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 …
Behavioural ecology
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 …
Spatial Segregation of Seabirds at South Georgia
Seabirds are amongst the most globally threatened birds, often as a consequence of incidental mortality (bycatch) in fisheries [1] [2]. At South Georgia, wandering albatrosses have declined since the 1970s [3], and are listed …
Black-browed Albatross Juvenile Tracking
Until the last decade, South Georgia held the third largest population of black-browed albatrosses at any island group (Phillips et al. 2016) [4]. However, assuming trends at surveyed sites are …
Chinstrap Penguin Tracking
The commercial fishery for Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) operates in the southwest Atlantic, in particular along the west Antarctic Peninsula, and over the shelf breaks of the South Shetland Islands, …
Bycatch risk of wandering albatrosses from radar detection
Wandering albatrosses are threatened by bycatch. Populations at South Georgia have declined catastrophically since the 1960s due to incidental mortality (bycatch) in fisheries (Pardo et al. 2017) [1]. This led …
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 …
Grey-headed Albatross Juvenile Tracking
The grey-headed albatross is listed as Endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species because of a decline since the 1970s of the largest global breeding population, which is …
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 …
Nature’s ocean fertiliser
20 September, 2016
Scientists have discovered that Antarctic krill – a tiny shrimp-like crustacean – plays a key role in fertilising the Southern Ocean with iron, which stimulates the growth of phytoplankton, the …
Albatrosses use different regions when on migration
25 July, 2016
A new study of the movements of sub-Antarctic albatrosses tracked from two remote islands some 5,000 km apart, shows that although the birds from each breeding site take similar routes around the Southern Ocean, they forage in different areas for the majority of the time. The results are published this month in the Nature journal Scientific Reports.
NEWS STORY: Changes in seabed communities
16 November, 2015
A new study by an international team of scientists, including from British Antarctic Survey (BAS), has analysed the effects on seabed communities of glacial retreat. Writing in Science Advances this …
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: 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: Ancestral penguins studied
12 June, 2014
Rise and fall of prehistoric penguin populations charted The British Antarctic Survey has been involved in a study of how penguin populations have changed over the last 30,000 years. This …
PRESS RELEASE: Shellfish and changing oceans
5 August, 2012
New study helps predict impact of ocean acidification on shellfish An international study to understand and predict the likely impact of ocean acidification on shellfish and other marine organisms living …
PRESS RELEASE: Breeding habits of albatrosses
30 April, 2012
Antarctic albatross displays shift in breeding habits A new study of the wandering albatross – one of the largest birds on Earth – has shown that some of the birds …