The oldest marine DNA in the Scotia Sea was discovered by the University of Bonn and the University of Tasmania. The material could be hundreds of thousands of years old. The old material shows that it is possible to study long-term responses to climate change. Current and future change of marine life will be assessed by this recognition. The study was published in a journal.
One of the most vulnerable areas to climate change is the southern part of the planet. It is important to study the past and present responses to environmental and climate change. It is possible to decipher who has lived in the ocean in the past and when. Major changes in composition can be related to climate change. Predicting how marine life will respond to climate change is something that can be done with such knowledge.
An international team used sedaDNA to investigate changes in marine organisms in the Scotia Sea over the last one million years. The team undertook extensive contamination control to make sure that the sedaDNA signals are authentic. As old as one million years, they were able to detect ancient genetic material.
The oldest marine sedaDNA to date is contained in this sample. Among the organisms that were detected were the key primary producers, such as the diatoms.
The data shows that diatoms were plentiful. About 14,500 years ago, there was a change in the food web of the Scotia Sea. "This is an interesting and important change that is associated with a word-wide and rapid increase in sea levels and massive loss of ice inAntarctica due to natural warming," said Dr. Michael Weber, second author of the study. The increase in ocean productivity is thought to be the result of the warming.
The study shows that the analysis of marine sedaDNA can be expanded to hundreds of thousands of years. Natural climate change can give insight into the current and future human-caused climate warming.
More information: Linda Armbrecht et al, Ancient marine sediment DNA reveals diatom transition in Antarctica, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33494-4 Journal information: Nature Communications
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