Scientists discover ecosystem beneath the ice sheet in Antarctica

During an expedition to investigate climate change, researchers from New Zealand discovered something unusual.

These are animals living in a freshwater river below an ice sheet on the Ross shelf in Antarctica. The findings were released by the National Institute of Water and Atmosphere (NIWA).

Scientists drilled 500 meters under the ice and were surprised to see the camera flooded with dozens of tiny amphipods. [animais que representam características de crustáceos] with about 5 millimeters.

The Ross Ice Shelf — the largest in the world — sits above the Ross Sea, almost south of New Zealand. It is 487,000 square kilometers and has ice covering 98% of its surface, with an average thickness of almost two kilometers.

discoveries

Using a hot water hose, the scientists melted half a kilometer of ice under the small depression and, with laser precision, drilled directly into the river of meltwater below.

The NIWA team at Victoria University of Wellington already knew that there was a network of hidden freshwater lakes and rivers flowing under the Antarctic ice sheets, but these hidden rivers had not been studied before.

They said that during the research, there was a great element of discovery. View images captured by the team’s camera.

“In a normal experiment, seeing one of these things would make you jump for joy. We were flooded. Having all these animals swimming around our camera means there’s clearly an important ecosystem process going on there,” NIWA physical oceanographer Craig Stevens said in a statement.

The researchers aim to develop instruments to capture data over the next few years to find out about how the estuary [ambiente aquático de transição entre rio e mar] behaves and interacts with the ocean and the ice sheet.

In addition, Steven said that “we will do more research analyzing water samples to test for things like nutrients.”