Figure 2 - uploaded by Martin Siegert
Content may be subject to copyright.
Source publication
The view from the south is, more than ever, dominated by ominous signs of change. Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are intrinsic to the Earth system, and their evolution is intertwined with and influences the course of the Anthropocene. In turn, changes in the Antarctic affect and presage humanity's future. Growing understanding is countering popu...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... Southern Ocean connects the upper and lower limbs of the global overturning circulation that largely sets the capacity of the ocean to store and transport heat and greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide (Figure 2 and Tables S3 and S4). Recent insights into the dynamics of the overturning circulation suggest the upwelling and downwelling limbs of the circulation are localized by interactions of water flow with sea-floor topography (Q.12, Q.14, Q.19, and Q.21). ...
Similar publications
For the first time in human history, people are collectively modifying the Earth’s environment and ecosystems on a global scale. Some scholars suggest the world is entering a new geological era, the Anthropocene, in which Earth systems are moving into a risky and unstable state as a result of people’s impacts on the environment.
The social-ecologi...
Citations
... During the latter half of the twentieth century, mid-depth Southern Ocean temperatures rose on average 0.17°C (Gille 2002), with sea surface temperature (SST) along the highly impacted western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) warming over 1 °C (Meredith and King 2005). Precise estimates of future warming scenarios in the Southern Ocean are currently limited by interdecadal variability, geographically asymmetrical responses, and data paucity (Kennicutt et al. 2019). Despite this uncertainty, the Southern Ocean will likely continue to warm in the coming decades, primarily due to anthropogenic influences (Rintoul et al. 2018;Swart et al. 2018). ...
Cryonotothenioids constitute a subgroup of notothenioid fishes endemic to the Southern Ocean that are specialized to exist in a narrow range of near-freezing temperatures. Due to the challenges of reliably collecting and maintaining larval cryonotothenioids in good condition, most thermal tolerance studies have been limited to adult and juvenile stages. With increasing environmental pressures from climate change in Antarctic ecosystems, it is important to better understand the impacts of a warming environment on larval stages as well. In this study, we determine the critical thermal maxima (CTmax) of cryonotothenioid larvae collected in pelagic net tows during three research cruises near the western Antarctic Peninsula. We sampled larvae of seven species representing three cryonotothenioid families—Nototheniidae, Channichthyidae, and Artedidraconidae. For channichthyid and nototheniid species, CTmax values ranged from 8.6 to 14.9 °C and were positively correlated with body length, suggesting that younger, less motile larvae may be especially susceptible to rapid warming events such as marine heatwaves. To our knowledge, this is the first published test of acute thermal tolerance for any artedidraconid, with CTmax ranging from 13.2 to 17.8 °C, which did not correlate with body length. Of the two artedidraconid species we collected, Neodraco skottsbergi showed remarkable tolerance to warming and was the only species to resume normal swimming following trials. We offer two hypotheses as to why N. skottsbergi has such an elevated thermal tolerance: (1) their unique green coloration serves as camouflage within near-surface phytoplankton blooms, suggesting they occupy an especially warm near-surface niche, and (2) recent insights into their evolutionary history suggest that they are derived from taxa that may have occupied warm tide-pool habitats. Collectively, these results establish N. skottsbergi and larval channichthyids as groups of interest for future physiological studies to gain further insights into the vulnerability of cryonotothenioids to a warming ocean.
... Rather, the reports provide synopses of the deliberations and a record of the decisions or actions, all of which can be accessed directly through SCAR's extensive set of Bulletins [47] or from its web page. The most plausible explanation, however, is that the complexities of policymaking in the face of the changing global environmental setting and its influences on the Antarctic are necessitating greater collaborations among scientists and among policymakers [48,49]. ...
... For these reasons, among others, there is an increasing historical interest in scientific research on the Antarctic region in addition to international geopolitical agreements. The fate of its ice sheets plays a dominant role in climate regulation (Luis, 2013;Kennicutt et al., 2019). ...
