Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research

The Ray & Vidrio 2025 pika paper was published in INSTAAR's peer-reviewed journal "Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research" @aaarjournal.bsky.social

Calcareous glacier forefields harbor a rich diversity of Mortierellaceae, typical for high alpine environments. In a #newarticle, Szedlacsek et al. discover that so far undescribed lineages could be isolated from the mountain-sites of Marmolada: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2555628

Muhs & Pigati’s #newarticle on the origin of loess of the last glacial period on Seward Peninsula, AK, reports glacial silts of the Kobuk & Noatak Rivers were the most important sources, from northeasterly paleowinds, in good agreement with climate models: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2564571

#newarticle by Bergstrom et al. for our special issue on Mountain Hydrology finds that geology and geomorphic indicators of surface water-groundwater exchange are important predictors of water quality in glacier influenced temperature alpine watersheds: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2560144

miriamcjones.bsky.social et al.’s #newarticle on Bering Land Bridge (BLB) climate & vegetation during the Last Glacial Maximum shows Bering Sea island vegetation communities reflect the timing of their isolation from the BLB with sea level transgression: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2557062

#newarticle Harrison et al. find that pikas in Alaska continue to occupy territories yearly when temperatures in their rock dens remain moderate during summer, which can help identify areas where populations are likely to persist under a changing climate: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2502161

#newarticle Lakka et al.’s Arctic Answers brief reviews problems with leading practices to protect Arctic biodiversity & argues for environmental policies that better focus on the successful conservation of freshwater and healthy ecosystems in the Arctic: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2506876

Marziliano, Stone, & Webb’s #newarticle shows how understanding the representativeness of snow depth measurements as variability increases from the accumulation to melt periods can improve snow supply estimates for springtime runoff: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2495518

#newarticle Hersberger et al.’s paleoecological study of the Pindos Mountains, northern Greece, reports that transhumant pastoralism might have been practiced since at least the Late Bronze Age, possibly the Neolithic, much earlier than previously thought: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2545038

Comparative use of alder, birch, and upright willow shrubs by passerines in above–tree line regions of Arctic and sub-Arctic Alaska Assessments of passerine–habitat relationships in shrub tundra regions are rare, limiting our understanding of the effects of shrub expansion. Further, previous studies of shrub tundra passerines h...

J. Mizel’s #newarticle studying shrub tundra passerines assesses that the density of shrub-adapted passerines in above-treeline regions of Alaska responds positively to alder and upright willow shrub cover but weakly to birch shrub cover: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2546175

#newarticle Yoshikawa et al. monitored permafrost borehole temperatures in the high arid Andes & found that the type of snow ablation varies with elevation and affects the thermal properties of the permafrost: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2532202

Brown & Wagner’s #newarticle introduces MDV ClimEx, an open-source web app for exploring 30+ years of climate data from Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys. This tool helps visualize long-term trends, detect anomalies & support research on climate impacts in MDV:
doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2529043

Plant community nutrient levels and soil biogeochemical responses to sixty-plus years of brown lemming exclusion in Utqiaġvik, Alaska Small mammal herbivores are crucial drivers of Arctic ecosystem functions, but responses to herbivory depend on context such as land cover and study length. We examined the long-term effects (more ...

In a #newarticle, Uccello et al. demonstrate that decades of small mammal herbivore exclusion drive plant community nutrient changes in a Northern Alaskan tundra. This work also shows the importance of including bryophytes in Arctic nutrient research: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2532885

#newarticle by Marshall et al. investigates a unique pairing of Holocene lake sediment & soil records from central Alaska, highlighting the importance of sediment burial efficiency on carbon accumulation in high-latitude lakes: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2523083
@leahpmarshall.bsky.social

In Magnusson et al's #newarticle, virgin land near a Norwegian melting glacier was rapidly colonized by soil-living Nematoda & larvae of Chironomidae midges & other Diptera. They show how these groups contribute significantly to establish an ecosystem: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2518768

In March 1912, Captain Robert Scott & his remaining men perished in a blizzard on the Ross Ice Shelf on their return journey from the South Pole. In a #newarticle, M. Zinkova explores the weather conditions that made this unusual Final Blizzard possible: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2522490

