Pelagic seabirds often nest on islands that are far from productive foraging areas. The Procellariiformes (petrels, shearwaters and albatrosses) are among the longest-ranging seabirds; they have several adaptations that permit them to efficiently utilize distant foraging areas and fast for long periods during incubation (Phillips & Hamer 1999). Giant petrels (Macronectes spp.) are large surface-nesting procellariiforms. They feed both by direct predation and by scavenging carrion, and they are the largest avian predator-scavengers in the Southern Ocean. Among procellariiform seabirds, one partner forages while their mate remains on the nest to incubate their single egg (Warham 1990). Northern giant petrels (Macronectes halli) have incubation shifts lasting up to 17 days (Cooper et al. 2001). In general, incubating procellariiform seabirds do not feed during their shift (Warham 1990). We report the first case to our knowledge of a procellariiform seabird, a northern giant petrel, actively feeding at its nest whilst incubating.

In Antarctica, the genus Bartramia has been restricted to a single polymorphic species, B. patens. Its status as a separate species or a subspecies of the Northern Hemisphere B. ithyphylla was debated. In the present paper, we combine analyses of chloroplast (trnS–rps4–trnT–trnL–trnF region) and nuclear ITS sequences with a reinvestigation of morphological characteristics to infer the identity of Antarctic Bartramia. Phylogenetic and Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery (ABGD) species delimitation analyses indicate that the species diversity of Bartramia in Antarctica has been underestimated, since two species were identified, both belonging to Bartramia sect. Pyridium. Of these, B. subsymmetrica is a new record of the species for Antarctica, as it has previously only been recorded from Livingston Island, South Shetlands. The other species is B. patens, which is separated from B. ithyphylla by newly inferred morphological characteristics and is a sister species to the latter in the molecular phylogenetic analyses. Consequently, we consider B. ithyphylla to be a Northern Hemisphere instead of a bipolar species. The suggested conspecificity of both taxa into one species in the ABGD analysis is considered to result from overlumping by this species delimitation method. The delimitation of the three species of section Bartramia (B. halleriana, B. mossmaniana and B. pomiformis) and the circumscription of the genus Bartramia are discussed.

Marinobacter sp. W1-16 from Antarctic surface seawater was analysed for the production of extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs). Enhancement of the EPS biosynthesis was carried out by evaluating the influences of the carbon source (type and concentration), temperature, pH and salinity. EPS yields varied strongly depending on sugar substrate and temperature, while pH and salinity did not strongly affect levels of EPS production. Marinobacter sp. W1-16 produced the highest quantity of EPSs when growing at 15°C and pH 8, in the presence of 2% glucose and 3% NaCl. The EPS chemical characterization revealed a molecular weight of about 260 kDa. Colorimetric assays determined a higher quantity of carbohydrate than of proteins and uronic acids, as well as the presence of sulphate, in the extracted EPSs. The monosaccharidic composition resulted in Glc:Man:Gal:GalN:GalA:GlcA in relative molar proportions of 1:0.9:0.2:0.1:0.1:0.01. Some biotechnological potentialities (i.e. emulsifying and cryoprotective actions, and heavy metal binding properties) of the EPSs were proved, suggesting possible industrial and bioremediation applications.

Inorganic carbon fixation, usually mediated by photosynthetic microorganisms, is considered to form the base of the food chain in aquatic ecosystems. In high-latitude lakes, lack of sunlight owing to seasonal solar radiation limits the activity of photosynthetic plankton during the polar winter, causing respiration-driven demand for carbon to exceed supply. Here, we show that inorganic carbon fixation in the dark, driven by organisms that gain energy from chemical reactions rather than sunlight (chemolithoautotrophs), provides a significant influx of fixed carbon to two permanently ice-covered lakes (Fryxell and East Bonney). Fryxell, which has higher biomass per unit volume of water, had higher rates of inorganic dark carbon fixation by chemolithoautotrophs than East Bonney (trophogenic zone average 1.0 µg C l−1 d−1vs 0.08 µg C l−1 d−1, respectively). This contribution from dark carbon fixation was partly due to the activity of ammonia oxidizers, which are present in both lakes. Despite the potential importance of new carbon input by chemolithoautotrophic activity, both lakes remain net heterotrophic, with respiratory demand for carbon exceeding supply. Dark carbon fixation increased the ratio of new carbon supply to respiratory demand from 0.16 to 0.47 in Fryxell, and from 0.14 to 0.22 in East Bonney.

