Most of the information on the gastrointestinal microflora of antarctic birds was obtained during the great decade of South-Polar exploration following the turn of the century. The report of Levin (1899) that bacteria could not be found in the intestines of arctic birds at Spitzbergen prompted similar studies by the naturalists and ship's physicians on the Antarctic expeditions. Ekel6f (1908) o...

There is an accumulating body of evidence suggesting that the sub-zero Antarctic marine environment places physiological constraints on protein homeostasis. Levels of ubiquitin (Ub)-conjugated proteins, 20S proteasome activity and mRNA expression of many proteins involved in both the Ub tagging of damaged proteins as well as the different complexes of the 26S proteasome were measured to examine...

In order to investigate rapid climatic changes at mid-southern latitudes, we have developed centennial-scale paleoceanographic records from the southwest Pacific that enable detailed comparison with Antarctic ice core records. These records suggest close coupling of mid-southern latitudes with Antarctic climate during deglacial and interglacial periods. Glacial sections display higher variabili...

Antarctic bacterium antifreeze proteins (AFPs) protect and support the survival of cold-adapted organisms by binding and inhibiting the growth of ice crystals. The mechanism of the anti-freezing process in a water environment at low temperature of Antarctic bacterium AFPs remains unclear. In this research, we study the effects of Antarctic bacterium AFPs by coarse grained simulations solution a...

The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) has been suffering an increase in its atmospheric temperature during the last 50 years, mainly associated with global warming. This increment of temperature trend associated with changes in sea-ice dynamics has an impact on organisms, affecting their phenology, physiology and distribution range. For instance, rapid demographic changes in Pygoscelis penguins ha...

Sponge-associated microbial communities include members from the three domains of life. In the case of bacteria, they are diverse, host specific and different from the surrounding seawater. However, little is known about the diversity and specificity of Eukarya and Archaea living in association with marine sponges. This knowledge gap is even greater regarding sponges from regions other than tem...

Over the past decade we have developed a series of increasingly sophisticated robotic instruments for site testing in Antarctica. These range from exceedingly low power cloud monitors to fully autonomous 30 cm telescopes, and cover from the ultraviolet to the submm. These instruments have been very successful at characterising the Antarctic sky, and have demonstrated beyond doubt the advantages...

The evolutionary history of Antarctic organisms is becoming increasingly important to understand and manage population trajectories under rapid environmental change. The Antarctic sea spider Nymphon australe, with an apparently large population size compared with other sea spider species, is an ideal target to look for molecular signatures of past climatic events. We analysed mitochondrial DNA ...

The West Antarctic Peninsula region is an important source of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) in the Southern Ocean. From 1980–2004 abundance and concentration of phytoplankton and zooplankton, krill reproductive and recruitment success and seasonal sea ice extent here were significantly correlated with the atmospheric Southern Oscillation Index and exhibited threeto five-year frequencies c...

Sea spiders are conspicuous, and often abundant, members of the Antarctic benthic community. Nymphonidae (Pycnogonida) in Southern Ocean waters comprise over 240 species which are often diYcult to assign due to their intraspeciWc ‘highly variable’ morphology. In particular, Nymphon australe, the numerically dominant species in Antarctic waters is known to have a high level of phenotypic variati...