Description: We use extensive sedimentary and marine geophysical data to derive sediment volume–based millennial time-scale glacial erosion rates ( Ē ) from glacially influenced fjords and bays across a broad latitudinal transect, from central Patagonia (46°S) to the Antarctic Peninsula (65°S), and to determine how glacial erosion rates change with increasing latitude and decreasing atmospheric temperatures. We also calculate million-year time-scale erosion rates for the western Antarctic Peninsula cordillera and inner continental shelf from seismic stratigraphic analysis of the continental margin. These results are complemented by erosion rates derived from existing thermochronology data sets (apatite fission-track and apatite [U-Th]/He) for both Patagonia and the Antarctic Peninsula regions. Despite considerable regional variability, our results show a clear trend of decreasing Ē with increasing latitude. Millennial Ē values span two orders of magnitude, from 0.02 mm/yr for Illiad glacier on Anvers Island, Antarctica (~64.5°S), to 0.83 mm/yr for San Rafael glacier in northern Patagonia (~46.5°S). Regional averages are three times higher for the Patagonian areas than the Antarctic Peninsula areas. This trend is interpreted to result from a general decrease in temperature and water availability at the ice-bedrock interface. For the Antarctic Peninsula study sites, erosion rates are highly clustered around 0.1 mm/yr, with the exception of Maxwell Bay, for which the Ē value is 0.36 mm/yr. In Patagonia, erosion rates are more variable than in the Antarctic Peninsula, with Ē ranging between 0.14 mm/yr (Europa glacier area) and 0.83 mm/yr (San Rafael glacier area). This regional variability in Ē is interpreted as due to differences in hypsometry and bedrock resistance to erosion. Million-year time-scale Ē values derived from thermochronology ages also decrease with latitude, with maximum values decreasing from ~0.9–1.1 mm/yr north of 46°S to ~0.1–0.2 mm/yr south of 48°S in Patagonia, and reaching ~0.2–0.3 mm/yr in the Antarctic Peninsula. The sediment-based million-year time-scale Ē estimates for the western Antarctic Peninsula cordillera indicate that glacial erosion rates increased by 25%–30% after 5.3 Ma, from ~0.09 mm/yr (5.3–9.5 Ma) to ~0.11–0.12 mm/yr (〈5.3 Ma). For Patagonia, the decrease in long-term erosion rates south of ~46°S is interpreted to result from relatively long periods of slow glacial erosion associated with the ice masses having been colder (subpolar) on the southern Patagonian cordillera, and having eroded at rates comparable to those we obtained for the Antarctic Peninsula. These long-term erosion rates are 1–2 orders of magnitude lower than estimates based on recent sediment yields, highlighting the transient nature of high-sediment-flux events. However, our sediment volume–derived millennial time-scale Ē closely approximates the maximum values of tectonic time-scale Ē values derived from thermochronology ages. Our combined millennial and million-year time-scale glacial erosion data quantify the significant decrease in rates of glacially driven denudation at geological (tectonic) and millennial time scales with increasing latitude from Patagonia to the Antarctic Peninsula, highlighting the influence of climate on mountain denudation.

Description: The Antarctic Peninsula is considered to be the last region of Antarctica to have been fully glaciated as a result of Cenozoic climatic cooling. As such, it was likely the last refugium for plants and animals that had inhabited the continent since it separated from the Gondwana supercontinent. Drill cores and seismic data acquired during two cruises (SHALDRIL I and II) in the northernmost Peninsula region yield a record that, when combined with existing data, indicates progressive cooling and associated changes in terrestrial vegetation over the course of the past 37 million years. Mountain glaciation began in the latest Eocene (approximately 37–34 Ma), contemporaneous with glaciation elsewhere on the continent and a reduction in atmospheric CO2 concentrations. This climate cooling was accompanied by a decrease in diversity of the angiosperm-dominated vegetation that inhabited the northern peninsula during the Eocene. A mosaic of southern beech and conifer-dominated woodlands and tundra continued to occupy the region during the Oligocene (approximately 34–23 Ma). By the middle Miocene (approximately 16–11.6 Ma), localized pockets of limited tundra still existed at least until 12.8 Ma. The transition from temperate, alpine glaciation to a dynamic, polythermal ice sheet took place during the middle Miocene. The northernmost Peninsula was overridden by an ice sheet in the early Pliocene (approximately 5.3–3.6 Ma). The long cooling history of the peninsula is consistent with the extended timescales of tectonic evolution of the Antarctic margin, involving the opening of ocean passageways and associated establishment of circumpolar circulation.

