Showing 13487 items
1 January, 2012 by Hugh Corr, Keith Makinson, Keith Nicholls
We have discovered a band of stones and coarse sand in the Ronne Ice Shelf, Antarctica, some 60m above the ice shelf’s base, 40km from its seaward edge and 420km…1 January, 2012 by Will Goodall-Copestake
Mating between relatives often results in negative fitness consequences or inbreeding depression. However, the expression of inbreeding in populations of wild cooperative mammals and the effects of environmental, maternal and…Read more on Inbreeding and inbreeding depression of early life traits in a cooperative mammal
1 January, 2012 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand
Reconstructing past detrital flux and provenance in the SouthernOcean provides information about changes in source regions associated with climate variations and transport pathways. We present a LastGlacial Maximum (LGM) to…1 January, 2012 by Peter Convey
During the last 50 years, the western coast of the Antarctic Peninsula and adjacent archipelagos, also known as the maritime Antarctic, has experienced notable climate warming. As a result, expansion…1 January, 2012 by Hilmar Gudmundsson, Richard Hindmarsh, Richard Hindmarsh
Predictions of marine ice-sheet behaviour require models that are able to robustly simulate grounding line migration. We present results of an intercomparison exercise for marine ice-sheet models. Verification is effected…Read more on Results of the Marine Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project, MISMIP
1 January, 2012 by Andrew Clarke, David Pearce, Eugene Murphy, Nadine Johnston
The Antarctic continent is almost entirely covered by a vast icecap that reaches 4 km in thickness. Despite this, the continent possesses a remarkable array of lake ecosystems, many of…1 January, 2012 by David Pearce, Kevin Newsham, Michael Thorne
Our current understanding of Antarctic soils is derived from direct culture on selective media, biodiversity studies based on clone library construction and analysis, quantitative PCR amplification of specific gene sequences…Read more on Metagenomic analysis of a a southern maritime Antarctic soil
1 January, 2012 by Dominic Hodgson, Peter Convey
Heterotrophic bacteria isolated from five aquatic microbial mat samples from different locations in continental Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula were compared to assess their biodiversity. A total of 2,225 isolates…Read more on Heterotrophic bacterial diversity in aquatic microbial mat communities from Antarctica
1 January, 2012 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
A new species of eutardigrade, Hebesuncus mollispinus, sp.nov. is described from Charcot Island, maritime Antarctica. The three knowm species of Hebesuncus are either widespread with questionable reports from the Antarctic…1 January, 2012 by Richard Phillips
Two hypotheses have been proposed to explain sex-related differences in foraging in sexually monomorphic seabirds. The ‘intersexual competition’ hypothesis suggests that parents are in competition and that the dominated sex…1 January, 2012 by Geraint Tarling, Peter Ward
Many calanoid copepods inhabiting high latitude environments overwinter at depth in the water column in a state of diapause and the large wax ester reserves that they contain are central…Read more on Wax ester composition influences the diapause patterns in the copepod Calanoides acutus
1 January, 2012
A new perspective on the role of lipids in zooplankton is proposed, with solid–liquid phase transitions of lipids being a factor regulating their buoyancy. These phase transitions are controlled by…1 January, 2012 by Geraint Tarling
Fatty acid biomarkers analysis was performed on juvenile and adult northern krill (Meganyctiphanes norvegica) to determine variability in diet between individuals and the consequences for their growth rates. Animals were…Read more on Diet and growth rates of Meganyctiphanes norvegica in autumn
1 January, 2012 by David Vaughan, Hamish Pritchard
Accurate prediction of global sea-level rise requires that we understand the cause of recent, widespread and intensifying1, 2 glacier acceleration along Antarctic ice-sheet coastal margins3. Atmospheric and oceanic forcing have…Read more on Antarctic ice-sheet loss driven by basal melting of ice shelves
1 January, 2012
The dataset Future Flows Climate was developed as part of the project ''Future Flows and Groundwater Levels'' to provide a consistent set of climate change projections for the whole of…1 January, 2012 by Andrew Clarke, Eugene Murphy, Lloyd Peck, Nadine Johnston
It is widely accepted that marine biogeography is largely shaped by direct effects of temperature (Angel, 1991; Murawski, 1993). Temperature also influences biodiversity patterns at various latitudes (e.g.,Royet al.,1998; Astorga…1 January, 2012
