Scientific research relies on funding. Yet a great deal of early career research into Antarctica and the Southern Ocean will struggle to secure grants.

Antarctic research relies on funding, yet a great deal of early career research struggles to secure grants. With your support, the vast, fragile frontier we are fighting to understand can be protected. To make a tax-deductible EOFY donation head to www.asf.aq

Antarctic research relies on funding, yet a great deal of early career research struggles to secure grants. With your support, the vast, fragile frontier we are fighting to understand can be protected. To make a tax-deductible EOFY donation head to www.asf.aq

🚨 The Antarctic Fur Seal is now Endangered. The Southern Elephant Seal is now Vulnerable. Climate change & emerging disease threats are reshaping Antarctic ecosystems. 💙 Please consider an EOFY donation to the Antarctic Science Foundation before 30 June. #Antarctica #Conservation #ClimateChange

❄️ Applications are open for ASF Small Grants for Early Career Researchers. Up to $5,000 AUD available for: • Antarctic conference travel • Research presentations • Fieldwork travel • Research technology/equipment 📅 Closes 07 July 2026 📧 info@asf.aq 🔗 antarcticsciencefoundation.org/blog/asfsmal...

Today is #WorldPenguinDay — but the news for Emperor Penguins is concerning. They are now Endangered. Climate change-driven sea-ice loss is accelerating, and populations have fallen by ~10% in under a decade. ASF funds research to track these changes and inform global decisions. Donate at www.asf.aq

Ode to Antarctica — remembering Professor Emma Johnston To begin 2026, the Antarctic Science Foundation is sharing Ode to Antarctica, a powerful reflection by our Founding Board Member Professor Emma Johnston, developed from a paper with Dr Anthony Press.

As the year comes to a close we’d like to thank our incredible supporters, researchers, and partners for helping to advance crucial Antarctic science. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and we look forward to continuing our work in the year ahead!🐧❄️🎁

#Subglacial sediment : key to reconstruction of #Cenozoic topography and #paleoenvironment 🇦🇶

Reconstructing Eocene Antarctic river drainage from provenance analysis of Amundsen Sea embayment sediments

Amundsen Sea detrital zircon U-Pb data support a high-relief, drainage-dissected West Antarctic topography in the Eocene.

science.org

The first flight to our deep-field scientific drilling site at Crary Ice Rise has departed Ross Island. The approximately 700km journey over the Ross Ice Shelf took around 2 hrs on a Basler. On board were our hot water drillers, most of our AIDD team, and camp staff 👉https://bit.ly/3KxwJgC

11/ Their computer modelling projects other changes in AABW such as meltwater, salinity and temperature by 2050 – “essentially an intensification of the patterns of change observed since the 1990s”, the review says.

10/ 𝗔𝗔𝗕𝗪 𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴. Melting ice shelves make the waters fresher and more buoyant. Another study by some of the same authors simulated the future response of the ocean to meltwater input, projecting a slowdown of the Antarctic overturning by 40% by 2050. ▶️ aappartnership.org.au/antarctic-de...

Antarctic deep ocean currents have slowed in the past three decades - AAPP

Researchers have found that the deep ocean circulation around parts of Antarctica has slowed by 30 per cent since the 1990s, reducing oxygen levels across the world’s deep seas.

aappartnership.org.au

9/ 𝗔𝗔𝗕𝗪 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: since the mid-80s, at rates greater than 50 metres per decade in the deep Antarctic basins, with more rapid thinning observed closer to the sources of AABW. Contraction of AABW may lead to increased exposure of Antarctic ice shelves to warm water and further melt.

7/ So any change in AABW properties has consequences for the strength of the deep overturning circulation – and climatic patterns. We know that rapid change is already underway in the abyssal ocean. Sea ice edge 📸 Todor Iolovski/AAD

8/ 𝗔𝗔𝗕𝗪 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴. Since the mid-80s, ocean heat content below 4,000m has increased at a rate of about 13 trillion watts – about equal to the global energy consumption rate by humans each year.

6/ From these regions, AABW moves into the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans, driving many of the world's significant currents. This shows the fraction of water on the seafloor that is composed of AABW (dark blue is more than 90%, depths shallower than 3,500m not shown).

