CAPE ROYDS, ROSS ISLAND, ANTARCTICA-- Not all of our work is in the field; some requires time in a lab and long hours working with a stereoscope. One of the questions we are trying to answer is what do the penguins eat? In previous times researchers would sacrifice a penguin and examine their stomach contents... {Read More »}

CAPE ROYDS, ROSS ISLAND, ANTARCTICA-- What is required? I’ve been asked many a time. Well, there is the usual sort of thing, like learning as much as possible in school about science and math, getting a good understanding about how the universe works, including the process of evolution... {Read More »}

CAPE ROYDS, ROSS ISLAND, ANTARCTICA– The major trust of our project is to quantify the vital rates of Adélie Penguins in their changing world, as global climate change proceeds. Vital rates means such things as age of first breeding, proportion of years in which they breed... {Read More »}

MCMURDO STATION, ANTARCTICA-- I've made it down to Antarctica for another season of studying how penguins are coping with global climate change. In this video, I introduce the work we are doing and give a preview of what I'll be reporting on over the next few months... {Read More »}

The Antarctic food web is the simplest on the planet, and krill are at its hub. {Read More »}

Although the penguin is the icon of the Antarctic, many penguins prefer lower latitudes. Several species venture as far south as the Antarctic Peninsula, but only the emperors and the Adélies live along the continental coastline. {Read More »}

ICEBERG A43K, SOUTHERN OCEAN-- Although penguins are not flying birds, we have seen them diving and flying off of icebergs. Chinstrap Penguins will climb onto any small iceberg floating a few feet above seawater. A… {Read More »}

Biologist David Ainley has been studying Adélie penguins in Antarctica for more than 25 years. These resilient and charismatic birds, adapted to survive one of the harshest environments on earth, are now being threatened by global warming that affects the sea ice and ocean ecosystems on which they depend. {Read More »}

Literally on opposite ends of the earth, the Arctic and Antarctica are vast, icy, and cold, but beyond that they’re very different. Antarctica, in the south, is a continent surrounded by ocean; the Arctic is an ocean surrounded by continents. {Read More »}

We have come to the end of our 16th annual LTER cruise, and what a wonderful one it was. Thank you to everyone who has followed our dispatches. Below are some photo selects from over… {Read More »}