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The proposed research will derive improved estimates of East Antarctic fast-ice extent and thickness, and their variability, from satellite data. These will be used to explicitly test relationships between fast ice/other environmental parameters and Emperor penguin population dynamics.
The Vestfold Hills contains a suite of marine derived brackish to saline lakes that have simple food webs dominated by microorganisms, including dinoflagellates that are members of the phytoplankton.
This project will improve our understanding of the physical and biological processes of the Antarctic sea ice zone, with a particular focus on the growth and development of sea ice in autumn and the incorporation of algae as the sea ice forms.
Pycnogonids are primitive, bizarre arthropods. Found worldwide, Antarctic pycnogonids are the most diverse, abundant, and include some of the most spectacular forms. Near 250 species from the region are known, many in need for taxonomic revision, and more species new to science likely to be found.
The Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) is closed and even likely forced by small scale mixing processes. We will elucidate mixing processes which determine the overturning circulation in the Southern Ocean.
The invertebrate fauna inhabiting the terrestrial and lake environments of East Antarctica - which includes copepods, cladocera, tardigrades, rotifers, nematodes, mites and springtails - are notoriously difficult to identify.
The Southern Ocean ventilates much of the world ocean and regulates its capacity to store heat and carbon. Over 60% of the total ocean storage of anthropogenic carbon dioxide is in the southern hemisphere oceans.
The ocean's thermohaline circulation (THC) plays a fundamental role in global climate, transporting heat poleward and regulating the uptake of anthropogenic CO2.
The primary goal of this project is to determine the status and origin of diseases in Emperor Penguins at Auster Rookery near Mawson Station, Antarctica. We will investigate the origins of such disease and the role humans may have played.