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The Belgica expedition, which left Belgium in August 1897, was the first to spend 13 months continuously in Antarctic waters, before returning in late 1899. This was not only an exploratory venture, as new lands and oceans were charted, but more importantly it was an exceptional and successful scientific voyage. After the return of the expedition, a vast array of scientific data was processed and eventually 92 publications in some nine volumes funded by the Belgica Commission appeared over 40 years as a series called Résultats du voyage de la Belgica en 1897–99 sous le commandement de A. de Gerlache de Gomery – rapports scientifiques. Disappointingly, those significant results have been mostly ignored in the scientific literature and the paper here aims to inform scientists of the achievements of the Belgica expedition and where to obtain the information. Many of the climatological and oceanographic data obtained by the expeditioners ought to be examined in line with the changes that are occurring today in the Antarctic Peninsula region as a result of global warming. Some of the Belgica data form an important database to critically assess environmental changes over 120 years in the region of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Antarctica is recognized as being geopolitically and scientifically important, and as one of the regions with the greatest potential to affect and be affected by global climate change. Still, little is known in practice about how climate change will be handled within the main governance framework of the continent: the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). Using qualitative interviews, participant observations and policy document analysis, this paper explores the perspectives of Chilean scientific, political and non-governmental actors regarding the implications of climate change for the current Antarctic governance framework. Results corroborate a misalignment of the climate change agenda and the ATS, stemming from the divergent views displayed by a wide network of actors. From the interviews, two predominant visions emerge: (i) climate change as an opportunity, where actors recognize the role of Antarctica in regulating global climate and stress greater opportunities to conduct Antarctic-based climate change research, the need for strategic international collaboration, and the reinforcement of Chile’s position in Antarctica through science; (ii) climate change as a burden where actors acknowledge climate change as a global problem, largely external to Antarctica, express disbelief regarding the effectiveness of local actions to tackle climate change and do not associate with climate change governance. The study concludes that climate change may become a dividing, rather than a unifying, field of action in Chilean Antarctic governance, reinforcing previously existing geopolitical tendencies.

The Inverse Gaussian approximation of transit time distribution method (IG-TTD) is widely used to infer the anthropogenic carbon (Cant) concentration in the ocean from measurements of transient tracers such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). Its accuracy relies on the validity of several assumptions, notably (i) a steady state ocean circulation, (ii) a prescribed age tracer saturation history, e.g., a constant 100% saturation, (iii) a prescribed constant degree of mixing in the ocean, (iv) a constant surface ocean air-sea CO2 disequilibrium with time, and (v) that preformed alkalinity can be sufficiently estimated by salinity or salinity and temperature. Here, these assumptions are evaluated using simulated “model-truth” of Cant. The results give the IG-TTD method a range of uncertainty from 7.8% to 13.6% (11.4 Pg C to 19.8 Pg C) due to above assumptions, which is about half of the uncertainty derived in previous model studies. Assumptions (ii), (iv) and (iii) are the three largest sources of uncertainties, accounting for 5.5%, 3.8% and 3.0%, respectively, while assumptions (i) and (v) only contribute about 0.6% and 0.7%. Regionally, the Southern Ocean contributes the largest uncertainty, of 7.8%, while the North Atlantic contributes about 1.3%. Our findings demonstrate that spatial-dependency of , and temporal changes in tracer saturation and air-sea CO2 disequilibrium have strong compensating effect on the estimated Cant. The values of these parameters should be quantified to reduce the uncertainty of IG-TTD; this is increasingly important under a changing ocean climate.

Antarctica’s terrestrial ecosystems are vulnerable to impacts resulting from climate change and local human activities. The Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) provides for the designation of protected areas through the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty. Unsystematic use of agreed management tools, including Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPAs), has resulted in a protected area system lacking representation across the full range of Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems and Antarctic Conservation Biogeographic Regions (ACBRs). Systematic Conservation Planning (SCP) methods provide established mechanisms to fulfil ATS protected area designation goals. However, how would a continent-wide ASPA system be delivered should appropriate sites be identified using SCP or other methods? Although the rate of area protection has slowed recently, we show that newer Consultative Parties to the Antarctic Treaty are increasingly active as ASPA proponents and may have scope for further engagement with protected area management activities. Furthermore, all 16 ACBRs were found to be within the operational footprint of at least two Parties, indicating that this current logistical footprint could support the implementation and management of a continent-wide ASPA system. Effective management of a representative Antarctic protected areas system could be delivered through greater participation by those Parties with currently more limited protected area management responsibilities and greater use of remote-sensing technologies for protected area monitoring, where appropriate. Crucially, political will to implement an ASPA system identified through SCP approaches may be greater once a pragmatic means of delivery and effective management has been identified.

