The rich marine life under frozen ice

New discoveries of life beneath the ice – whether species of algae or these more complex lifeforms are being made almost every season. But, as the Earth heats up and the oceans warm due to climate change, the conditions are changing at a rapid rate.

Back in the Arctic, Frey is tracking the spread of the sorts of poisonous algal blooms that frequently occur further south, a threat to sea life and everything that eats it.

“If they’re toxic, they can be really harmful in terms of shellfish poisoning or certain species can clog the gills of salmon and other fish species,” she says. “It’s really important to monitor them, particularly in terms of the indigenous communities that are heavily reliant on subsistence hunting.”

Climate change is an added pressure on scientists to document and understand life beneath the ice. Because what we know now is just the tip of the iceberg.

“We’re constantly making new discoveries,” says Frontier. Recently, for instance, BAS scientists found a species of seaweed that only sees sunlight two weeks a year but can seemingly store that energy for the remaining 50 weeks. “There is so much left, you could spend so many lifetimes investigating life here.”

“It’s probably the easiest win,” adds Griffiths. “If you wanted to see something nobody’s ever seen before, you need to try to get under one of these ice shelves – there are so many stories to tell.”

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