Seals to gather intel on the Southern Ocean Elephant seals are the ultimate divers—travelling long distances, and diving to 1500m depths. They are crucial to gathering knowledge on the Southern Ocean’s role in the global climate system. Photo: Clive McMahon, IMOS and SIMS. The first ARC Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science (ACEAS) project drawing […]

Antarctica’s heart of ice has skipped a beat. Time to take our medicine By Edward Doddridge, University of Tasmania This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The rhythmic expansion and contraction of Antarctic sea ice is like a heartbeat. But lately, there’s been a skip in the […]

ON THIN ICE: a science briefing about changes in Antarctic sea ice The Australian Antarctic Program Partnership (AAPP) and the Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science (ACEAS) have released a report on sea ice changes in Antarctica. Antarctic sea ice provides many services for our planet. It is a cooling sunshade, an insulating blanket, a unique habitat, […]

Deep ocean currents around Antarctica headed for collapse, study finds Under a high emissions scenario, the collapse would stagnate the bottom of the world’s oceans. Photo credit: 66 north on Unsplash The deep ocean circulation that forms around Antarctica could be headed for collapse, say scientists. Such decline of this ocean circulation will stagnate the bottom of the […]

Southern Ocean holds deep clues to ancient carbon tipping points The Amundsen Sea from aboard RV Polarstern. Photo: Katharina Hochmuth. Researchers have found a long-searched for giant carbon reservoir buried in the Southern Ocean between Tasmania and Antarctica. The reservoir is the result of a dramatic carbon drawdown 34 million years ago that transitioned Earth […]