There is no light under the ice of the Ekstrm Ice Shelf.
A new paper by researchers from the UK and Germany says that there is complete darkness and a thriving environment.
"This discovery of so much life living in these extreme conditions is a complete surprise and reminds us how unique and special the marine life in the South Pole is," says David Barnes, lead author and British Antarctic Survey marine biologist.
It's amazing that no plants or algae can live in this environment because most feed on micro-algae. How do these animals survive here?
The researchers used hot water to drill two holes on the Ekstrm Ice Shelf. One hole went down 192 meters and hit 58 meters of liquid water, while the other spanned 190 meters of ice and had more than 100 meters of water underneath.
They found a lot of life and food under the ice. The team discovered 77 species from 49 different genera of bryozoans.
Fragments of bryozoans were found. (David Barnes)
All of these creatures are suspension feeders, which means that they sit in one place and, with their feathery tentacles, snatch particles of organic matter from the water as it flows around them.
The closest open water source is 6 miles away. Life can be found further inland on larger ice sheets like the Ross and McMurdo Ice Shelves.
Life has been observed 700 km from the ice shelf edges despite the fact that it has been dark for thousands of years.
It was thought that the richness and abundance of life under the ice shelves is very deferential. Even for open-marine Antarctic continental shelf samples, the biodiversity we found at both borehole sites would be high.
Fragments of four species of Cellarinella showed growth that was similar to a tree's rings, and the researchers discovered they were similar to other sized growth from samples around Antarctica.
Two of the study sites have benthic fauna. Barnes et al. are in the book "Curr Bio, 2021."
The researchers looked at dead fragments and carbon dated them to find out the age of the filters.
How long life has been here was a surprise. One of the researchers, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, says that the carbon dating of dead fragments of these animals varied from current to 5,800 years old.
"So, despite living 3-9 km from the nearest open water, an Oasis of Life may have existed continuously for nearly 6,000 years under the ice shelf." Stories from the past will only be told from the sea floor.
In the past, when most of the Antarctic shelf was covered in ice, how did these dark ecosystems survive?
The new information suggests that the plankton lived in small areas that were not grounded, while open areas of water surrounding the sea ice would have allowed them to thrive.
The researchers are nervous about their future despite the long life of the ecosystems.
The least disturbed habitat on Earth could be the first to go extinct as sub-ice shelf conditions disappear due to global warming.
The research has been published.
