Race to study undersea life hidden for 120 , 000yrs
Broken iceberg reveals secrets
BRITISH scientists are in a race to uncover the secrets of an ecosystem hidden beneath an Antarctic ice shelf for up to 120,000 years.
Members of the British Antarctic Survey are hoping to study creatures and bacteria that lived beneath a giant iceberg four times the size of London.
The iceberg, known as A68, “calved off ” from the enormous Larsen Ice Shelf, in the Antarctic’s Weddell Sea, exposing the seabed.
But scientists now face a race against time to study the ecosystem before sunlight starts to alter the surface layers. Marine biologist Dr Katrin Linse, of the BAS, said: “It’s very exciting.
“It’s important we get there quickly before the undersea environment changes as sunlight enters the water and new species begin to colonise.
“The calving of A68 provides us with a unique opportunity to study marine life as it responds to a dramatic environmental change.”
The team leaves Stanley, in the Falkland Islands, on February 21 and will spend three weeks studying the area. The scientists will collect samples from the newly exposed seabed, which covers an area of around 5,800 sq km.
These will include sea-floor animals, microbes, plankton, sediments and water samples. The findings will provide a picture of life under the ice, so changes to the ecosystem can be tracked.