Antarctica is a remote and relatively pristine region, but the regional transport of aerosols may be a source of pollution, especially in the Antarctic Peninsula. Few studies have characterized atmospheric aerosols and evaluated the contribution of their emission sources. The Peruvian Antarctic research station Machu Pichu (ECAMP, by its Spanish acronym) is located on King George Island in the Antarctic Peninsula. During February 2020, atmospheric particulate mass (PM10 and PM2.5) was sampled and analyzed to characterize its elemental composition and was supplemented by measurements of equivalent black carbon and aerosol size distributions. Chemical elements were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), multivariate techniques, and enrichment factors. The most abundant elements in PM10 and PM2.5 were Na, Fe, Mg, and Si, with the most important local sources being marine (Na, Mg, Mn, Ca) and crustal (Fe, Al, P). Sources of weathering (Ba and Si) from glacial thawing and sources of combustion linked to the use of oil (V) and emission of black carbon were recorded. Air mass back-trajectory analysis using the HYSPLIT model helped identify external sources of particulate matter in the air masses reaching the ECAMP site. Overall, this study supports the growing evidence of the anthropogenic impact of distant and local sources on the white continent.
... In April 2014, this initiative involved scientists and managers from 22 countries who, for the first time, agreed on Antarctic research priorities for the next two decades and beyond, based on scientific information gaps but also their usefulness for decision-makers in Antarctica (Kennicutt et al. 2014, 2015. They identified 80 key scientific questions grouped into seven themes, one focusing on recognising and mitigating human impacts and distinguishing them from natural ones as an input to effective Antarctic governance and regulation (Kennicutt et al. 2014(Kennicutt et al. , 2015(Kennicutt et al. , 2019. The plastic and MP pollution issue could be included within the cluster "Human presence in Antarctica", specifically related to Question 75: What will be the impacts of large-scale, direct human modification of the Antarctic environment? ...
Plastic pollution is a pressing global problem, even in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, despite their remote and pristine nature. Coming from local sources but also from lower latitudes, the consequences of this pollution, especially of microplastics in Antarctica, are far from being known. The growing evidence of this environmental problem and the growing concern of the Antarctic community has led to a significant increase in research and monitoring initiatives, such as the AntarPLAST Project. While several challenges have been identified for the assessment regarding monitoring and managing plastic and microplastic pollution, possible ways to address them in a collaborative, coordinated, and equitable manner are also envisioned under the newly Antarctic InSync proposal.
... Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are critical components of the Earth System, and research has indicated that over the coming decades these regions are expected to undergo significant environmental changes due to direct and indirect anthropogenic stressors [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. The acceleration of Antarctic environmental change has foreboding and disproportionate consequences at local, regional and global scales [2,9,10]. ...
... Examining and enriching domestic Antarctic KE practices are a matter of local and global significance. Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are integral to the global climate system, home to some of the least impacted ecosystems on Earth and host to an abundance of endemic biodiversity [2,5,100]. But Antarctic environments are changing, and it is primarily the ATCPs that are responsible for ensuring that Antarctic knowledge is mobilised within governance at multiple temporal and spatial scales. ...
Antarctic environmental change is accelerating with significant regional and global consequences making it critically important for Antarctic research knowledge to inform relevant policymaking forums. A key challenge is maximising the utility of evidence in decision-making, to which scholars have responded by shifting away from linear science-policy arrangements towards co-production alternatives. As an Antarctic Treaty Consultative Party (ATCP), New Zealand (NZ) is responsible for facilitating knowledge exchange (KE) among Antarctic science and policy actors at national and international levels. However, at present, we have few metrics for assessing the success of science-policy dialogues. Furthermore, studies on the Antarctic science-policy interface have so far primarily focused on the international perspective. This paper is the first to examine domestic stakeholder perspectives regarding Antarctic KE using NZ as a case study. We report on the findings of two workshops involving over 60 NZ Antarctic stakeholders in 2021 that aimed to explore the various elements of NZ’s Antarctic science-policy interface and identify barriers or drivers for success, including future opportunities. Our results indicate that there is a desire to shift away from the current linear approach towards a more collaborative model. To achieve this, stakeholders share an understanding that KE practices need to become more equitable, inclusive and diverse, and that the policy community needs to play a more proactive and leading role. Described as a ‘fuzzy beast’, the NZ Antarctic science-policy interface is complex. This study contributes to our understanding of Antarctic KE practices by offering new guidance on several key elements that should be considered in any attempts to understand or improve future KE practices in NZ or within the domestic settings of other ATCPs interested in fostering science-policy success.
