The overall responsibility of SciMT is to advise and support the Director of Science on management issues that affect planning and delivery of science on both short and long timescales.
Specific responsibilities of SciMT are:
Chair: Dr Anna Jones, Director of Science
11 July, 2024 by Chester Sands, Felipe Simoes, Peter Convey
The terrestrial fauna of Antarctica consists of a limited number of species, notably insects, small crustaceans and other micro-invertebrates. Over long periods of evolutionary isolation, these organisms have developed varying…4 July, 2024 by Alistair Crame
The superfamily Stromboidea is a clade of morphologically distinctive gastropods which include the iconic Strombidae, or ‘true conchs’. In this study, we present the most taxonomically extensive phylogeny of the…2 July, 2024 by Peter Convey
We assessed soil fungal and fungal-like diversity using metabarcoding in ornithogenically influenced soils around nests of the bird species Phalacrocorax atriceps, Macronectes giganteus, Pygoscelis antarcticus, and Pygoscelis adelie on the…29 June, 2024 by Irene Malmierca Vallet, John Slattery, Louise Sime
Greenland ice core records feature Dansgaard–Oeschger (D-O) events, which are abrupt warming episodes followed by gradual cooling during ice age climate. The three climate models used in this study (CCSM4,…22 June, 2024 by Peter Convey
This study characterized cultivable fungi present in sediments obtained from Boeckella Lake, Hope Bay, in the north-east of the Antarctic Peninsula, and evaluated their production of enzymes and biosurfactants of…13 June, 2024 by Amanda Burson, Cecilia Liszka, Clara Manno, Povl Abrahamsen, Geraint Tarling, Kate Hendry, Natasha Lucas, Sally Thorpe
Large icebergs (>20 km long) are responsible for most of the freshwater discharged into the Southern Ocean. We report on in situ and satellite observations made during the break-up phase around…1 June, 2024 by Peter Convey
Aspergillus fumigatus is a common opportunistic pathogen in different animals, including birds such as penguins. For the first time, a fungal strain identified as A. fumigatus was isolated from soil…1 June, 2024 by Anna Belcher, Geraint Tarling, Gabriele Stowasser, Sophie Fielding
The mesopelagic zooplankton community plays an important role in the cycling and sequestration of carbon via the biological pump. However, little is known about the physiology and ecology of key…31 May, 2024 by Peter Convey
The polar regions are undergoing rapid transformations due to global warming, resulting in temperature increases far surpassing the global average and significantly impacting ecosystems, especially freshwater systems. Understanding the implications…Read more on White Paper: Addressing the challenges of global warming for polar freshwater resources
29 May, 2024 by Anna Jones, Thomas Lachlan-Cope
Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are the most pristine areas of the globe and represent ideal places to investigate aerosol-climate interactions in an unperturbed atmosphere. In this study, we present…20 May, 2024 by Caroline Holmes, Louise Sime
In 2023, Antarctic sea-ice extent (SIE) reached record lows, with winter SIE falling to 2.5Mkm2 below the satellite era average. With this multi-model study, we investigate the occurrence of anomalies…16 May, 2024 by Alistair Crame, Teal Riley
The Fossil Bluff Group of eastern Alexander Island records the exceptional preservation of more than 8 km of Mesozoic sedimentary rocks deposited into an accretionary forearc basin that developed unconformably…10 May, 2024 by Geraint Tarling, Patrick Keith, Ryan Saunders, Simeon Hill
A primary response of many marine ectotherms to warming is a reduction in body size, to lower the metabolic costs associated with higher temperatures. The impact of such changes on…Read more on Temperature alters the size selectivity of Southern Ocean fish
7 May, 2024 by Louise Sime, Qinggang Gao, Rahul Sivankutty, Xu Zhang
Given relatively abundant paleo proxies, the study of the Last Interglacial (LIG, ~129-116 thousand years ago, ka) is valuable to understanding natural variability and feedback in a warmer-than-preindustrial climate. The…6 May, 2024 by Andrew Clarke, Lloyd Peck, Melody Clark
The affect of temperature on tissue protein synthesis rates has been reported in temperate and tropical, but not Antarctic fishes. Previous studies have generally demonstrated low growth rates in Antarctic…1 May, 2024 by Peter Convey
1. During the 2022/2023 austral winter, large swarms of Trichocera (Saltrichocera) maculipennis Meigen, 1818 (Diptera: Trichoceridae), were observed around house roofs in Puerto Williams (Navarino Island, southern Chile, 54° S). In…1 May, 2024 by Peter Convey
Bryum is a moss genus that is widely distributed across the planet. Many of its species are characterized by large phenotypic and morphological plasticity, generating uncertainty in species identification exclusively…1 May, 2024 by Andrew Fleming, Scott Hosking, Jeremy Wilkinson, Maria Fox, Martin Rogers
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery is the primary data type used for sea ice mapping due to its spatiotemporal coverage and the ability to detect sea ice independent of cloud…Read more on Sea ice detection using concurrent multispectral and synthetic aperture radar imagery
24 April, 2024 by Peter Convey
Pharmaceuticals are therapeutic drugs used to treat or prevent human or animal diseases. The incomplete breakdown of these drugs in the body can lead to their release into the environment…24 April, 2024 by Tracy Moffat-Griffin
The Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha′apai volcano erupted on 15 January 2022, launching Lamb waves and gravity waves into the atmosphere. In this study, we present results using 13 globally distributed meteor…
