The SCAR ICEPRO Action Group: an international collaboration effort for improving paleoclimate research in the Southern Ocean

Reconstructing past hydrological and biogeochemical cycles, as well as sea ice variability in the Southern Ocean—especially along the Antarctic margin—relies on several micropaleontological, inorganic, and organic geochemical proxies preserved in marine sediments that have been developed and validated. However, robust local and regional calibrations for most of these paleoproxies, across the water column and in sediments, are still lacking when compared to present-day conditions and observations, hindering the quantification of past environmental variability. ICEPRO aims to address this gap by enhancing our understanding of past ocean-ice-earth interactions, linking modern observations with paleo-records through transnational collaborations on (paleo)environmental studies in the Southern Ocean. To achieve this goal, ICEPRO brings together international partners from diverse research disciplines (e.g., (paleo)climatologists, (paleo)oceanographers, biologists, and modelers) to coordinate and harmonize joint research activities, including sampling strategies, methodologies, proxy calibrations, and the planning of future Antarctic expeditions. Here, we present the main activities of ICEPRO.