Three orcas side-by-side off Scott Base, early Feb 2026.

📉 "Defining these animals as endangered is a stark reminder of how quickly Antarctica is changing before our eyes. Without a rapid reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and sustained conservation action, these species may be lost forever." ▶️ theconversation.com/the-beloved-...

The beloved emperor penguin and Antarctic fur seal are now officially endangered. Here’s what can be done

The loss of iconic Antarctic wildlife is no longer a future possibility. It is happening in real-time, while we watch.

theconversation.com

I had a feeling this was going to happen. Sad news, especially given the poor state of sea ice after this winter. Looks like we won't be getting any more data for Arctic sea-ice thickness and volume for a while from PIOMAS. See: psc.apl.uw.edu/research/pro...

Great to see the findings of this recent collaboration filtering out through press releases. Turtle scute radiocarbon dating + bayesian changepoint analysis -> links b/w growth rates and environmental stressors

University of Miami Rosenstiel School@miamirosenstiel.bsky.social · 6mo ago

“These shells are effectively recording environmental stress in the ocean. It’s a bit like sea turtle forensics. We can use chemical fingerprints preserved in scutes to detect ecological shifts.” —Bethan Linscott, coauthor of the study. news.miami.edu/rosenstiel/s...

Between 1992-2025, large areas of the grounding line of #Antarctic glaciers have retreated. The largest changes have occurred in W. Antarctica, where grounding lines have retreated 10-40+ km, driven by incursions of warm water masses along deep bathymetric troughs www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.... ❄️🧪🌊

Thirty years of glacier grounding line retreat in Antarctica | PNAS

The Grounding Line (GL)—the transition from ice grounded on the continent and ice afloat in the ocean—is a sensitive indicator of glacier stability...

pnas.org

Antarctic ice sheet folk, I'm looking for a Postdoctoral Fellow in Antarctic Ice Sheet Reconstruction [readvertised] for a 3.5yr appointment in Tasmania. Very flexible start date! Join our new team, figuring out what is happening and what may happen in East Antarctica. 1/4 ❄️

If you're interested in how ice sheets respond to climate, particularly over very long timescales, you might be interested in our new (open access) paper: www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Resolving the past history of the Cook Ice Shelf region of East Antarctica

Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science (ACEAS)@antarcticsciaus.bsky.social · 7mo ago

🚢 COOKIES voyage delivers record‑breaking core for RV Investigator A huge milestone for the RV Investigator COOKIES voyage – the successful recovery of a whopping 20.5‑metre sediment core, now officially the longest core ever retrieved in the vessel’s history. ➡️ antarctic.org.au/cookies-blog...

North-easterly blowing sea ice around off Scott Base, 29/01/26.

Cores of turtle scutes (shells) are not an archive I usually analyse! Nice to go back to my marine science roots 😃 We identify a link between changes in turtle scute growth rates and environmental stressors. I have also made the code for the changepoint analysis public: github.com/MRPHarris/Tu...

Orcas amidst the sea ice off Scott Base

While Australian heatwaves were some of the very first extreme events attributed to climate change, people still underestimate how much worse they got - killing more people than all other natural hazards combined. New @wwattribution.bsky.social study. www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-chan...

We are looking for a Senior Technician in the Ice Core Facility at Earth Sciences New Zealand, formerly GNS Science. Permanent position working with a great team at a beautiful site (National Isotope Centre, Lower Hutt). Job description + more info: www.gns.cri.nz/careers/

Working with some model outputs that rely on the venerable NCEP/NCAR reanalysis as I write this. The excellence, reach & influence of NCAR is global. Horrified but completely unsurprised by this decision.

Katharine Hayhoe@katharinehayhoe.com · 9mo ago

NCAR is quite literally our global mothership. Everyone who works in climate and weather has passed through its doors and benefited from its incredible resources. Dismantling NCAR is like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet. Unbelievable.

Timeline cleanse: Antarctic sun dogs/halo version. January 2024, RAICA ice core project at Canisteo Peninsula, West Antarctica supported by Korea Polar Research Institute and US National Science Foundation. 🌞 ❄️

🧪 Another discrete ice core gas extraction for Kr81 yesterday. Always feels a little nerve-wracking melting ~1.5 kg of core (>750 m deep in this case, from Roosevelt Island)...

