellow-nosed albatross
1 January, 2001
The provisioning parameters, breeding success, adult mass, and survival of yellow-nosed albatrosses were studied over 7 successive years at Amsterdam Island, southern Indian Ocean. We examined the ability of this…Water relations during desiccation of cysts of the potato-cyst nematode Globodera rostochiensis
1 January, 2001 by Roger Worland
The loss during desiccation of osmotically active water (OAW), which freezes during cooling to -45 °C, and osmotically inactive water (OIW), which remains unfrozen, from the cysts of the potato…Authigenic smectite clay coats in CRP-3 drillcore, Victoria Land basin, Antarctica, as a possible indicator of fluid flow: a progress report
1 January, 2001
The presence of authigenic smectite in the lower Oligocene sandstones of the Cape Roberts Project core CRP-3 from the Victoria Land Basin of Antarctica is confirmed by scanning electron, scanning-transmission…Rapid cold hardening in Antarctic microarthropods
1 January, 2001 by Roger Worland, Peter Convey
1 Rapid cold hardening was examined in three common Antarctic microarthropods using differential scanning calorimetry over timescales between 3 and 30 h, under field and controlled laboratory conditions. 2 In…Read more on Rapid cold hardening in Antarctic microarthropods
The role of habitat structure for biomolecule integrity and microbial survival under extreme environmental stress in Antarctica (and Mars?): ecology and technology
1 January, 2001
The integrity of cells and biomolecules in stressed environments is enhanced within microhabitats. Despite desiccation and low temperatures in Antarctic deserts, the greatest near-surface factor is solar radiation. Photosynthetic microbial…Why astrobiology needs collaboration
1 January, 2001
Antarctic astrobiological research has benefited from the affiliation of the UK Astrobiology Forum (UKAF) to the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI). NAI funding of a miniature Raman spectrometer for the characterization…Brines in seepage channels as eluants for subsurface relict biomolecules on Mars?
1 January, 2001
Water, vital for life, not only maintains the integrity of structural and metabolic biomolecules, it also transports them in solution or colloidal suspension. Any flow of water through a dormant…Read more on Brines in seepage channels as eluants for subsurface relict biomolecules on Mars?
Estimating the abundance of Patagonian toothfish Dissostichus eleginoides using baited cameras: a preliminary study
1 January, 2001 by Martin Collins
The Patagonian toothfish Dissostichus eleginoides has been the object of a rapidly expanding longline fishery in the Southern Ocean. Little is known about the biology of D. eleginoides and traditional…A combined zircon SHRIMP and Sm-Nd isotope study of high-grade paragneisses from the Mid-German Crystalline Rise: evidence for northern Gondwanan and Grenvillian provenance
1 January, 2001
SHRIMP analyses of detrital zircon cores from high-grade metasediments from the Mid-German Crystalline Rise, which is situated between Eastern Avalonia in the NW and Saxo-Thuringia in the SE, yield mostly…Metamorphic evolution of garnet-epidote-biotite gneiss from the Moine Supergroup, Scotland, and geotectonic implications
1 January, 2001
Metapelitic gneisses from the Glenfinnan Group of the Moine Supergroup, Scotland, contain sparse large and numerous small garnets, associated with complex zoned epidote and plagioclase in a biotite matrix. The…Late Quaternary iceberg rafting along the Antarctic Peninsula continental rise and in the Weddell and Scotia Seas
1 January, 2001
Sediment cores from the continentalrise west of the AntarcticPeninsula and the northern Weddell and ScotiaSeas were investigated for their ice-rafted debris (IRD) content by lithofacies logging and counting of particles…Hydrothermal plumes above the East Scotia Ridge: an isolated high-latitude back-arc spreading centre
30 December, 2000
We have identified first evidence for the presence of submarine hydrothermal activity along the East Scotia Ridge an isolated back-arc spreading centre located at 55–60°S in the Atlantic sector of…Antarctic digital database, version 3.0. Database, manual and bibliography
1 July, 2000
Copyright © Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, 2000Read more on Antarctic digital database, version 3.0. Database, manual and bibliography
The temporal evolution of electron distributions and associated wave activity following substorm injections in the inner magnetosphere
1 June, 2000 by Nigel Meredith, Richard Horne
The temporal evolution of electron distributions and associated wave activity following substorm injections in the inner magnetosphere are investigated using data from the CRRES satellite. Equatorial electron distributions and concomitant…A surface acoustic wave frost-point hygrometer for measurements of stratospheric water vapour
1 January, 2000 by Howard Roscoe
Conventional frost-point hygrometers observe frost on their cold point by optical means [1,2,3], thereby requiring several micrometres of ice to form. We have developed a new hygrometer which uses surface…Report on the First International Symposium on Operational Weather Forecasting in Antarctica