... The climate change has been perceived as one of the biggest threats to socioeconomic development, the impact being more pronounced in the developing nations (Manivannan et al. 2017;Kennicutt et al. 2019). While the developed nations have trained their system to implement climate smart agricultural (CSA) practices, the resource-challenged farmers of the developing countries may not be able to implement many of the climate-resilient technologies at the cost of immediate profit. ...
Climate change predictions may benefit from an awareness of how current changes have impacted food availability. Many agricultural activities throughout the globe have seen fast climate change over the last few decades, and greenhouse gas (GHG) levels in the atmosphere have also surged. Because of the near inevitability that climate and CO2 trends will continue in the future, several concerns about food security remain unanswered, one of which is whether or not global agriculture’s overall productivity will be influenced. It was also observed that climate change might have a significant impact on global food security in the next decades. Global anthropogenic trends, such as expanding populations, the diversion of grains to biofuels, increased protein consumption, and weather extremes, are imposing increasing pressure on agricultural productivity. In order to lower global CO2 levels and store atmospheric CO2, sustainable farming systems and management practises should be adopted. For resource-strapped farmers vis-à-vis policymakers, in this chapter, we documented a comprehensive list of possible implications of climate change on key worldwide field crop yield, mitigation techniques, and long-term prospects.
... These communities are highly susceptible to change in response to multiple local and global drivers (Morley et al. 2020a;Grant et al. 2021), exacerbated by anthropogenic impacts including climate change and resource exploitation (Rogers et al. 2020;Brooks et al. 2022). Moving forward, monitoring temporal and spatial changes in biodiversity, species distributions, and community structure will be essential in making ecosystem-based management decisions to conserve the unique biota of the Southern Ocean (Brooks et al. 2016;Kennicutt II et al. 2019) and to better understand the key role it plays in the dynamics of the oceans globally. ...
The Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica harbours some of the most pristine marine environments remaining, but is increasingly vulnerable to anthropogenic pressures, climate change, and invasion by non-native species. Monitoring biotic responses to cumulative impacts requires spatiotemporal baselines and ongoing monitoring - traditionally, this has been obtained by continuous plankton recorder (CPR) surveys. Here, we conduct a 3000 nautical mile environmental DNA (eDNA) transect from Hobart (Australia) to Davis Station (Antarctica). We evaluate eDNA sampling strategies for long-term open ocean biomonitoring by comparing two water volume and filter pore size combinations: large (12 L with 20 μm) and small (2 L with 0.45 μm). Employing a broad COI metabarcoding assay, we found the large sample/pore combination was better suited to open-ocean monitoring, detecting more target DNA and rare or low abundance species. Comparisons with four simultaneously conducted CPR transects revealed that eDNA detections were more diverse than CPR, with 7 (4 unique) and 4 (1 unique) phyla detections respectively. While both methods effectively delineated biodiversity patterns across the Southern Ocean, eDNA enables surveys in the presence of sea-ice where CPR cannot be conducted. Accordingly, 16 species of concern were detected along the transect using eDNA, notably in the Antarctic region (south of 60°S). These were largely attributed to hull biofouling, a recognized pathway for marine introductions into Antarctica. In a warming Southern Ocean, continued biomonitoring is vital for conserving Antarctic ecosystems. We advocate for the long-term implementation of eDNA metabarcoding alongside CPR surveys to facilitate ecosystem-based management of these vulnerable environments.
... The ice sheet is, on average, just over 2133.6 m thick, but in places, it is more than twice that thick. Geophysical and drilling research was used to understand the characteristics and evolution of subglacial geology [51] and provide important information on the englacial environment and bed conditions of the Antarctic ice sheet [52], as well as elucidating the histories of accumulation and ice flow [19,53,54]. Observing the growth trend depicted in Figure 2, it is evident thatthe literature on Antarctic geophysical research has shown an overall growth trend over a period of more than 40 years between 1982 and 2022. ...
... The ice sheet is, on average, just over 2133.6 m thick, but in places, it is more than twice that thick. Geophysical and drilling research was used to understand the characteristics and evolution of subglacial geology [51] and provide important information on the englacial environment and bed conditions of the Antarctic ice sheet [52], as well as elucidating the histories of accumulation and ice flow [19,53,54]. ...
