James Bradley

. @mioceanologie.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu @hfspo.bsky.social @cnrs.fr @cnrs-dr12.bsky.social @cnrs-insu.bsky.social @cnrsecologie.bsky.social @drmartinezrabert.bsky.social

Antarctica isn’t owned by anyone and has no official flag, so when I travelled south for the #ERC_SIESTA #POLARIN project, I brought flags designed by schoolchildren, to send them photos of their amazing creations flying in Antarctica. Here are a few of their brilliant designs #AntarcticFlags 🤩🐧❄️🐋🇦🇶

The Department of Earth Sciences and St Peter's College are recruiting an Associate Professor (or Professor) in Earth Surface Processes to join our thriving academic community!

earth.web.ox.ac.uk/vacancies

Independently self-replicating RNA!
The key to transitioning from a soup of organic molecules to something resembling life was self-replication. This RNA molecule might be one of many that can do that and would have been the basis for the first cellular machinery. 🧪

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Laura @lauramolares.bsky.social presenting her prize winning (!!) @hfspo.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu #ERC_SIESTA PhD research on the catabolic strategies of glacial microbiomes at the Polar & Alpine Microbiology Conference, thanks to support from @eageo.bsky.social ❄️🔬🦠🧬🏆 @mioceanologie.bsky.social

🚨3 Lectureships in Biology 🚨

Come join us in Bristol @bristolbiosci.bsky.social!

We are looking for new collegues working across a broad spectum of topics in biology, including ecology & environmental change. Get in touch if you have Qs!

Apply here by 8 March: www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...

Thanks for sharing! Really nice. Interesting to see how methane is frequently present in these systems, yet methanotrophic oxidation appears surprisingly weak

#MicroSky: ENVIRON BIOTECH: Vidal et al discuss that deep beneath Earth’s surface, life thrives in extremes. Subsurface microbiology reveals the limits and origins of life, and guides the search for biosignatures on Mars, icy moons, and distant exoplanets. Do not miss doi.org/10.1111/1751...

This is a fantastic piece! Thanks for sharing :)

Glacier biogeochemical cycling and downstream impacts - Nature Reviews Earth & Environment Far from frozen and sterile environments, glaciers are biogeochemical reactors and regulators. This Review outlines key biogeochemical and associated physical processes occurring in glacierized enviro...

How do glaciers drive and interact with Earth's regional and global biogeochemical cycles? ❄️🏔️🦠🪨🌊🌎🧪⚒️

@natrevearthenviron.nature.com

Expertly led by Jon Hawkings & many collaborators

@mioceanologie.bsky.social @cnrs.fr @cnrs-dr12.bsky.social @cnrs-insu.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Melting glaciers as symbols of tourism paradoxes - Nature Climate Change Visitors are increasingly drawn to disappearing glacier landscapes for their beauty and scientific value. This Comment examines the paradoxes reshaping relationships among glaciers, people and communi...

Retreating glaciers have become focal points for climate awareness and for tourism.

This dual role exposes a paradox:

Tourism can amplify climate awareness, yet risks reinforcing maladaptive responses in the very landscapes it seeks to showcase.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

UK to cut climate finance to poor countries by a fifth despite promising more help Exclusive: Campaigners say proposed cut from £11.9bn over past five years to £9bn over next five years will cost lives and livelihoods

UK to cut climate finance to poor countries by a fifth despite promising more help

- Campaigners say proposed cut from £11.9bn over past five years to £9bn over next five years will cost lives and livelihoods

#climatecrisis
Story by @fionaharvey.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Hydrostatic pressure induces strong leakage of dissolved organic matter from “marine snow” particles Particles sinking into the deep ocean come under pressure and leak dissolved organic matter, which affects marine carbon cycling.

Hydrostatic pressure induces strong leakage of dissolved organic matter from “marine snow” particles www.science.org/doi/full/10.... #jcampubs 🌊

High-efficiency methane consumption by atmospheric methanotrophs in subsurface karst caves: The irrefutable methane sink Microbes in subsurface caves consume trace amount of methane from the air.

High-efficiency methane consumption by atmospheric methanotrophs in subsurface karst caves: The irrefutable methane sink www.science.org/doi/full/10.... #jcampubs

South Pacific carbon uptake controlled by West Antarctic Ice Sheet dynamics - Nature Geoscience Iron derived from debris eroded by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet rather than from dust deposition drove variations in carbon export in the South Pacific Antarctic region over the past 500,000 years, ac...

