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Introduces the continent of Antarctica and some of its unique characteristics.

Australian waters contain the highest diversity of cephalopods (squid, cuttlefish and octopus) found anywhere in the world. They are highly significant ecologically, both as top-level predators and as prey for numerous vertebrates, including fishes, seals, cetaceans and seabirds.Cephalopods of Australia and Sub-Antarctic Territories is a comprehensive guide covering 226 species, which represent over a quarter of the world's cephalopod fauna. With an emphasis on identification, this book includes keys, species descriptions, full-colour illustrations and distribution maps, as well as a summary of the biology and behaviour of cephalopods and fisheries information. This is an invaluable tool for researchers and fisheries experts as well as amateur naturalists, fishers and divers.

This illustrated atlas of South America and Antarctica combines maps, pictures, flags, globes, information panels, diagrams, and charts to give a complete overview of the regions.

Given that the polar regions, especially the Antarctic Peninsula, have experienced one of the largest temperature increases on Earth over the last few decades, an understanding of Antarctic climate has become more urgent. Ice shelves themselves are located at the intersection of the atmosphere, hydrosphere and the cryosphere—the air-ice-ocean boundary, and are sensitive to changes in any of these media. In addition to being particularly sensitive to changes in climate, ice shelves play an important role in controlling the flow of glaciers into the ocean, which has important implications for sea level changes. In a warming world, an increased understanding of how climate change is affecting Antarctic ice shelves is valuable for assessing vulnerable regions of the Antarctic that may be prone to further instability. This work focuses on determining the underlying climatic processes controlling energy and mass balance responsible for driving melting over ice shelves. A novel melt-magnitude retrieval method is presented that uses Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-derived near-IR reflectance coupled with ice surface temperature as a proxy for surface melt magnitude. This method has a higher spatial resolution than passive microwave melt detection, has the added benefit of retrieving melt magnitude rather than a binary melt occurrence or non-occurrence, but has a lower temporal resolution than either passive-microwave or microwave-scatterometry melt detection. This limitation is a result of the opacity of cloud cover to both visible and IR radiation, requiring more satellite overpasses to obtain spatially contiguous imagery. This work also examines several weather variables associated with a large-extent, long-duration surface melt event on the Ross Ice Shelf. It is shown that cloudy conditions coupled with increased sensible and latent heat flux to the surface were present during the event, and these conditions are consistent with those that induce surface melting. Finally, an analysis of co-occurring climate conditions and surface melting over a recent 15-year time period (1987-2002) is presented. This analysis examines surface melt extent in three regions: Ross Ice Shelf, Larsen Ice Shelf and the Amundsen-Bellingshausen Region. Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs) are used to categorize weather patterns for each December and January day during the study period, and the average surface melt extent for each SOM pattern is computed. These values are compared to average December and January surface melt extents for each region to determine the SOM patterns associated with significantly greater or significantly less melt than the 15-year average. Over the Ross region, increases in sensible and latent heat fluxes are associated with greater surface melt extent, as is the presence of cyclonic circulation in the Ross Sea that drives mild maritime air poleward. In the Larsen and Amundsen-Bellingshausen regions, radiation fluxes appear to be more closely associated with surface melt extent, although the relationship for the geographically heterogeneous Amundsen-Bellingshausen region is less clear. These results can guide future mesoscale modeling studies that will be able to more precisely determine the causative role of each atmospheric variable in generating surface melting on West Antarctic ice shelves.

High resolution hydrographic sections and maps of the gradient of sea surface height (SSH) reveal that the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) consists of multiple jets or frontal filaments. Here we use a 15 year time series of SSH observations to determine the circumpolar structure and distribution of the ACC fronts. The jets are consistently aligned with particular streamlines along the entire circumpolar path, confirming and extending the results of an earlier study restricted to the region south of Australia. The intensity of the fronts (as measured by the cross‐front gradient of SSH) varies along the fronts and the individual branches merge and diverge, often in response to interactions with bathymetry. Maps of absolute velocity at 1000 m depth derived from Argo trajectories confirm the existence of multiple current cores throughout the Southern Ocean. High resolution hydrographic sections and profiles of temperature and salinity from Argo floats are used to show that the front locations derived from fitting SSH contours to maps of SSH gradient are consistent with locations inferred from the traditional criteria based on water mass properties, suitably modified to account for multiple frontal branches. Three regions are examined in detail: the Crozet Plateau, the Kerguelen Plateau and the Scotia Sea. These examples show how recognition of the multiple jets of the ACC can help resolve discrepancies between previous studies of ACC fronts.