In recent years, phytoplankton phenology has been proposed as an indicator to monitor systematically the state of the pelagic ecosystem and to detect changes triggered by perturbation of the environmental…1 January, 2012 by Norman Ratcliffe, Philip Trathan
Managing fisheries in an ecologically sensitive manner demands that catches do not depress stocks within the foraging areas used by predators to levels that reduce their reproductive success or survival.…1 January, 2012 by Richard Phillips
Petrels are highly mobile seabirds that face many threats and whose conservation is frequently hampered by a lack of understanding of their biology at sea. We used a combination of…1 January, 2012 by Katrin Linse
The Antarctic Peninsula has experienced a rapid increase in atmospheric temperature over the last 50 years. Whether or not marine organisms thriving in this cold stenothermal environment are able to…1 January, 2012 by Angelika Renner, Eugene Murphy, Jonathan Watkins, Michael Meredith, Sally Thorpe
Pathways and rates of ocean flow near the Antarctic Peninsula are strongly affected by frontal features, forcings from the atmosphere and the cryosphere. In the surface mixed layer, the currents…1 January, 2012 by Lloyd Peck, Simon Morley
There are areas on Earth where it is pressing that we obtain an understanding of the thermal limits and acclimationcapacities of the species living there. These are the zones where…Read more on Thermal acclimation capacity for four Arctic marine benthic species
1 January, 2012 by Lloyd Peck, Michael Thorne, Simon Morley
Defining ecologically relevant upper temperature limits of species is important in the context of environmental change. The approach used in the present paper estimates the relationship between rates of temperature…1 January, 2012 by Teal Riley
New geological mapping combined with U–Pb ion microprobe zircon geochronology on the isolated but locally extensive exposures of crystalline basement inliers of eastern Graham Land has greatly improved our understanding…1 January, 2012 by Teal Riley
The Mesozoic fore-arc of the Antarctic Peninsula is exposed along its west coast. On Adelaide Island, a 2–3 km succession of turbiditic coarse sandstones and volcanic rocks is exposed. Four…1 January, 2012 by Michael Meredith
The Southern Ocean includes the only latitude band where the ocean circles the earth unobstructed by continental boundaries. This accident of geography has profound consequences for global ocean circulation, biogeochemical…1 January, 2012 by Mark Clilverd
In order to make best use of the opportunities provided by space missions such as the Radiation Belt Storm Probes, we determine the response of complementary subionospheric radiowave propagation measurements…1 January, 2012 by Andrew Clarke, Eugene Murphy, Nadine Johnston
Since its discovery Antarctica has held a deep fascination for biologists. Extreme environmental conditions, seasonality and isolation have lead to some of the most striking examples of natural selection and…Read more on Antarctic Ecosystems: An Extreme Environment in a Changing World
1 January, 2012 by Andrew Clarke, David Pearce, Katrin Linse, Robert Larter
Since the first discovery of deep-sea hydrothermal vents along the Galápagos Rift in 1977, numerous vent sites and endemic faunal assemblages have been found along mid-ocean ridges and back-arc basins…1 January, 2012 by Dominic Hodgson
210Pb-dated sediment cores taken from lakes on the Falkland Islands, the South Orkney Islands, and the Larsemann Hills in Antarctica were analyzed for fly ash particles to assess the temporal…1 January, 2012 by Fausto Ferraccioli, Hugh Corr, Tom Jordan
The bed of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is, in places, more than 1.5 km below sea level1, 2. It has been suggested that a positive ice-loss feedback may occur when…1 January, 2012 by Dominic Hodgson, Peter Convey
Signy Island, maritime Antarctic, lies within the region of the Southern Hemisphere that is currently experiencing the most rapid rates of environmental change. In this study, peat cores up to…1 January, 2012 by Jean-Baptiste Sallee
The oceans slow the rate of climate change by absorbing about 25% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions annually. The Southern Ocean makes a substantial contribution to this oceanic carbon sink:…Read more on Localized subduction of anthropogenic carbon dioxide in the Southern Hemisphere oceans
1 January, 2012 by Dominic Hodgson
Accurate projections of future climate changes in regions susceptible to drought depend on a good understanding of past climate changes and the processes driving them. In the absence of longer…1 January, 2012 by Ryan Saunders
Current acoustic survey protocols for Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) abundance estimation are principally dependent upon 38-kHz backscatter data. This can constitute a substantial problem for robust stock assessment when 38-kHz…1 January, 2012 by Annette Scheffer, Philip Trathan
