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Although some organisms are found in similar areas on a regular basis, this is the first time scientists have reported the presence of creatures permanently attached to one place all the time, highly reminiscent of sponges, in an extremely harsh environment, writes sciencealert .com.
“This discovery is one of the gratifying coincidences that makes us rethink our beliefs to date and shows that the marine flora and fauna of Antarctica are surprisingly special and incredibly well adapted to low temperatures,” said Huw Griffiths, biogeographer of the British Agency for Antarctic Research in Antarctica. . “(BAS).
Mysterious life forms have been discovered that intervene in the dark under the Antarctic ice
© Dr. Huw Griffiths / British Antarctic Survey
The Antarctic Ice Shelf is a constantly floating massif connected to the mainland of Antarctica. They can be huge. The total area of the arrays is 1.5 million. square kilometers, in other words, about a third of the continental Antarctic shelf.
Given the harsh conditions under the ice and how difficult it is to get to these places, the deep areas are poorly explored. To form at least a bit of that image, the researchers drilled through the ice and lowered special equipment.
Analysis of the data obtained through eight wells revealed that there is life under the ice. They are usually miniature mobile creatures such as fish, jellyfish, worms, and crustaceans. The probability of detecting sponges is very low, given the great distance that separates these areas from the areas conducive to photosynthesis.
That is why it is not difficult to imagine the surprise of H. Griffiths and his colleagues, who found such life forms under the Filchner Shelf glacier, in the 890-meter ice-covered depth of 1,233 meters, 260 kilometers since its inception. . . The researchers recorded a sponge attached to the rock on the stem and 15 other stemless sponges, as well as 22 unidentified organisms with sprouts, which could be sponges, sea squirts, members of the hydroid class, haddock crustaceans, pits, or polychaetes.
Mysterious life forms have been discovered that intervene in the dark under the Antarctic ice
© Dr. Huw Griffiths / British Antarctic Survey
“This discovery raises more questions than it answers. For example, I wonder how these organisms got here,” says Griffiths.
“I wonder what they feed on, how long have they been there, what the boulders normally look like, are they the same species that are found outside the glacial shelf and what would happen to these plantations if the shelf were to split.”
Sunlight is essential for the existence of many forms of life and photosynthesis is the basis of the functioning of the food chain. Organisms like plants and algae produce glucose through sunlight, while other organisms feed on plants or organisms that feed on plants (or organisms that feed on plants that feed on organisms, etc.) .
However, life forms in the dark, inaccessible to sunlight, use a different strategy. Because heat and volcanic chemicals are released from thermal vents on the ocean floor, bacteria can perform chemosynthesis to produce glucose, a key element in the food chain. A complete ecosystem based on chemosynthesis was discovered in a Romanian cave.
Recent research has helped elucidate that organisms living under glaciers extract hydrogen by chemosynthesis. Chemosynthetic ecosystems requiring methane have also been found in the ocean, and sources of methane gas have been found even in Antarctic waters.
The area studied by H. Griffiths and his team is between 625 and 1,500 kilometers from a region where photosynthesis is possible, so there is reason to believe that the organisms that live in it feed on something similar to chemosynthesis.
As it really is, this can only be clarified by a much deeper investigation of the organisms found and their environment, and this is challenging work.
“To answer the questions that arise, we need to find a way to get closer to these creatures and their environment. I remind you that they live under a layer of ice 900 meters thick, and in a place that is 260 kilometers from ships with a laboratory, ”explained H. Griffiths.
“As a result, we as researchers in the polar regions will have to think of a new way to conduct research and answer many questions,” he said.
The description of the study mentioned here was published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.
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