Antarctica is of great importance in terms of global warming, the sustainability of resources, and the conservation of biodiversity. However, due to 99.66% of the continent being covered in ice and snow, geological research and geoscientific study in Antarctica face huge challenges. Geophysical surveys play a crucial role in enhancing comprehension of the fundamental structure of Antarctica. This study used bibliometric analysis to analyze citation data retrieved from the Web of Science for the period from 1982 to 2022 with geophysical research on Antarctica as the topic. According to the analysis results, the amount of Antarctic geophysical research has been steadily growing over the past four decades as related research countries/regions have become increasingly invested in issues pertaining to global warming and sustainability, and international cooperation is in sight. Moreover, based on keyword clustering and an analysis of highly cited papers, six popular research topics have been identified: Antarctic ice sheet instability and sea level change, Southern Ocean and Sea Ice, tectonic activity of the West Antarctic rift system, the paleocontinental rift and reorganization, magmatism and volcanism, and subglacial lakes and subglacial hydrology. This paper provides a detailed overview of these popular research topics and discusses the applications and advantages of the geophysical methods used in each field. Finally, based on keywords regarding abrupt changes, we identify and examine the thematic evolution of the nexus over three consecutive sub-periods (i.e., 1990–1995, 1996–2005, and 2006–2022). The relevance of using geophysics to support numerous and diverse scientific activities in Antarctica becomes very clear after analyzing this set of scientific publications, as is the importance of using multiple geophysical methods (satellite, airborne, surface, and borehole technology) to revolutionize the acquisition of new data in greater detail from inaccessible or hard-to-reach areas. Many of the advances that they have enabled be seen in the Antarctic terrestrial areas (detailed mapping of the geological structures of West and East Antarctica), ice, and snow (tracking glaciers and sea ice, along with the depth and features of ice sheets). These valuable results help identify potential future research opportunities in the field of Antarctic geophysical research and aid academic professionals in keeping up with recent advances.
... Humans first set foot on Antarctica -on King George Island in the South Shetland Islands -in 1820, and, over time, the region has been used for the exploitation of marine living resources (including seals, whales and fish), as a target of geographical exploration and territorial claims, for scientific research and, most recently, as an increasingly popular destination for the tourism industry (Tin et al. 2009, Kennicutt et al. 2019, Grant et al. 2021, Tejedo et al. 2022. Substantial international research activities on the continent began in the build up towards the International Geophysical Year (1957Year ( /1958, which saw the construction of research stations on the continent and surrounding islands, some of which are still in use today (Dodds 2010). ...
Antarctica is a continent dedicated to ‘peace and science’ and subject to international consensus-based governance through the Antarctic Treaty System. Through the Treaty, decision-making powers are reserved to Consultative Parties, which are those countries recognized as demonstrating ‘substantial scientific research activity’ in Antarctica. Türkiye acceded to the Antarctic Treaty in 1996. In its National Polar Science Program (2018–2022) it first declared a desire to attain consultative status to the Treaty. Here, we examine Türkiye‘s recent development across Antarctic science, policy and logistics. Since 2016, Türkiye’s national Antarctic scientific output has increased threefold, ranking seventh amongst the current 27 non-Consultative Parties, and this output is greater than some Consultative Parties. Türkiye has submitted more papers to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings than any other non-Consultative Party and is actively participating in the development of the Antarctic Protected Area system. To facilitate longer-term research goals, Türkiye is constructing an Antarctic research station (Horseshoe Island, Antarctic Peninsula), has joined several polar organizations, including the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP), and has developed scientific and logistical collaborations with many established Antarctic nations. The exceptionally rapid growth of Türkiye's Antarctic activities provides a firm foundation for the development of a future application for consultative status.
... While many studies have investigated the Antarctic 1878 margin, these studies remain limited in extent and are clustered in a few areas (Fig 1). the ice sheet bed and ice sheet flow have been known for some time [Alley et al., 1987;Bell et al., 1998;1896Blankenship et al., 1986Christoffersen et al., 2014] their overall role in controlling Antarctic ice sheet 1897 dynamics is ill-defined. Knowledge of these interactions in Antarctica is growing, but it is evident that much 1898 further work needs be done to provide a systematic understanding of how these complex boundary 1899 conditions interact with the ice sheet to focus, enhance, constrain or otherwise influence glacial change 1900 processes associated with a warming climate [Kennicutt et al., 2019]. Despite the progress made it is notable that the records we have are, relative to many other parts of the 1966 world, very limited in their distribution, resolution and scope. ...