⚒️ Article: South Pacific carbon uptake controlled by West Antarctic Ice Sheet dynamics

@icbm-uol.bsky.social @awi.de @climate.columbia.edu @lamont.columbia.edu @gisela-winckler.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Lecturer in Physical Oceanography (ATR1734) in University of East Anglia | UEA View details and apply for this Lecturer in Physical Oceanography (ATR1734) vacancy in University of East Anglia. Faculty of Science School of Environmental Sciences Lecturer in Physical Oceano...

We are advertising for a Lecturer in Physical Oceanography, closing date 31 March.

If you have research interests in the shelf seas, estuarine and coastal oceans then this could be for you!

And you could do research using UEA's fleet of ocean gliders

vacancies.uea.ac.uk/vacancies/20...

The Tug of War at the Top of the World

A deeper than usual dive into Svalbard's evolving geopolitical landscape, as the power grab in Arctic territories intensifies
@nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/11/w...

I'm happy to share that this work - a part of my PhD - has been published.

We simulated H2 and CO2 injection on a model methanogen 🦠 & developped a fully transparent high pressure reactor for microbial cultures 🔧

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

. @drmartinezrabert.bsky.social & Roberta Pirazzini in action ❄️🔬🧬

Strandline Glacier ❄️
Tethys Bay, Victoria Land, Antarctica 🇦🇶

#ERC_SIESTA #POLARIN @erc.europa.eu @hfspo.bsky.social @mioceanologie.bsky.social @cnrs.fr

Sad that Antarctic fieldwork overlapped with Polar & Alpine Microbiology conference 🥲
but DAMN did #ERC_SIESTA @erc.europa.eu @hfspo.bsky.social @mioceanologie.bsky.social PhD students Sibylle Lebert & Laura Molares Moncayo do a superb job presenting & winning awards for best poster and talk! 🤩❄️🧬🦠🔬👩‍🔬

Enormous congratulations to the new Doctor Sonia Papadaki! 🎓👩‍🔬 Extremely proud ☺️
Sonia combined molecular, geochemical & spectroscopic tools to reveal how microbes survive in Arctic gypsum rocks 🧬🧪🔬🐻‍❄️
And how their imprints can inform understanding of past life & future life-detection missions 🪐

This photo was taken in 1911 using glass plate technology by Herbert Ponting who was part of Scott's Antarctic expedition,

The composition and detail are exquisite with the band of white snow/ice creating a perfect frame around the two people and the ship in the distance

Iconic imo

I'm thrilled to share that this work has just been published:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

We compared to contrasting observatories:

🌴 ☀️ Equatorial Atlantic (EAMO, 6°S), one of the first in low-latitudes

🍂 🌸 A well-studied temperate site (BBMO, 41°N) in the Mediterranean Sea

🧵⬇️

‘We are the last generation that can act!’ 🔥

Glaciers around the world are melting so fast that we need to store ice cores in a sanctuary so that the next generation of researchers will have raw material to study! 🧊🔬

The ICE MEMORY project facilities just opened 2 days ago in Antarctica!

📽️Via AFP

🏔️NEW in @natcomms.nature.com: “High frequency of moraine-dammed lake outburst floods driven by global warming”

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🤔There’s been lots of uncertainty about whether the number of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) has increased, decreased or flatlined in recent decades

. @mioceanologie.bsky.social @cnrs.fr @cnrsecologie.bsky.social @cnrs-insu.bsky.social @cnrs-insu.bsky.social @cnrs-dr12.bsky.social @hfspo.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu #ERC_SIESTA @univ-amu.fr

Metabolically flexible microorganisms rapidly establish glacial foreland ecosystems - Nature Communications An enduring question in ecology is how new ecosystems form. Studying retreating glaciers, this study shows that life’s first foothold in these new environments is not established by photosynthetic org...

How do new soils develop after glaciers vanish? ❄️🧬🦠🏔️

The first microbial colonisers use flexible chemoautotrophic strategies to overcome nutrient scarcity, including scavenging H2, CO and CH4 from the air! ⛅

Led by Francesco Ricci, Sean Bay @greening.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Another year, another dark red stripe - the iconic climate stripes quietly show how relentlessly our planet is heating up…

www.reading.ac.uk/news/2026/Un...

Fabulous start to 2026 - it’s been great fun to share some surprises from our sampling of Arctic glaciers as well as meet old friends and new at polar & alpine microbiology. Haribo served in whirlpaks is definitely on-brand if you’re a veteran fieldworker... #PAM26