Description: The process of crystallization can be used for encapsulation in the fields of pharmaceutical and food industries. In previous studies it could be shown that encapsulation of certain amounts of liquids is feasible. Crystalline container systems with milk or condensed milk as a filling were developed [1]. In this study methods for quality analyses were investigated with special focus on mechanical, chemical, thermodynamic and kinetic properties. The mechanical stability was determined by use of a stability measurement device (crushing force) and confirmed to be suitable. The determination of the pH values of the encapsulated liquids over time only gives a rough idea of the shelf life. Investigating the mass loss is a suitable method as it allows conclusions concerning the level of permeability of the containers. The dissolvability and release time of the liquid can be determined via UV/Vis photometry.

Description: Three marine sediment cores were collected along the length of the fjord axis of Barilari Bay, Graham Land, west Antarctic Peninsula (65°55'S, 64°43'W). Multi-proxy analytical results constrained by high-resolution geochronological methods ( 210 Pb, radiocarbon, 137 Cs) in concert with historical observations capture a record of Holocene paleoenvironmental variability. Our results suggest early and middle Holocene (〉7022–2815 cal. [calibrated] yr B.P.) retreated glacial positions and seasonally open marine conditions with increased primary productivity. Climatic cooling increased sea ice coverage and decreased primary productivity during the Neoglacial (2815 to cal. 730 cal. yr B.P.). This climatic cooling culminated with glacial advance to maximum Holocene positions and expansion of a fjord-wide ice shelf during the Little Ice Age (LIA) (ca. 730–82 cal. yr B.P.). Seasonally open marine conditions were achieved and remnant ice shelves decayed within the context of recent rapid regional warming (82 cal. yr B.P. to present). Our findings agree with previously observed late Holocene cooling and glacial advance across the Antarctic Peninsula, suggesting that the LIA was a regionally significant event with few disparities in timing and magnitude. Comparison of the LIA Antarctic Peninsula record to the rest of the Southern Hemisphere demonstrates close synchronicity in the southeast Pacific and southern most Atlantic region but less coherence for the southwest Pacific and Indian Oceans. Comparisons with the Northern Hemisphere demonstrate that the LIA Antarctic Peninsula record was contemporaneous with pre-LIA cooling and sea ice expansion in the North Atlantic–Arctic, suggesting a global reach for these events.

Description: Pre-portioned plastic jars are applied in a variety of sectors for packaging coffee-cream or coffee-milk due to the practical size. This work aims on developing a dissolvable capsule containing liquid milk as an innovative and unique alternative to avoid plastic jars and therewith an unclean handling. This kind of sustainable product would contribute to waste reduction. Therefore, as a first step the properties of the final product are defined and set as basic claims. The second step includes the design of a process based on crystallization to form a crystalline layer encasing a certain amount of milk. Here case studies of 2 substances are introduced. Both sucrose and erythritol were confirmed as examples as suitable substances for the encapsulation of milk: on the one hand sucrose to create products with a high level of sweetness, on the other hand erythritol to create medium sweet milk capsules. The choice of both coating substances and filling materials requires different techniques of production and therefore an adapted optimization process.

