Seas surrounding an archipelago near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula are richer in animal life than the Galapagos Islands, scientists said on Monday. Their findings challenge the notion that tropical regions are more rich in species than the poles.
Much less is known about the South Orkney islands than the tropical islands that helped to shape Charles Darwin’s thoughts about natural selection on his Beagle voyage.
But according to a study published on Monday by The Journal of Biogeography, the sea around them is teeming with a huge variety of life, disproving the notion that chilly polar waters have a much poorer variety of fauna.
“There has been a long-held belief that the tropics are rich and the polar regions are poor and mid-latitudes are somewhere in between,” said David Barnes at the British Antarctic Survey, who led the study, part of the international census of marine life. “This is the first time we’ve been able to actually look at the fauna of a polar archipelago — it is not actually that poor at all.”
Barnes said the reason for carrying out the survey was to establish a baseline from which changes in biodiversity due to global warming could be judged.
“This is in the part of the world with fastest change in terms of temperature,” he said.
The Antarctic Peninsula has experienced warming of 3ºC over the past 50 years.
“If you don’t know what the fauna is at any one point it is very difficult to detect either species moving in or species moving out,” he said.
The survey recorded 1,224 species in 50 different biological classes. The team discovered five new species and one genus — the biological category that is higher than species — that was new to science.
The new discoveries are all sea mosses or isopods (woodlouse-like animals), but they have not been given names yet.
The team also scoured reports from scientific expeditions and scientific literature going back decades to find every mention of species observed in the region, in an attempt to create the most complete and authoritative list of creatures found there.
Barnes’ team had to brave biting winds that frequently stopped them working, and watch for attacks by orcas and leopard seals. If either predator came near they had to climb on to the British Antarctic Survey’s royal research vessel James Clark Ross or scramble to shore.
“Although that sounds dramatic, weather is a far bigger issue,” Barnes said. “It stops us working far more and makes our work far more hazardous ... Sometimes it’s much warmer under the water — it’s only minus 1.5 [degrees Celsius]!”
Once under water, the view is spectacular, Barnes said.
“I don’t think I’ve been anywhere where you can see so many different types of major groups of animals,” he said.
As well as diving in the shallows, they also trawled the sea bottom to a depth of 1,500m using nets and a special sled with a sieve that held everything bigger than 0.3mm.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was