Investigating the responses of marine predators to oceanographic structures is of key importance for understanding their foraging behaviour and reproductive success. Using Global Positioning System (GPS) and Time-Depth-Temperature-Recorder (TDR) tags,…1 January, 2012 by Hugh Venables
The spawning success of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) is generally assumed to depend on substantial winter sea ice extent, as ice biota can serve as a food source during winter/spring…1 January, 2012 by Michael Meredith
The Southern Ocean is fundamental to the operation of the Earth system. It is the central connection among the major ocean basins and between the upper and lower layers of…1 January, 2012 by Andrew Fleming, Geraint Tarling, Will Goodall-Copestake
The high latitudes inhabited by Antarctic krill Euphausia superba Dana are characterised by extreme changes in seasonal conditions, with very low food availability, long periods of darkness and a massive…Read more on Seasonal and spatial influences on gene expression in Antarctic krill Euphausia superba
1 January, 2012 by Peter Convey
Lovastatin is an important fungal secondary metabolite inhibiting the enzyme which catalyzes a rate-limiting step in the biosynthesis of cholesterol. As microfungi of the genus Penicillium are active producers of…Read more on Production of Lovastatin by Penicillium spp. Soil microfungi
1 January, 2012 by Adrian Fox, Jonathan Shanklin
1 January, 2012 by Adrian Fox, Jonathan Shanklin
1 January, 2012 by Philip Trathan
The energetics of adult Streaked Shearwaters Calonectris leucomelas during the chick-rearing period were examined on Awa Island, Japan, in 2008 and 2009. Basal metabolic rates (BMR) were quantified using an…Read more on Basal and field metabolic rates of Streaked Shearwater during the chick-rearing period
1 January, 2012 by Emily Shuckburgh
This report examines public attitudes to climate science and its representation in the news media. It details the results of a survey of the UK population conducted in March 2011,…1 January, 2012 by Andy Smith, Andrew Tait, Dominic Hodgson, David Pearce, Rachel Clarke
Antarctic subglacial lakes are thought to be extreme habitats for microbial life and may contain important records of ice sheet history and climate change within their lake floor sediments. To…1 January, 2012 by Alistair Crame
Strata assigned to the Fossil Bluff Group on Alexander Island, Antarctica, contain Aptian to Albian highlatitude echinoderm faunas that lived at palaeolatitudes greater than 60 degrees south. The Pluto Glacier…1 January, 2012 by Peter Fretwell
Temporal and spatial patterns of relative sea level (RSL) change in the North of Britain and Ireland during the Holocene are examined. Four episodes, each defined by marked changes in…Read more on Patterns of Holocene relative sea level change in the North of Britain and Ireland
1 January, 2012 by Vsevolod Afanasyev
We determined, for the first time, individual linkages between breeding areas of nesting female scaly-sided mergansers Mergus squamatus in the Russian Far East and their previously unknown wintering grounds in…1 January, 2012 by Jaume Forcada, Philip Trathan
The development of models of marine ecosystems in the Southern Ocean is becoming increasingly important as a means of understanding and managing impacts such as exploitation and climate change. Collating…1 January, 2012 by Susie Grant
Off-shelf waters cover 66% of the planet. Growing concerns about the state of natural resources in these waters, and of future threats have led to a growing movement to improve…1 January, 2012 by Iain Staniland, Janet Silk, Philip Trathan
Telemetry-based techniques have revealed the foraging patterns of many land breeding marine predators, especially during the summer breeding season. However, during the winter, when freed from the constraints of provisioning…1 January, 2012 by Richard Phillips
Sexual segregation in foraging and migratory behaviour is widespread among sexually dimorphic marine vertebrates. It has also been described for a number of monomorphic species, yet the underlying mechanisms are…1 January, 2012 by Adrian Jenkins
Outlet glaciers draining the Antarctic ice sheet into the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) have accelerated in recent decades, most likely as a result of increased melting of their ice-shelf termini…1 January, 2012 by Richard Phillips
The migrations and winter distributions of most seabirds, particularly small pelagic species, remain poorly understood despite their potential as indicators of marine ecosystem health. Here we report the use of…1 January, 2012 by Dominic Hodgson, Stephen Roberts
The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the most rapidly warming regions on Earth, as evidenced by a recent increase in the intensity and duration of summer melting, the recession of…1 January, 2012 by Gabriele Stowasser, Martin Collins, Richard Phillips
