A tremendous discovery has been made on the seafloor of the Antarctic . Researchers discovered several new species when drilling through an Antarctic ice shelf. The area is so hostile to life, that little marine life was expected. The cold water and lack of light make it difficult for creatures to live. Yet, the researchers even found stationary creatures, like sponges, which must be surviving the hostile conditions.
This discovery was by accident.
Huw Griffiths, the lead researcher, told Eurekalert , “This discovery is one of those fortunate accidents that pushes ideas in a different direction and shows us that Antarctic marine life is incredibly special and amazingly adapted to a frozen world.”
Researchers have found life in this area before.
Scientists have previously bored holes into the Antarctic ice selves for surveys. However, in the past, they have only seen mobile creatures, things like crustaceans, fish, or jellies, which were assumed to be passing through. It is too dark for photosynthesis, so little food was thought to be in the area. Seeing stationary creates such as sponges, now questions that assumption .
Ecosystems without photosynthesis do exist.
In areas without light, ecosystems that have chemosynthetic food chains can occur. These lifeforms use energy from inorganic chemical reactions instead of energy from the sun. The researchers have not confirmed if this is the case for the newly discovered ecosystem, but that is their current theory.
It will not be easy to continue to study the creatures.
“To answer our questions we will have to find a way of getting up close with these animals and their environment – and that’s under 900 metres of ice, 260 kilometres away from the ships where our labs are,” Griffiths said.
“This means that as polar scientists, we are going to have to find new and innovative ways to study them and answer all the new questions we have.”
More discoveries are on the horizon.
The Antarctic ice shelves are over 1.5 million square kilometers. Because the environment is so hostile, very little of this area has been explored. This discovery has created many questions.
Griffiths wants to know, “What are they eating? How long have they been there? How common are these boulders covered in life? Are these the same species as we see outside the ice shelf or are they new species? And what would happen to these communities if the ice shelf collapsed?”
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