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 …
Marine snails know how to budget their housing costs
22 September, 2017
For nearly 50 years, researchers have been stumped as to why sea shells from warm tropical waters are comparatively larger than their cold water relatives. New research, led by the …
New study puts shells under spotlight
11 November, 2016
A new study on how molluscs build their shells in the sub-zero waters of Antarctica is published today (Friday 11 November) in the journal Scientific Reports. A team of European …
NEWS STORY: Assessing seabird communities
7 October, 2015
Antarctic seabird community structure remains unaffected by changes in food availability A new study of sub-Antarctic seabirds shows that their community structure (how they co-exist and share resources) is unaffected …
NEWS STORY: Grant for penguin project
25 September, 2015
BAS scientists awarded grant to study penguins’ reliance on krill Norwegian and British scientists are to take part in a research project to determine how dependant non-breeding penguins are on …
NEWS STORY: Explaining sea lion decline
4 September, 2015
The southern sea lion population of the Falkland Islands witnessed a dramatic decline during the last century with numbers falling by 95 per cent between the 1930s and 1960s. It …
PRESS RELEASE: Scent matters to fur seals
10 August, 2015
Antarctic fur seals have unique ‘scent profile’ to recognise their pups Researchers studying Antarctic fur seals have discovered their scent has a unique ‘profile’ which enables them to recognise their …
NEWS STORY: New study uncovers how petrels co-exist
14 July, 2015
New study uncovers how petrels in sub-Antarctic co-exist during the winter For the first time, scientists understand more clearly how birds living on the remote sub-Antarctic island of Bird Island …
NEWS STORY: Petrels followed on feeding trips
26 May, 2015
Petrels tracked across the Oceans Staff at British Antarctic Survey (BAS) are following the journeys of White-chinned Petrel fledglings as they make their first journeys over the South Atlantic Ocean …
NEWS STORY: Antarctic fur seals monitored
1 April, 2015
New study tracks feeding behaviour of Antarctic fur seals in winter During the Antarctic Summer female fur seals feed in the waters around their breeding breaches. In winter, when their …
NEWS STORY: Penguin colonies once limited
2 March, 2015
Survival of the fittest – genetics reveals where emperor penguins survived the last ice age During the last ice age, when much of the Antarctic coastline was uninhabitable due to …