Orkney Islands Research Articles

Dr James Copland (1791-1870) and his Dictionary of Practical Medicine.

Dr James Copland (1791-1870) was born in the Orkney Islands and studied medicine at Edinburgh where he graduated in 1815. The following year was spent in Paris to acquire knowledge of the latest developments in pathology and he then travelled for a year along the coast of West Africa gaining practical experience of treating tropical diseases. After establishing his medical practice in London, which eventually became extremely successful, he contributed to medical journals and also became editor of the London Medical Repository from 1822 to 1825. His greatest work was The Dictionary of Practical Medicine written entirely by himself which was completed between 1832 and 1858. More than 10,000 copies of the dictionary were sold and its author became world famous during his lifetime. In 1833, Copland was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and from 1837 onwards he played a prominent role in the proceedings of The Royal College of Physicians. This article shows how his extensive professional and literary work was combined with an unusual private life.

First record of the cyanobacterial genus <italic>Wilmottia</italic> (Coleofasciculaceae, Oscillatoriales) from the South Orkney Islands (Antarctica)

Two cyanobacterial morphotypes isolated from Signy Island, South Orkney Islands, maritime Antarctica were characterised using a polyphasic approach combining morphological, cytological and molecular analyses. These analyses showed that the strains grouped with members of the genus Wilmottia. This genus currently includes three species, W. murrayi, W. stricta, and W. koreana. Both morphotypes analysed in this study were placed within the clade of W. murrayi. This clade showed a well-supported separation from Antarctic and New Zealand strains, as well as strains from other regions. W. murrayi was first described from Antarctica and is now known from several Antarctic regions. Confirmation of the occurrence of W. murrayi at Signy Island significantly extends its known distribution in Antarctica. In addition, a new combination, W. arthurensis, is suggested for Phormidium arthurensis. Key words: Antarctic cyanobacteria; distribution; polyphasic analysis; taxonomy; 16S rDNA

Poetry at the Margins: Jacques Darras’s Neo-Epic La Maye

Jacques Darras’s La Maye, an opus in eight cantos composed between 1988 and 2012 constitutes a singular attempt in the field of contemporary French poetry to reinvest the topos of the region (his native Picardy) and interrogate key elements of the Long Poem tradition. Rather than reverse the power differential in the center/margin dichotomy, Darras deploys a series of geographic and literary drifts to map out a trans-local vision of the North that complicates a notion of regional identity construed as immediate and solvable. Whether by delving into records of site-specific history that were glossed over in the grand récit of the nation or by appealing to the poetic traditions of the North for specific meters and multilingual borrowings—drawing inspiration from frontier territories such as Quebec or the Orkney Islands and their vexed historical and linguistic relationships with the center—Darras’s project participates in a form of critical memory. Following a brief discussion of the major characteristics of his oeuvre, I turn to its formal elements—the frequent use of toponyms and allusions to Anglo-American modernists, in particular—as crucial markers for Darras’s visionary poetics of place and for defining its fraught relation with the Long Poem.

Discussion on ‘The geological collection from the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (1902–04) in the Museo de La Plata, Argentina’ by Carrasquero 2021 ( SJG , 57, 60–66)

The informative paper by Carrasquero (2021) reveals the personal contribution made by Francisco Moreno to the success of the 1902-04 Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (SNAE) during the time it spent in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was a crucial intervention, and for the hospitality and generous assistance that Moreno arranged for the expedition's leader, William Speirs Bruce (Fig. 1), the presentation of a few rock specimens might seem scant reward, although as an additional mark of respect Bruce named Point Moreno on the expedition's published map of Laurie Island (Brown et al. 1906, p. 145): the name is still valid – 60° 44’ S, 44° 41’ W. Bruce would have been deeply satisfied by the knowledge that his donation of specimens from the South Orkney Islands had initiated the development of an Antarctic collection at the Museo de La Plata. His scientific outlook was always international and collaborative.

