News from the polar regions in March included exploring new landscapes with the help of technology, new marine species, and new ecosystem discoveries. Missed these stories the first time? Read on!

The official International Polar Year ends this month, but that doesn’t mean the end of polar science research and news. Many IPY-funded projects are now analyzing data gathered within the two-year period. A major IPY science conference will take place in Oslo, Norway, in June 2010.

Two years of multidisciplinary research from the International Polar Year has provided new evidence of the widespread effects of global warming in the polar regions. Data shows that both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are losing mass and contributing to sea level rise. Antarctic warming is much more widespread than believed before the IPY, and it is now known that the rate of ice loss from Greenland is increasing. New evidence from the ANDRILL project in Antarctica shows that even a slight rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide affects the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. In addition, scientists have discovered methane emissions from ocean sediments and thawing permafrost as well as above-global-average warming in the Southern Ocean. These and other findings help scientists better understand the polar environments in a time of rapid change.

While human activity is the major cause of climate change, thawing perfmafrost is also a natural source of greenhouse gases. Scientists now point to another source: the Southern Ocean. Shifting wind patterns at the end of the last ice age may have increased mixing in the Southern Ocean, pumping dissolved carbon dioxide into the air. Scientists warn that this process could be repeated, intensifying the warming that is already taking place.

Scientists have known that a rapid shift in climate occurred about 34 million years ago – from a warm, relatively ice-free world to a cooler one with massive ice sheets on Antarctica. But what caused this change? A newly published study suggests that a decline in carbon dioxide levels and a drop in temperatures in both hemispheres were to blame. Previous theories suggested that changes in ocean circulation drove the climate transition and that there was not cooling at high latitudes. The conclusions are based on calculations based on distributions of ancient plankton that only lived at certain temperatures and were later preserved in ocean sediments.

A great deal of attention has been paid to the effects of climate change on polar bears and penguins, but the changes impact organisms lower on the polar food webs as well. Research from the LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) program shows that changes on the Antarctic Peninsula has affected the base of the food chain: phytoplankton. The northern and southern regions of the peninsula are exhibiting contrasting changes. In the north, increased wind intensity and decreased sea ice has led to greater mixing of the surface waters and decreased phytoplankton productivity. In southern Peninsula waters, sea ice has declined in areas that were formerly covered for most of the year. Increased exposure to sunlight and less wind stress had led to higher productivity and the development of diatoms, the base of the rich Antarctic food webs. Researchers have also noted shifts in larger organisms such as various species of penguins, Antarctic silverfish, and krill in accordance with the sea ice loss.

Many of the stories from this month were “new” – new expeditions, discoveries, species, and ecosystems. A robot submarine known as Autosub has successfully completed six missions traveling under Pine Island Glacier, a floating extension of the West Antarctic ice sheet. It used sonar scanners to map the seabed and the underside of the ice. Scientists hope to learn where and how the warmth of the ocean waters drives melting of the glacier’s base. The glacier has been thinning and accelerating in the past few decades.

An international team of scientists has discovered the last unexplored mountain range on Earth’s surface: a mountain range the size of the European Alps buried under the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (nearly 2.5 miles of ice). The discovery was aided by a network of seismic sensors and aerial surveys using radar and other sensing devices. The findings also confirmed that a large aquatic system of lakes and rivers exists beneath the ice sheet. The sharp peaks and valleys of the mountain range have led scientists to question how quickly the ice sheet formed, as a gradual formation would have eroded the peaks into plateaus.

A new map showing variations in gravitational force across Earth’s surface makes the location of new oil deposits much less resource intensive. Oil deposits are contained in relatively light materials such as limestone and clay, which have less gravitational force than the surrounding materials. Satellite measurements capture these differences, which can help companies plan exploration much more efficiently. The Arctic is thought to hold vast deposits of oil and natural gas, which are increasingly accessible as sea ice recedes. However, energy exploration in the area is not without controversy. A report from the World Wildlife Fund, released just prior to the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound states that oil spill response capabilities throughout the Arctic have improved little in the last two decades. WWF is calling for a time-out on new offshore oil development in the Arctic until technologies have improved and protections are in place. The organization also recommends that areas such as Bristol Bay be deemed permanently off-limits due to their vulnerability and economic importance.

A new species of fish called Gosztonyia antarctica, has been discovered in the Bellingshausen Sea in the Antarctic Ocean. The sea is fairly inaccessible and its beds are not mapped, so its biodiversity is not well understood. The fish measures between 25.4 and 30 cm. Many other marine discoveries have been made through the Census of Marine Life research project.

Scientists have discovered that sinkholes in Lake Huron host similar ecosystems to those found in permanently ice-covered lakes in Antarctica. They speculate that groundwater from beneath the lake is dissolving minerals from an ancient underlying seabed, creating dense, salty water that is home to cyanobacteria and other microbial life. Researchers are working to better understand how these types of environments can form in such disparate locations: Antarctica, hydrothermal vents, and even the third largest of North America’s Great Lakes.

Know of another significant news story from March that you’d like to share? Have a comment about one of the stories summarized here? Post a comment – we’d love to hear from you!