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The Sea Cadets
 Woking & District

 

Bullet pointBullet pointBullet point   POLAR RESEARCH VESSEL EXPLORES NEWLY COLONISED SEA FLOOR   Bullet pointBullet pointBullet point

 

Adapted from an item on www.news.bbc.co.uk                                           25 February 2007

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A previously unexplored section of Antarctic sea floor enticed marine scientists to take a 10-week voyage of exploration during 2006-07.

The voyage was part of the ongoing Census of Marine Life (CoML). It yielded a lot of useful information and some undiscovered species.

The research and supply ship used was the Polarstern ('Polar Star'), a double-hulled icebreaker that belongs to the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany.

Polarstern

Antarctic scene

What makes the region so special is its recent history. The Larsen A and B ice shelves collapsed here 12 and five years ago respectively, leaving unexplored sea floor which is now being colonised by a new batch of organisms.

Researcher Dr Julian Gutt refers to this region as "virgin geography".

(Image: G Chapelle, IPF/ Alfred Wegener Institute)

coral

If you think corals belong exclusively to the tropics, you are mistaken; here they are in the Larsen B area.

As Dr Gutt observes: "We were in the unique position to sample wherever we wanted in a marine ecosystem considered one of the least disturbed by humankind anywhere on the planet."

(Image: J Gutt, Alfred Wegener Institute)

sea squirts

Among the colonising organisms are sea squirts. These gelatinous tubes have moved into the Larsen B region only since the ice shelf collapsed in 2002, scientists believe.

Such migrations may be repeated in other parts of the Antarctic Peninsula as temperatures rise.

(Image: J Gutt, Alfred Wegener Institute)

ice fish

One of the extraordinary adaptations which evolution generates in the extreme Antarctic cold is found in the ice fish.

It has evolved to have no red blood cells and no haemoglobin, allowing its blood to flow more freely. The oxygen which its muscles need simply dissolves in the blood.

(Image: J Gutt, Alfred Wegener Institute)

sea star

This sea star, found near a glacier mouth, is unusual in having 12 arms instead of the usual five. Not much else lives in this muddy zone.

(The shadows on this image were generated by lights on the Polarstern's remotely operated submersible, which the scientists used for many of their finds.)

(Image: J Gutt, Alfred Wegener Institute)

giant amphipod

 

Among the new species was this giant amphipod, a type of crustacean, which researchers caught in baited traps. About 10cm (four inches) long, it is one of the biggest amphipods found in the region.

(Image: C d'Udekem, Royal Belgium Institute for Natural Sciences) §