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Quarterly science bulletin
Edition 3, September 2023
Over recent years we've been tracking crashes in the extent of sea ice around Antarctica. This year, however, is off the charts.
Not only did summer see the lowest extent on record, but during the winter growth period, large areas of sea ice failed to freeze. For most of winter approximately 2.5 million square kilometres of sea ice was missing, an area the size of Western Australia.
We're working urgently and collaboratively to understand why. The first evidence is emerging of a regime shift underway in the Southern Ocean where Antarctic sea ice is entering a different state of lower coverage.
Our work suggests the underlying processes that govern Antarctic sea ice have fundamentally changed, as ocean warming due to global heating pushes sea ice into a new state of diminished coverage.
This is important because sea ice insulates the ocean, reflects heat, drives currents, supports unique wildlife and protects ice shelves. Permanently reduced sea ice has serious implications for Southern Ocean ecosystems and global consequences for the climate system.
Dramatic changes in a seasonal cycle as reliable and critical as Antarctic sea ice underscores the urgency to reduce fossil fuel emissions. This is the critical decade for decisions on emission rates to avoid tipping points in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean that affect the entire planet.
Welcome to our third edition of 'Southern Signals', a quarterly bulletin to inform decision-makers, policy-shapers, journalists, stakeholders and the general public about our science and research activities — and why they matter. Thank you for your interest!
Professor Nathan Bindoff
Program leader, Australian Antarctic Program Partnership
University of Tasmania
Urgent call for Southern Ocean science in a changing world
300 scientists from 25 nations met in Hobart during August for the first-ever global conference of the Southern Ocean Observing System.
AAPP sea ice scientist wins Future Fellowship grant
Landfast ice – sea ice fastened to the coast or grounded icebergs – will be the focus of world-leading research into "the missing piece of the Antarctic puzzle".
AAPP researchers land prestigious DECRAs in Tasmania
Two of our researchers have won important grants to advance work on sea level rise and carbon cycling over the next four years and further our contribution to climate action.
Helicopters track warm ocean water melting glacier
Probes dropped from helicopters through ice cracks help reveal that warm ocean water is melting the largest glacier ice shelf in East Antarctica from below.
Failure to freeze: Low Antarctic sea ice may be 'new abnormal'
A new study shows that ocean warming is resetting the processes that drive sea-ice formation and melt: "a lot of what we thought we knew about sea ice has changed.”
Where did all the Antarctic sea ice go?
AAPP sea-ice researcher Dr Will Hobbs in a podcast that gets you up to speed with what's happening in the Southern Ocean this year...and what it means for all of us.
SOME RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Our scientists publish more than 100 journal papers each year
State of the Climate in 2022: Antarctica and the Southern Ocean (chapter in annual report)
3.5 metres of frozen sea-level rise: circulation of warm water toward the Totten Glacier Ice Shelf
Ice as climate archive: one of a series of science reports written for and edited by young people
BY THE NUMBERS...
The Australian Antarctic Program Partnership is a 10-year research program that started in 2019, led by the University of Tasmania.
We're focusing on the crucial role of the Southern Ocean and Antarctica in the global climate system during this critical decade to take meaningful action on climate change.
This report is a summary of our research activities and initial impacts over the last four years.
How life in the Southern Ocean is central to climate science and keeping the planet cool — watch our scientists in ‘Unsung Heroes: Southern Ocean vs climate change’ from the Island of Ideas seminar series by the University of Tasmania.
MAJOR EVENTS
First global zooplankton meet since 2016
How marine zooplankton respond to ecological change is key to the oceans, the planet - and us. AAPP is excited to sponsor the 7th International Zooplankton Production Symposium, coming to Hobart in March 2024. Registrations are now open.
Voyage to the Circumpolar Current
An AAPP voyage on CSIRO Marine National Facility research vessel Investigator is planned to depart for the Southern Ocean in November, exploring the Antarctic Circumpolar Current by satellite and ship.
