Australian Antarctic Program Partnership

Ailing "Megaberg" Sparks Surge of Microscopic Life - NASA Science As Iceberg A-23A disintegrated, it shed meltwater that helped fuel an extensive phytoplankton bloom in the South Atlantic Ocean.

After a 40-plus-year journey, 'megaberg' meltwater is fuelling blooms of microscopic phytoplankton, seen from space by @thenasaearth.bsky.social

🛰️ science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-...

3️⃣ The greatest glacier retreat (up to about 40km in West Antarctica) occurs where deep troughs enable warm deep water to intrude below ice sheets and where glacial beds continue to deepen inland.

[Denman Glacier 📸 Pete Harmsen/AAD]

2️⃣ While the study in @pnas.org shows most of the coastline remains stable (for now), in three decades the ice sheet has retreated from the grounding line (where continental ice meets the ocean) at an average rate of 442 sqkm per year, mostly in West Antarctica.

▶️ www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

1️⃣ Over the last 30 years, #Antarctica has lost 12,820 square kilometres of grounded ice – larger than the area of Greater Sydney – a new study led by @ucirvine.bsky.social reports.

[animation of satellite images from @esa.int shows the evolution of cracks in the Pine Island Glacier during 2019]

The event featured six posters, a giant map, Antarctic rocks, an Argo float, a short presentation and (we're pretty sure) the first live plankton in Parliament!

Tasmania unites for Antarctic science - AAPP Politicians and staff from three levels of government focus on Antarctica and the Southern Ocean

Yesterday #Antarctic and Southern Ocean scientists from @utas.edu.au and @antarcticsciaus.bsky.social chatted with Tasmanian politicians from all levels of government and across the political spectrum about 'Why Antarctica Matters for Tasmania.'

▶️ aappartnership.org.au/tasmania-uni...

Rain is coming to Antarctica – here’s how it will change the frozen continent In the Antarctic Peninsula, precipitation is increasingly falling as rain rather than snow, with consequences for glaciers, penguins and even scientists.

"Rain, once rare in Antarctica, is becoming a force capable of reshaping life on the peninsula. Limiting warming to below 1.5°C won’t prevent these changes entirely. But it could slow how quickly rainfall transforms the frozen continent."
—@iceybethan.bsky.social

theconversation.com/rain-is-comi...

The Antarctic Ice Sheet is making an increasing contribution to global sea-level rise. Find out more in this explainer from @antarctic.bsky.social and @antarcticsciaus.bsky.social.

▶️ aapp.shorthandstories.com/opening-the-...

🌊 New paper in @natclimate.nature.com: 'Mapping tipping risks from Antarctic ice basins under global warming', by @pik-potsdam.bsky.social

"Marine-based sectors in East Antarctica, representing ~5 m of potential sea-level rise, are at risk of losing stability at 2–5 °C."

▶️ rdcu.be/e5bQS

🌊 The CSIRO Marine National Facility (MNF) invites Australian
researchers to apply for sea time on RV Investigator in 2028-29, to deliver research, innovation & training projects supported by MNF infrastructure, equipment & expertise. Applications close 19 May 2026.

Get onboard at www.csiro.au/mnf

Drilling into the last Ice Age YouTube video by @AusAntarctic Science TV

👏 Bravo to the Million Year Ice Core team in #Antarctica @millionyearice.bsky.social for their ice-core drilling efforts this season, time-travelling to the last Ice Age over 13,100 years ago. 400.68m down, just 3000m-or-so to go! #MYIC

Nice video from the AAD ▶️
www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4qs...

Great pics from Jano Gibson @southernsky.bsky.social and Owain Stia-James

Australia's frozen ghost town leaves behind a toxic legacy The ABC has been given rare access to an abandoned Australian base in Antarctica that continues to pose a threat to the environment.

Scientists from @utas.edu.au and Australian Antarctic Division are figuring out how to clean up legacy pollution from an East #Antarctic 'ghost town': "we're trying to be as delicate as possible so we’re not making a greater mess while we are cleaning up."

▶️ www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...

Southern Ocean may store less carbon than climate models assume - ACEAS New research led by ACEAS PhD researcher Annika Oetjens and colleagues at the University of Tasmania reveals that the Southern Ocean may be storing less carbon than climate models assume – with import...

🌊 An important new study led by ACEAS PhD researcher Annika Oetjens from @imas-utas.bsky.social at @utas.edu.au shows the Southern Ocean may be storing 40 to 60 per cent less carbon at certain depths than many climate models assume.

Learn more ▶️ antarctic.org.au/southern-oce...

Congratulations to the team led by @helen-amanda.bsky.social at @ucsandiego.bsky.social and @scrippsocean.bsky.social

bsky.app/profile/scri...

Tasmanian scientist in NASA mission to track ice with space lasers - AAPP First spaceborne laser altimeter system to monitor the impacts of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems and ice simultaneously

🛰️ The EDGE satellite will measure the height of Earth’s dynamic surface in incredible detail, from deepening cracks in #Antarctic glaciers to the height of #Amazon rainforest, with an accuracy of less than 3cm from an orbit 390km above the Earth.

▶️ aappartnership.org.au/tasmanian-sc...

