Breaking All the Rules: The First Recorded Hard Substrate Sessile Benthic Community Far Beneath an Antarctic Ice Shelf
The seafloor beneath floating ice shelves accounts roughly a third of the Antarctic’s 5 million km2 of continental shelf. Prior to this study, our knowledge of these habitats and the life they support was restricted to what has been observed from eight boreholes drilled for geological and glaciologi...
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2021
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.642040 https://doaj.org/article/01833d2088a64328b8c3fb4d58a301f1 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:01833d2088a64328b8c3fb4d58a301f1 2023-05-15T13:50:22+02:00 Breaking All the Rules: The First Recorded Hard Substrate Sessile Benthic Community Far Beneath an Antarctic Ice Shelf Huw J. Griffiths Paul Anker Katrin Linse Jamie Maxwell Alexandra L. Post Craig Stevens Slawek Tulaczyk James A. Smith 2021-02-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.642040 https://doaj.org/article/01833d2088a64328b8c3fb4d58a301f1 EN eng Frontiers Media S.A. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.642040/full https://doaj.org/toc/2296-7745 2296-7745 doi:10.3389/fmars.2021.642040 https://doaj.org/article/01833d2088a64328b8c3fb4d58a301f1 Frontiers in Marine Science, Vol 8 (2021) dropstone oligotrophic borehole sponge (Porifera) Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf Weddell Sea Science Q General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.642040 2022-12-31T12:03:56Z The seafloor beneath floating ice shelves accounts roughly a third of the Antarctic’s 5 million km2 of continental shelf. Prior to this study, our knowledge of these habitats and the life they support was restricted to what has been observed from eight boreholes drilled for geological and glaciological studies. The established theory of sub-ice shelf biogeography is that both functional and taxonomic diversities decrease along a nutrient gradient with distance from the ice shelf front, resulting in a depauperate fauna, dominated by mobile scavengers and predators toward the grounding line. Mobile macro-benthic life and mega-benthic life have been observed as far as 700 km under an ice shelf. New observations from two boreholes in the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf challenge the idea that sessile organisms reduce in prevalence the further under the ice you go. The discovery of an established community consisting of only sessile, probably filter feeding, organisms (sponges and other taxa) on a boulder 260 km from the ice front raises significant questions, especially when the local currents suggest that this community is somewhere between 625 km and 1500 km in the direction of water flow from the nearest region of photosynthesis. This new evidence requires us to rethink our ideas with regard to the diversity of community types found under ice shelves, the key factors which control their distribution and their vulnerability to environmental change and ice shelf collapse. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Filchner Ronne Ice Shelf Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Ronne Ice Shelf Weddell Sea Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Antarctic Ronne Ice Shelf ENVELOPE(-61.000,-61.000,-78.500,-78.500) Weddell Weddell Sea Frontiers in Marine Science 8 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
dropstone oligotrophic borehole sponge (Porifera) Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf Weddell Sea Science Q General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 |
spellingShingle |
dropstone oligotrophic borehole sponge (Porifera) Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf Weddell Sea Science Q General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 Huw J. Griffiths Paul Anker Katrin Linse Jamie Maxwell Alexandra L. Post Craig Stevens Slawek Tulaczyk James A. Smith Breaking All the Rules: The First Recorded Hard Substrate Sessile Benthic Community Far Beneath an Antarctic Ice Shelf |
topic_facet |
dropstone oligotrophic borehole sponge (Porifera) Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf Weddell Sea Science Q General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 |
description |
The seafloor beneath floating ice shelves accounts roughly a third of the Antarctic’s 5 million km2 of continental shelf. Prior to this study, our knowledge of these habitats and the life they support was restricted to what has been observed from eight boreholes drilled for geological and glaciological studies. The established theory of sub-ice shelf biogeography is that both functional and taxonomic diversities decrease along a nutrient gradient with distance from the ice shelf front, resulting in a depauperate fauna, dominated by mobile scavengers and predators toward the grounding line. Mobile macro-benthic life and mega-benthic life have been observed as far as 700 km under an ice shelf. New observations from two boreholes in the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf challenge the idea that sessile organisms reduce in prevalence the further under the ice you go. The discovery of an established community consisting of only sessile, probably filter feeding, organisms (sponges and other taxa) on a boulder 260 km from the ice front raises significant questions, especially when the local currents suggest that this community is somewhere between 625 km and 1500 km in the direction of water flow from the nearest region of photosynthesis. This new evidence requires us to rethink our ideas with regard to the diversity of community types found under ice shelves, the key factors which control their distribution and their vulnerability to environmental change and ice shelf collapse. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Huw J. Griffiths Paul Anker Katrin Linse Jamie Maxwell Alexandra L. Post Craig Stevens Slawek Tulaczyk James A. Smith |
author_facet |
Huw J. Griffiths Paul Anker Katrin Linse Jamie Maxwell Alexandra L. Post Craig Stevens Slawek Tulaczyk James A. Smith |
author_sort |
Huw J. Griffiths |
title |
Breaking All the Rules: The First Recorded Hard Substrate Sessile Benthic Community Far Beneath an Antarctic Ice Shelf |
title_short |
Breaking All the Rules: The First Recorded Hard Substrate Sessile Benthic Community Far Beneath an Antarctic Ice Shelf |
title_full |
Breaking All the Rules: The First Recorded Hard Substrate Sessile Benthic Community Far Beneath an Antarctic Ice Shelf |
title_fullStr |
Breaking All the Rules: The First Recorded Hard Substrate Sessile Benthic Community Far Beneath an Antarctic Ice Shelf |
title_full_unstemmed |
Breaking All the Rules: The First Recorded Hard Substrate Sessile Benthic Community Far Beneath an Antarctic Ice Shelf |
title_sort |
breaking all the rules: the first recorded hard substrate sessile benthic community far beneath an antarctic ice shelf |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.642040 https://doaj.org/article/01833d2088a64328b8c3fb4d58a301f1 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-61.000,-61.000,-78.500,-78.500) |
geographic |
Antarctic Ronne Ice Shelf Weddell Weddell Sea |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Ronne Ice Shelf Weddell Weddell Sea |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Filchner Ronne Ice Shelf Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Ronne Ice Shelf Weddell Sea |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Filchner Ronne Ice Shelf Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Ronne Ice Shelf Weddell Sea |
op_source |
Frontiers in Marine Science, Vol 8 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.642040/full https://doaj.org/toc/2296-7745 2296-7745 doi:10.3389/fmars.2021.642040 https://doaj.org/article/01833d2088a64328b8c3fb4d58a301f1 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.642040 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Marine Science |
container_volume |
8 |
_version_ |
1766253426349441024 |