The responsibility of Science Strategy Executive Group is to provide oversight and strategic direction for the BAS Science Directorate. In particular, to focus on issues that affect the long-term delivery of a world-class, sustainable science programme.
Specific responsibilities of SSEG are to:
Chair: Dr Anna Jones, Director of Science
1 May, 2020
CAMBRIDGE: British Antarctic Survey (BAS) continues to plan its operational support to the UK and international polar research community during global challenges posed by COVID-19. Halley and Signy Research Stations …
12 September, 2018
The British Antarctic Survey has been awarded National Capability funds for polar science which will strengthen UK national security, resilience, economic growth and societal benefit
30 April, 2018
A new UK-U.S. Antarctic research programme to improve the prediction of future sea-level rise is launched this week (Monday 30 April 2018) at British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Cambridge. The £20 …
15 September, 2016
ODA funds – expertise to address major challenges facing the developing world
14 February, 2023 by Huw Griffiths
The RRS Sir David Attenborough has begun its polar science trials in Antarctica. A team of 30 national and international scientists, engineers and technical staff are working on the ship …
3 August, 2020 by David Vaughan
BLOG. BAS Director of Science, Professor David Vaughan describes his ambition for more diversity in science.
1 December, 2025 by Lloyd Peck, Melody Clark
Amid 1. increasing anthropogenic pressures on ecosystems, standardised biodiversity monitoring is critical for assessing biodiversity change. Marine hard-bottom habitats, though ubiquitous and biodiverse, present challenges for biodiversity monitoring due to…3 November, 2025 by Alison McLaren, Louise Sime, Qinggang Gao
There is an increasing need to understand how water is cycled and transported within the atmosphere, to aid water management. Here, atmospheric water tracers are added to the Met Office…Read more on Implementation of water tracers in the Met Office Unified Model
1 November, 2025 by Richard Horne
On 15 February 2018 a co-rotating interaction region (CIR) from an equatorial coronal hole reached the Earth. The CIR initiated a moderate and slowly intensifying geomagnetic storm, which began with…28 October, 2025 by Gabriele Stowasser, Jose Marques Queiros, Jose Dos Santos Abreu, Martin Collins, Mark Belchier, Philip Hollyman
Understanding food-web structure is crucial to determine the functioning of ecosystems and sustainably manage resources. The Scotia Sea is an important area for Antarctic krill and toothfish fisheries, and one…28 October, 2025 by Christopher Auckland, Povl Abrahamsen, Keith Nicholls, Michael Meredith, Peter Davis, Pierre Dutrieux, Shenjie Zhou
Continuous moored time series of temperature, salinity, pressure and current speed and direction are of great importance for understanding the continental shelf and under-ice-shelf dynamics and thermodynamics that govern water…24 October, 2025 by Clara Manno, Florence Atherden, Geraint Tarling, Peter Ward
The Southern Ocean is a globally significant site of carbon sequestration with the copepod community exerting a strong influence on the carbon flux. Currently, a holistic understanding of Southern Ocean…Read more on Seasonal analysis of Southern Ocean copepod ecology using a moored sediment trap
21 October, 2025 by Ainsley Hatt, David Barnes, Lloyd Peck, Melody Clark
Predicting how benthic assemblages respond to ocean warming remains a central challenge in marine ecology. Artificial units of habitat such as settlement plates have long been used to study marine…8 October, 2025 by Irene Malmierca Vallet, Louise Sime, Rahul Sivankutty, Sentia Goursaud
The Last Interglacial (LIG) period, approximately 130 000 to 115 000 years ago, represents one of the warmest intervals of the past 800 000 years. Here, we simulate water isotopes in precipitation over…3 October, 2025 by Lloyd Peck, Richard Phillips
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are widespread environmental pollutants that can bioaccumulate in biota and cause a variety of adverse effects. Seabirds are useful bioindicators of pollutants in marine food…1 October, 2025 by Michael Meredith
Sea ice in the Southern Ocean substantially modifies atmosphere–ice–ocean fluxes of energy, freshwater, carbon, nutrients, and other important properties. It redistributes these quantities in space and time, modifies water masses…1 October, 2025 by Michael Meredith
Changes in the hydrological cycle can affect ocean circulation and ventilation. Freshwater enters the ocean as meteoric water (MW; precipitation, river runoff, and glacial discharge) and sea ice meltwater (SIM).…28 September, 2025 by Irene Malmierca Vallet, John Slattery, Louise Sime, Xu Zhang
Several general circulation models have now demonstrated the ability to simulate spontaneous millennial-scale oscillations that resemble Dansgaard–Oeschger (DO) events. It is often unclear how representative of DO events these simulations…24 September, 2025 by Irene Malmierca Vallet, Louise Sime
Given that the Arctic could be ice-free in summer within the next ten to twenty years, accurately predicting low-ice states is of crucial importance. Paleo-evidence shows that the strong orbitally-induced…23 September, 2025 by Lloyd Peck, Peter Convey, Peter Fretwell
Snow algae form extensive blooms within Antarctica’s coastal snowpacks and are a crucial contributor to its scarce terrestrial ecosystems. There is limited knowledge about the factors that contribute to snow…23 September, 2025 by Andrew Orr, Scott Hosking, Kenza Tazi
Water resources from the Indus Basin sustain over 270 million people. However, water security in this region is threatened by climate change. This is especially the case for the upper…22 September, 2025 by Alistair Crame, Teal Riley
We present a new 1:500 000 geological map of Alexander Island of West Antarctica. The map, combined with recent detrital zircon analysis, defines an updated chronostratigraphy for the Fossil Bluff…Read more on The geology of Alexander Island (Antarctic Peninsula): a new 1:500 000 geological map
19 September, 2025 by Dominic Hodgson, Stephen Roberts, Tony Phillips
Branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs) are a group of temperature-sensitive membrane lipids found in bacteria that have been widely used in palaeo-temperature reconstruction. Despite recent advances in analytical methods,…3 September, 2025 by Aidan Hunter, Amanda Burson, Andrew Meijers, Anna Belcher, Clara Manno, Dave Munday, Elaina Ford, Emma Boland, Povl Abrahamsen, Emma Young, Geraint Tarling, Gabriele Stowasser, Huw Griffiths, Hugh Venables, Alexander Brearley, Jennifer Freer, Jessica Richt, Kate Hendry, Katrin Linse, Laura Taylor, Madeline Anderson, Michael Meredith, Nadine Johnston, Petra ten Hoopen, Rachael Sanders, Ruta Hamilton, Ryan Saunders, Sarah Coombs, Sally Thorpe, Simeon Hill, Sophie Fielding
The export of elements (particularly carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus) from the Poles critically supports global marine biodiversity and major fisheries as well as the sequestration of atmospheric carbon to the…28 August, 2025 by Subir Mandal, Tracy Moffat-Griffin
In this study, we have investigated short-period ( 1 hr) atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs) in the Arctic mesosphere-lower thermosphere (MLT) region during January of 2014, 2015, and 2016. We used…