1 January, 2000 by John Turner
The First International Symposium on Operational Weather Forecasting in Antarctica was held in Hobart, Australia, from 31 August to 3 September 1998. There were 40 attendees at the meeting from…Temperature and pressure tolerances of embryos and larvae of the Antarctic sea urchin Sterechinus neumayeri (Echinodermata:Echinoidea):potential for deep-sea invasion from high latitudes
1 January, 2000 by Andrew Clarke
Early embryos, blastulae, prisms and 4-arm plutei of the Antarctic shallow-water echinoid Sterechinus neumayeri were subjected to a temperature/pressure regime from -1.2 to +2.5°C and from 1 to 250 atm.…Holocene electrical and chemical measurements from the EPICA–Dome C ice core
1 January, 2000 by Eric Wolff, Robert Mulvaney
The comparison between electric (electric-conductivity measurement (ECM) and dielectric profiling (DEP)) and chemical (sulphate and chloride) depth profiles along the first 400 m of the EPICA-Dome C ice core revealed…Read more on Holocene electrical and chemical measurements from the EPICA–Dome C ice core
A seasonally varying biotope at Signy Island, Antarctic: implications for meiofaunal structure
1 January, 2000
Under the typical high-latitude conditions of temperature, productivity and settlement of chlorophyll and phaeophytin to the sediment, many benthic organisms in the Antarctic show strong seasonal variation. Although meiofauna comprise…The eastern Palmer Land shear zone: a new terrane accretion model for the Mesozoic development of the Antarctic Peninsula
1 January, 2000
A major ductile fault zone, the eastern Palmer Land shear zone, has been identified east of the spine of the southern Antarctic Peninsula. This shear zone separates newly identified geological…Lévy flights in random searches
1 January, 2000 by Vsevolod Afanasyev
We review the general search problem of how to find randomly located objects that can only be detected in the limited vicinity of a forager, and discuss its quantitative description…The ionospheric response to interplanetary magnetic field variations: Evidence for rapid global change and the role of preconditioning in the magnetosphere
1 January, 2000 by Michael Pinnock
We have found observational evidence for a rapid communication of interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) changes to the global ionosphere and evidence for the state of the magnetosphere in the previous…Contrasting strategies of provisioning and chick growth in two sympatrically breeding albatrosses at Campbell Island, New Zealand
1 January, 2000
The provisioning strategies of two closely related species of albatross breeding sympatrically were studied at Campbell Island, New Zealand. Black-browed Albatrosses (Diomedea melanophrys) had a higher provisioning rate of chicks…Chick provisioning by the Yellow-nosed Albatross Diomedea chlororhynchos: response of foraging effort to experimentally increased costs and demands
1 January, 2000
We examined the provisioning strategy of a long-lived seabird to test the prediction from life-history theory that adults should preferentially allocate resources towards their own needs rather than towards their…Influence of growth temperature on lipid and soluble carbohydrate synthesis by fungi isolated from fellfield soil in the maritime Antarctic
1 January, 2000
The effects of growth temperature on soluble carbohydrate and lipid content of Humicola marvinii, Geomyces pannorum and Mortierella elongata isolated from the Antarctic (Signy Island; 60° 43′S, 45°38′W) were investigated.…Cold acclimation and cryoprotectants in a freeze-tolerant Antarctic nematode, Panagrolaimus davidi
1 January, 2000 by Roger Worland
Panagrolaimus davidi is a freeze-tolerant Antarctic nematode which survives extensive intracellular freezing. This paper describes the development of culture techniques which provide clean samples, with a high degree of freeze…Diversity of thermal responses of lipid composition in the membranes of the dominant culturable members of an Antarctic fellfield soil bacterial community
1 January, 2000
The eight dominant culturable members of an Antarctic fellfield soil bacterial community were four Arthrobacter species, Sanguibacter suarezii, Aureobacterium testaceum, a Bacillus sp., and a Pseudomonas sp.. All of the…Chlorophyll/nutrient characteristics in the water masses to the north of South Georgia, Southern Ocean
1 January, 2000
Chlorophyll a and nutrient concentrations along with temperature and salinity values were measured at 22 CTD stations along a 735-km transect running to the northwest of the island of South…Transmission electron microscope analysis of virus-like particles in the freshwater lakes of Signy Island, Antarctica
1 January, 2000 by David Pearce
Water samples from a range of fresh-water Antarctic lakes on Signy Island (South Orkney Islands: 60°45′S, 45 °38′W) were examined for the presence of virus-like particles (VLPs) during the 1998/1999 field…History of the atmosphere from ice cores
1 January, 2000 by Eric Wolff
