Belgica 120, participez à l'aventure!

Un voilier transportant des scientifiques en Antarctique pour étudier, là où les navires ne peuvent se frayer un chemin, la biodiversité - encore trop peu connue - au sein de l'océan Austral. Voilà le beau projet qui se met en place……

International community again fails to agree on Marine Protected Area

The recent meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) ended on 2nd November 2018 with no agreement on the creation of a new Marine Protected Area (MPA) in East Antarctica. This is the seventh…

Could old bones influence the future of Antarctica?

The bones of a woman from Chile discovered in Antarctica date back to the 19th century according to a recent BBC article. And this could have an impact on the continent's future when the Antarctica Treaty comes up for renewal in 2048. Read …
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Stunning new high-res map of Antarctica

A team from the University of Minnesota has recently published a stunning new map of Antarctica: the Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica. The map shows the continent's features in extraordinary detail and will be a powerful tool for scientists…
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BAS scientists react strongly to latest IPCC report

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest report on Monday 8 Oct 2018, calling for global action to prevent catastrophic climate change. Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) talked about their…

Entretiens-Monde

"Entretiens-Monde" est une plateforme de rencontres à l'initiative de collègues fonctionnaires européens: Michel Coomans, Jean Bourlès, Joël Le Quément. Je connais bien ce dernier, il travaillait comme moi à la Direction Générale "Recherche"…
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Kelp surfs to Antarctica

It used to be thought Antarctica was cut off from the rest of the world. But earlier this summer, scientists published a paper showing that kelp had reached the continent by 'surfing' on the ocean waves driven by the wind. Read more...
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East Antarctic mosses dying out due to climate change

Antarctica has very little vegetation apart from a few extremely hardy mosses that grow in East Antarctica. Now it seems these are dying off due to climate change which has made the region much drier. Read the BBC's news item or the scientific…
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Good news for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet?

The calculating the impact of physical processes like ice-loss and climate change on Antarctica is extremely complex. And often the outlook is bad. But over the summer, scientists from Ohio State University, USA, found that the bedrock under…
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The western ice sheet is melting, what about the east?

It's widely known that the West Antarctic ice sheet is melting and now scientists believe the ice sheet in the East is succumbing to the effects of climate change. This fascinating article from National Geographic explains the background. It…