Dry permafrost - ground with temperature always below 0°C and containing negligible ice - overlying ice-cemented ground has been reported in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica and on Mars. Here we report on a new site (79°49.213'S, 83°18.860'W, 718 m elevation) located on the side of Mount Dolence in Ellsworth Land, Antarctica. Year-round temperature and humidity measurements indicate that dry permafrost is present between depths of 13.5 and 49.0 cm - the location of ice-cemented ground. The mean annual frost point of the ice-cemented ground is -17.0 ± 0.2°C and the mean annual frost point of the atmosphere is -22.7 ± 1°C. The corresponding mean annual temperatures are -19.2°C and -20.3°C. Neither the temperature of the ice-cemented ground nor the air rise above freezing. Both the dry permafrost and the ice table may be habitable. In the dry soil at 3 cm depth there are 80 hours in the summer when temperature exceeds -5°C and water activity exceeds 0.8. At the ice table, temperature exceeds -10°C and water activity exceeds 0.8 for 35 hours in the year. The ice table and the dry permafrost above it would be considered a ‘Special Region’ on Mars. Further microbial investigation of this site is indicated.

Antarctica is no longer a pristine environment due to atmospheric pollution, fuel spills, inadequate waste management and wastewater discharges from anthropogenic activities (Harris 1998, Stark et al. 2015). Approximately 37% of the permanent stations and 69% of the summer stations lack any form of sewage treatment (Gröndahl et al. 2009). The characteristics of wastewater from stations are also of concern because they are a complex mix of contaminants containing human waste, cosmetics, viruses, dyes, detergents, medications, chemicals from laboratories and even microplastics (Bhardwaj et al. 2018). In Antarctica, treatment plants discharge treated water into the sea and then sludge is packed and sealed into drums for later shipment to Chile. Nevertheless, sewage sludge (c. 59–88% organic matter) could become a biosolid instead of being a waste if correctly stabilized. The Ecuadorian Antarctic station ‘Pedro Vicente Maldonado’ produced c. 200 kg of sewage sludge during expeditions in 2017 and 2018. Thus, the aim of the present study was to biostabilize sewage sludge using two methods (one thermal and one biological) at the Ecuadorian Antarctic station. As a result, the stabilization of sewage sludge produced a biosolid that was easier and more cost effective to transport, avoiding odour problems.

Habitats under ice shelves are minimally explored, primarily because of technological limitations. These areas are separated from photosynthetic primary productivity by thick ice and distance to open water. Nevertheless, a diverse macrofaunal benthic community was discovered at 188 m depth, 80 km back from the edge of the McMurdo Ice Shelf. The general habitat was fine sediment with occasional dropstones, and dominant taxa were polychaetes and brittle stars, with alcyonacean soft corals and anemones on hard substrates. Gelatinous animals were abundant near the seafloor, and possibly part of a food web that supports the benthic community.

The rapid warming observed in the western Antarctic Peninsula gives rise to a fast disintegration of ice shelves and thinning and retreat of marine-terminating continental glaciers, which is likely to raise global sea levels in the near future. In order to understand the contemporary changes in context and to provide constraints for hindcasting models, it is important to understand the Late Quaternary history of the region. Here, we build on previous work on the deglacial history of the western Antarctic Peninsula and we present four new cosmogenic 10Be exposure ages from Horseshoe Island in Marguerite Bay, which has been suggested as a former location of very fast ice stream retreat. Four samples collected from erratic pink granite boulders at an altitude of ~80 m above sea level yielded ages that range between 12.9 ± 1.1 ka and 9.4 ± 0.8 ka. As in other studies on Antarctic erratics, we have chosen to report the youngest erratic age (9.4 ± 0.8 ka) as the true age of deglaciation, which confirms a rapid thinning of the Marguerite Trough Ice Stream at the onset of Holocene. This result is consistent with other cosmogenic age data and other proxies (marine and lacustrine 14C and optically stimulated luminescence) reported from nearby areas.

Satellite imagery is used to show that the world's second largest emperor penguin colony, at Halley Bay, has suffered three years of almost total breeding failure. Although, like all emperor colonies, there has been large inter-annual variability in the breeding success at this site, the prolonged period of failure is unprecedented in the historical record. The observed events followed the early breakup of the fast ice in the ice creeks that the birds habitually used for breeding. The initial breakup was associated with a particularly stormy period in September 2015, which corresponded with the strongest El Niño in over 60 years, strong winds, and a record low sea-ice year locally. Conditions have not recovered in the two years since. Meanwhile, during the same three-year period, the nearby Dawson-Lambton colony, 55 km to the south, has seen a more than tenfold increase in penguin numbers. The authors associate this with immigration from the birds previously breeding at Halley Bay. Studying this ‘tale of two cities’ provides valuable information relevant to modelling penguin movement under future climate change scenarios.

