Summer Months In The Southern Hemisphere |link| Page

When those of us in the north are scraping ice off windshields in January, something magical is happening on the other side of the equator. The Southern Hemisphere is cranking up the heat.

The austral summer drives massive phytoplankton blooms in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica. As sea ice retreats and daylight hours extend to nearly 24 hours at high latitudes, upwelling currents bring nutrients to the surface. This explosion of primary productivity supports krill populations, which in turn sustain the summer feeding frenzies of baleen whales, seals, and penguins, making it the most biologically active period in the Antarctic ecosystem. summer months in the southern hemisphere