Description: : Grain shape is useful as a depositional, environmental, diagenetic, and provenance proxy. Here we conduct the first study of down-core grain-shape variation in Antarctica. This study further examines the utility of grain shape as a depositional proxy, namely of glacial influence, in the James Ross Basin and Joinville Plateau of the Antarctic Peninsula from the Eocene to the present. Fourier grain-shape analysis was used to quantify the grain shape of 31 samples spanning the glacial history of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet. A total of 6,442 quartz grain peripheries were digitized and described through the twenty-first Fourier harmonic. Sediment provenance has a greater influence on grain roughness than glacial activity in the study area. However, provided a similar sedimentary source, secondary changes in roughness correlate with changes in the extent of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet since the late Oligocene. Grain roughness increased with increased glacial influence during the middle Miocene, after an early Pliocene warm period, and just above a Pliocene regional glacial unconformity. Conversely, grain roughness decreased with less glacial influence during the late Oligocene and during an early Pliocene warm period. This study further illustrates the usefulness of grain shape in distinguishing sediment provenance and environmental conditions in Antarctic settings.

Description: Valuable insights into future sensitivity of the Antarctic cryosphere to atmospheric and oceanic warming can be gained from the geologic record of past climatic warm intervals. Continental to deep ocean sediments provide records of contemporaneous changes in ice sheet extent and oceanographic conditions that extend back in time, including periods with atmospheric CO2 levels and temperatures similar to those likely to be reached in the next 100 years. The Circum-Antarctic region is under-sampled respect to scientific ocean drilling. However, recovery from glacially-influenced, continental shelf and rise sediments (expeditions ODP178, 188 and IODP 318), provided excellent records of Cenozoic climate and ice sheet evolution. The ANtarctic DRILLing program achieved 〉98% recovery on the Ross Sea shelf with a stable platform on fast ice with riser drilling technology. Newer technologies, such as the MeBo shallow drilling rig will further improve Antarctic margin drilling. Drilling around Antarctica in the past decades revealed cooling and regional ice growth during the Cenozoic, coupled with paleogeographic, CO2 atmosphere concentration and global temperature changes. Substantial progress has been made in dating sediments and in the interpretation of paleoclimate/paleoenvironmental proxies in Antarctic margin sediments (e.g. orbital scale variations in Antarctica’s cryosphere during the Miocene and Pliocene). Holocene ultra-high resolution shelf sections recently recovered can be correlated to the ice core record, to detect local mechanisms versus inter-hemispheric connections. While the potential for reconstructing past ice sheet history has been demonstrated through a careful integration of geological and geophysical data with numerical ice sheet modelling, uncertainties remain high due to the sparse geographic distribution of the records and the regional variability in the ice sheet’s response. Projects developed using a multi-leg, multi-platform approach (e.g. latitudinal and/or depth transects involving a combination of land/ice shelf, seabed, riser, and riserless drilling platforms) will likely make the most significant scientific advances. Fundamental hypothesis can be tested and accomplished by drilling depth transects from ice-proximal to ice-distal locations, that will enable researchers to link past perturbations in the ice sheet with Southern Ocean and global climate dynamics. The variable response of the ice sheet to ongoing climatic change mandates broad geographic drilling coverage, particularly in climatically sensitive regions, like those with large upstream drainage basins, whose marine terminus is presently melting, due to ocean, warming water impinging the continental shelf. Key transects were identified at community workshops (http://www.scar-ace.org) in the frame of the SCAR/ACE (Antarctic Climate Evolution) and PAIS (Past Antarctic Ice Sheet dynamics) programs. New proposals were then submitted to IODP in addition to the existing ones, including a large European component and MSP pre-proposals, in the frame of a scientific concerted strategy. Main questions underpinning future scientific drilling tied IODP Science themes: 1) How did and will the Antarctic Ice Sheets respond to elevated temperatures and atmospheric pCO2? What is the contribution of Antarctic ice to past and future sea level changes? 2) What was the timing of rifting and subsidence controlling the opening of ocean gateways and the initiation of the circumpolar current system and the onset of glaciations?