The pelagic food web of the Scotia Sea was studied by analysing natural abundances of nitrogen and carbon stable isotopes of primary producers and pelagic consumers, sampled from the seasonal…Read more on Food web dynamics in the Scotia Sea in summer: A stable isotope study
1 January, 2012 by Gabriele Stowasser
Fatty acid analysis was used to study the trophic ecology of 10 demersal fish species in the South Georgia region. Principal component analysis grouped the species into three general clusters,…1 January, 2012 by Lloyd Peck
Our aim in conducting annual horizon scans is to identify issues that, although currently receiving little attention, may be of increasing importance to the conservation of biological diversity in the…Read more on A horizon scan of global conservation issues for 2012
1 January, 2012 by Eugene Murphy, Geraint Tarling, Gabriele Stowasser, Hugh Venables, Peter Ward
The biomass size structure of pelagic communities provides a system level perspective that can be instructive when considering trophic interactions. Such perspectives can become even more powerful when combined with…1 January, 2012 by Eugene Murphy, Geraint Tarling, Martin Collins, Peter Ward
The Scotia Sea has been a focus of biological- and physical oceanographic study since the Discovery expeditions in the early 1900s. It is a physically energetic region with some of…Read more on DISCOVERY 2010: Spatial and temporal variability in a dynamic polar ecosystem
1 January, 2012 by Peter Convey
Soil trampling is one of the most obvious direct negative human impacts in Antarctica. Through a range of experiments and field studies based on quantitative physical (soil penetration resistance) and…1 January, 2012 by Helen Peat, Peter Convey
Aim: To present a synthesis of past biogeographic analyses and a new approach based on spatially explicit biodiversity information for the Antarctic region to identify biologically distinct areas in need…1 January, 2012
A coupled biogeochemical-physical ocean model is used to study the seasonal and long–term variations of surface pCO2 in the North Atlantic Ocean. The model agrees well with recent underway pCO2…Read more on A model study of the seasonal and long-term North Atlantic surface pCO2 variability
1 January, 2012 by Kevin Newsham
Snow moulds are fungi and fungal-like microbes that occur frequently as pathogens of moss and vascular plant species in the Arctic and Antarctic, chiefly in maritime areas with permanent snow…1 January, 2012 by Pierre Dutrieux
We report the first simultaneous measurements of surface water pCO2, biological oxygen saturation (ΔO2/Ar) and dimethylsulfide (DMS) concentrations in polynya waters and the sea ice zone of the Amundsen Sea,…1 January, 2012 by Norman Ratcliffe, Philip Trathan
Macaroni penguins Eudyptes chrysolophus are thought to be one of the most important mesopredators in the Southern Ocean having a greater impact on prey availability and abundance than any other…1 January, 2012 by Andrew Clarke, Eugene Murphy, Jaume Forcada, Nadine Johnston, Philip Trathan
The Southern Ocean (Figure 11.1) is a major component within the global ocean and climate system. It not only unites the Atlantic Ocean with the Indian and Pacific Oceans, but…Read more on Environmental Forcing and Southern Ocean Marine Predator Populations
1 January, 2012 by Vsevolod Afanasyev
The small size of the billions of migrating songbirds commuting between temperate breeding sites and the tropics has long prevented the study of the largest part of their annual cycle…1 January, 2012 by Martin Collins
Many marine pelagic fish species are characterized by subtle but complex genetic structures and dynamics, depending on the balance between current-mediated larval dispersal and adult active homing behavior. The circumantarctic…1 January, 2012
New analysis of the relationships between geological structural data and radiometric ages for the Lassiter Coast Intrusive Suite indicate that the collisional mid-Cretaceous Palmer Land Event orogeny in the Antarctic…1 January, 2012 by Philip Leat
Subduction-related Mesozoic mafic dykes in eastern Palmer Land, Antarctic Peninsula, record the development of an intra-oceanic arc terrane, the Dyer Arc, probably of late Permian–Triassic age, represented by a tholeiitic…1 January, 2012
New structural and geochronological data from the Eastern Palmer Land Shear Zone, in the vicinity of Beaumont Glacier, provide the first evidence of dated structural control on emplacement of the…1 January, 2012
The possibility that the tsunami, generated as a consequence of the large Mw 9.0 Tohoku-Oki earthquake of March 11th 2011, could be recorded by the tide gauge stations located in…Read more on Has the Mediterranean Sea felt the March 11th, 2011, Mw 9.0 Tohoku-Oki earthquake?