Foraging conditions for breeding penguins improve with distance from colony and progression of the breeding season at the South Orkney Islands

BackgroundAccording to central place foraging theory, animals will only increase the distance of their foraging trips if more distant prey patches offer better foraging opportunities. Thus, theory predicts that breeding seabirds in large colonies could create a zone of food depletion around the colony, known as “Ashmole’s halo”. However, seabirds’ decisions to forage at a particular distance are likely also complicated by their breeding stage. After chicks hatch, parents must return frequently to feed their offspring, so may be less likely to visit distant foraging patches, even if their quality is higher. However, the interaction between prey availability, intra-specific competition, and breeding stage on the foraging decisions of seabirds is not well understood. The aim of this study was to address this question in chinstrap penguins Pygoscelis antarcticus breeding at a large colony. In particular, we aimed to investigate how breeding stage affects foraging strategy; whether birds foraging far from the colony visit higher quality patches than available locally; and whether there is evidence for intraspecific competition, indicated by prey depletions near the colony increasing over time, and longer foraging trips.MethodsWe used GPS and temperature-depth recorders to track the foraging movements of 221 chinstrap penguins from 4 sites at the South Orkney Islands during incubation and brood. We identified foraging dives and calculated the index of patch quality based on time allocation during the dive to assess the quality of the foraging patch.ResultsWe found that chinstrap penguin foraging distance varied between stages, and that trips became shorter as incubation progressed. Although patch quality was lower near the colony than at more distant foraging patches, patch quality near the colony improved over the breeding season.ConclusionsThese results suggest chinstrap penguin foraging strategies are influenced by both breeding stage and prey distribution, and the low patch quality near the colony may be due to a combination of depletion by intraspecific competition but compensated by natural variation in prey. Reduced trip durations towards the end of the incubation period may be due to an increase in food availability, as seabirds time their reproduction so that the period of maximum energy demand in late chick-rearing coincides with maximum resource availability in the environment. This may also explain why patch quality around the colony improved over the breeding season. Overall, our study sheds light on drivers of foraging decisions in colonial seabirds, an important question in foraging ecology.

The geological collection from the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (1902–04) in the Museo de La Plata, Argentina

In December 1903, William Speirs Bruce, leader of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, arrived in Buenos Aires and contacted Francisco Moreno, director of the Museo de La Plata to request his assistance. Bruce asked Moreno to be an intermediary with the Argentine government and to facilitate Bruce's wish for Argentina to take over the meteorological station that the Scottish expedition had established on Laurie Island (South Orkney Islands). Moreno was please to provide the necessary assistance and was instrumental in Bruce achieving his ambition. As a gesture of appreciation, before leaving Buenos Aires Bruce presented a small collection of Laurie Island rock specimens to Moreno as a donation to the Museo de La Plata. This donation initiated the museum's Antarctic collection.

Intra-specific variation in lichen secondary compounds across environmental gradients on Signy Island, maritime Antarctic

Lichens produce various carbon-based secondary compounds (CBSCs) in response to abiotic conditions and herbivory. Although lichen CBSCs have received considerable attention with regard to responses to UV-B exposure, very little is known about intra-specific variation across environmental gradients and their role in protection against herbivory in the Antarctic. Here we report on the variation in CBSCs of two widely distributed and common Antarctic lichens, Usnea antarctica and Umbilicaria antarctica, between sites with different solar exposure (NW–SE) and along natural nitrogen (N) gradients which are associated with changing lichen-invertebrate associations on Signy Island (South Orkney Islands, maritime Antarctic). Fumarprotocetraric and usnic acid concentrations in Usnea showed no relationships with solar exposure, lichen-N or associated invertebrate abundance. However, fumarprotocetraric acid concentration was 13 times higher at inland sites compared to coastal sites along the N-gradients. Gyrophoric acid concentration in Umbilicaria was 33% lower in sun-facing (northerly exposed) habitats compared to more shaded (south-facing) rocks and declined with elevation. Gyrophoric acid concentration was positively correlated with the abundance and species richness of associated microarthropods, similar to the patterns found with lichen N. This initial investigation indicates that there can be large intraspecific variation in lichen CBSC concentrations across relative short distances (< 500 m) on Signy Island and raises further questions regarding current understanding of the role of CBSCs in Antarctic lichens in relation to biotic and abiotic pressures.

