Articles & Interviews
Sciencepoles articles look at key findings from a range of polar science and research fields. Our articles RSS feed will inform you when new articles are published on this website.
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Julian Gutt: The Antarctic Polarstern / CAML Expedition ANTXXIII/8
09.01.2007
Huge areas of sea floor (around 3,250 km2) have been freed up by the collapse 4 years ago of the Larsen B platform along the Antarctic Peninsula, leaving a blank spot on Antarctic maps. Polarstern, the research flagship of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, will shortly…
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CCAMLR: Record Antarctic Haul Not a Sure Sign of Replenished Stocks
03.01.2007
The first part of the expedition ANTXXIII/8 on Polarstern focuses on biological investigations on fish stocks as a contribution to the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), following a dozen similar surveys since 1976. Researchers monitor previously fished areas located in the western part of the…
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Atmosphere, Isotopes and the Polar Record of Global Climate
27.10.2006
Dr. Pieter Tans is a Senior Scientist at the NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESLR). Dr. Tans is an acclaimed expert in carbon cycle and greenhouse gases. He has been studying atmospheric chemistry for over 30 years, utilizing every available resource from field measurements of gas exchange in current atmosphere…
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Antarctic Microorganisms as Indicators of Change
31.07.2006
SciencePoles interviewed in June 2006 Dr Annick Wilmotte, a specialist in Antarctic micro-organisms at Belgium's Liège University. Her work on cyanobacteria, found in abundance in Antarctic surface lakes, has stimulated considerable scientific and commercial interest. Dr Wilmotte is currently co-Leader of MERGE (Microbiological and Ecological Responses to Global Environmental Changes…
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Toxic European Chemicals Can Pollute the Arctic in Days
18.07.2006
Lars-Otto Reiersen, Executive Secretary of the Arctic Council's Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) was in Brussels in June, together with Dr Jon øyvind Odland (University of Tromso, Norway), and indigenous peoples' representatives, including Rune Fjellheim (Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples' Secretariat). The group was in Europe's capital as part of…
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Antarctic Waters Yielding up Their Secrets
10.07.2006
Filip Volckaert is Associate Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Marine Biology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. He is co-coordinating an international research effort, PELAGANT, which looks to better understand the ecology and unusual biodiversity of the Antarctic marine waters. Involving participants from other Belgian universities and researchers across…
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Long Antarctic Winter Gives Rise to a Yearning to Communicate
21.06.2006
Brendon Grunewald overwintered in 1993 in Antarctica at South Africa's Sanae research station in Dronning Maud Land. Since then he has worked ceaselessly to disseminate knowledge about and stimulate interest in all things Antarctic - notably through his website 70 South.
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Setting the Ice Sheet Record Straight
30.05.2006
Dr Carlota Escutia has worked in the United States, and recently in her native Spain at the CSIC-Granada University, on understanding better the factors causing formation of the Antarctic ice sheets " around 34 million years ago " and what has since influenced its growth or contraction. Her important new…
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Climate Change Impacts Differ for Little-Known Arctic and Antarctic Seafloor Life
15.05.2006
Sciencepoles talked to Dr. Julian Gutt, of Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute, just after his address, at the BEPOLES workshop, on "Climate-induced biodiversity shift in polar benthic communities?", which looked at how climate change might affect ecosystems on polar sea floors. Towards the end of 2006, Dr Gutt will lead a…
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IceCube: An Antarctic View of the Neutrino Universe
08.05.2006
Sciencepoles interviewed Professor Francis Halzen, from the Department of Physics at the University of Wisconsin, at the recent BEPOLES workshop (23 March). Professor Halzen is involved at the very edge of astronomical discovery as he works on an exciting new neutrino telescope, ICECUBE, gathering information about "the universe's most violent…