AIM: For many applications in biodiversity and ecology, existing remote sensing‐derived land‐cover products have limitations due to among‐product inconsistency and their typically non‐continuous nature. Here we aim to help address these shortcomings by generating a 1‐km resolution global product that provides scale‐integrated and accuracy‐weighted consensus land‐cover information on an approximately continuous scale. LOCATION: Global. METHODS: Using a generalized classification scheme and an accuracy‐based integration approach, we integrated four global land‐cover products. We evaluated the performance of this product compared with inputs for estimating subpixel 30‐m resolution land cover. We also compared the accuracy of deductive and inductive species distribution models built with the different products for modelling the continental distributions of six avian habitat specialists. RESULTS: Our product offers accuracy‐weighted consensus information on the prevalence of 12 land‐cover classes within every nominal 1‐km pixel across the globe (except for Antarctica). Compared with the four base products, it better captures the land‐cover information contained in the fine‐grain validation data for all classes combined and for most individual classes. It also has the highest sensitivity and overall accuracy for detecting the presence of every fine‐grain land‐cover class. Both deductive and inductive models built with the consensus dataset have the highest or second highest accuracy for modelling bird species distributions. MAIN CONCLUSIONS: Our consensus product integrates the four base products and successfully maximizes accuracy and reduces errors of omission. Specifically, the consensus product reduces limitations caused by misclassifications, false absence rates and the categorical format of existing land‐cover products. Consequently, it surpasses single base products in the ability to capture subpixel land‐cover information and the utility for modelling species distributions. Both the presented methodology and the consensus product have multiple applications in biodiversity research and for understanding and modelling of global terrestrial ecosystems.

Subglacial freshwater discharge from beneath Antarctic glaciers likely has a strong impact on ice shelf basal melting. However, the difficulty in directly observing subglacial flow highlights the importance of modeling these processes. We use an ocean model of the Totten Ice Shelf cavity into which we inject subglacial discharge derived from a hydrology model applied to Aurora Subglacial Basin. Our results show (a) discharge increases melting in the vicinity of the outflow region, which correlates with features observed in surface elevation maps and satellite‐derived melt maps, with implications for ice shelf stability; (b) the change in melting is driven by the formation of a buoyant plume rather than the addition of heat; and (c) the buoyant plume originating from subglacial discharge‐driven melting is far‐reaching. Basal melting induced by subglacial hydrology is thus important for ice shelf stability, but is absent from almost all ice‐ocean models. Plain Language Summary Grounding line subglacial discharge is the outflow of freshwater at the region where Antarctic ice shelves begin to float. This process is difficult to observe as the outflow region is typically below ice up to several kilometers thick. Using a computer model, we show how the outflow of this fresh water melts the underside of an Antarctic ice shelf. We demonstrate that the outflow leads to a strong increase in melting, which is driven not by the heat in the outflow, but rather by the low salinity water's buoyancy. This buoyancy leads to the formation of a plume that rapidly ascends the underside of the ice shelf and can carry even warmer water to the ice, leading to increased melting. Given that melting of ice shelves can destabilize the grounded ice upstream of the floating region, we show that the relationship between subglacial discharge and ice shelf melt is important for understanding the stability of Antarctic ice. Key Points Subglacial discharge has a strong local effect on melting beneath the Totten Ice Shelf Addition of buoyancy explains the change in melting Discharge has far‐reaching impacts due to the extent of the buoyant plume