Hi, should be rdcu.be/e2bJy or www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Dusting off the iron hypothesis Nature Geoscience - Erosion by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet can supply iron to the Southern Ocean, with iron solubility as important as iron quantity in shaping ocean productivity and carbon...

🌊 Boosting iron supply in the anaemic Southern Ocean enhances phytoplankton blooms and the ocean’s uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

🧊 'News & Views' @natgeosci.nature.com by Dr Marion Fourquez @utas.edu.au examines a new perspective on where the iron came from in the past.

▶️ rdcu.be/e2bJy

ON THIN ICE A science briefing about changes in Antarctic sea ice

3️⃣ The ocean’s structure sets how far north sea ice can reach, influenced by several factors: how warm the ocean is after summer, how much the atmosphere cools the ocean, and how much heat is carried upward from deeper ocean layers.

Sea-ice briefing ▶️ aapp.shorthandstories.com/on-thin-ice/...

2️⃣ A new study led by @icecoldwill.bsky.social in @jgroceans.bsky.social looks at the ocean's role in limiting winter sea-ice growth. A metric called “Stability at Freezing Temperature” estimates how much heat the ocean must lose to the atmosphere for ice to form.

▶️ doi.org/10.1029/2025...

1️⃣ Antarctic sea ice during winter didn’t use to change very much from year to year. But in recent winters, the extent of ice has crashed to unusually low levels. Which begs the question: what controls how much sea ice can form in winter?

🌊 plot by @edoddridge.bsky.social

Globally, no single day in 2025 was cooler than its 1991-2020 average.
climate.copernicus.eu/global-clima...

Global trends in ocean fronts and impacts on the air–sea CO2 flux and chlorophyll concentrations Nature Climate Change - Changes in ocean fronts could impact biological productivity and carbon exchange. By analysing satellite and reanalysis data, the authors identify areas with active frontal...

Researchers tracked where ocean fronts occur globally and how they're changing.

"We can now directly link changes in frontal activity to changes in both phytoplankton biomass and ocean carbon dioxide uptake" — Dr Amelie Meyer @imas-utas.bsky.social

@nature.com ▶️ rdcu.be/e0RHf

🌊 Ocean fronts are boundaries where different water masses collide. They cover about 1/3 of the global ocean but account for nearly 3/4 of total ocean CO2 uptake, absorbing about 1.8 billion tonnes of carbon each year.

Research led @utas.edu.au ▶️ tinyurl.com/jtxddyt9

Anim: Kuroshio current by NASA

How to drill an ice shelf — and why A mission to reach the ocean under the Shackleton Ice Shelf in East Antarctica

Hats off to the New Zealand team behind this research in @jgroceans.bsky.social. Drilling through ice shelves is no easy feat.

▶️ aapp.shorthandstories.com/how-to-drill...

@aucklanduni.bsky.social
@universityofotago.bsky.social

(a) An ice thickness map of Ross Ice Shelf using the Bedmap-2 data set (Fretwell et al., 2013). Contours represent ice thickness at 100 m intervals. The orange dot represents the HWD2 borehole. (b) HWD2 mooring schematic showing instrument deployment pressures. Nortek Aquadopp current meters are shown in red and Seabird SBE 37 CTD are shown in blue. All numbers are in dbar. The ice shelf thickness and seafloor depth at the HWD2 site were 321 and 741 m, respectively.

"In this study, we describe results from a 4.5-year record of ocean measurements beneath the central Ross Ice Shelf ... our analysis of the data suggests the ice shelf melting is linked to changes in how much sea ice forms each winter in a nearby area of open water."

▶️ doi.org/10.1029/2025...

Beneath Antarctica’s largest ice shelf, a hidden ocean is revealing its secrets A four-year record from the heart of the Ross Ice Shelf shows how subtle changes could shape future sea level rise, ocean ecosystems – and even our weather.

🌊 "Ice shelves act as buttresses for Antarctica’s 30 million cubic kilometres of ice ... The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest, among the coldest and most southerly, and perhaps the most sheltered from a warming ocean."
—@aunz.theconversation.com

▶️ theconversation.com/beneath-anta...

🚨 WORK WITH US at @imas-utas.bsky.social!

🧊 Research Associate – Sea-Level Analyst

🌊 Evaluate sea level risks for Australia and Pacific Island nations using #Antarctic Ice Sheet projections under @ipcc.bsky.social #climate scenarios

✍️ Apply by 22 Feb 2026

▶️ aappartnership.org.au/vacancies/

Nominations for the @soosocean.bsky.social Weddell Sea and Dronning Maud Land Regional Working Group close on 30 Jan.

Applications for ECR representatives will open soon.

🐧 soos.aq/opportunitie...

New sanctuary preserves ice cores from melting glaciers | CBC News Scientists on Wednesday inaugurated the first global repository of mountain ice cores, preserving the history of the Earth's atmosphere in an Antarctic vault for future generations to study as global ...

"The Ice Memory Foundation ensures that future generations of researchers will be able to study past climate conditions using technologies that may not yet exist" — Prof Carlo Barbante, Ca' Foscari University of Venice

▶️ www.cbc.ca/news/science...