h North Pole She is known for North Pole. By the way, it’s not her coolest “piece”. a land.
This is the South Pole (South Pole), For reasons already made clear by NEWS 24/7.
Historically, the dark, icy waters beneath Antarctic sea ice are one of the most inhospitable environments on our planet.
Scientists have refuted the popular belief that this is a continent with nothing but snow and ice, penguins and seals, although they insist that living creatures cannot live on sea ice.
In this respect, the minimal relevant explorations that have been undertaken have played a role.
Seals and penguins are not the only life found in Antarctica
image acquisition / iStockPhoto
To give you an idea of how much we don’t know about life on the planet we live in, every time scientists went searching, they found that 10 to 20% of the species they found were unknown. They couldn’t even imagine how many there were.
At the same time, of course, this meant that explorations in Antarctica would never be boring. Just as international cooperation was necessary for it to end up somewhere.
The beginning was in cooperation with researchers from different universities New ZealandFrom United States of America so is it Canada.
They discovered organisms thriving several meters under solid ice, and thus raised questions about climate change on our planet and life on other planets!
in Publication of the study In the the border They highlight the diversity of life on Earth and suggest the existence of unexplored ecosystems at the poles.
life in the ice
Researchers discovered photosynthetic algae – called phytoplankton – at the poles when the ice caps were melting.
They did not look at what was in and/or under the sea ice, as they believed that light could not penetrate these layers.
When members of the research team found phytoplankton under the entire expanse of Arctic sea ice, they found that one of the main reasons they thrive there is the massive human impact on climate change in the region.
In the second year they decided it was time to investigate Antarctica as well.
And so it was discovered that phytoplankton were also present there, growing and thriving before the ice melted.
What are phytoplankton?
Algae under a microscope
image acquisition / iStockPhoto
These microscopic photosynthetic organisms “come” in a great variety of shapes and sizes. Most of them are too small to be seen with the naked eye.
They form the basis of most aquatic food webs and support the growth of other complex life forms.
These life forms are usually found near the surface of the ocean so they can absorb the sunlight they need for energy. It grows just like that, in kilometer-long blooms (up to 5 square kilometres), when conditions are favourable.
How does light pass through solid ice sheets?
Senior Lecturer in Physics at the University of Auckland, Assistant Professor at Brown University and lead author of the study, Christopher Horvat explained In the motherboard of the American deputy how “We are all involved in the current research in the Arctic, where a lot of attention was paid because this bloom was a great observation.
In 2020, co-author Lisa Mathis and I worked on a study showing that much of the Arctic was productive outside of the period of rapid change we’re in now.
Then I moved to New Zealand and met Sarah Seabrook and Antonia Christie – also authors of the study – who are working on cultivating phytoplankton from the Southern Ocean. They actually found that they were incredibly responsive to light.
Together, we began to think that perhaps the Southern Ocean also had all the properties needed to support photosynthesis under sea ice.“.
According to marine biogeography at the British Antarctic Survey, Huw Griffiths In the Newsweek Sea ice in the Southern Ocean consists of distinct ice “shelves” that are very thick and do not allow light to reach the bottom.
However, between them there are small stretches of open water. These allow light to pass through – thus allowing photosynthesis.
“The Antarctic ice shelves are mainly composed of terrestrial ice: they form when huge layers of ice are pushed from the land onto the ocean surface. Unlike sea ice, these sheets can be thousands of feet deep. We know very little about existing life.” below”.
The next step involved sending the Underwater Instruments (BGC-Argo) on a total of 2,197 dives under the Antarctic ice. These samples were collected from 2014 to 2021.
The researchers ran models that estimated the amount of light that could pass through and reach solid ice “For the hungry photosynthesizers who live in the water they cover.”
By examining with a specific pigment that phytoplankton share throughout their group, this has been proven 88% of the measurements recorded an increase in phytoplankton biomass before the seasonal sea ice retreat. “26% achieved the specified control threshold for subglacial breeding.”
In terms of climate models, they have confirmed this “More sunlight can penetrate directly through the Antarctic ice than in similar environments in the Arctic. This is how hidden regions of the Southern Ocean are allowed to thrive.”
With all this man put his hand
Fossil fuels have destroyed the planet and changed nature.
image acquisition
They confirmed that phytoplankton activity is affected by climate change Human-caused greenhouse gases emitted from fossil fuel consumption.
So “The Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the world, causing sea ice in Arctic waters to disappear rapidly as global temperatures rise.
The loss of sea ice is a major change that has exposed phytoplankton to more sunlight, causing population increases that can be linked to human activity.”.
How can you help NASA
The presence of these blooms also raises interesting questions about the chances that organisms in similar environments would appear on other worlds.
“The discovery of complex animal life — not just microbes — in such extreme conditions suggests that it could live outside Earth, on icy moons such as Europa (Jupiter’s moon) and Enceladus (Saturn’s moon) and planets where there is liquid water flowing beneath the surface. frigid Griffith explained.
The frozen surface element makes them “Very promising targets in the search for extraterrestrial life, despite the inability of sunlight to penetrate their icy shells”Horvar had to comment.
He and his colleagues also revealed his interest in space exploration satellite data. They hoped that one day they would use ICESat-2 NASA (a spacecraft launched in 2018 to “read” mysterious phytoplankton blooms, among other unexplored ecosystems, that may be hiding beneath the ice) to find out what’s really inside the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice.
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