Correct species identification is fundamental to all areas of biology, but particularly the policy related areas of conservation and fisheries management. To enable guidelines to be developed for environmental management and conservation, such identifications need links to studi…
In this thesis, I describe large-scale and small-scale features of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) by merging conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) data obtained by novel animal-borne sensors with data obtained by more conventional means. Twenty-one CTD-Satellite Relay Da…
Recent advances in seismic instrumentation have allowed researchers to undertake focused investigations of regions previously inaccessible. From the bottom of the sea to the coldest, driest places on earth, we are now able to deploy seismometers to remote locations and be certai…
I have designed an improved method of matric water potential regulation in which relative humidity is controlled by the temperature difference between a saturated atmosphere and a connected experimental chamber. Versatility, ease of operation, and lack of interference with the g…
Early autumn visual surveys carried out in the Ross Sea in February-March 2013 reveal Emperor penguins congregate and feed in migratory "hubs" located in stable pack ice of the eastern Ross Sea, close to the Antarctic Slope Front. From there, based on their annual cycle, they tr…
The theory of radiative transfer is used to explain how a stratospheric aerosol layer may, for large solar zenith angles, increase the flux of UV-B light at the ground. As previous explanations are heuristic and incomplete, I first provide a rigorous and complete explanation of …
Pteropods (pelagic snails) are ubiquitous zooplankton in the Southern Ocean and abundant along the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP), one of the most rapidly warming regions on the planet. They are important prey for higher trophic levels, grazers of phytoplankton, and contribut…
I present research that improves our understanding of the glacial history of the Antarctic Ice Sheet and advances the method of in situ 14C exposure dating. Firstly, I present research investigating deglaciation in the Weddell Sea Embayment (WSE) sector of the Antarctic Ice Shee…
Ice mass loss from Antarctica is the main source uncertainty in projections of sea level rise. In Antarctica, the rate at which grounded ice discharges into the ocean and raises sea level is largely controlled by ice shelves, the floating extensions of the ice sheet. Ice shelves…
Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) at a continental scale is one of the least constrained components of the hydrologic cycle and may represent a significant flux of iron and silica waters to the global ocean. Quantifying SGD along the Antarctic margin is complicated by comple…
Three studies were conducted to better understand the deformational processes that affect Mount Erebus, a 3794 m high active volcano with a persistently convecting phonolite lava lake on Ross Island, Antarctica. Many geochemical, volcanological, and geophysical studies have exam…
The McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) are a frigid, hyperarid desert of Antarctica with a landscape dominated by ice-rich permafrost. This research focuses on using two ice-rich permafrost cores collected from the MDV to study chemical processes (Beacon Valley core) and the timing of MD…
Though the majority of the Antarctic continent is covered by ice, portions of Antarctica, mainly in the McMurdo Dry Valleys and the Transantarctic Mountains (TAM), are currently ice-free. The soils which have developed on these surfaces have been re-worked by the advance and ret…
This dissertation presents results from the use of geophysical methods to study conditions beneath glaciers, including bed physical properties, topography, melting, and water flow. Chapter 1 briefly reviews the history of study and importance of Thwaites Glacier (TG), West Antar…
Previous investigations have proposed multiple origin models to explain the formation of major tectonic structures, such as the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains (GSMs), the Wilkes Subglacial Basin (WSB), the Aurora Subglacial Basin (ASB), and the Transantarctic Mountains (TAMs) i…
The solid Earth is a dynamic system and as such is constantly changing. Some of these changes involve the large energetic release of volcanic eruptions, megathrust earthquakes or the moving of large ice sheets at the poles towards the oceans. Each of these phenomena have either …