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Pushing forward our understanding of calcium production in the marine environment
Antarctica is a natural laboratory for studying the small number of plant and animal species that live in communities. Microbial life, invisible to the naked eye, plays a vital role in Antarctic ecosystems. State-of-the-art genetic methods to study the DNA of these microbes may lead to discoveries that could help in the production of new antibiotics and other compounds.
Remote and hostile, Antarctica harbours some of the most amazing creatures on the planet. It is also a powerful natural laboratory for studying biodiversity, evolution and the impacts of climate change. Cut off from the rest of planet, Antarctica’s isolation and its cold climate have allowed some unique species to evolve.
Mostly covered in ice and snow, Antarctica is the driest, coldest and windiest continent on Earth. Little of its land surface can support life, so the communities of plants and animals that survive there consist of only a small number of species living in simple relationships. Because of the simplicity of these communities, Antarctica is an exceptionally useful place for scientists to uncover how ecosystems work.
Some of the creatures in these communities are particularly interesting. Known as nematodes, their ancestors survived on tiny areas of land left uncovered during the last ice ages, more than one million years ago. By studying these nematodes, scientists at British Antarctic Survey (BAS) are able to increase our understanding of evolution and help reconstruct Antarctica’s glacial history.
Unlike the land, the seas around Antarctica are home to a rich and diverse group of species that have evolved some unique ways of coping with the cold. Some Antarctic fish, for example, are the only vertebrates in the world that do not use red blood cells to carry oxygen around their bodies.
But because they are so well adapted to the cold, some of these species may not be able to cope with life in a warmer world. Climate change is likely to have a major impact on Antarctic species. From their research stations on and around the Antarctic Peninsula – one of the fastest warming parts of the planet – BAS scientists are well placed to study how these species are responding to climate change.
Compared with our understanding of the continent’s plants and animals, we know very little about Antarctica’s microbial life. Invisible to the naked eye, these organisms play a vital role in Antarctic ecosystems and, because they may help us produce new antibiotics and other compounds, are rich but untapped resource. At BAS, scientists are using state-of-the-art genetic methods to study the DNA of these microbes and, hopefully, harness their potential.
Pushing forward our understanding of calcium production in the marine environment
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1 January, 1969
1 January, 1969
1 January, 1969
1 January, 1968
17 June, 2019
A new study reveals how marine life around Antarctica will fare in an ocean which has declining levels of oxygen. Writing in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society …
22 May, 2019
A new study highlights that sub-Antarctic seabirds are most at risk from unsustainable fishing during the southern hemisphere winter and in the south Atlantic and Southwest Indian Oceans. The link …
13 May, 2019
A new study by BAS scientists and collaborators in the Netherlands shows that seal and penguin poo is key to Antarctic biodiversity on land. By studying concentrations of nitrogen-rich guano …
25 April, 2019
Researchers at British Antarctic Survey have discovered “catastrophic” breeding failure at one of world’s largest emperor penguin colonies.
11 March, 2019
Sea-ice conditions have prevented the Research Icebreaker Polarstern from reaching the Larsen Ice Shelf and the calving areas of iceberg A68.
21 February, 2019
Large krill swarms in the Southern Ocean could help remove additional carbon from the atmosphere, in a way that is currently ‘hidden’ in global models. The new study is published …
4 February, 2019
An international team of scientists heads to Antarctica this week (4 February 2019) to investigate a mysterious marine ecosystem that’s been hidden beneath an Antarctic ice shelf for up to …
30 January, 2019
Some parents in the animal kingdom can prepare their young for environmental change, helping them cope better in new conditions, a paper published today in Nature Scientific Reports reveals. Scientists …
17 January, 2019
A new study of the animals living in polar oceans reveals which are most at risk from climate change. The study is published today (17 January) in Frontiers in Marine …
19 December, 2018
Of the known non-native or ‘alien’ species found in Antarctica, a non-biting species of midge currently presents one of the highest risks to terrestrial ecosystems, researchers have found. The preliminary …