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Dr Svenja Halfter

@svenjahalfter.bsky.social
560 followers 145 following 42 posts

Marine scientist working on plankton ecology & biogeochemistry of the Southern Ocean. Based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa/New Zealand, they/she 🏳️‍🌈

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Reposted by Dr Svenja Halfter
Andrew Digby @digs.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
In 2025 we marked 30 years of the Kākāpō Recovery Programme. Kākāpō ranger and artist Sarah Little (www.instagram.com/sarahmaylittle) tells the story. Part 1 of 2: the history. #kakapo #conservation #parrots #birds
A cartoon describing the history of the Kākāpō Recovery Programme. Credit: Sarah Little. https://www.instagram.com/sarahmaylittleA cartoon describing the history of the Kākāpō Recovery Programme. Credit: Sarah Little. https://www.instagram.com/sarahmaylittleA cartoon describing the history of the Kākāpō Recovery Programme. Credit: Sarah Little. https://www.instagram.com/sarahmaylittleA cartoon describing the history of the Kākāpō Recovery Programme. Credit: Sarah Little. https://www.instagram.com/sarahmaylittle
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
We are the next wave of leaders in the upcoming International Polar Year in 2032/33! Panel discussion at the #CLIC2026 conference in the involvement of early career researchers in the IPY 5. @apecsoceania.bsky.social @wcrpclimate.bsky.social
Panel discussion at the #CLIC2026 conference
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
The #clic2026 conference is starting with a workshop on polar indigenous knowledge! "The chief knows what he has to do". Lots of knowledge in indigenous communities that will be essential in responding to our climate crisis!
Picture of the CliC conference stage with one of our indigenous speakers.Picture of a PowerPoint slide with a picture and a indigenous saying "the chief knows what he has to do"
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
So very pretty! 😍 I usually see this as a mix of diatoms and Phaeocystis antarctica 🦠 that's clogging my zooplankton net, so this view is much better! 🧪🦑⚒️
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
RIP favourite mug I got in my first year at @utas.edu.au! After using it pretty much every day for 8 years, I believe this is a sign to get a new one 😭😥😅
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
I almost missed #WorldWetlandDay! Wetlands are a unique environment, support biodiversity and protect freshwater. 🦎🦟💧🍄 These pictures are from a recent trip to the South Island of Aotearoa, somewhere between Haast and Fox Glacier.
Close up of swamp plantsBoard walk through a swamp forest
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
This is why long-term monitoring is important! Researchers at @oceanseaicenpi.bsky.social found that the body condition of polar bears 🐻‍❄️ actually improved in the past 25 years! Polar bears are very dependent on sea ice 🧊 to find their prey, which has been declining. Link: npolar.no/en/newsartic...
npolar.no
Surprising findings on polar bear body condition
Despite the continued decline in sea ice around Svalbard, polar bears there are in better body condition today than they were 25 years ago. This is shown by a study recently published in Scientific Re...
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Are you planning to attend this year's OSC in Norway? Consider submitting your abstract to either of my two sessions: 🦐S19: Polar plankton ❄️S40: The changing Ross Sea We particularly encourage ECRs to apply! Abstracts are due on Feb 28: scar2026.org/abstracts 🧪🦑⚒️ @scar-antarctic.bsky.social
Picture of Adelie penguins on an ice floe.
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Reposted by Dr Svenja Halfter
Elaine Luo @oceanmicrobes.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Our lab has an opening for a fully funded postdoc position! Start date is flexible; ideally summer 2026. Apply by Feb 20th for full consideration. For more about the lab and how to apply: sites.google.com/uncc.edu/mic...
sites.google.com
Luo Lab - Microbial Ecology - join
Lab members will have access to state-of-the art wet lab, and computing, and sequencing resources, including in-house sequencing for both short and long reads (Illumina NextSeq and Nanopore GridION). ...
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Another day in the lab to analyse sea ice samples from a precious fieldwork season to #Antarctica! (The only ice we like, really). Very green because of some algae that made it into the sample 🥹 🧪🧑‍🔬
Picture of a petri dish with a fluorescent green sample.
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Smellanie, what a name 😂
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
The kākāpō breeding season has begun and we are hoping for a bumper year to save the species! 🦉🦜🐣 Kākāpō Rakiura (23) has just laid some eggs in her underground nest underneath a rātā tree and you can follow her! Check out the kākāpō cam: www.doc.govt.nz/our-work/kak...
Screenshot of the kākāpō live stream, showing a black and white picture of a bird (Rakiura) in her underground nest
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Kinda forgot about this app for *checks notes* 2 years (oops, #adhd)... Let's give it another go! I'm Svenja 👋, I'm a zooplankton ecologist and biogeochemist, essentially studying how climate change impacts small critters in the (mostly cold) ocean! 🦐🪼🐟🦑 Pic: little copepod I found in 🇦🇶 sea ice.