Northern Fennoscandia via the British Isles: evidence for a novel post-glacial recolonization route by winter moth (Operophtera brumata)

The frequency and severity of outbreaks by pestiferous insects is increasing globally, likely as a result of human-mediated introductions of non-native organisms. However, it is not always apparent whether an outbreak is the result of a recent introduction of an evolutionarily naïve population, or of recent disturbance acting on an existing population that arrived previously during natural range expansion. &nbsp;Here we use approximate Bayesian computation to infer the colonization history of a pestiferous insect, the winter moth, Operophtera brumata L. (Lepidoptera: Geometridae), which has caused widespread defoliation in northern Fennoscandia. We generated genotypes using a suite of 24 microsatellite loci and find that populations of winter moth in northern Europe can be assigned to five genetically distinct clusters that correspond with 1) Iceland, 2) the British Isles, 3) Central Europe and southern Fennoscandia, 4) Eastern Europe, and 5) northern Fennoscandia. We find that the northern Fennoscandia winter moth cluster is most closely related to a population presently found in the British Isles, and that these populations likely diverged around 2,900 years ago. This result suggests that current outbreaks are not the result of a recent introduction, but rather that recent climate or habitat disturbance is acting on existing populations that may have arrived to northern Fennoscandia via pre-Roman traders from the British Isles, and/or by natural dispersal across the North Sea likely using the Orkney Islands of northern Scotland as a stepping-stone before dispersing up the Norwegian coast.

Un-crewed aerial vehicle population survey of three sympatrically breeding seabird species at Signy Island, South Orkney Islands

Surveying seabirds in polar latitudes can be challenging due to sparse human populations, lack of infrastructure and the risk of disturbance to wildlife or damage to habitats. Counting populations using un-crewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) is a promising approach to overcoming these difficulties. However, a careful validation of the approach is needed to ensure comparability with counts collected using conventional methods. Here, we report on surveys of three Antarctic bird species breeding on Signy Island, South Orkney Islands; Chinstrap (Pygoscelis antarctica) and Gentoo (Pygoscelis papua) Penguins, and the South Georgia Shag (Leucocarbo atriceps georgianus). We show that images from low-altitude UAV surveys have sufficient resolution to allow separation of Chinstrap Penguins from contiguously breeding Adélie Penguins (Pygoscelis adéliae), which are very similar in appearance when viewed from overhead. We compare data from ground counts with manual counts of nesting birds on images collected simultaneously by low-altitude aerial photography from multi-rotor UAVs at the same colonies. Results at this long-term monitoring site confirmed a continued population decline for Chinstrap Penguins and increasing Gentoo Penguin population. Although both methods provided breeding pair counts that were generally within ~ 5%, there were significant differences at some locations. We examine these differences in order to highlight potential biases or methodological constraints that should be considered when analysing similar aerial census surveys and comparing them with ground counts.

The Lost List

The Lost List Ryan Bradley (bio) My grandfather once taught me how to use a sextant. We were at sea, motoring toward Baja California’s Isla San Martín, many miles off Punta Colonet, out of sight of land. The time was important, as I recall. We took turns squinting into the sextant’s sight, lining up the angle of the noonday sun so that the mirrors reflected its image onto the horizon line, which kept bouncing up and down with us and the boat and the ocean’s swell. It was hot, and awkward, and I remember wanting to give up on the task several times. Someone on board — my uncle, most likely — snapped a photo of us. I must have been aware of his taking it, because I’m hamming it up, brow furrowed and squinting hard into the sight, like I know what the hell I am doing. It’s not a good photo of me, but my grandfather looks perfectly at ease. He’d navigated this way during World War II, up to and even after his ship, a combat cutter, was torpedoed by a German sub and partially sank in the North Atlantic. He would have died were it not for some Icelandic fisherman who happened to be trawling nearby, and to whom I owe my existence. After making note of the angle, I [End Page 480] remember retreating into the shade and staring at a nautical chart, then drawing a line from where we had been to where we now, with the help of the sextant, supposed we were. It seemed both very precise — the instrument, the charts, the various calculations — and something approximating a tremendous guess. The great blue sky and deep blue sea and us, on a little white boat, out in the vastness, trying to find our way. ________ About a year ago I began keeping a list of lost things: objects and areas that acted as engines of disappearance or disorientation; individuals who had vanished suddenly and mysteriously, then returned, or not; animals that had taken strange and extraordinary rambles trying to find — something, whatever it was wasn’t always clear. I suppose my intent was something like the sun lines I’d learned from my grandfather, the plotted points on a nautical chart. If I could take all these entries and order them just so, perhaps they would lead somewhere. When I began the list, the world was shutting down, the future felt terribly uncertain, and I felt lost. My lost list was a way to calm my mind, order chaos, plot a course through the unknown. I began with places. The first entry is the Box-Death Hollow Wilderness, in southern Utah — a mess of slot canyons, dry washes, and a few trails. People often get lost there. In 2012, a fifty-nine-year-old woman hiking the Box-Death Hollow jumped down a small ledge and broke her leg. Lying there, she realized she hadn’t told anyone where she was. She was also a diabetic and had failed to pack food. Forty years earlier, however, she’d taken a survival course; she had on her person a scarf and a walking stick, which she used to fashion a brace for her leg. During the day, she slept, so that she could stay up all [End Page 481] night, huddled beneath her poncho in order to stave off hypothermia. She did not wander, for she knew that she wouldn’t get far with her leg. More importantly, she recalled from her course that once someone began looking for her, she had a much better chance of being found if she stayed put. On the fourth day, a local search and rescue team spotted her. Beneath places there are entries for the Black Sea, the North Sea, the Orkney Islands, the Bermuda Triangle, and Mocha Island, off the coast of Chile, where shipwrecks are so common that many of its houses are cobbled together from the scavenged parts of boats run aground. The Lost Sea in Tennessee is an underground lake, the largest in the United States, and where some 20,000 years ago, a giant jaguar...