Ice cores are an excellent way of finding out how the atmosphere has changed because climate signals and many forcing factors for climate are present in the same core. Their…Quantifying habitat use in satellite-tracked pelagic seabirds: application of kernel estimation to albatross locations
1 January, 2000 by Andrew Wood
We develop a new approach to quantifying habitat use within the foraging ranges of satellite-tracked seabirds. We applied kernel estimation techniques to 167 days (3738 locations) of data from Black-browed…Laser-derived, particle size data from CRP-2/2A: implications for sequence and seismic stratigraphy
1 January, 2000
Gravel-free, high-resolution (1-metre spacing, 32 channel) particle size data from the CRP-2/2A drill core indicate that many of the diamictites were likely deposited from floating ice. Textural dislocations occur at…Survival of Heleomyza borealis (Diptera, Heleomyzidae) larvae down to -60oC
1 January, 2000 by Roger Worland, William Block
Heleomyza borealis Boh. (Diptera, Heleomyzidae) overwinters as larvae in Arctic habitats, where they may experience winter temperatures below − 15°C. The larvae freeze at c.− 7°C but in acclimation experiments 80% survived…Read more on Survival of Heleomyza borealis (Diptera, Heleomyzidae) larvae down to -60oC
Rapid cold hardening: a gut feeling
1 January, 2000 by Roger Worland, Peter Convey
This study examined the rate of cold hardening of a field population of Antarctic springtails and the effect of eating food with particular levels of ice nucleating activity on the…The effect of feeding on specific soil algae on the cold-hardiness of two Antarctic micro-arthropods (Alaskozetes antarcticus and Cryptopygus antarcticus)
1 January, 2000 by Roger Worland
The effect of consuming terrestrial algae on the cold tolerance of two Antarctic micro-arthropods was examined. From the results of preferential feeding experiments, seven species of Antarctic terrestrial micro-algae were…Space Plasma Exploration by Active Radar (SPEAR): an overview of a future radar facility
1 January, 2000 by Richard Horne
SPEAR is a new polar cap HF radar facility which is to be deployed on Svalbard. The principal capabilities of SPEAR will include the generation of artificial plasma irregularities, operation…Postsealing genetic variation and population structure of two species of fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella and A. tropicalis)
1 January, 2000
Commercial sealing in the 18th and 19th centuries had a major impact on the Antarctic and subantarctic fur seal populations (Arctocephalus gazella and A. tropicalis) in the Southern Ocean. The…Cyanobacteria in deserts — life at the limit?
1 January, 2000
Cyanobacteria are primitive phototrophic prokaryotes whose long evolutionary history dates back to the Proterozoic era. Their ubiquity on the planet and dominance in hot and cold deserts is a measure…Antarctic ecosystems as models for extraterrestrial surface habitats
1 January, 2000
Surface habitats in Antarctic deserts are near the limits of life on Earth and resemble those hypothesized for early Mars. Cyanobacteria dominate the transient riverbeds, stromatolitic sediments in ice-covered lakes,…Read more on Antarctic ecosystems as models for extraterrestrial surface habitats
Proximal analysis of regolith habitats and protective biomolecules in situ by laser Raman spectroscopy: Overview of terrestrial Antarctic habitats and Mars analogs
1 January, 2000
Fourier-transform laser Raman spectroscopy in the near infrared (1064 nm) has been used to characterize a variety of key pigments and biomolecules produced by cyanobacteria and other stress-tolerant microbes in…Lichens at the limits of life: past perspectives and modern technology
1 January, 2000
Lichens are found at the limits of polar life in the Antarctic Dry Valleys under extreme conditions of UVB radiation, desiccation and low temperature. They may even have evolved in…Read more on Lichens at the limits of life: past perspectives and modern technology
Commensalism between a liparid fish (Careproctus sp.) and stone crabs (Lithodidae) photographed in situ using a baited camera
1 January, 2000 by Martin Collins
The commensal relationship between a snailfish, tentatively identified as Careproctus sp. (Osteichthyes: Liparidae), and the lithodid crab Paralomis formosa (Crustacea: Lithodidae) was photographed in situ using a baited camera vehicle,…From model intercomparison toward benchmark UV spectra for six real atmospheric cases
1 January, 2000
The validity of a radiative transfer model can be checked either by comparing its results with measurements or with solutions for artificial cases. Unfortunately, neither type of comparison can guarantee…Read more on From model intercomparison toward benchmark UV spectra for six real atmospheric cases
Bacterial growth and grazing loss in contrasting areas of North and South Atlantic
1 January, 2000
Samples were collected from the top 200 m of the water column at 50 stations during two cruises in different, near equinoctial seasons on an Atlantic transect near the 20°W…Read more on Bacterial growth and grazing loss in contrasting areas of North and South Atlantic