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 07/12/2023
Hectic few weeks as I'm running around to pack the last things for my research voyage to #Antarctica in January! Hopefully, this will be enough tape... Who knows?! #bucketscience 🧪⚒️🦑
A pile of rolls of colourful electrical and black and silver duct tape next to heaps of colourful cable ties in the back. Also pictured: 4 adapters NZ to Europe.
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 06/12/2023
Check out this spotlight on neurodiversity in ocean sciences 🌊! Over the years, I met so many thriving neurodiverse people in ocean research, who significantly advance the field if they get the support they need and deserve ❤️ 🧪🦑⚒️ tos.org/oceanography...
tos.org
Neurodiversity: An Important Axis of Diversity in Ocean Sciences | Oceanography
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 01/12/2023
Happy #AntarcticaDay! I took the day to plan my next trip south on the Italian icebreaker #RVLauraBassi at the end of January😍🐧🥳. I feel very privileged to keep returning to this beautiful continent💙 Here are some pics of the northwestern Ross Sea from last season. 🧪🌎⚒️🦉
Cape Adare in the morning sun. The cliffs are brown and red and covered in a little bit of snow.Adelie penguin sitting on an ice float in a field of sea ice.Picture of an iceberg which looks all frosty and glossy against a dark grey sky.Sunset from outside the bridge of the RV Tangaroa. You can see the orange and yellow sun setting at the horizon, which casts beautiful light on the water and the ship. On the deck you can see a person who's taking pictures.
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 27/11/2023
Opening my emails this morning to find random #pyrosome pics people thought I'd appreciate. Love it!!😂😍 #marinebiologistthings 🧪🦑🌎
Picture of a few pinkish pyrosomes that hang on a line of a crayfish pot at sea. You can see a bit of land on the horizon.
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Reposted by Dr Svenja Halfter
Neelima Vallangi @neelima.bsky.social · 20/11/2023
There's a deep sense of sadness and loneliness seeing this record shattering graph. November 17, 2023 was the first day in recorded history when the earth's surface was a whole 2°C hotter than pre-industrial times. Yet, there's barely any chatter about this staggering breach.
Graph showing daily temperature anomaly hitting peak of 2.06°C  on November 17th, 2023 for the time period starting from 1940 to 2023.
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 21/11/2023
On my reading list this morning: how plumes produced by #DeepSeaMining can affect jellyfish! 🧪🦑🌏⚒️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Experimental mining plumes and ocean warming trigger stress in a deep pelagic jellyfish - Nature Com...
The deep ocean is increasingly subjected to human-induced environmental change, but little is known about species-specific responses to stressors, including those from deep sea mining. This study show...
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 15/11/2023
The next #SouthernOcean ❄️🌊 voyage is finally confirmed!! Will sample 🦐 zooplankton and water within the Ross Sea polynya and along the ice shelf in February 2024! Does anybody need samples? Already collecting extra salps, jellyfish and pteropods for collaborators in Germany and Australia! 🧪🦑⚒️🌎
Map of the Ross Sea with sampling sites in Terra Nova Bay, along the Ross Sea ice shelf (in grey) and the continental shelf.
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 14/11/2023
Submit your work by this Friday!!! I'm keen to see all the beautiful ways to visualise your Southern Ocean data! 🌊❤️ 🧪🦑⚒️🌏
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 14/11/2023
🧪⚒️
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 09/11/2023
🌎
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 09/11/2023
Working on marine zooplankton? Position available as Postdoctoral Research Associate/Fellow at the University of Exeter. Apply by November 20! 🧪🦑 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DDP954/p...
jobs.ac.uk
Postdoctoral Research Associate/Fellow at University of Exeter
Searching for an academic job? Explore this Postdoctoral Research Associate/Fellow opening on jobs.ac.uk! Click to view more details and browse other academic jobs.
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Reposted by Dr Svenja Halfter
George Matsumoto @georgeimatsumoto.bsky.social · 07/11/2023
🧪 check out @mbarinews.bsky.social latest video - the Dreamer Anglerfish in 4K - www.mbari.org/news/fresh-f...
mbari.org
Fresh from the Deep: MBARI scientists film elusive dreamer anglerfish in 4K
Recent observation marks MBARI’s ninth encounter with this ultra-black deep-sea fish.
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Reposted by Dr Svenja Halfter
Leocadio Blanco-Bercial @blancobercial.bsky.social · 06/11/2023
Together with the amazing @stephaniematthews.bsky.social, we show zooplankton diversity in the North Pacific related to depth and biogeography. Our #NSFfunded research uses samples from a cruise I was onboard in 2012! We rescued them from storage, and here we are! Recycle-Reuse-Publish!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Divergent patterns of zooplankton connectivity in the epipelagic and mesopelagic zones of the easter...
