Knowledge Hub

Explore our repository of research outputs and information.

We aim to share and communicate our research, to benefit New Zealand and the international community. You can browse, filter by category or type, or search by keywords.

Drilling Sea ice 2025 IMG 8596 INGA Smith

Why is Antarctic sea ice so hard to model?

Authors: Andrew Pauling, Inga Smith, Max Thomas
Year Published: 2023
Document Type: Cold Call Articles
Ownership: Antarctic Science Platform
Summary: Climate models struggle to reproduce observed Antarctic sea-ice behaviour, due to the many processes affecting its formation and melt. Models must get these processes right in order to inform us what might happen next.
Weddell seal pups

Sea ice and ecosystems

Authors: Rowan Howard-Williams, Ian Hawes
Year Published: 2023
Document Type: Cold Call Articles
Ownership: Antarctic Science Platform
Summary: Sea ice plays a crucial role in the life cycles of many Antarctic organisms, from the algae at the base of food chains, to seals and penguins at the top.
Antarctic sea ice

The connections between sea ice and climate

Authors: James Renwick
Year Published: 2023
Document Type: Cold Call Articles
Ownership: Antarctic Science Platform
Summary: Antarctic sea ice has an annual seasonal cycle of formation and melting, plus it’s exposed to the winds and storms of the Southern Ocean and to a range of climate influences from near and far.
McMurdo Sound pack ice

Sea ice and ocean circulation

Authors: Rowan Howard-Williams, Denise Fernandez, Craig Stevens
Year Published: 2023
Document Type: Cold Call Articles
Ownership: Antarctic Science Platform
Summary: Formation of Antarctic sea ice affects ocean circulation across the globe. Understanding the mechanisms linking these phenomena is crucially important to understand the impacts of future change in Antarctica.
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Climate change and international diplomacy in Antarctica

Authors: Rowan Howard-Williams
Year Published: 2022
Document Type: Cold Call Articles
Ownership: Antarctic Science Platform
Summary: How climate change affects Antarctica is going to influence the speed and severity of changes in New Zealand and the rest of the planet. Climate change is a priority topic in Antarctic governance. Next year the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting has dedicated a day to consider the implementation of recommendations in a landmark climate change report. Those discussions will take place in a unique policy setting, almost as unusual as Antarctica itself, because the continent is ‘governed’ by an international treaty system.
Emperors and their chicks

Survival of emperor penguins depends on emissions reductions

Authors: Rowan Howard-Williams and Michelle LaRue
Year Published: 2022
Document Type: Cold Call Articles
Ownership: Antarctic Science Platform
Summary: Emperor penguins are an iconic Antarctic species, but their dependence on sea ice means they are expected to be impacted substantially by climate change.
Figure 1 diverse and pristine Antarctic seafloor communities

Changes in the Ross Sea and the future of carbon storage

Authors: Miles Lamare, Vonda Cummings, Ian Hawes and Rowan Howard-Williams
Year Published: 2022
Document Type: Cold Call Articles
Ownership: Antarctic Science Platform
Summary: The Southern Ocean mops up anthropogenic CO2 emissions. But acting as a ‘sink’ for this excess heat and carbon dioxide is having an effect on the ocean and the ecosystems it supports.
Air flask collecting

The Southern Ocean carbon sink: Will it fill up?

Authors: Jocelyn Turnbull and Rowan Howard-Williams
Year Published: 2022
Document Type: Cold Call Articles
Ownership: Antarctic Science Platform
Summary: A key question for understanding future climate impacts is what drives the uptake of carbon into sinks, and how that might change. The Southern Ocean absorbs by far the most carbon dioxide of any region of the world.