5/ AABW only forms in four locations: Weddell Sea, Cape Darnley, Ross Sea and Adelie Land. ‘Sv’ is a Sverdrup, a measure of current flow rate (1 Sv = 1 million cubic metres per second). Any changes in these regions (like sea ice) may impact the 3-D structure of the global overturning circulation.

4/ To form AABW, cascades of dense water spill from the continental shelf and sink to the deep ocean: seawater freezes to form sea ice ➡️ rejects brine ➡️ dense cold salty oxygen-rich water sinks ➡️ pumps oxygen into the deep sea ➡️ ‘ventilates’ abyss Watch ▶️ vimeo.com/830053753

overflow_movie_short

Overflow of Dense Shelf Water flowing into the abyssal ocean in the Ross Sea (Credit: COSIMA community www.cosima.org.au and NCI)

vimeo.com

3/ How will this lifeline change on a warming planet? A new review in @natrevearthenviron.nature.com led by Steve Rintoul at CSIRO/AAPP examines the importance of AABW to ocean carbon and heat storage and oxygen supply to the deep sea – and the impacts of global heating. Review ▶️ rdcu.be/eTWCD

2/ Driving the pump is Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW), cold dense water that sinks from the continental shelf to the deep (dark purple) and fills 36% of the global ocean volume. The sinking of AABW is balanced by a return flow of lighter warmer water (yellow). Pic: @antarcticsciaus.bsky.social

1/ The overturning circulation is a network of ocean currents transporting heat, carbon, oxygen and nutrients around the world. At the heart of this circulatory system is the global pumphouse of #Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Animation: NASA-SVS

Announcing “Antarctica as a Model for Global Peace”. Chapter by Bruno Arpi & I: “The resilience of the Antarctic Treaty System in the face of a changing global order“. Great working with Agenda Antártica and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung on this chapter. www.kas.de/documents/d/...

💦 "In effect, the Southern Ocean may be “sweating” more in response to climate change." — @aunz.theconversation.com ▶️ theconversation.com/storms-in-th...

Storms in the Southern Ocean are producing more rain – and the consequences could be global

The Southern Ocean is the engine room of global heat and carbon uptake – and it’s changing faster and more dramatically than we thought.

theconversation.com

Here's something those travelling to Antarctica hope they won't need. If your flight 'boomerangs' and has to turn back around, you'll be reunited with your checked-in boomerang bag.We're sharing Antarctic terms and phrases so that you too can #TalklikeanAntarctican!

Adrift like Shackleton: Robot float survives #Antarctic ice. The Argo float disappeared under the ice and survived to send back the first-ever ocean transect beneath an East Antarctic ice shelf. www.csiro.au/en/news/All/...

Adrift like Shackleton: Robot float survives Antarctic ice

The Argo float disappeared under the ice and survived to send back the first-ever ocean transect beneath an East Antarctic ice shelf.

csiro.au

7/ Hats off to authors Steve Rintoul, Esmee van Wijk, Laura Herraiz-Borreguero and Madelaine Rosevear from CSIRO, AAPP, @utas.edu.au and @imas-utas.bsky.social – with support from @imos-aus.bsky.social – and the intrepid #Argo floats. @euro-argo.eu @soccomproject.bsky.social @soosocean.bsky.social

6/ This work reveals the Shackleton ice shelf is, for now, not exposed to warm water capable of melting it from below. However the Denman Glacier is and therefore more vulnerable. Its ice volume holds a potential 1.5-metre contribution to global sea level rise.

5/ That’s where floats can help, bumping their heads on the underside of ice shelves, measuring melt where it happens. Deploying an array of floats around Antarctica's continental shelf would reduce the large uncertainties in estimating future sea level rise. ▶️ theconversation.com/what-our-mis...

4/ But measuring inside ice shelf cavities is very difficult to do. Ice shelves can be hundreds of metres thick. While you can drill a hole through and lower your sensors, this is expensive and rarely done, so very few observations have been made. ▶️ aapp.shorthandstories.com/how-to-drill...

How to drill an ice shelf — and why

A mission to reach the ocean under the Shackleton Ice Shelf in East Antarctica

aapp.shorthandstories.com

3/ Ice shelves resist the flow of continental ice to the sea. If warm ocean waters weaken the ice shelves, more ice will reach the ocean and melt, causing sea level to rise. Ocean measurements are critical to determine how much and how fast. ▶️ aapp.shorthandstories.com/opening-the-...