Australian Antarctic Division

Increasing abundance of nitrogen-fixing Trichodesmium in Australian waters

Context The filamentous cyanobacteria, genus Trichodesmium, is a marine diazotroph that converts atmospheric nitrogen into more bioavailable forms and is therefore important in nutrient cycling in oligotrophic marine ecosystems. Aims This study aimed to confirm findings from hist...

Multiple strategies and cues define baleen whale migration

Migration is a do-or-die life-history strategy, yet factors shaping it remain poorly studied in many marine taxa, as direct observations are difficult. Building on animal migration theory, we used satellite tracking data from 21 southern right whales tagged in Aotearoa New Zealan...

36Cl concentrations from polar ice cores set new constraints on the Carrington event.

The Carrington event of 1859 CE is considered one of the largest geomagnetic storms of the observational era and often used as a benchmark for a worst-case scenario. Yet, there exists no robust evidence of an associated solar energetic particle (SEP) event of a significant magnit...

Mesoporous PU/PEDOT:PSS Electrodes Reveal Population‐Level Stochastic Bioelectrical Dynamics in Marine Diatoms

ABSTRACT Understanding how microbial populations generate and modulate electrical signals remains a major technical challenge because extracellular ionic processes are inherently weak, spatially distributed and stochastic. Here, we introduce a mesoporous ultra‐low‐impedance PEDOT...

Refining the Simulation of Mixed‐Phase Clouds Over Coastal Antarctica With a Tailored Ice Nucleating Particle Parameterization

Abstract Climate models have substantial biases in downwelling shortwave radiation over the Southern Ocean (SO) and Antarctica, primarily due to their inability to accurately represent the frequent occurrence of low‐level mixed‐phase clouds. Building on the evaluation of the Unif...

Sensitivity of the Bootstrap sea ice concentration algorithm to surface parameters in the Antarctic marginal ice zone using passive microwave retrievals

Abstract. Changes in sea ice concentration (SIC) and derived sea ice extent have been monitored using microwave radiometers since the late 1970s, providing information about the polar response to climate change, making SIC an invaluable variable for numerical models. Antarctic se...

Skuas as sentinels of high pathogenicity avian influenza H5N1 on the Antarctic Peninsula in the 2024/2025 austral summer

Despite Antarctica's geographic isolation, the first incursion of high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 was detected in the 2023/2024 austral summer. Surveillance for HPAI H5N1 in Antarctica remains patchy due to logistical, financial and infrastructure challenges, with...

Will work for sardines: 20 years of animal-borne ocean observing by Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) Animal Tagging Facility

The world’s ocean stores ~90% of the excess heat generated by anthropogenic global warming, making sustained ocean observations essential for understanding physical, biological and climate processes. Here, we describe how the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) Animal Taggi...

The Past, Present, and Future of Online Biodiversity Knowledge Systems

In recent decades, the availability and accessibility of biodiversity data and the profusion of portals, tools, and platforms through which to utilize them have increased rapidly. This reflects the extensive variety of challenges biodiversity data are being used to address and th...