Updates

Date: 2023

Type: Update

Authors: Project 1

Summary: The world’s ice sheets are sensitive to environmental change and, as the largest reservoir of freshwater on Earth, melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheet has significant potential to raise sea levels and disrupt global ocean circulation. To determine ice sheet response to warming, our team of researchers in the Antarctic Ice Dynamics project are looking at environmental records of how the Antarctic ice sheets and surrounding ocean have changed in the past, and comparing those records to signals of change that we can detect today.

Date: 2023

Type: Update

Authors: Project 2

Summary: A changing Antarctica will impact oceanic transport of heat and other associated materials, such as salt, carbon dioxide, oxygen and nutrients. Researchers in the Antarctic Ocean Mechanics project are investigating past and present ocean conditions - currents, polynya formation, sea ice and dispersion of meltwater - and how this may change as the world warms.

Date: 2023

Type: Update

Authors: Project 3

Summary: The Ross Sea region contains one of the most productive marine ecosystems in the Southern Ocean, encompassing open ocean, pack ice and coastal habitats, including much of the world’s largest marine protected area. It also harbours diverse land-based ecosystems ranging from iconic Antarctic lakes to ancient soils that are home to unique biota. Our team of researchers in the Ross Sea Ecosystems project is working to better understand what the future may hold for these environments. We are developing new techniques and autonomous instruments for remote sensing to fill gaps in understanding of biodiversity and ecological process.

Date: 2023

Type: Update

Authors: Project 4

Summary: Sea ice extent, and the exchange of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other gases between the atmosphere and ocean, varies from year to year, influenced by changes in atmospheric and open-ocean conditions. Understanding the difference between seasonal variability and long-term change is key to predicting Antarctica’s influence on the future global climate system. Researchers in the Sea Ice and Carbon Cycle Feedbacks project are analysing variability in sea ice and the carbon cycles in the Ross Sea region and on larger scales, including connections to atmospheric circulation and climate processes across the Southern Ocean and much of the Southern Hemisphere.

Date: 2023

Type: Update

Summary: Antarctic scientists concerned about dramatic sea ice retreat have today issued the following statement from the emergency summit in Wellington. They have called for urgent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions to keep the climate within liveable conditions.

Date: 2023

Type: Update

Summary: As Antarctic sea ice extent hits a record winter low, concerned scientists have called an emergency summit in Wellington next week.

Date: 2023

Type: Opportunity

Summary: A three-year PhD scholarship is available to support an emerging Māori student interested in using modern genetic research tools to understand environmental change and ecosystem responses in the Antarctic.

Date: 2023

Type: Update

Authors: Prof Richard Levy and Ceridwyn Roberts

Summary: The drilling project will be the first-ever attempt to obtain a long sedimentary record from well-below the seafloor in West Antarctica. This is ‘discovery science’ - there remains great uncertainty around the age and nature of what will be recovered.