The evolution and ecology of Antarctic sea floor communities
The evolution and ecology of Antarctic sea floor communities is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, led by Dr Rowan Whittle, looking at the past, present and future of life at …
Animal science
Hungry Humpbacks
Whales are the largest krill predators in the UK Overseas territory of South Georgia, yet their impacts on krill stocks are poorly understood. Recently, whale surveys revealed high summer abundance …
CONSEC
CONSEC is addressing the challenge to understand the links between the biodiversity, structure and function of Southern Ocean ecosystems and the impacts of rapid environmental changes to improve scientific knowledge …
Safeguarding Antarctic krill stocks for baleen whales
This Darwin Plus funded project aims to improve our understanding of how Antarctic krill, foraging whales and the krill fishery interact in space and time, to improve krill fishery management …
Gentoo Penguin Tracking
A fishery for Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) operates over the shelf breaks of the South Orkney, South Shetland and South Georgia archipelagos [8]. Krill is an important food source for …
SO-AntEco Biodiversity
In this collaboration with the Natural History Museum (NHM) and the University of Liverpool, we have developed novel methods for using existing data to contribute to marine conservation and fisheries …
Long term monitoring of plastics
This long-term study monitors the impact of marine plastics and other debris on breeding seabirds at Bird Island. Researchers have monitored the levels of marine plastics and other material from …
ASCCC
The ASCCC Project has been funded by ACE (Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition) to investigate, quantify and understand the role of polar and subpolar seabeds in the carbon cycle, particularly in response …
Penguins and climate change
30 June, 2022
Introduction Reports suggest that climate change is putting some penguin species in peril. Scientists at British Antarctic Survey investigating long-term changes in penguin populations report what’s happening to these iconic …
Albatrosses
30 June, 2022
Introduction All but seven of the world’s 22 species of albatrosses are threatened with extinction. The main threats are incidental mortality (bycatch*) in commercial fisheries. British Antarctic Survey science and …
Return of the whales to South Georgia
20 February, 2020
A team led by British Antarctic Survey has just returned from the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia, as the last of three expeditions to investigate the recovery of whales a …
Marine life recovery following the dinosaurs’ extinction
19 June, 2019
A new study shows how marine life around Antarctica returned after the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs. A team led by British Antarctic Survey studied just under 3000 …
Antarctic species in the face of a changing ocean
17 June, 2019
A new study reveals how marine life around Antarctica will fare in an ocean which has declining levels of oxygen. Writing in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society …
Fishing hotspots show where sub-Antarctic seabirds at risk
22 May, 2019
A new study highlights that sub-Antarctic seabirds are most at risk from unsustainable fishing during the southern hemisphere winter and in the south Atlantic and Southwest Indian Oceans. The link …
New study looks at risk to Antarctic marine life in future
17 January, 2019
A new study of the animals living in polar oceans reveals which are most at risk from climate change. The study is published today (17 January) in Frontiers in Marine …
Watching whales from space
1 November, 2018
Scientists have used detailed high-resolution satellite images provided by Maxar Technologies’ DigitalGlobe, to detect, count and describe four different species of whales. Reported this week in the journal Marine Mammal …
Study of penguin colonies at Antarctic island shows decline
11 October, 2018
Results from a 21-year study into the breeding success of gentoo penguins at a well-known tourist site in Antarctica, reveal a 25% reduction in breeding pairs and a decrease of …
New insight into an enigmatic Antarctic apex predator
5 June, 2018
Scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have, for the first time, tracked the lives of leopard seals as they migrate around Antarctica. The team followed these formidable predators as they …
Warming oceans could put seabirds out of sync with prey
4 April, 2018
Seabirds may struggle to find food for their chicks as they are unable to shift their breeding seasons as the climate warms, a new study suggests. Rising sea temperatures in …
Expedition to ‘health-check’ Southern Right Whales
10 January, 2018
An international team of researchers, led by British Antarctic Survey (BAS), travels to the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia this month (January) to carry out the first scientific whale survey …