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Sea ice can be interspersed vertically with both permeable and impermeable layers. These features can be smaller than a few centimetres but are important for understanding biogeochemical cycles in sea ice. Traditionally…
Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) is the densest water mass in the world and drives the lower limb of the global thermohaline circulation. AABW is formed in only four regions around Antarctica and Cape Darnley, East Antarctica, is the most recently discovered formation region. Here…
A holistic review is given of the Southern Ocean dynamic system, in the context of the crucial role it plays in the global climate and the profound changes it is experiencing. The review focuses on connections between different components of the Southern Ocean dynamic system…
Interleaving layers are commonly observed in the subsurface ocean near thermohaline fronts. They imply a lateral exchange of water mass properties and have been shown to influence both lateral and vertical mixing rates. We examine a set of in situ observations…
Global chemistry–climate models (CCMs) play an important role in assessing the climate and air pollution implications of aerosols and chemically reactive gases.
Antarctic ice shelves typically comprise continental meteoric ice, in situ-accumulated meteoric ice, and marine ice accumulated at the shelf base. Using borehole optical televiewer logs from across Larsen C Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, we identify and report an intermediate ice unit…
The development of the Antarctic ozone hole in late winter and spring (September–November) is the most … noticeable phenomenon in the polar stratosphere. It has appeared every season since the early 1980s within the … stratospheric polar vortex…
Allocation of energy is as important as energy uptake for maintaining healthy life cycles and sustainable populations of krill. Environmental factors such as temperature and food availability play important roles in the physiological performance of krill.
The Antarctic climate-diversity-invasion hypothesis (ACDI) predicts that in Antarctic soil systems, climate change should lead to increases in the abundance and diversity of indigenous assemblages. Where biological invasions have occurred, however…
The Environmental Effects Assessment Panel of the Montreal Protocol under the United Nations Environment Programme evaluates effects on the environment and human health that arise from changes in the stratospheric ozone layer and concomitant variations in ultraviolet (UV)…
Antarctic ice-free coastal environments, like the Vestfold Hills (East Antarctica), are shaped by a complex interplay of physical processes. This study synthesizes new data and existing research from the Vestfold Hills across marine, terrestrial and cryosphere science, meteorology, geomorphology…
Ocean-driven basal melt can thin and weaken ice shelves, reducing buttressing and causing sea level rise. However, the processes driving melt in ice shelf cavities are challenging to observe. Here we report float observations spanning the ocean cavity beneath Shackleton Ice Shelf.
The presence and nature of marine ice in ice shelves is important, yet difficult to determine. We present transient electromagnetic results spanning 10 km across a suture zone of Larsen C Ice Shelf (LCIS), Antarctica, supported by central borehole measurements.
The Southern Ocean plays a key role in removing anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, accounting for a quarter of the global ocean uptake during the Anthropocene period. Here we show, using a high-resolution ocean model under high-emission forcing (RCP8.5)…
The presence and nature of marine ice in ice shelves is important, yet difficult to determine. We present transient electromagnetic results spanning 10 km across a suture zone of Larsen C Ice Shelf (LCIS), Antarctica, supported by central borehole measurements.
As the ice retreats, Antarctic species are struggling to reproduce, feed and compete with invasive species. Credit: Ida Kubiszewski … Far from being a remote, isolated continent, Antarctica is integral to Earth's climate and life-support systems.
Ocean bathymetry plays an instrumental role in stirring ocean circulation and ocean mixing, shaping the transport of ocean heat, freshwater, oxygen, and carbon, influencing the propagation of tides and tsunamis, and controlling the dispersion of sediments, nutrients, and planktonic species.
Dense water formation on the Antarctic continental shelf is the main process by which Antarctic Bottom Waters form and is fundamental to the abyssal overturning circulation. However…
The long-held view that the East Antarctic margin is isolated from warm offshore waters has been challenged by recent observations showing incursions of warm modified Circumpolar Deep Water (mCDW) reaching several East Antarctic ice shelves. However…
Aim … Polar and alpine plants live at the edge of their physiological limits. Thus, relatively small changes in climate can have disproportionate effects on biological and ecological processes. Antarctic mosses display highly variable micro-topography (canopy architecture)…
Bdelloid rotifers are an important component of the biodiversity of ice-free regions of Antarctica. Despite this, knowledge of how to establish and maintain cultures, and optimal conditions for growth, is limited.
Deep chlorophyll maxima (DCMs) have long been studied in the northern hemisphere but have received less attention in the Southern Ocean. Their contribution to phytoplankton biomass and net primary productivity (NPP) is poorly resolved. Recently…
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 ice plays a critical role in larval overwinter survival.
Amphipods play an important role in Southern Ocean trophic chains. Considering the key role of Pacific Ocean and sea ice ecosystems in the Earth system and the growing impact of global environmental change, it is important to collect information on the status of marine amphipod biodiversity.
An unprecedented decline in Antarctic sea ice extent (SIE) in late 2016 ended a weak mutidecadal expansion. Multiple mechanisms have been hypothesized to explain this decline, including large-scale atmospheric influences—a strong zonal wave 3 (ZW3)…