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They’re heading back to Antarctica next austral summer to retrieve larger samples.

The days began to run together under the perpetual Sun of austral summer.

This raises the chances that these birds could transmit the virus to new locations, especially if these or other birds are contagious when they congregate in the austral spring for breeding.

During the 2022–23 austral summer field season, the first for this project, the researchers found a surprising amount of variability in oxygen concentrations that couldn’t be explained.

But this does mean Earth is closer to the sun in austral summer and farther in austral winter, so the corresponding plus-or-minus-five-degree-C shift can amplify seasons to be more extreme in the Southern Hemisphere.