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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Antarctic Iceberg B17B Drifting towards Australia
10.12.2009
Nearly ten years ago, iceberg B17B calved off the eastern end of the Ross Ice Shelf. One of the largest to have calved off of the ice shelf (measuring 19 km long and 8 km wide), the iceberg is now making its way towards Australia.
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Mercury Levels in Polar Bears Determined by Food Web
10.12.2009
New research, conducted by biogeochemists Travis Horton of the University of Canterbury and Joel Blum of the University of Michigan, opens a new perspective in the study of mercury deposition in polar bears.
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Snow Flakes Could Shed Light on Ozone Depletion in the Arctic
08.12.2009
Ice chemists from Purdue University in Indiana are currently studying the variability of snowflake geometry to gain better insight into the dynamics of ground-level ozone depletion in the Arctic.
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Aurora Australis to Undertake Scientific Voyage
07.12.2009
Nearly 40 scientists have embarked on the icebreaker Aurora Australis for a six-week trip covering about 7,000 nautical miles of the Southern Ocean. The science trip, undertaken by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), will mainly focus on two key projects: the assessment of the impacts of bottom fishing and ocean…
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New Fossils Show Antarctica May Have Been Refuge during End-Permian Extinction
03.12.2009
Researchers have identified a new fossil species, Kombuisia antarctica, a species they believe survived the massive End-Permian Extinction 252 million years ago (an extinction event that wiped out most living species on the planet and may have been caused by global warming) by living in cooler climates in Antarctica.
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Recent Sea Ice Survey Draws Attention to Arctic Warming Once Again
03.12.2009
Right before the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, a team of explorers and scientists wanted to draw attention to an increasingly warmer Arctic. The team departed on a 450-kilometre trek across the Arctic for 73 days in unfriendly terrain with temperatures of -40°C.
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Using Satellites to Track Wolves during the Arctic Winter
02.12.2009
Scientists are tracking the movements of wolves using satellites. In July on Ellesmere Island in Canada, US Geological Survey wolf researcher David Mech and Canadian biologist Dean Cluff equipped Brutus, a 9-year old wolf pack leader they first encountered in 2003, with a satellite collar.
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Onset of Younger Dryas Happened in Matter of Months Not Decades
02.12.2009
While investigating a mud core retrieved from ancient Lake Lough Monreach in Ireland, Dr. William Patterson from the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, has succeeded to show that the North Atlantic circulation might have stopped in a matter of months and not decades as was previously thought, triggering rapid climate…
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A Common Seasonal Pattern Found in Bacterial Communities in Six Arctic Rivers
30.11.2009
New research on bacterial communities in six large Arctic riverecosystems (in the Ob, Yenisey, Lena, Kolyma, Yukon and MackenzieRivers) reveals predictable temporal patterns, suggesting scientistscould use them as markers for monitoring climate change in the PolarRegions. The Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences showedbacterial communities in the studied…
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GBASE Project to Investigate Subglacial Environments in Antarctica
30.11.2009
A team of researchers representing nine institutions have embarked on a project to drill through the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica to gain access to a subglacial lake and cavity below the ice shelf. A part of the WISSARD (Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access…
