A new and worrying way that large ice sheets can melt has been characterized by scientists for the first time. The research focuses on how relatively warm seawater can lap at the underside of ground-based ice, which can accelerate the movement of the ice into the ocean.
Marine Conservation Charity ORCA’s “State of the Cetaceans 2024”, (*) report is a fascinating glimpse into how the world’s whales and dolphins are coping with human impacts on the ocean. It analyses the extraordinary 330,000 kilometers of marine surveys conducted by ORCA in 2023, recording 55,604 whales and dolphins in oceans worldwide from the Arctic to the Antarctic, the North and South Atlantic, and the Pacific to the Mediterranean.
Professor Lloyd Peck, Science Leader and marine biologist at British Antarctic Survey (BAS), joins over 90 exceptional researchers from across the world in being elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences.
A year ago the Falkland Islands Governor Alison Blake CMG and members of the Falklands community were welcomed onboard the state of the art icebreaker RRS Sir David Attenborough. This week the Governor invited some of the crew of the Falklands flagged Sir David Attenborough before they departed for BAS bases in Antarctica.
The British Antarctic Survey has been modernizing Antarctic infrastructure for future generations of polar scientists. Construction in the Antarctic is challenging and the Antarctic Infrastructure Modernization Program (AIMP) has made great progress at Rothera Research Station. The program will transform how the British Antarctic Survey enables and supports polar science.
Teams of scientists and support staff with the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration, (ITGC) have spent the past couple of months working on the Thwaites Glacier to advance our knowledge of how it interacts with the ocean and climate, and improve the predictions of its future contributions to sea level rise.
Britain remains fully confident in the security of the Falkland Islands and in the capability to defend them underlined a release from the Ministry of Defense, in response to a report in the London media claiming it only relies in a small Royal Navy patrol vessel and four RAF Typhoons to protect the South Atlantic archipelago.
A team have arrived at Rothera Research Station, ready to start testing the new Windracers ULTRA autonomous drone in Antarctica. If successful, the new drone platform could represent a major addition to British Antarctic Survey’s scientific capability on the frozen continent – offering the potential to do more science at a lower cost, with a lower carbon footprint than traditional crewed aviation.
A study published this month in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science reveals that disturbing the seabed, through activities such as trawling, could increase the scale and speed of climate change.
A team of scientists are embarking on an ambitious 30-day scientific expedition on board Falkland Islands flagged RRS Sir David Attenborough to investigate how carbon dioxide moves and transforms in the Southern Ocean. The ship heads to the Weddell Sea to begin the PICCOLO cruise this week, from Punta Arenas, Chile.