Metagenomics provides a powerful new tool set for investigating evolutionary interactions with the environment. However, an absence of model-based statistical methods means that researchers are often not able to make full use of this complex information. We present a Bayesian method for inferring the phylogenetic relationship among related organisms found within metagenomic samples. Our approac...

Monitoring water systems under extreme conditions or in remote areas poses a risk to scientists and staff involved, can also result disturbances the local flora fauna. In order overcome these limitations, new techniques are being developed with aim gain more insight into how geochemical pathways of trace elements regulate functioning ocean. Here, we present first metals inorganic nutrients conc...

The reliability of Arctic climate predictions is currently hampered by insufficient knowledge of natural climate variability in the past. A sediment core from Lake El'gygytgyn in northeastern (NE) Russia provides a continuous, high-resolution record from the Arctic, spanning the past 2.8 million years. This core reveals numerous "super interglacials" during the Quaternary; for marine benthic is...

Wettergreen, D., Thorpe, C. and Whittaker, R., Exploring Mount Erebus by walking robot, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 11 (1993) 171-185. Dante is a tethered walking robot capable of climbing steep slopes. In 1992 it was created at Carnegie Mellon University and deployed in Antarctica to explore an active volcano, Mount Erebus. The Dante project's robot science objectives were to demonstrate ...

Accumulations of sediment beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet contain a range of physical and chemical proxies with the potential to document changes in ice sheet history and to identify and characterize life in subglacial settings. Retrieving subglacial sediments and sediment cores presents several unique challenges to existing technologies. This paper briefly reviews the history of sediment sampl...

A new diatom record from Lake Euramoo on the Atherton Tableland, north Queensland, Australia is used to assess regional climate change and variability and their links to forcing at a local to global scale. The major factor driving diatom composition in the approximately fifteen thousand-year record appears to be regional moisture availability. Patterns of diatom preservation and other indicator...

Microbes, some of which may be viable, have been found in ice cores drilled at Vostok Station at depths down to approximately 3,600 m, close to the surface of the huge subglacial Lake Vostok. Two types of ice have been found. The upper 3,500 m comprises glacial ice containing traces of nutrients of aeolian origin including sulfuric acid, nitric acid, methanosulfonic acid (MSA), formic acid, sea...

Our aim is to engage school-aged children in thought about e-Science and in particular two related projects currently being developed by the Equator IRC [1]. Both projects use data from remote sensors and information visualisations to help scientists study complex dynamic systems in the environment, the ecosystem of an Antarctic lake [2] and pollution in a city [3]. Rather than providing descri...

Laser-induced fluorescence emission (L.I.F.E.) images were obtained in situ following 532 nm excitation of cryoconite assemblages in the ice covers of annual and perennially frozen Antarctic lakes during the 2008 Tawani International Expedition to Schirmacher Oasis and Lake Untersee in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. Laser targeting of a single millimeter-scale cryoconite results in multiple ne...

Accessing and sampling subglacial environments deep beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet presents several challenges to existing drilling technologies. With over half of the ice sheet believed to be resting on a wet bed, drilling down to this environment must conform to international agreements on environmental stewardship and protection, making clean hot-water drilling the most viable option. Such ...