The Polar Retrospective looks at recent stories from around the world’s polar regions. This week we take a look at new regulations on subantarctic islands for visitors, the solution to a 66-year old Antarctic mystery, and a grim outlook for reindeer populations due to the changing climate.The changi
From September to December, a research team from Australian Antarctic Programs will be deployed on the sub-Antarctic island at 53 degrees south to assess the health of animal populations.King penguins on Heard Island. Image: Stephen Brown / Australian Antarctic Program Australia is bracing itself fo
Revealing a surprising diversity of ancient species just after the mass extinction that ended the age of dinosaurs, new fossil discoveries from North Canterbury in New Zealand show how early penguins developed powerful underwater adaptations and long, spear-like beaks. The findings affirm New Zealan
The Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands had planned to implement a new ETA system for visitors but had to delay these plans now. The Government of South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands (GSGSSI) has announced a last-minute postponement of its new Electronic Entry Permit sy
The Polar Retrospective looks at recent stories from around the world’s polar regions. This week we take a look at a new map of Alexander Island, a new Canadian inuit-owned fishing vessel, and a new viral threat for Arctic foxes on Svalbard. The Polar Retrospective is a collaborative effort by the e
Male leopard seals sing for hours each day over many weeks and their patterned trills resemble the structure of human nursery rhymes. A new study reveals that these underwater love songs may be deliberately simple and repetitive, helping the seals stand out and be heard across vast icy waters.Restin
The Polar Retrospective looks at recent stories from around the world’s polar regions. This week we take a look at a hidden lake flood beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet, the end of another icebreaker era in Antarctica, and traces of an ancient rift between America and Greenland.The Polar Retrospective
For nearly 30 years, an Australian observatory in the Southern Ocean has delivered crucial long-term data on carbon uptake, ecosystem change and climate trends, and its role is becoming more important than ever. A long-running observatory in the Southern Ocean has been collecting data for nearly 30
New research shows that the success of Marine Protected Areas hinges on strict enforcement, a principle facing major geopolitical and ecological challenges in the planned sanctuaries of the Arctic and Antarctic. Two major studies arrive at seemingly opposite conclusions about the effectiveness of Ma
Mila Zinkova, an independent atmospheric scientist, has just published a study in the journal Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research that pays tribute to the Terra Nova expedition. She suggests that the captain and his crew, returning from the South Pole, may well have been caught in a nine-day snow
The Polar Retrospective looks at recent stories from around the world’s polar regions. This week we take a look at a $17 million contract between the Norwegian Polar Institute and Prinoth, at new insights into the role of ocean tides in triggering iceberg calving in Antarctica, and consequences of w
Researchers explored how the Māori lunar and environmental calendar, Maramataka, could help track environmental changes in Antarctica by observing natural signs like snow types and animal behavior. By connecting mātauranga Māori with Western science, they revealed new ways of understanding the polar
We’ve almost forgotten it, but Wordie wasn’t always a bay: it was once an ice shelf, and its slow disappearance is a textbook example of the powerful phenomenon of glacier collapse at work in Antarctica.The calving front of Fleming Glacier, which once fed the Wordie Ice Shelf before it collapsed. Im
While the Earth endured icy millions of years, early life may have survived near the equator, according to a new study of microorganisms in Antarctic meltwater ponds.Meltwater ponds on the McMurdo Ice Shelf in East Antarctica. Photo: Ian Hawes, University of Waikato The Antarctic is once again provi
The Thwaites Glacier is living out its last years of stability: the disintegration of its floating shelf has begun. As spectators of a predicted collapse, we witness the countdown of a colossus whose melting could raise the oceans by 65 centimetres. The icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer at the edge of
The Polar Retrospective looks at recent stories from around the world’s polar regions. This week we take a look at the impact of an NASA backed citizen science project in Antarctica, the increase in toxins levels in the Alaskan Arctic, and melting glaciers that might trigger more volcanoes eruptions
A 2024 study claimed Antarctica's peninsula is rapidly "greening." However, two new papers challenge this and open a debate of how dramatically Antarctic science should be communicated. A striking headline emerged from a 2024 study in Nature Geoscience: the Antarctic Peninsula is undergoing a widesp
No sooner has the emperor penguin begun to reveal its secrets than it’s already disappearing. Beacon of a climate in crisis, this emblematic Antarctic bird could disappear before we even get to know it. The emperor penguin(Aptenodytes forsteri) lives exclusively around Antarctica and is distinguishe
The Polar Retrospective looks at recent stories from around the world’s polar regions. This week we take a look at ancient permafrost thawing, a change in airline ownership, and the conclusion of Antarctic Treaty meetings without any major declarations.Svalbard airport overview, Image: Fasttailwind
Melting glaciers, tipping points, sea ice in distress. The Antarctic continent is not doing well in the face of climate change. Yet, the scientific research, as crucial it is to undersand the different implied phenomenons, is declining in number. Photo: Julia HagerDespite accelerating climate impact
Never-before-seen images filmed in Antarctica show traces of anchoring on a deep, untouched seabed. Without concluding that there is a definite impact, a study invites us to consider the potential effects of human activities on these fragile ecosystems. Giant sponge and anemones 230 m beneath the ic
A new project launching this week in Dundee brings together long-lost stories, photos and personal artefacts from Scottish whaling communities, not to glorify the industry, but to preserve its human history.Everyday objects, family photos, logbooks, and personal mementos come together in the Whalers
In a special report for Polar Journal AG, Milenio BASE Head of Communications Nadia Politis travelled to the Antarctic Peninsula to meet with the winners of the Feria Antárctica Escolar, a unique student project. For more than 20 years, a school science research contest challenges students and from
Anne Choquet, from the University Occidental in Brest, explains why UNOC 25 has forgotten the polar oceans, and why they should be treated equally. Nearly 25 times larger than France in the Arctic and 27 times larger in the Antarctic, the polar oceans are largely overlooked by UNOC. Yet the challeng