An Evaluation of Feedstocks for Sustainable Energy and Circular Economy Practices in a Small Island Community: An Orkney Islands Case Study

An Evaluation of Feedstocks for Sustainable Energy and Circular Economy Practices in a Small Island Community: An Orkney Islands Case Study

Ocean currents as a potential dispersal pathway for Antarctica\u2019s most persistent non-native terrestrial insect

The non-native midge Eretmoptera murphyi is Antarctica’s most persistent non-native insect and is known to impact the terrestrial ecosystems. It inhabits by considerably increasing litter turnover and availability of soil nutrients. The midge was introduced to Signy Island, South Orkney Islands, from its native South Georgia, and routes of dispersal to date have been aided by human activities, with little known about non-human-assisted methods of dispersal. This study is the first to determine the potential for dispersal of a terrestrial invertebrate species in Antarctica by combining physiological sea water tolerance data with quantitative assessments of ocean current journey times. Fourth instar larvae tolerated sea water submergence for up to 21 days, but submerged egg sacs had significantly reduced hatching success. Using near-surface drifter data, we conclude that ocean current dispersal from Signy Island would not present a risk of species transfer beyond the South Orkney Islands on the tested timescales. However, if E. murphyi were to be introduced to the South Shetlands Islands or Adelaide Island, which are located offshore of the Antarctic Peninsula, there would be a risk of successful oceanic dispersal to neighbouring islands and the Antarctic Peninsula mainland. This study emphasises the need for effective biosecurity measures and demonstrates the role that currently undocumented pathways may have in dispersing non-native species.

Prostranstvennaya struktura i vnutrigodovaya izmenchivost' fronta morya Ueddella po dannym reanaliza NOAA OISST

Based on the NOAA OISST reanalysis data, the spatial structure of the Weddell Sea Front in the climatic field of the sea surface temperature was analyzed and the seasonal variability of front’s characteristics was estimated. The spatial position of the frontal zone in the Weddell Sea was analyzed using distributions of the total horizontal temperature gradient. The characteristics of the front (the position of the gradients' extrema corresponding to the front, their magnitude and temperature on the front axis) were determined for each month on the profiles of meridional and zonal temperature gradients along meridians and parallels with a discreteness of 2.5° of longitude and 0.25° of latitude. It is shown that the interaction of Weddell Sea cold waters, which are transported by currents northward along the Antarctic Peninsula coasts, with the warmer waters of the eastern shelf of the Antarctic Peninsula and the Bransfield Strait surface water causes formation of two branches of the Weddell Sea Front. These branches round from a vast shelf at the Antarctic Peninsula tip and the Joinville archipelago the south and north and are traced further east along the boundaries of the bottom rise located approximately between 62.5S and 64.5S. To the south of the South Orkney Islands shelf, the two branches merge into one front, which follows to the east along the depth dump of the relative shallow between the South Orkney and South Sandwich Islands. In the seasonal cycle of the Weddell Sea Front intensity, a time lag was revealed of the front intensification period in the direction from west to east. In Bransfield Strait the front is most intense in February, between the Antarctic Peninsula tip and the South Orkney Islands – in March, east of the South Orkney Islands – in April. The branch of the Weddell Sea Front off the northeastern of the Antarctic Peninsula coasts intensifies in November – January, in the western part of the water area east of the James Ross and Snow Hill Islands – in January – February.

Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic maritime resilience? The 4.2 ka BP event and its implications for environments and societies in Northwest Europe

This paper deals with prehistoric communities at the end of the 3rd millennium BC in Northwest Europe in relation to the 4.2 ka BP climatic event. In particular, the question of the resilience of these communities to climatic change will be studied here by comparing various climatic records and analysing specific archaeological parameters for social and cultural change. These parameters include the duration and intensity of settlement occupation, the variability of subsistence activities (e.g. cereal cultivation, animal husbandry, hunting, fishing, and gathering) and the connectedness of communities within exchange networks. Rather than answering the often-asked yes/no question with regard to human–environment relations, our research asks what effect resulted from the 4.2 ka BP climatic event, and, from the perspective of resilience, how did communities adopt to these changes in their practices and cultural choices during the later 3rd millennium BC.In short, we maintain that climate change took place at the end of the 3rd millennium BC, but the changes in humidity and temperature with their effects on vegetation were probably regionally varied across Northwest Europe. We also observe that the studied communities developed differently during the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. On the one hand, we identify new food storage and house building techniques in the Low Countries and Schleswig-Holstein and, on the other hand, substantiate population decrease on the Orkney Islands around 2300 BC. Finally, we note a development of the Bell Beaker phenomenon into an Early Bronze Age maritory of connected communities across the North Sea, in which these communities expressed their resilience to climate change.

A radial-grouping-based planning method for electrical collector systems in tidal current generation farms

This paper proposes a radial-grouping-based planning method for the electrical collector systems (ECSs) to design the topology and select the cross-sections of ECS submarine cables in tidal current generation farms (TCGFs) while minimizing investment and operation costs. First, an angle-based radial-grouping method is proposed to group the tidal current turbines (TCTs) in a TCGF, considering their capacity limitations while avoiding the trans-region crossing of submarine cables. Second, an optimal planning model is presented to determine the connection scheme for the TCTs within the same group in a TCGF. The investment and trenching costs of submarine cables and ECS power losses are modeled to minimize the comprehensive annual equivalent cost of ECS, while satisfying the submarine cables’ voltage drop and capacity limitation constraints. Third, an efficient solution method is developed by modifying a genetic algorithm with the Prufer number, which retains the ECS radial topology and connectivity with high computational efficiency. Finally, two TCGFs with distinct characteristics in the North Orkney Islands, Scotland, and their measured tidal current data are used to demonstrate the effectiveness, correctness and adaptability of the proposed method.

Abundance and Distributional Patterns of Benthic Peracarid Crustaceans From the Atlantic Sector of the Southern Ocean and Weddell Sea

Climate change is influencing some environmental variables in the Southern Ocean (SO) and this will have an effect on the marine biodiversity. Peracarid crustaceans are one of the dominant and most species-rich groups of the SO benthos. To date, our knowledge on the influence of environmental variables in shaping abundance and species composition in the SO’s peracarid assemblages is limited, and with regard to ice coverage it is unknown. The aim of our study was to assess the influence of sea ice coverage, chlorophyll-a, and phytoplankton concentrations on abundance, distribution and assemblage structure of peracarids. In addition, the influence of other physical parameters on peracarid abundance was assessed, including depth, temperature, salinity, sediment type, current velocity, oxygen, iron, nitrate, silicate and phosphate. Peracarids were sampled with an epibenthic sledge (EBS) in different areas of the Atlantic sector of the SO and in the Weddell Sea. Sampling areas were characterized by different regimes of ice coverage (the ice free South Orkney Islands, the seasonally ice-covered Filchner Trough and the Eastern Antarctic Peninsula including the Prince Gustav Channel which was formerly covered by a perennial ice shelf). In total 64766 individuals of peracarids were collected and identified to order level including five orders: Amphipoda, Cumacea, Isopoda, Mysidacea, and Tanaidacea. Amphipoda was the most abundant taxon, representing 32% of the overall abundances, followed by Cumacea (31%), Isopoda (29%), Mysidacea (4%), and Tanaidacea (4%). The Filchner Trough had the highest abundance of peracarids, while the South Orkney Islands showed the lowest abundance compared to other areas. Ice coverage was the main environmental driver shaping the abundance pattern and assemblage structure of peracarids and the latter were positively correlated with ice coverage and chlorophyll-a concentration. We propose that the positive correlation between sea ice and peracarid abundances is likely due to phytoplankton blooms triggered by seasonal sea ice melting, which might increase the food availability for benthos. Variations in ice coverage extent and seasonality due to climate change would strongly influence the abundance and assemblage structure of benthic peracarids.