We carried out a bibliometric analysis of literature related to glaciers in polar regions from the period 1987–2016 indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded database. A comprehensive review was performed by analysing the research output trends, publication categories, main journals, leading countries and their collaborations, leading scientists, author keywords and Keywords Plus. The results indicated that the number of publications related to glaciers in polar regions has increased rapidly. The USA and several European countries, including the UK, France, Germany and Switzerland, are the leaders in the field of glacial studies, as reflected both in the productivity measures and in the distribution of core scientists. Quaternary Science Reviews, the Journal of Glaciology, and Geophysical Research Letters were the most productive journals for glacial studies. The synthesized analysis of the keywords demonstrated the current research emphases and hinted at future research trends. Reconstructing past climate changes through studies of ice-core records is one of the most important research subjects. Numerical modelling has become a commonly used tool in polar region glacial research. A better understanding of the responses of glaciers to widespread climatic warming is needed now and in the future.

Isen i Antarktis smelter ikkje med det første, men store endringar er undervegs i havet. Havvatnet rundt Antarktis er iskaldt, men nå observerer vi at varmare vatn strøymer innunder den flytande delen av is-kappen. Om denne utviklinga ikkje stopper vil meir innlandsis strøyme ut i havet og føre til at havnivået vil stige med fleire meter. Det er langt frå sikkert at dette vil skje, men det er eit veldig viktig klimaspørsmål som vi må forstå betre. Difor har Uni Research med støtte av Forskingsrådet og Polarinstituttet bygd fleire havobservatorium for å kunne gi eit tidleg varsel dramatisk endringar.

The multi-temporal scales of two physical characteristics (areas and occurrence time) of the Ross Sea Polynya (RSP) in Antarctica were analysed using a sea-ice concentration data set (1979–2014) derived from the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer, the Special Sensor Microwave Imager and Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder. Then, the Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) was applied to the data sets to decompose signals into finite numbers of intrinsic mode functions and a residual mode: long time trend. This approach allowed us to understand the long-term variability of the RSP area and occurrence in response to atmospheric forcing through teleconnections between low and high latitudes by comparing the Nino3.4 and Southern Annular Mode (SAM) indices. The nonlinear trend of the RSP areas derived from the EEMD residual had an upward trending shift in the early 1990s and was fairly consistent with the nonlinear trend of Nino3.4. However, the trend of RSP occurrence time progressively increased and had a significant effect on the long time scale. The trend of the RSP area is significantly correlated (+0.98) with the ratio of the trend of the meridional to zonal wind components related with the nonlinearity of Nino3.4, suggesting that meridional wind stress dominated the changes of the polynya area in the Ross Sea. In addition, the nonlinear trends between the SAM and RSP occurrence time show a strong positive correlation, contributing to the earlier onset of polynya expansion and delayed connection with the open ocean owing to enhanced southerly winds.

Climate change is predicted to affect Southern Ocean biota in complex ways. Euphausiids play a crucial role in the trophodynamics of the ecosystem, and their status under future environmental scenarios is the subject of much concern. Thysanoessa macrura is the most widely distributed, numerically abundant, and ubiquitous euphausiid south of the Polar Front and may be an underappreciated prey species. T. macrura is eurythermic and may be better able to tolerate warming ocean temperatures in comparison to the more stenothermic Antarctic krill Euphausia superba. We use temperature-dependent growth models and biomass per recruit to investigate how the availability of this euphausiid to predators may change under a range of temperature scenarios. We contrast this with the availability of E. superba and find that, under some ranges of temperature change, increasing T. macrura growth may be able to partially compensate for decreasing E. superba growth in terms of biomass available for predators. However, in spite of its considerable biomass, other aspects of this species, such as its size and habitat, may limit its potential to replace E. superba in the diet of many predators. KEYWORDS: Thysanoessa macrura · Euphausia superba · Growth · Temperature · Climate change · Krill predators · Southern Ocean · Euphausiids · Modeling

Penguins are a monophyletic group in which many species are found breeding sympatrically, raising questions regarding how these species coexist successfully. Here, the isotopic niche of three sympatric pygoscelid penguin species was investigated at Powell Island, South Orkney Islands, during two breeding seasons (austral summers 2013–2014 and 2015–2016). Measurements of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotope ratios were obtained from blood (adults) or feather (chicks) samples collected from Adélie Pygoscelis adeliae, chinstrap P. antarctica, and gentoo P. papua penguins. Isotopic niche regions (a proxy for the realized trophic niches) were computed to provide estimates of the trophic niche width of the studied species during the breeding season. The isotopic niche regions of adults of all three species were similar, but gentoo chicks had noticeably wider isotopic niches than the chicks of the other two species. Moderate to strong overlap in isotopic niche among species was found during each breeding season and for both age groups, suggesting that the potential for competition for shared food sources was similar during the two study years, although the actual level of competition could not be determined owing to the lack of data on resource abundance. Clear interannual shifts in isotopic niche were seen in all three species, though of lower amplitude for adult chinstrap penguins. These shifts were due to variation in carbon, but not nitrogen, isotopic ratios, which could indicate either a change in isotopic signature of their prey or a switch to an alternative food web. The main conclusions of this study are that (1) there is a partial overlap in the isotopic niches of these three congeneric species and that (2) they responded similarly to changes that likely occurred at the base of their food chain between the 2 years of the study.