Professor David Sugden, Dr Andrew Hein and Professor John Woodward have combined their complementary expertise to shed light on the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet during previous interglacial periods. Knowing how ice sheets have behaved in the past enables us to better predict the degree of ice melt and sea-level rise in the …
A study published in the journal Nature Communications seeks to answer that question using an unintentional chronicle of one colony’s history—specifically, penguin droppings in Antarctic lake sediments. Like other animals, penguins excrete certain elements (copper, zinc, strontium, selenium) in proportions much higher than what is found in the surrounding environment. As a result, their guano, …
Read more “Volcanic eruptions influence the health of penguin colonies in Antarctica”