A giant iceberg broke away from the ice sheet on the Antartic Peninsula in July. The opening of the iceberg reveals hidden underwater ecosystems for thousands of years.
The iceberg, known as A-68, moves away from the Larsen C ice sheet and enters the Weddell Sea.
This initially covered area of ice eventually disclosed the 5,800 square kilometer seabed which has been buried under the ice for up to 120,000 years without any light.
Surely this event makes scientists very enthusiastic to immediately explore the new area.
"This is a fantastic place and area that has never been known for scientific research," said Susan Grant, marine biologist British Antarctic Survey (BAS).
"We know very little about what might live there, especially how they change from time to time," he said, quoted by Livescience, Wednesday (4/10/2017).
"There is a large area covered for thousands of years, we know the physical changes that are likely to occur as the ice moves away," Grant added.
Scientific knowledge of ecosystems under the Antarctic ice sheet is still limited from the results of two German expeditions to the areas of Larsen A and Larsen B, located north of Larsen C.
Each section of this ice sheet broke out in 1995 and 2002.
It takes about 5 years to 12 years for scientists to reach the area. And at that time already formed a lot of colonization of living things.
So scientists have to chase with time if you want to see how an ecosystem is formed or developed.
Meanwhile, scientists already have hypotheses about life under the ice sheet.
"Our hypothesis is that it resembles a very deep ocean, no sunlight, phytoplankton and zooplankton droppings are important food, but it still needs to be tested," said Phil Trathan, head of BAS ecology conservation.
In addition scientists suspect that there is a rapid change to the ecosystem of the new area.
"If exposed to sunlight there will be phytoplankton and zooplankton, maybe we will soon find seabirds and marine mammals that will start looking for food in the area," he said.
"So this will be a kind of chain reaction that triggers significant changes in a relatively short time scale," Grant added.
If lucky, scientists will witness the earliest changes, namely the development of phytoplankton in open water.
After that, zooplankton and small crustaceans may appear.
Unfortunately this rare opportunity has funding constraints.
Fortunately, there has been news that if South Korea will make an expedition in early 2018 in the area, as well as expedition from Germany in 2019. While BAS itself is also considering to ship research vessels next year.
"This is very meaningful for science because we can assess how quickly living things can respond to environmental changes, including climate change and anthropogenic changes.We can also learn how marine systems thrive under the pressure of environmental change," said Julian Gutt, a marine biologist who led the expedition to Larsen A and B.
May they arrive there on time.
