There is more life underneath the Antarctic ice shelves than we ever imagined. Animals found 900 meters deep
Cold, isolated, dead. But there is more life underneath the Antarctic ice shelves than we ever imagined. Recently, a research team from the British Antarctic Survey found hitherto unknown animals at a depth of 900 meters.
The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, is the first to discover the existence of stationary animals - sponge-like and potentially several previously unknown species - attached to a boulder on the sea floor.
During an exploratory investigation, the researchers drilled 900 meters of ice at the Filchner-Ronne shelf, located in the southeastern Weddell Sea. At a distance of 260 km from the ocean, in complete darkness and with temperatures of -2,2 ° C, very few animals have been observed. At least so far.
"This discovery is one of those lucky incidents that pushes ideas in a different direction and shows us that Antarctic marine life is incredibly special and adapted to an icy world," explained biogeographer and lead author, Dr Huw Griffiths of the British Antarctic Survey.
©Dr Huw Griffiths / British Antarctic Survey
More questions than answers
“Our discovery raises many more questions than answers, such as: How did they get there? What do they eat? How long have they been there? How common are these life-covered boulders? Are they the same species we see off the ice shelf or are they new species? And what would happen to these communities if the ice shelf collapsed? "
The floating ice shelves represent the largest unexplored habitat in the Southern Ocean. They cover more than 1,5 million sq km of the continental shelf, but only a total area similar in size to a tennis court has been studied through eight holes.
Current theories of how life could survive under ice shelves in a truly hostile environment suggest as we move away from sunlight, life forms begin to diminish. Previous studies had found some small animals, including fish, worms, jellyfish, or krill, in these habitats.
So, it came as a surprise when the team of geologists, drilling through the ice to collect sediment samples, hit a rock instead of the mud on the ocean floor below. They were even more surprised by the footage, which showed a large boulder covered with strange creatures.
A new expedition to Antarctica will be needed
This is the first ever recording of a hard substrate (i.e. boulder) community deep under an ice shelf and appears to go against all previous theories as to what types of life might survive in the area.
Given the water currents in the region, the researchers calculate that this community could be up to 1.500 km upstream of the nearest source of photosynthesis. Other organisms are also known to harvest nutrients from glacial melts or chemicals from methane infiltrations, but researchers won't be able to find out more about these organisms until they have the tools to collect more samples.
“To answer our questions we will have to find a way to get closer to these animals and their environment - and that's under 900 meters of ice, 260km from the ships where our laboratories are located,” continues Griffiths. "This means that as polar scientists, we will have to find new and innovative ways to study them and answer any new questions we have."
Unfortunately, the time to protect these creatures and their ecosystems is running out as, according to Griffiths and colleagues, the climate crisis could favor the collapse of ice shelves, with devastating consequences for these habitats.
Sources of reference: Eurekalert, British Antarctic Survey, Frontiers in Marine Science
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