SciencePoles news
Recent Polar Science and Climate Change news are featured here. Our news RSS feed will inform you when news are published on this website.
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Arctic Bacteria Point to Possible Life on Mars; Potential to Mitigate Climate Change
04.11.2010
The unexpected discovery of bacteria that consume methane by Canadian microbiologists while exploring a salty, subzero spring in the Arctic indicate that there is a possibility for microbial life to exist on Mars.
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Temperature Limits Natural Distribution Area of King Crabs
04.11.2010
New research published in Polar Biology indicates that global warming could influence the natural distribution areas of various species of king crab – a voracious predator and a stenothermic (temperature-sensitive) species – in the Southern Ocean.
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Tagged Narwhals Confirm Continued Warming of Southern Baffin Bay
29.10.2010
In a recent study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Oceans, scientists reported that a continued warming of the southern Baffin Bay off West Greenland has been going on since the early 2000s. For their new study, the scientists relied on narwhals tagged with sensors to record ocean…
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20-Year Plankton Study Maps Major Changes in Southern Ocean
22.10.2010
Over the past 20 years, an Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) study of the Southern Ocean has identified various changes in the composition, distribution and diversity of plankton and krill. Thanks to the Australian Continuous Plankton Recorder project, which involves towing recording equipment behind a ship, AAD scientists have been able…
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Monitoring Snow Petrels around Australian Antarctic Stations
22.10.2010
In the coming austral summer season in Antarctica, Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) scientists will deploy trackers on Antarctic snow petrels to find out more on the species’ forage sites and survival techniques. Snow petrels around Australia’s Casey, Davis and Mawson stations will be equipped with trackers.
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New Study Sheds Light on Homosexual Behaviour in Penguins
21.10.2010
A new study of king penguins in the journal Ethology provides new insight into homosexual behaviour of penguins in the wild. In their study of king penguins on the Kergeulen Islands in the South Indian Ocean, the researchers from the Centre for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology in Montpellier, France found…
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Ancient Turtle Remains Suggest Warm Eocene Antarctic
20.10.2010
The fossil remains of an ancient turtle recently discovered on Seymour Island in Antarctica offer a new perspective on the conditions on the continent during the Eocene Epoch (roughly 56 to 34 million years ago). The discovery, further detailed in the October issue of the journal Antarctic Science, adds a…
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Acidifying Southern Ocean Could Have Large Impact on Krill Populations
15.10.2010
Antarctic krill faces an increasing threat to their embryos as a result of ocean acidification, new research shows. Exposing krill to different levels of carbon dioxide, researchers from the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) sought to investigate the possible impacts of acidification on the early development of krill. In the study,…
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Penguin Research Gets Boost with New Leg Band
11.10.2010
Australian Antarctic Division Sea Bird Ecologist Dr. Barbara Wienecke is experimenting with a new data-logging leg band on a colony of Gentoo penguins at the Melbourne Aquarium. The new 1.5g bands, she hopes, will allow for long-term monitoring of Adélie penguins in Antarctica without interfering with their activities.
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Periods of Darkness Help Advance Krill Sexual Maturity
30.09.2010
Preliminary research published in the Journal of Plankton Research by the Australian Antarctic Division's krill aquarium suggests that the annual cycle of krill maturation and reproduction can be altered by a period of darkness immediately after spawning.