Ecology & Evolution is a broad open access journal welcoming research in ecology, evolution, and conservation science, and providing a forum for evidence-based views.
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 01/11/2023
Interested in changes 📈 in Southern Ocean ecosystems ❄️? Check out this report that summarises the work of more than 200 scientists (including myself 😌) for policymakers! Lots of great infographics, too! Let me know if you have any questions. Direct link: zenodo.org/records/8359... 🧪🦑⚒️🌏
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Reposted by Dr Svenja Halfter
Andrew Digby @digs.bsky.social · 31/10/2023
Want to support #kakapo recovery? Adoptions are open again! These make a big difference to the #conservation work we’re able to do. www.doc.govt.nz/adopt-a-kakapo #parrots #birds
doc.govt.nz
Adopt a kākāpō
Kākāpō adoptions are a special way to donate towards the conservation of this taonga species.
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 31/10/2023
Currently reading a new review by Lilly et al. 2023 on pyrosome ecology! So much is still unknown about physiology, drivers of bloom formation, ecology and their impact on the carbon cycle. Great paper! 🧪🦑🐙🌏 Read it here: aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
A global review of pyrosomes: Shedding light on the ocean's elusive gelatinous “fire‐bodies”
Pyrosomes are colonial tunicates that form gelatinous tubes and occasionally produce bioluminescent swarms. The rapid “bloom-bust” dynamics of pyrosomes have the potential to outcompete other zoop...
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 29/10/2023
Interested in biological data from time series around Australia? 🧪🦑⚒️🐙 The Biological Ocean Observer helps to visualise IMOS data on microbes, phytoplankton, zooplankton, larval fish and environmental properties. Super easy to download data as well! More information: imos.org.au/news/newsite...
imos.org.au
New way to visualise IMOS biological data: introducing the Biological Ocean Observer
The Biological Ocean Observer is a website that integrates, analyses and visualises data collected from IMOS platforms around Australia including the network of National Reference Stations, Continuous...
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 28/10/2023
@earth-science.bsky.social could you add me to the ⚒️ feed, please 🥺
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 28/10/2023
This was the first time I'd ever seen hummingbirds in my life! 🦉🐤🐦 It was so much fun to explore Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay during my US trip last month ❤️
Picture of a hummingbird at a bird feeder. It's green and brown with a pinkish head (most likely an Anna's hummingbird)Picture of a hummingbird at a bird feeder. It has a brown and grey head and you can see its beautiful, green back.Picture of a hummingbird at a bird feeder. It's green and brown/grey with a pinkish head (most likely an Anna's hummingbird).
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 27/10/2023
🧪🦑🌏
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 25/10/2023
Here's a great paper I discovered recently: Lin and Kawagucci (2023) used a hydrophone to listen to singing migrating fish 🐟 and marine mammals🐋 in the deep sea. How cool is that?! Link: aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/lol2.10358
Wiley Online Library requires cookies for authentication and use of other site features; therefore, cookies must be enabled to browse the site. Detailed information on how Wiley uses cookies can be fo...
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 23/10/2023
Love data visualisation and infographics? Working on the impact of climate change on the Southern Ocean? Consider submitting your designs to the SCAR EG-ABI data visualisation competition and win up to USD $ 600! More info here: www.scar.org/scar-news/eg...
Poster of the EG-ABI visualisation competition "Impacts of climate change around Antarctica and the Southern Ocean". Submit a piece of data visualization on the impacts of climate change on Antarctica and the Southern ocean. Three prizes, first prize USD$600. Deadline for entry: 17 November 2023.
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Reposted by Dr Svenja Halfter
Zack Labe @zacklabe.com · 24/08/2023
Terrible news from a study out today on emperor penguins in the Antarctic during November 2022: "This is the first recorded incident of a widespread breeding failure of emperor penguins that is clearly linked with large-scale contractions in sea ice extent." 🧪⚒️
nature.com
Record low 2022 Antarctic sea ice led to catastrophic breeding failure of emperor penguins - Communi...
Four out of five emperor penguin colonies in the Bellingshausen Sea, Antarctica experienced breeding failure in spring 2022 due to unprecedented sea ice loss, according to an analysis of satellite ima...
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 08/08/2023
On the one hand, I should do #science. On the other hand, there is now a live webcam in one of the nesting boxes in the little blue #penguin colony at NIWA Wellington. Tough decision! Watch the live feed here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=i89AYGekG6Y
A little blue penguin, sitting in a nesting box and looking adorable. Screenshot of YouTube live feed. Little blue penguin in nesting box, sitting very close to the camera.
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Dr Svenja Halfter @svenjahalfter.bsky.social · 27/07/2023
Hey @danirabaiotti.bsky.social, could I be added to What's Science?
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