DeMaster et al’s new "Arctic Answers" examines record low salmon runs in the Yukon River Basin due to climate change, commercial fishing & bycatch. They discuss actions & management approaches to combat this crisis for the Alaska Native subsistence community: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2510793

Kuzmina’s #newarticle for our special collection on Beringian Environments presents a thorough study of the fossil insect fauna of Beringia, contributing to our knowledge of the unique Pleistocene steppe-tundra biota of both Western and Eastern Beringia: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2494353

Microplastics (MPs) studies in Antarctica are scarce, especially in top predators like marine mammals. Santillán et al.’s #newarticle fills this gap by evaluating the occurrence of MPs in Antarctic seals and penguins in Admiralty Bay, King George Island: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2507463

@morganwindle.bsky.social et al.’s #newarticle documents modern reindeer herders' riding traditions in Mongolia to link reindeer skeletal changes to riding, broadening our capacity to trace the deeper history of reindeer domestication in Northeast Asia: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2493391

Tuomaala et al.’s #newarticle on soil profiles collected from subarctic Greenland shows two landscape regime shifts: organic soils were recently established on mineral soil & Sphagnum moss is overtaking tundra communities: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2484867

a person is digging a hole in the ground with a shovel ALT: a person is digging a hole in the ground with a shovel

An anomalous warm weather event in the Antarctic McMurdo Dry Valleys in March 2022 caused unseasonal melt within Taylor Valley. Snyder et al.’s #newarticle explores the effect of this event on soil biota communities most sensitive to freeze-thaw stress: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2485283

#newarticle by Stringer et al. offers a new data set of land cover of major deglaciated sites in West Antarctica, highlighting a spatial pattern where northern sites have more vegetation & active sediments and have changed more rapidly: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2483474

#newarticle by Swanger et al. investigates the origin & structure of a buried dead ice mass in Taylor Valley. Taylor Glacier retreated from its marine isotope stage 5e (~125 ka) max. to its present level or lower by ~62 ka but possibly as early as ~81 to 94 ka: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2478696

#newarticle by Terekhov et al. examines 4 ice caps of the remote Bennett Island using archived in situ data & calculation of the recent geodetic mass balance. It shows that the mass loss of the island’s glaciation sped up significantly since the 2000s: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2483781

Simultaneous heatwaves occurred in March 2022 in both Antarctic & Arctic regions. In a #newarticle, Bernard & Friedt investigate the impact of this extreme weather event from the perspective of a North-facing polar glacier in Norway’s Brøgger peninsula: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2479899

Charles et al.’s #newarticle studies how plant-soil relationships change with glacier retreat and finds that after 140 years of glacier retreat, soil pH becomes very acidic & plant competition leads to a shift from herbaceous communities to coniferous forest: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2483455

#newarticle by Rue & McKnight leverages established & contemporary techniques for characterizing dissolved organic matter (DOM) to provide new knowledge into the diversity & structure of DOM under contrasting biogeochemical conditions in an Antarctic lake: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2478678

A person's finger points at a marine seismic profile showing the subsurface geology off Northwest Greenland. More specifically, they are pointing at a coring site where a 978 meter long sediment core was drilled during IODP Expedition 400 in 2023 aboard the RV JOIDES Resolution.

Anne Jennings in front of the JOIDES Resolution ship before they left for Greenland in August, 2023 (Credit: Philip Staudigel)

🚨 New ocean sediment drilling report
INSTAAR Fellow ANNE JENNINGS co-led IODP #Exp400, which collected cores off the NW Greenland glaciated margin in 2023... incl one 978m (3209ft) long! The team's (ongoing) work spans a lot of ice sheet & ocean history publications.iodp.org/proceedings/...

#newarticle by Kytöviita & Francini shows that plasticity of root fungal symbiosis contributes to the grazing tolerance in the grass Avenella flexuosa. Urea deposition is more important than defoliation in triggering grazing responses in mycorrhizal symbiosis: doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2025.2475570