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Living with uncertainty: Using multi-model large ensembles to assess emperor penguin extinction risk for the IUCN Red List

1 May, 2025 by Philip Trathan

Improved methods for identifying species at risk are needed to strengthen climate change vulnerability assessments, as current estimates indicate that up to one million species face extinction due to environmental…

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Marine snow as vectors for microplastic transport: Multiple aggregation cycles account for the settling of buoyant microplastics to deep‐sea sediments

25 April, 2025

Many studies have reported the paradoxical observation of high concentrations of low‐density microplastics (plastic particles < 5 mm) in deep‐sea sediments despite their buoyancy. The incorporation of buoyant microplastics into…

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Change in iceberg calving behaviour preceded disintegration of North Sea ice shelves during the last deglaciation

24 April, 2025 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, James Kirkham, Kelly Hogan, Robert Larter

Understanding how regime shifts in iceberg calving behavior affect ice shelf stability remains a challenge for numerical models. This is an important question as we consider the fate of the…

Read more on Change in iceberg calving behaviour preceded disintegration of North Sea ice shelves during the last deglaciation

And then there were many: insights from the tangled taxonomy of the Antarctic brittle star Ophioplinthus gelida (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea)

22 April, 2025 by Chester Sands, Peter Convey, Will Goodall-Copestake

To effectively manage biological assemblages, a sound knowledge of the biodiversity is essential. The Southern Ocean shelf benthic assemblages are typically comprised of species, the names of which are shared…

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Untangling the Complexities of Larval Antarctic Krill Overwintering Success Under Climate Change

18 April, 2025 by Alison Cleary, Eugene Murphy, Nadine Johnston, Sally Thorpe, Simeon Hill

Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) are integral to Southern Ocean pelagic ecosystems. Winters with extensive sea ice have been linked to high post-larval krill recruitment the following spring, suggesting that sea…

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Fast Contiguous Somatic Hypermutations for Single-Objective Optimisation and Multi-Objective Optimisation Via Decomposition

11 April, 2025 by Donya Yazdani

Somatic Contiguous Hypermutations (CHM) are a popular variation operator used in artificial immune systems for optimisation tasks. Theoretical studies have shown that CHM operators can lead to considerable speed-ups in…

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Proximate measurements of a giant iceberg reveal the effects of meltwater on upper ocean properties [Research briefing]

7 April, 2025 by Alexander Brearley, Kate Hendry, Natasha Lucas

Measurements from a robotic underwater vehicle reveal the impacts of meltwater from the giant iceberg A-68A on the properties of the surrounding Southern Ocean. In addition to increasing surface stratification…

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Feasibility of using very high-resolution satellite imagery to monitor Tristan albatrosses Diomedea dabbenena on Gough Island

4 April, 2025 by Ellen Bowler, Marie Attard, Peter Fretwell, Richard Phillips

The Tristan albatross Diomedea dabbenena is a Critically Endangered species that breeds exclusively on remote islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. Although the population continues to decline, regular on-the-ground monitoring…

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Twenty‐thousand‐year gap between deglaciation and peat formation on sub‐Antarctic Marion Island attributed to climate and sea level change

1 April, 2025 by Alexander Whittle, Dominic Hodgson

Radiocarbon dating of basal peats has been a key factor in determining minimum ages for deglaciation on sub-Antarctic islands. On Marion Island, peat bogs dominate the landscape below 300 m a.s.l.,…

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Annual trends in mercury contamination are associated with changing trophic niches of giant petrels

1 April, 2025 by Danielle Buss, Jaume Forcada, Richard Phillips, William Mills

Annual variation in prey availability can influence seabird diets and hence their exposure to pollutants, including mercury (Hg). Among seabirds, those species that scavenge carrion of marine mammals and other…

Read more on Annual trends in mercury contamination are associated with changing trophic niches of giant petrels

The role of substrate characteristics and temperature for potential non-native plant establishment in Maritime Antarctic ecosystems

1 April, 2025 by Peter Convey

Polar ecosystems are threatened by non-native plants, and this risk will increase with climate warming. Non-native plant growth depends on Antarctic environmental conditions and substrates, but these influences are poorly…

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Desmonostoc cockrellii sp. nov. (Nostocales, Cyanobacteria): a new record of a subaerophytic species from The Habitat Penang Hill, Malaysia

1 April, 2025 by Peter Convey

Subaerophytic cyanobacterial diversity is poorly known in Malaysian rainforests generally and at Penang Hill specifically. A new subaerophytic species of cyanobacteria, Desmonostoc cockrellii sp. nov., was isolated from rocky surfaces…

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Developing a Southern Ocean Marine Ecosystem Model Ensemble to Assess Climate Risks and Uncertainties

20 March, 2025 by Eugene Murphy, Patrick Keith, Simeon Hill

Climate change could irreversibly modify Southern Ocean ecosystems. Marine ecosystem model (MEM) ensembles can assist policy making by projecting future changes and allowing the evaluation and assessment of alternative management…

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Subglacial landscape formation and sediment discharge: relating basal conditions to bedform dimensions and properties at Rutford Ice Stream, West Antarctica