~ 6 million year old ice from Allan Hills! Unreal! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Miocene and Pliocene ice and air from the Allan Hills blue ice area, East Antarctica | PNAS

Antarctic ice cores provide a unique archive of Earth’s atmosphere and its largest extant ice sheet. The oldest continuous ice core extends back 80...

pnas.org

This is the second part of the work we covered here, highlighting that CO2 is the dominant forcer in temperature and sea level changes during ice age cycles. (It's also a great chance for others to cover; this has not been widely reported. There's even an old ice core now that can test this!)

Dramatic shift in ice age rhythm pinned to carbon dioxide

Southern Ocean “pump” sparked deep freezes, new temperature record shows

science.org

Science Magazine@science.org · 11mo ago

In Science, a new reconstruction of global sea levels spanning the past 4.5 million years reveals that oceans once stood up to 20 meters higher than today and links the waxing and waning of ancient ice sheets to shifts in Earth’s temperature and carbon dioxide cycles. https://scim.ag/42STXUm

🧪🧵 Future change to #ThwaitesGlacier, Antarctica constitutes the largest uncertainty in #sea-level rise forecasts. The Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration recently issued a briefing document summarising some key findings - thwaitesglacier.org/findings

Nice to see this paper led by A/Prof John Tibby (Uni of Adelaide) out this past fortnight. The argument for ENSO-driven mid-to-late Holocene drying in eastern Australia is perhaps less convincing than originally thought. @ausquaternary.bsky.social 🧪 doi.org/10.1002/jqs....

Mid‐Holocene drying of K'gari lakes (subtropical eastern Australia) necessitates re‐evaluation of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation climate links and future drying risk

The Holocene history of Australia's climate is surprisingly poorly understood. This is, in part, because of the relatively weak forcing of Holocene climate versus that of the late Pleistocene. Howeve....

doi.org

Updated with new expert comments overnight:

Science Media Centre NZ@smcnz.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Big shakeup for NZ’s research funding – Expert Reaction

"evidence is emerging for rapid, interacting and sometimes self-perpetuating changes in the Antarctic environment" New review out today led by @climatenerilie.bsky.social brings together the rapid changes unfolding in the Antarctic. It's powerful, and sobering, reading.

Emerging evidence of abrupt changes in the Antarctic environment - Nature

Abrupt changes are developing across Antarctica’s ice, ocean and biological systems; some of these changes are intensifying faster than equivalent Arctic changes, potentially irreversibly, and their i...

nature.com

It's not uncommon to look across the bay and see Wellington getting drenched. Photo from Monday:

Get your tickey here for a virtual journey ✈️ to #Antarctica with @bas.ac.uk ! Perfect for kids and adults alike ❄️🥼🧪🇦🇶 Sign up➡️ tickettoantarctica.com

We’ve collected the oldest ice core, now it’s time to analyse it! 🔍 💻 The @newscientist.com have a new icy-cool video, speaking to BAS scientists about the Beyond EPICA project, highlighting why this work is so important in the face of climate change. www.newscientist.com/video/249042...

Nat Geo would kill for legit science-driven adventure like they found in “For Winter,” over content less credibly grounded in pursuit of knowledge +humans pushing limits. Instead they’ve (Disney?) gotten cold feet & deeply disrespected my colleague Ali & her family. defector.com/why-did-nati...

Why Did National Geographic Disappear Its Own Documentary About A Queer Climate Scientist? | Defector

If you’re not a particular kind of mountain sports nerd, you might not be familiar with the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour. But for people who live their lives in the overlapping circl...

defector.com

🌊❄️🧪 🇦🇶 Please share: We have learned that the National Science Foundation is moving ahead with plans to decommission the U.S. Research Vessel/Ice Breaker Nathaniel B. Palmer this October. If you care about Antarctic research, please read on (1/n)

Applications for the Leanne Armand award are now open. This award funds early and mid-career researchers based in Australia to access training in micropaleonotology. Applications are due 28th September, all details can be found on the AQUA website […]

📢 New paper alert! 📢 New insight into how sea ice controls the ocean uptake of carbon dioxide around Antarctica, obtained from the unique year-round Rothera Time Series. Delighted to be part of this study, led by the very excellent Elise Droste. 🧪❄️🥼🌊 www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Sea ice controls net ocean uptake of carbon dioxide by regulating wintertime stratification - Communications Earth & Environment

Interannual variability of ocean uptake of carbon dioxide is governed by winter sea ice cover, according to analysis of carbonate chemistry observations along the West Antarctic Peninsula.

nature.com