Mosses have adapted to the Antarctic environment and are an ideal medium for studying plant resistance to abiotic stress. Chalcone synthase is the first committed enzyme in the flavonoid metabolic pathway, which plays an indispensable role in plant resistance to adversity. In this study, six genes (Pn021, PnCHS088, Pn270, PnCHS444, PnCHS768 and Pn847) were identified in the Antarctic moss Pohlia nutans Lindberg transcriptome by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). Sequence alignment and three-dimensional structure analysis revealed the conserved amino acid residues of the enzymes of the chalcone synthase family, including three catalytic residues (Cys164, His303 and Asn336) and two substrate recognition residues (Phe215 and Phe265). Phylogenetic analysis indicated that PnCHS088, PnCHS444 and PnCHS768 might be chalcone synthase but that Pn021 is more like stilbenecarboxylate synthase. These genes were located at the transition between fungi and advanced plants in the phylogenetic tree. In addition, real-time PCR analysis revealed that the expression profiles of the six P. nutans genes were influenced by diverse abiotic stresses as well as by abscisic acid and methyl jasmonate. The results presented here contribute to the study of the CHS gene family in polar mosses and further reveal the mechanisms underlying the adaptation of mosses to extreme environments.

Chemically defended benthic macroalgae that dominate shallow, hard bottom communities along the western Antarctic Peninsula support very high densities of mesograzers, particularly amphipods but also small gastropods. Previous studies have demonstrated that the macroalgae and amphipods form a mutualistic relationship. The chemically defended macroalgae provide the amphipods with a refuge from predation while the macroalgae benefit from the amphipods greatly reducing surface fouling by smaller algae. One of the three most important macroalgae in terms of overstory cover, Himantothallus grandifolius, forms huge blades that can carpet the benthos. Field observations suggest that gastropods may be higher in relative abundance in proportion to amphipods on H. grandifolius than on other overstory macroalgae. The present study documents the finding that natural abundances of gastropods on H. grandifolius maintained in mesocosms reduce fouling by microscopic algae, primarily diatoms. However, amphipods are probably also important in keeping the macroalga clean of diatoms in nature. In a smaller scale experiment, three gastropod species were differentially effective at reducing diatom coverage on H. grandifolius. The hypothesis that gastropods benefit from associating with H. grandifolius in potentially gaining a refuge from sea-star predation was also tested but not supported by the experimental results.

This study presents the first subglacial topography and ice thickness models of the largest ice caps of the Argentine Islands, Wilhelm Archipelago, West Antarctica. During this study, ground-penetrating radar was used to map the thickness and inner structure of the ice caps. Digital surface models of all studied islands were created from aerial images obtained with a small-sized unmanned aerial vehicle and used for the construction of subglacial topography models. Ice caps of the Argentine Islands cover ~50% of the land surface of the islands on average. The maximum thickness of only two islands (Galindez and Skua) exceeds 30 m, while the average thickness of all islands is only ~5 m. The maximum ice thickness reaches 35.3 m on Galindez Island. The ice thickness and glacier distribution are mainly governed by prevailing wind direction from the north. This has created the prominent narrow ice ridges on Uruguay and Irizar islands, which are not supported by topographic obstacles, as well as the elongated shape of other ice caps. The subglacial topography of the ice caps is undulated and mainly dependent on the geological structure and composition of magmatic rocks.

Lake Untersee is one of the largest perennially ice-covered lakes in Dronning Maud Land. We investigated the energy and water mass balance of Lake Untersee to understand its state of equilibrium. The thickness of the ice cover is strongly correlated with sublimation rates; variations in sublimation rates across the ice cover are largely determined by wind-driven turbulent heat fluxes and the number of snow-covered days. Lake extent and water level have remained stable for the past 20 years, indicating that the water mass balance is in equilibrium. The lake is damned by the Anuchin Glacier and mass balance calculation suggest that subaqueous melting of terminus ice contributes 40–45% of the annual water budget; since there is no evidence of streams flowing into the lake, the lake must be connected to a groundwater system that contributes 55–60% in order to maintain the lake budget in balance. The groundwater likely flows at a rate of ~8.8 × 10−2 m3 s−1, a reasonable estimate given the range of subglacial water flux in the region. The fate of its well-sealed ice cover is likely tied to changes in wind regime, whereas changes in water budget are more closely linked to the response of surrounding glaciers to climate change.