20 March, 2025 by Alex Brisbourne, Andy Smith, Rebecca Schlegel

Basal conditions that facilitate fast ice flow are still poorly understood and their parameterization in ice‐flow models results in high uncertainties in ice‐flow and consequent sea‐level rise projections. Direct observations…

Read more on Subglacial landscape formation and sediment discharge: relating basal conditions to bedform dimensions and properties at Rutford Ice Stream, West Antarctica

What can lithics tell us about hominin technology’s ‘primordial soup’? An origin of stone knapping via the emulation of Mother Nature

15 March, 2025 by Teal Riley

The use of stone hammers to produce sharp stone flakes—knapping—is thought to represent a significant stage in hominin technological evolution because it facilitated the exploitation of novel resources, including meat…

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Use of excess meltwater from continuous flow analysis systems for the analysis of low concentration insoluble microparticles in ice cores

13 March, 2025 by Claire Allen, Dieter Tetzner, Jack Humby, Liz Thomas

Low-concentration insoluble microparticles that are preserved in ice cores offer valuable information for reconstructing past environmental changes. However, their low concentrations and limited sample availability present challenges for extraction and…

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Bedmap3 updated ice bed, surface and thickness gridded datasets for Antarctica

10 March, 2025 by Alice Fremand, Andy Smith, David Vaughan, Ed King, Elena Field, Fausto Ferraccioli, Hugh Corr, Hamish Pritchard, James Kirkham, Peter Fretwell, Richard Hindmarsh, Tom Jordan, Richard Hindmarsh

We present Bedmap3, the latest suite of gridded products describing surface elevation, ice-thickness and the seafloor and subglacial bed elevation of the Antarctic south of 60 °S. Bedmap3 incorporates and…

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Carbon dioxide fluxes associated with prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities in ice-free areas on King George Island, Maritime Antarctica

10 March, 2025 by Peter Convey

Background and Methods: We assessed the prokaryotic and eukaryotic diversity present in non-vegetated and vegetated soils on King George Island, Maritime Antarctic, in combination with measurements of carbon dioxide fluxes.…

Read more on Carbon dioxide fluxes associated with prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities in ice-free areas on King George Island, Maritime Antarctica

Inferring Species Interactions From Co-occurrence Networks With Environmental DNA Metabarcoding Data in a Coastal Marine Food Web

4 March, 2025 by Elizabeth Boyse

A good understanding of biotic interactions is necessary to accurately predict the vulnerability of ecosystems to climate change. Recently, co-occurrence networks built from environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding data have arisen…

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Energetic Electron Precipitation From the Radiation Belts: Geomagnetic and Solar Wind Proxies for Precipitation Flux Magnitudes

3 March, 2025 by Aaron Hendry, Mark Clilverd

Previously the geomagnetic Ap index has been used as a proxy to produce empirical energetic electron precipitation (EEP) forcing representations suitable for incorporation into coupled-climate model runs. The long-running Ap…

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Impact of Sudden Stratospheric Warming and Elevated Stratopause Events on the Very Low Frequency Radio Signal

1 March, 2025 by Mark Clilverd

Sudden Stratospheric Warmings (SSW) and Elevated Stratopause (ES) events are mid-to-high latitudinal, atmospheric wave-driven phenomena leading to significant changes in wind, temperatures, and vertical mass transport, especially at stratospheric and…

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Simulation of Cloud Processes Over Offshore Coastal Antarctica Using the High-Resolution Regional UK Met Office Unified Model With Interactive Aerosols

28 February, 2025 by Andrew Orr, Ruth Price

The Southern Ocean and offshore coastal Antarctica are key regions for global climate. Low level mixed-phase clouds strongly control the surface radiation budget of this region but remain challenging for…

Read more on Simulation of Cloud Processes Over Offshore Coastal Antarctica Using the High-Resolution Regional UK Met Office Unified Model With Interactive Aerosols

Mid-Holocene sea-ice dynamics and climate in the northeastern Weddell Sea inferred from an Antarctic snow petrel stomach oil deposit [EGUSphere preprint]

25 February, 2025 by Dominic Hodgson

Understanding past variability in Antarctic sea ice is of critical importance to determine how it regulates global climate processes and biogeochemistry, and Southern Ocean marine ecosystems. Records of changes in…

Read more on Mid-Holocene sea-ice dynamics and climate in the northeastern Weddell Sea inferred from an Antarctic snow petrel stomach oil deposit [EGUSphere preprint]

The genome sequence of the Antarctic lanternfish, Electrona antarctica (Günther, 1878) [Data Note] [version 1; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations]

19 February, 2025 by Martin Collins

We present a genome assembly from an individual female Electrona antarctica (the Antarctic lanternfish; Chordata; Actinopterigii; Myctophiformes; Myctophidae). The genome sequence has a total length of 1,427.40 megabases. Most of…

Read more on The genome sequence of the Antarctic lanternfish, Electrona antarctica (Günther, 1878) [Data Note] [version 1; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations]