Although it is not uncommon to find marine animals thrive under the Antarctic seabed, researchers have always accept that all life would be less abundant further away from open water and sunlight. However, the discovery of filter organisms – 260 km from the open ocean, with temperatures of -2.2 ° C and in total darkness, suggests that life in the world’s most difficult environment can be more adaptable and different than previously thought.
‘It’s slightly bonkers, ”Said Marine Antarctic Survey (BAS) marine biogeographer and study leader, Dr. Huw Griffiths. “We would never have thought within a million years of looking for this kind of life, because we did not think it would be there.”
In 2017, BAS geologist James Smith and his colleagues started three months expedition to the middle of Antarctica’s Filchner-Ronne Ysrak, to haal a sample of the seabed sediment. The team drilled through the half-mile of ice by pumping nearly 20,000 gallons of hot water – created by melting 20 tons of snow – through a pipe that sank into a borehole. After about 20 hours of closely work, they were eventually able to penetrate the ice shelf and reach the seabed below.
However, when the scientists lowered the instrument with a GoPro camera to haal a soil sample, it came up empty. After several failed tries – each return takes about an hour – the researchers took a closer look at the footage and noticed massive rock block sitting between the relatively flat seabed. Even more surprisingly, the rock was covered with stationary animals, such as sponges and potential several previously unknown species.
The finding was particularly confusing given that sitting organisms – such as sponges and coral polyps – that attach to them throughout their lives underwater rocks, or other hard surfaces, require a constant food supply. In the open water the “sea snow”, as it is called, comes from decay organic matter, which floats from the upper waters to the deep ocean. However, the organisms attached to the ice shelf are too far from the open sea to obtain a stable supply. nutrients. To make matters worse, due to the strong ocean currents, the food has to travel in the region of 370 to 930 miles to reach them.
“It’s by far the furthest under an ice shelf we’re ever seen of these animals being filtered,” Griffiths said. “These things are stuck on a rock and are only fed when something floats together.”
The scientists, who published their findings in the journal Boundaries in marine science says on February 15, 2021 that it’s hard to get more because they can not collect samples insights in the organisms. ‘It was a real shock to find them there, a very good shock, but we can not do DNA tests, we can not work out what they ate or how old it is. “We don’t even know if they are new species, but they certainly live in a place where we would not expect them to live,” Griffiths said.
Resources: Livescience.com, newscientist.com, bass, ac.uk