1 January, 2012 by Hugh Venables, Michael Meredith, Peter Ward
The fronts in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) comprise the Southern ACC Front (SACCF), the Polar Front (PF) and Sub-Antarctic Front (SAF), which, together with the Southern Boundary (SB), separate…1 January, 2012 by Peter Convey
In September 2011, Aberdeen (UK) hosted the World Conference on Marine Biodiversity (WCMB). Within this Conference, the multidisciplinary international Science Research Programme (SRP) of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research…1 January, 2012 by Dominic Hodgson, Stephen Roberts
Polar lakes respond quickly to climate-induced environmental changes. We studied the chemical limnological variability in 127 lakes and ponds from eight ice-free regions along the East Antarctic coastline, and compared…1 January, 2012 by Mark Belchier, Richard Phillips
Wide-ranging, surface-feeding pelagic seabirds are the most numerous functional group of birds in the Southern Ocean. The mesoscale habitat use of these birds is increasingly being quantified by relating their…1 January, 2012 by Claire Waluda, Helen Peat, Philip Trathan, Simeon Hill
We analysed summer diet and fledging mass of macaroni penguins Eudyptes chrysolophus breeding at Bird Island, South Georgia, during the crèche period (January and February) between 1989 and 2010. Crustaceans…1 January, 2012 by Norman Ratcliffe
The impacts of predation by invasive mammals on island fauna are a major driver of insular biodiversity loss. Devastating, hitherto unsuspected impacts of predatory house mice on breeding seabirds have…Read more on Predation of Atlantic Petrel chicks by house mice on Gough Island
1 January, 2012 by Geraint Tarling, Peter Ward
Mesozooplankton distribution and community structure was investigated during 3 cruises to the Scotia Sea in austral spring, summer and autumn. Three mesh sizes of Bongo nets were used during each…1 January, 2012 by Geraint Tarling, Gabriele Stowasser, Hugh Venables, Martin Collins, Peter Enderlein, Peter Ward, Sally Thorpe, Sophie Fielding
Bioregionalisation, the partitioning of large ecosystems into functionally distinct sub-units, facilitates ecosystem modelling, management and conservation. A variety of schemes have been used to partition the Southern Ocean, based variously…Read more on Food web structure and bioregions in the Scotia Sea: A seasonal synthesis
1 January, 2012 by Geraint Tarling, Peter Enderlein, Peter Ward
If Southern Ocean plankton communities are changing in response to climate, biases in various nets need to be evaluated to help understand regional and temporal differences between historical and contemporary…1 January, 2012 by Lloyd Peck, Simon Morley
There is great concern over the future effects of ocean acidification on marine organisms, especially for skeletal calcification, yet little is known of natural variation in skeleton size and composition…1 January, 2012 by Geraint Tarling
The population dynamics, individual growth rates and productivity of the hyperiid amphipod Themisto gaudichaudii were studied in Cumberland Bay, a fjord on the north-eastern coast of South Georgia. The study…1 January, 2012 by Robert Larter
Multichannel seismic reflection lines collected in the western Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) provide an insight into the sedimentary cover on the shelf, which documents glacial processes. Numerous columnar, reflection-poor structures…