The Norn Hildina Ballad from the Shetland Islands: Scandinavian parallels and attempts at reconstruction/translation

The Shetland Islands, together with the Orkney Islands, were until the nineteenth century a remarkable reservoir of the so-called Norn language, an extinct insular variety of Old Norse closely related to Icelandic and, specially, Faroese. Norn was preserved in these North-Atlantic British islands in form of single words, proverbs, or prayers. However, the longest and most complete text in Norn is the Shetlandic Hildina Ballad, collected on the small island of Foula in 1774 by George Low and consisting of thirtyfive stanzas. In this article I intend to offer a comparative approach to this Norn oral text refering to its Scandinavian parallels and the attempts at reconstruction and translation carried out by several scholars such as Marius Hægstad, Sophus Bugge, William G. Collinwood, Norah Kershaw, or Eigil Lehmann.

Genetic structure in Orkney island mice: isolation promotes morphological diversification

Following human occupation, the house mouse has colonised numerous islands, exposing the species to a wide variety of environments. Such a colonisation process, involving successive founder events and bottlenecks, may either promote random evolution or facilitate adaptation, making the relative importance of adaptive and stochastic processes in insular evolution difficult to assess. Here, we jointly analyse genetic and morphometric variation in the house mice (Mus musculus domesticus) from the Orkney archipelago. Genetic analyses, based on mitochondrial DNA and microsatellites, revealed considerable genetic structure within the archipelago, suggestive of a high degree of isolation and long-lasting stability of the insular populations. Morphometric analyses, based on a quantification of the shape of the first upper molar, revealed considerable differentiation compared to Western European populations, and significant geographic structure in Orkney, largely congruent with the pattern of genetic divergence. Morphological diversification in Orkney followed a Brownian motion model of evolution, suggesting a primary role for random drift over adaptation to local environments. Substantial structuring of human populations in Orkney has recently been demonstrated, mirroring the situation found here in house mice. This synanthropic species may thus constitute a bioproxy of human structure and practices even at a very local scale.

Molecular fossils as a tool for tracking Holocene sea‐level change in the Loch of Stenness, Orkney

ABSTRACTSediments deposited in the Loch of Stenness (Orkney Islands, Scotland) during the Holocene transgression, previously dated to between ~5939–5612 bp, were analysed for molecular fossils – lipids and chlorophyll pigments from primary producers – that complement conventional microfossil and lithological approaches for studying past sea‐level change. While microfossil and lithological studies identified a transgression between 102 and 81 cm core depth, key molecular fossils fluctuate in occurrence and concentration between 118 and 85 cm, suggesting an earlier start to the transgression. Terrestrial lipid concentrations decreased and algal‐derived, short‐chain, n‐alkanoic acid concentrations increased at 118 cm, indicating a disruption of the freshwater lake conditions associated with the early stages of the marine transgression. The lipid and pigment analyses provided information that complements and extends that from microfossil analysis, presenting a more complete record of Holocene sea‐level changes and local vegetation changes in the Loch of Stenness. The isostatic stability of Stenness during the Holocene points towards other factors to explain the transgression, such as regional factors and/or melting of the Antarctic ice sheet (which occurred up to 3 ka).

Isolation and genome sequencing of Staphylococcus schleiferi subspecies coagulans from Antarctic and North Sea seals.

Reports on the commensal organism and opportunistic pathogen Staphylococcus schleiferi have largely considered isolates from humans and companion dogs. Two subspecies are recognized: the coagulase-negative S. schleiferi ssp. schleiferi, typically seen in humans, and the coagulase-positive S. schleiferi ssp. coagulans, typically seen in dogs. In this study, we report the isolation, genome sequencing and comparative genomics of three S. schleiferi ssp. coagulans isolates from mouth samples from two species of healthy, free-living Antarctic seals, southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) and Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella), in the South Orkney Islands, Antarctica, and three isolates from post-mortem samples from grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) in Scotland, UK. This is the first report of S. schleiferi ssp. coagulans isolation from Antarctic fur seal and grey seal. The Antarctic fur seal represents the first isolation of S. schleiferi ssp. coagulans from the family Otariidae, while the grey seal represents the first isolation from a pinniped in the Northern Hemisphere. We compare seal, dog and human isolates from both S. schleiferi subspecies in the first genome-based phylogenetic analysis of the species.