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A scientific expedition has discovered new species under the ice shelves of Antarctica, indicating that there is more life than expected in one of the largest marine habitats to explore.
The expedition of researchers from the British exploration agency in Antarctica has accidentally identified stationary animals in rocks of the seabed, similar to sponges and of potentially unknown species, revealed the “British Antarctic Survey” (BAS).
The discovery, featured in a scientific paper published Monday in the journal “Frontiers in Marine Science,” “is one of those happy accidents that steers ideas into a different perspective and shows that Antarctic marine life is unique and incredibly adapted to an extreme. environment, “says Huw Griffiths, BAS biogeographer and principal investigator.
The scientists drilled 900 meters into the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf, located in the southeastern Weddell Sea, at a distance of about 260 km from the open ocean and in complete darkness, where a reduction in animal life had already been observed.
By drilling into the ice to collect sediment samples, the researchers struck a rock rather than mud on the ocean floor and found, through video images, a “large stone covered by strange creatures.”
According to the now published study, the BAS researchers’ discovery raises more questions than the answers it offers about this type of marine life in extreme conditions.
The floating ice shelves represent the largest untapped habitat in the Southern Ocean. It covers more than 1.5 million square kilometers of the Antarctic continental shelf, where only a total area similar to the size of a tennis court has been studied through eight previous holes.
Taking into account the currents in the region, the researchers estimate that the community of organisms now discovered may be about 1,500 kilometers from the closest source of photosynthesis.
“To answer the new questions, we will have to find a way to get closer to these animals and their environment, and that is 900 meters deep, under the ice and 260 km from the ships where our laboratories are located,” he said. Huw Griffiths.
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