Reliably dated surficial deposits for reconstructing palaeoclimate are rare in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica. While many tephra have been found and dated, none is well characterized. In the Wright Valley, the Hart Ash is poorly dated and described. This paper reports profiles through tephra, the chemical signature of the glass shards and new high-precision multi-crystal laser fusion of 40Ar/39Ar ages. Major and trace element analyses of glass shards indicate the tephra are phonolitic and most probably sourced from Mount Discovery in the Erebus volcanic province. Two chemically distinct and stratigraphically separate tephra layers within the Hart Ash were found in three closely spaced soil profiles. The complex stratigraphy between these profiles could not be delineated without the geochemistry of the tephra. Importantly, our data suggest that only one tephra may be an in situ fall-out deposit, which gave a robust age of 2.97 ± 0.02 Ma. This new age for the Hart Ash tephra, which is 10 cm thick and is preserved at the current surface, provides a maximum age for surface deposits in the lower Wright Valley. This study highlights that well-characterized tephra enhance stratigraphic correlations in the Dry Valleys and improve the accuracy of palaeoenvironmental interpretations.

Bathymetric data of unprecedented resolution are used to provide insights into former ice dynamics and glacial processes in a western Antarctic Peninsula embayment. An assemblage of submarine glacial landforms, which includes subglacially produced streamlined features and ice-marginal ridges, reveals the former pattern of ice flow and retreat. A group of more than 250 small (< 1–3 m high, 10–20 m wide) and relatively evenly spaced recessional moraines was identified beyond the margin of Philippa Glacier. The small recessional moraines are interpreted to have been produced during short-lived, possibly annual re-advances of a grounded ice margin during overall retreat. This is the first time that these features have been shown to be part of the assemblage of landforms produced by tidewater glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula. Glacier-terminus changes during the last four decades, mapped from LANDSAT satellite images, were analysed to determine whether the moraines were produced during recent still-stands or re-advances of Philippa Glacier and to further investigate the short-term (annual to decadal) variability in ice-marginal position in tidewater glacier systems. The asynchronous response of individual tidewater glaciers in Darbel Bay is interpreted to be controlled mainly by local topography rather than by glacier catchment-area size.

Information on sea ice type is an important factor for deriving sea ice parameters from satellite remote sensing data, such as sea ice concentration, extent and thickness. In this study, sea ice in the Weddell Sea was classified by the histogram threshold (HT) method, the Spreen model (SM) method from satellite scatterometer data and the strong contrast (SC) method from radiometer data, and this information was compared with Antarctic Sea Ice Processes and Climate (ASPeCt) sea ice-type ship-based observations. The results show that all three methods can distinguish the multi-year (MY) ice and first-year (FY) ice using Ku-band scatterometer data and radiometer data during the ice growth season, while C-band scatterometer data are not suitable for MY ice and FY ice discrimination using HT and SM methods. The SM model has a smaller MY ice classification extent than the HT method from scatterometer data. The classification accuracy of the SM method is the higher compared to ship-based observations. It can be concluded that the SM method is a promising method for discriminating MY ice from FY ice. These results provide a reference for further retrieval of long-term sea ice-type information for the whole of Antarctica.

Modern baleen whales (Mysticeti), the largest animals on Earth, arose from small ancestors around 36.4 million years ago (Ma). True gigantism is thought to have arisen late in mysticete history, with species exceeding 10 m unknown prior to 8 Ma. This view is challenged by new fossils from Seymour Island (Isla Marambio), Antarctica, which suggest that enormous whales once roamed the Southern Ocean during the Late Eocene (c. 34 Ma). The new material hints at an unknown species of the archaic mysticete Llanocetus with a total body length of up to 12 m. The latter is comparable to that of extant Omura's whales (Balaenoptera omurai Wada et al. 2003), and suggests that gigantism has been a re-occurring feature of mysticetes since their very origin. Functional analysis including sharpness and dental wear implies an at least partly raptorial feeding strategy, starkly contrasting with the filtering habit of living whales. The new material markedly expands the size range of archaic mysticetes, and demonstrates that whales achieved considerable disparity shortly after their origin.