Abstract: Background and aims – During a survey of the soil diatom flora of the sub-Antarctic islands in the southern Indian Ocean, an unknown small-celled naviculoid taxon was discovered living in small cracks in cliffs bordering the ocean. The taxon showed a set of morphological features only found in the genus Microcostatus. However, the unknown taxon could not be identified using the currently available literature. Methods – Using both light microscopical and scanning electron microscopical techniques, the morphology of the unknown Microcostatus taxon was documented. The new taxon is described, illustrated and compared with all other similar Microcostatus taxa worldwide. Key results – Microcostatus elisabethianus possesses a unique combination of morphological features that excludes conspecificity with all other members of the genus. It is characterized by a lanceolate valve outline with protracted, elongate apices, a very large, porous conopeum reaching the valve margins and uniseriate striae composed of only one macroareola and mantle areolae restricted to the valve apices. The morphological features of the genus Microcostatus are evaluated and discussed. Notes on the occurrence and ecology of the new taxon are added.

Abstract: Background and aims – The past few years, the limnoterrestrial and aquatic diatom flora of the entire Antarctic Region (sub-Antarctic islands, Maritime Antarctic Region, Antarctic Continent) is currently under revision. One of the genera that still needed a revision is the genus Eunotia, quite common in wet to semi-wet moss vegetations in the sub-Antarctic and Maritime Antarctic Region.
Methods – Using both Light Microscopical and Scanning Electron Microscopical techniques, the morphology of all Eunotia taxa, present in the samples from the Antarctic Region, has been analysed. Each taxon is properly described, illustrated and compared with all other possible similar Eunotia taxa, known worldwide.
Key results – A total of nineteen Eunotia taxa has been found of which one remains unidentified and is discussed as Eunotia sp. 1. Six taxa could be identified using the currently available literature: Eunotia meisterioides Lange-Bert., E. muscicola Krasske var. muscicola, E. paludosa Grunow var. paludosa, E. pyramidatoides, E. seminulum Nörpel-Schempp & Lange-Bert. and E. tecta Krasske. Ten new Eunotia species and two new subspecies are described: Eunotia amayae sp. nov., E. amayae subsp. heardensis subsp. nov., E. australomaior sp. nov., E. clotii sp. nov., E. frigida sp. nov., E. mcbridei sp. nov., E. mourotii sp. nov., E. muscicola subsp. polyglyphis subsp. nov., E. parallelogramma sp. nov., E. pseudopaludosa sp. nov., E. ralitsae sp. nov. and E. subantarctica sp. nov.
Conclusions – The obtained results confirm the presence of a typical and highly specific limnoterrestrial diatom flora in the Antarctic Region and contradict the generally accepted idea about the worldwide distribution of diatoms.

Abstract: Magnetic observatories currently distribute two types of data: preliminary data, available in less than 72 hrs in the case of INTERMAGNET observatories, and definitive baseline-corrected data, produced only once a year. Several users and groups of users have expressed the need for baseline-corrected observatory data produced in a continuous manner. The main applications for such quasi-definitive data include geomagnetic field modeling and the calculation of geomagnetic activity indices. We present an original method for producing quasi-definitive data at the end of each calendar month using temporary baselines. Preliminary and definitive data at nine INTERMAGNET observatories are used to test this method, simulating the production of quasi-definitive data throughout the year 2008. The temporary baselines obtained are very close to the definitive ones, except during the last few days of each time interval. The means and standard deviations of the differences between quasi-definitive and definitive data do not exceed 0.3 nT, well below the current INTERMAGNET standard of accuracy. This result demonstrates the feasibility of promptly producing quasi-definitive data at most magnetic observatories of INTERMAGNET type.

Abstract: In this article we describe EPOS Seismology, the Thematic Core Service consortium for the seismology domain within the European Plate Observing System infrastructure. EPOS Seismology was developed alongside the build-up of EPOS during the last decade, in close collaboration between the existing pan-European seismological initiatives ORFEUS (Observatories and Research Facilities for European Seismology), EMSC (Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center) and EFEHR (European Facilities for Earthquake Hazard and Risk) and their respective communities. It provides on one hand a governance framework that allows a well-coordinated interaction of the seismological community services with EPOS and its bodies, and on the other hand it strengthens the coordination among the already existing seismological initiatives with regard to data, products and service provisioning and further development. Within the EPOS Delivery Framework, ORFEUS, EMSC and EFEHR provide a wide range of services that allow open access to a vast amount of seismological data and products, following and implementing the FAIR principles and supporting open science. Services include access to raw seismic waveforms of thousands of stations together with relevant station and data quality information, parametric earthquake information of recent and historical earthquakes together with advanced event-specific products like moment tensors or source models and further ancillary services, and comprehensive seismic hazard and risk information, covering latest European scale models and their underlying data. The services continue to be available on the well-established domain-specific platforms and websites, and are also consecutively integrated with the interoperable central EPOS data infrastructure. EPOS Seismology and its participating organizations provide a consistent framework for the future development of these services and their operation as EPOS services, closely coordinated also with other international seismological initiatives, and is well set to represent the European seismological research infrastructures and their stakeholders within EPOS.

Abstract: The CASE-IPY project, part of the larger POLENET initiative of geophysical observations for the International Polar Year, was built on our extensive experience of running seismological stations in Antarctica, both on rock sites (Dumont d’Urville station), and directly on the ice plateau (Concordia station). For CASE-IPY, we deployed 8 temporary seismic stations on the Antarctic plateau: 3 situated near Concordia itself (starting 2008), and the other 5 regularly spaced between Concordia and Vostok (2010-2012), following the maximum in ice topography. The technical problems we have encountered in our field deployments were essentially due to a combination of extreme environmental conditions and isolation of deployment sites. The 3 stations near Concordia were used as test sites to experiment different solutions, and to converge on a design for the 5 main stations. Results from the nearest stations, which transmit data regularly to Concordia, are very promising. The data recorded by our stations will be distributed widely in the scientific community. We expect them to be exploited essentially for structural studies involving Antarctica itself (its ice-cap, crust and lithosphere) via receiver functions, noise correlation, and surface-wave tomography, but also for studies of the Earth’s core.