Link to British Antarctic Survey press release about Chuxian Li et al.’s new paper just published in PNAS:
Ancient poo reveals uncertain future for Antarctic seabirds
www.bas.ac.uk/news/ancient...
Screenshot of the title of the press release for the paper
More details in this press release: www.slu.se/en/news/2026...
… this provides vital clues about how future climate change could impact important breeding populations of seabirds, including albatross, petrel, and penguin species listed as threatened by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature across the Southern Ocean
By analysing mercury flux and isotopes in peat cores, the paper shows how populations of nesting seabirds have fluctuated on sub-Antarctic Bird Island over 8,000 years. Changes in the bird population are linked to shifts in climate and the Southern Hemisphere Westerlies ….
Screenshot of title page in PNAS
An albatross opening its wings on Bird Island
Map showing the location of Bird Island and other islands mentioned in the paper
3D diagram showing how mercury ends up in peat bogs from Seabirds and other transport processes
Excellent new paper by the amazing Chuxian Li - Southern Ocean seabird population shifts over the Holocene revealed by peat sequestration of mercury from guano - just published in PNAS!
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
Advert for our research experience placement project on the Iapetus DTP website
A poster summarising the main aims of our Nepal lake coring project
A photo of Lake Tilicio in Nepal and an inset of our team taking a lake sediment core from the lake in Nov 2024
The Iapetus DTP summer Research Experience Placement (REP) projects have just been advertised - including one working on lake sediment cores from Nepal with our research group …
See link for more details:
iapetus.ac.uk/rep-projects/
@iapetusdtp.bsky.social
@bas.ac.uk
@ukri.org
Additionally, we highlight the complexity and localised behaviour of recent and shorter timescale Southern Hemisphere Westerlies changes, with implications for future research.
Our results suggest stronger Southern Hemisphere Westerlies at Macquarie Island from ~2500–2300 cal yr. BP and after ~800 cal yr. BP, and relatively weaker Southern Hemisphere Westerlies between ~2300–800 cal yr. BP. Superimposed on this long-term trend are centennial-scale fluctuations.
Here we demonstrate a direct reconstruction method that provides a robust framework for reconstructing past wind variability, with the broader aim of improving our understanding of past Southern Hemisphere Westerlies behaviours.
As an important component of the Earth's system, changes in the Southern Hemisphere Westerlies profoundly impact climate and the ocean-cryosphere-atmosphere domains.
In this research, we used halophilic and halophobic diatoms to reconstruct the Southern Hemisphere variability on subantarctic Macquarie Island during the last 2500 years, by exploiting the wind-driven sea spray and lake conductivity relationship.
Excellent new paper by @yqnatdeng.bsky.social in The Holocene this week using diatoms from a lake sediment core from Macquarie Island to reconstruct past changes in lake water conductivity and Southern Hemisphere Westerly winds …
@bas.ac.uk @uclgeography.bsky.social @antarctic.bsky.social
Paper from my MSc research at @uclgeography.bsky.social is now published in The Holocene. Read it here: doi.org/10.1177/0959...
First step: produce reliable concentrations of key mineral elements in peat by comparing and calibrating high-res XRF-CS data to quantitative ICP-MS subsample data from islands around the Southern Ocean
… eventually allow us to quantify mineral flux through time and spatially across the Southern Ocean - and investigate key mechanisms driving changing SWW & Southern Ocean CO2 absorption/outgassing dynamics
Improving our ability to more-rapidly measure and quantify mineral input and concentrations in peat records from different latitudes at higher centennial-decadal resolutions by applying modern XRF core scanning (XRF-CS) techniques to peat will …
Changes in the mineral content of peat records we’ve collected from the sub-Antarctic islands over the last decade provide a proxy for increased wind intensity and storminess, reflecting local to regional shifts in wind patterns around the Southern Ocean over ~10,000 years
… which is ultimately thought to be reducing the capacity of surface waters in the Southern Ocean to absorb atmospheric CO2
The Southern Hemisphere Westerly winds (SWW) regulate the capacity of the Southern Ocean to absorb or release CO2. Recent warming is thought to have led to an intensification and/or poleward shift in the mean annual position of the core SWW wind belt …
This paper provides a new way to rapidly measure and quantify past changes in the mineral content of peat records from western coasts of several sub-Antarctic islands located in the core Southern Hemisphere Westerly wind belt of the Southern Ocean
View of site HER42PB on the western cliff edge of Isla Hermite, near Cape Horn
A four part figure for Figure 1 from our new paper showing (a) the locations of the four islands we samples peat from in the Southern Ocean, (b) an example surface Core Image and downcore XRF core scanning Ti counts per second downcore from site HER42PB, (c-f) location maps showing sample site on Bird Island, Isla Hermite, Kerguelen Island, and Marion Island
Photo of some peat cores collected from a peat coring site on Crozet Island (credit FDV)
A complicated figure for Figure 4 from our new paper showing a several downcore proxy records from the sampling sites - illustrating the good downcore coherence between high resolution XRF core scan data and ICP-MS subsample data and the conversion of XRF core scan data into quantitative concentrations
Early view of our new high-resolution sub-Antarctic islands peat geochemistry calibration paper in press @Nature Scientific Reports …
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Spectacular ending to the annual Cambridge Bonfire Night fireworks display tonight …
Collage showing a map of the Shetland Islands in the top left, a map of Loch Flugarth and core sites and sampling locations top right, a sediment core from the centre of the loch bottom left, coring in a small boat on the loch middle bottom, and GPS surveying and measuring retaining sill altitudes bottom right
Short Article for the BAS IceSheet Newsletter Oct/Nov 2025 …
Ancient tsunamis and storms in the Shetlands Islands
See link for article: www.linkedin.com/posts/stephe...
British Antarctic Survey supervisors are involved in 20 Iapetus DTP PhD projects this year - 6 based at BAS, 14 at one of the Iapetus DTP univeristy partners. Full list and how to apply are in this link :
www.linkedin.com/posts/stephe...
Applications are now open for this years’ @iapetusdtp.bsky.social PhD projects … including this one investigating ice sheet and glacier history of the Sør Rondane Mountains in East Antarctica by developing in-situ 14C cosmogenic exposure dating methods - more here:
iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
A person standing on a moraine which is in front of a mountain. The mountain is in East Antarctica, with a small glacier between the mountain and moraine. The person is using a saw to collect a rock sample from the surface of a boulder on top of the moraine.
A photo taken from a mountain in East Antarctica, with moraines and blue ice in the foreground, and the vast East Antarctic Ice Sheet extending to the horizon. Some small mountains (nunataks) are poking out above the surface of the ice sheet at varying distances.
Applications are now open for a Glasgow-based Iapetus DTP project centred on using in situ 14C to study glacier histories in East Antarctica! tinyurl.com/3ddvynn2 @stever60.bsky.social @uofglasgow.bsky.social @iapetusdtp.bsky.social @bas.ac.uk
Photo of Lake Tilicio in Nepal with an inset core showing our team collecting sediment cores from the lake
Applications are now open for this years’ BAS Iapetus PhD projects … including one working on our Big Thaw project investigating extreme precipitation in Nepal from sediment core and climate data - more details in this link @iapetusdtp.bsky.social @bas.ac.uk
iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
Collab of @stever60.bsky.social @bas.ac.uk @uniheidelberg.bsky.social #geography
