Tracking the Antarctic water flows that feed the Benguela Current

Fossil pollen sequences from the Cape Peninsula and the Saldanha region indicate that sub tropical vegetation and climates existed in these regions during the Miocene. The pollen record from the Cape Peninsula may point to the extinction of some taxa by the terminal Miocene/Early Pliocene with the subsequent strong development of macchia. This major change can probably be related to the maximum build-up of the Antarctic ice-cap in the latest Miocene and the accompanying profound palaeoceanographic changes such as the major cooling of the Benguela current with its effect on the aridification of the Namib desert, and the global glacio-eustatic sea level drop.Parallel palynological and lithological studies in the Saldanha region show that prominent Miocene vegetation shifts were linked to profound local changes in the palaeoenvironment associated with the northward migration of the Miocene Berg River. Such studies are of paramount importance for the possible assessment of the causes of changes in the palaeoenvironment and should first be carried out at many more sites over a wide region. It is to some extent premature to draw firm conclusions as to the origin and migration of some taxa in southern Africa. The record of very primitive angiosperms such as the ClavatipolleniteslAscarina complex and Winteraceae is of considerable phytogeographic interest.

Download Full-text

Large but variable particulate flux in the Antarctic Ocean and its significance for the chemistry of Antarctic water

Journal of Engineering Physics and Thermophysics ◽

10.1007/bf02109094 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 42 (2) ◽

pp. 83-90 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Shizuo Tsunogai ◽

Shinichiro Noriki ◽

Koh Harada ◽

Taro Kurosaki ◽

Yasunori Watanabe ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Antarctic Water ◽

Antarctic Ocean ◽

The Antarctic

Download Full-text

Introduction

Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A - Mathematical and Physical Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspa.1964.0163 ◽

1964 ◽

Vol 281 (1384) ◽

pp. 1-6 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Keyword(s):

Surface Temperature ◽

General Circulation ◽

Cold Water ◽

Antarctic Water ◽

The South ◽

Cold Zone ◽

The North ◽

Antarctic Convergence ◽

Meteorological Observations ◽

The Antarctic

The topic of this afternoon’s Discussion was proposed by a joint panel of the National Committees on Antarctic and Oceanic Research to see whether joint discussion of an outstanding problem would initiate further collaboration. The Antarctic Convergence is a fairly obvious partition round the southern half of the circumpolar ocean, marking where the cold water of the Antarctic surface layer comes up against warmer Subantarctic water. It is always found in more or less the same position and many authors have referred to it as an important climatological and zoogeographical boundary. The physical processes which give rise to it may have a bearing on events in the atmosphere as well as on the general circulation of the ocean. It is not a barrier, the Antarctic water sinks, mixes and continues to the north at a lower level; icebergs get across it, and animals too, but it is an interesting and significant frontier. It should have been rather easy in a country like ours, traditionally interested in the Antarctic and the oceans, to find speakers, but the little we know about the Antarctic Convergence tends to emphasize the lack of really precise information such as scientists like to have, and as convener of the discussion I ought to mention that today’s speakers are not very willing volunteers. The story begins with the report of the meteorological observations of the German South Polar Expedition of 1901–02, published, like most large reports of expeditions, some 20 years later. Professor W. Meinardus, studying the surface temperature observations in the Indian Antarctic sector, found that the decrease of temperature towards the south becomes noticeably slower south of 50° S. The contrast was sufficient to divide the west wind drift into a cold zone to the south and a warm one to the north. He recognized the boundary as a line along which the cold Antarctic water sinks below the warmer Snbantarctic water with a consequent rise in surface temperature towards the north of about 2 °C. Using the observations of other expeditions he was able to plot its latitude from 105° W to 80° E. The circumpolar voyage made by the R. R. S. Discovery II in the winter of 1932 showed that it is continuous round the continent.

Download Full-text

Three species ofAsterocheres(Copepoda: Siphonostomatoida: Asterocheridae) from shallow Antarctic water

Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom ◽

10.1017/s0025315412002007 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 93 (6) ◽

pp. 1567-1577 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Il-Hoi Kim ◽

Gi-Sik Min

Keyword(s):

New Species ◽

The Body ◽

Antarctic Water ◽

Endopodal Segment ◽

Diagnostic Features ◽

The Third ◽

Distal Process ◽

Two New Species ◽

Mandibular Palp ◽

The Antarctic

Three species ofAsterocheres, including two new species, are reported as associates of sponges in shallow Antarctic water.Asterocheres spinosussp. nov. has a combination of diagnostic features: mandibular palp is one-segmented, caudal ramus is 1.88 times as long as wide, antennule is 20-segmented in the female and 18-segmented in the male, urosome is spinulose, and legs 1 and 2 display weak sexual dimorphsims. InA. raisp. nov., the body is large, 1.66 mm long in the female, the lateral margin of genital double-somite is smooth without setules or spinules, the exopod of antenna bears only a single seta, with two mucilaginous substances transformed from setae, and the third endopodal segment of leg 1 bears a prolonged distal process. A supplementary description is given forA. hirsutusBandera, Conradi and López-González, 2005, recorded previously from the Antarctic.

Download Full-text