Under ice shelf photographs from Drescher Inlet (Riiser Larsen Ice Shelf) taken by seal mounted cameras during expedition DRE2003

While modern sampling techniques, such as autonomous underwater vehicles, are increasing our knowledge of the fauna beneath Antarctic sea ice of only a few meters in depth, greater sampling difficulties mean that little is known about the marine life underneath Antarctic ice shelves over 100 m thick...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Watanabe, Yuuki, Bornemann, Horst, Liebsch, Nikolai S, Plötz, Joachim, Sato, Katsufumi, Naito, Yasuhiko, Miyazaki, Nobuyuki
Format: Dataset
Language:English
Published: PANGAEA 2006
Subjects:
ANT-XXI/2
PS65
DRE2003
DRE2003_wed_a_f_01
DRE2003_wed_a_f_14
Drescher Camp
Marine endotherm
Marine Mammal Tracking
MET
MMT
Antarctic
Larsen Ice Shelf
Riiser-Larsen
Riiser-Larsen Ice Shelf
Weddell
Antarc*
Antarctica
Ice Shelf
Ice Shelves
Riiser Larsen Ice Shelf
Sea ice
Weddell Seals
Online Access:https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.726918
https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.726918
Description
Summary:While modern sampling techniques, such as autonomous underwater vehicles, are increasing our knowledge of the fauna beneath Antarctic sea ice of only a few meters in depth, greater sampling difficulties mean that little is known about the marine life underneath Antarctic ice shelves over 100 m thick. In this study, we present underwater images showing the underside of an Antarctic ice shelf covered by aggregated invertebrate communities, most likely cnidarians and isopods. These images, taken at an average depth of 145 m, were obtained with a digital still camera system attached to Weddell seals Leptonychotes weddellii foraging just beneath the ice shelf. Our observations indicate that, similar to the sea floor, ice shelves serve as an important habitat for a remarkable amount of marine invertebrate fauna in Antarctica.

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