Although story maps have gained popularity for storytelling related to spatial information, existing story maps authoring tools often fall short in delivering diverse narrative forms and struggle to accurately render polar regions due to the limitations of tile-based mapping. In this work, we introduce a graphic-based method to address these challenges, developing a framework specifically designed for creating story maps for polar regions. Our key contribution lies in offering heuristic strategies for story map design, emphasizing their role in effectively visualizing and disseminating polar culture. This paper outlines essential design tasks for story map creation and introduces three pivotal narrative strategies: integration of map and other visual elements, attention cue, and cartographic interaction. Additionally, we emphasize the significance of storyboard design, focusing on aspects such as logical sequencing, temporal order, map scale, and interactive design. To validate the effectiveness of our story map design framework, we develop several story map cases centered around the exploration history of Antarctica. These examples highlight the diversity and interactivity in the story maps produced through our methodology. Finally, we explore the challenges and limitations encountered in the process of creating story maps, and from these observations, we identify prospective areas for further research.

The Jenkinson–Collison weather typing scheme (JC-WT) is an automated method used to classify regional sea-level pressure into a reduced number of typical recurrent patterns. Originally developed for the British Isles in the early 1970’s on the basis of expert knowledge, the method since then has seen many applications. Encouraged by the premise that the JC-WT approach can in principle be applied to any mid-to-high latitude region, the present study explores its global extra-tropical applicability, including the Southern Hemisphere. To this aim, JC-WT is applied at each grid-box of a global 2.5 ∘ regular grid excluding the inner tropics (± 5 ∘ band). Thereby, 6-hourly JC-WT catalogues are obtained for 5 distinct reanalyses, covering the period 1979–2005, which are then applied to explore (1) the limits of method applicability and (2) observational uncertainties inherent to the reanalysis datasets. Using evaluation criteria, such as the diversity of occurring circulation types and the frequency of unclassified situations, we extract empirically derived applicability thresholds which suggest that JC-WT can be generally used anywhere polewards of 23.5 ∘ , with some exceptions. Seasonal fluctuations compromise this finding along the equatorward limits of the domain. Furthermore, unreliable reanalysis sea-level pressure estimates in elevated areas with complex orography (such as the Tibetan Plateau, the Andes, Greenland and Antarctica) prevent the application of the method in these regions. In some other regions, the JC-WT classifications obtained from the distinct reanalyses substantially differ from each other, which may bring additional uncertainties when the method is used in model evaluation experiments.

High‐quality maps of Geothermal heat flow (GHF) are crucial when modeling ice dynamics, shape, and mass loss of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is one of the largest potential contributors to sea level rise. The determination of GHF remains challenging, as in situ data are sparse and geophysical models exhibit large discrepancies in amplitude and resolution, especially on regional scales. Using a novel approach implementing a joint inversion of gravity and seismic tomography data with various geophysical and mineral physics information, we estimate the 3D thermal lithospheric structure and present a new GHF map. The resulting surface heat flow correlates with the location of subglacial volcanism and can represent a boundary condition for accurate ice dynamics models that can explain observed acceleration in the ongoing ice mass loss. Absolute values are within the range of other seismology‐based methods and are much lower than those obtained using for example, magnetic data. High uncertainties remain in the parametrization of the upper crustal structure and thermal parameters. Plain Language Summary An important challenge of our time is to predict the behavior of large ice sheets like the Antarctic Ice Sheet and its potential contribution to rising sea level. Of the many factors influencing the ice, the heat emitted by the Earth is one of the least understood. Existing models of the so‐called geothermal heat flow (GHF) show substantial differences both in strength and distribution. We combine data on the Earth's gravity field and earthquake‐based tomography to generate a new model of GHF, which agrees well with the location of volcanos. Our results can represent another piece in the puzzle to explain observations that report accelerating loss of ice masses. Key Points We present a novel three‐dimensional thermal and heat flow model of the Antarctic lithosphere We find good correspondence of surface heat flow with areas of tectonic and volcanic activity and zones of maximum change in ice dynamics