Antarctic Warm Caves Could Be Harbouring Secret Life
Warm subglacial cave networks deep underneath Antarctic’s glaciers? A secret world of animals and plants- including those species unknown to man- thriving in these caves?
Hard to believe, yes. But fascinatingly true.
Deep within Antarctica’s ice caves, a group of scientists may have discovered a secret ecosystem of plants and animals being supported by the warmth of an active volcano.
Soil samples taken from inside the hidden cave networks that lie beneath Antarctica’s glaciers reveal the potential for new life, scientists from the Australian National University say. The caves, dotted around Mount Erebus— the second highest active volcano in Antarctica, have been hollowed out by steam and can exhibit temperatures from up to 25 degrees Celsius, creating an optimal environment for algae, mosses and small animals.
While much of the DNA extracted from these cave networks matches those that can be found in other parts of the icy continent, head researcher, Ceridwen Fraser explained that not all sequences could be identified, which she said, points to the potential for new discoveries.
“We already knew there was some bacterial and fungal life in the caves but nobody had looked for plants or animals before. The DNA sequences we got
, using techniques that targeted plants, animals and fungi indicate there might be invertebrate animals, mosses and algae in the cave systems,” Ceridwen told Australian Geographic.“Intriguingly, some of the arthropod sequences didn’t match anything on published genetic databases. That might be because they come from species we already know, but which have not yet been very well characterized genetically, or it might indicate that there are species we haven’t seen before. Certainly, elsewhere in the world, subterranean cave systems are often found to have specialized cave-adapted organisms living in them.”
The research, published in the international journal Polar Biology, said there were more than 15 volcanoes in Antarctica that were either known to be currently active or show evidence of recent activity, with new ones continuing to be found.
Co-researcher Professor Craig Cary, from the University of Waikato in New Zealand, said “It’s like being in a sauna, but the sauna is in an ice cube, if you can imagine that. I mean above you is ice, below you is ground, it’s a very surreal feeling being in the cave.
It’s quiet, out of the wind, warm, and yet you’re still in Antarctica. Professor Cary had previously discovered bacterial and fungal communities lived in the caves. But he said this new discovery showed the scope of what may be living deep within the caves could far more diverse than first thought. It’s fascinating for a lot of reasons, one is that the continent has obviously been ice covered for a considerable period of time,” he said. “And yet it has undergone periods of time when there’s been less ice… it’s a great idea that organisms are going to find a home, a place to stay during the periods of time when the rest of their surroundings are extremely hostile.”
Once the forensic DNA analysis is complete, scientists want to return to the caves to further confirm the findings. Ceridwen hopes to receive enough funding over the next few years for another trip to Antarctica to further explore the potential for new life in these cave networks but with a fresh approach. “We could take larger samples for microscopic analysis, and also look for expressed RNA instead of DNA, which could indicate living creatures, whereas DNA just shows plant and animal material is there, but doesn’t tell us if it was alive when collected,” she said.
“We don’t yet know the full extent of these cave systems. Scientists suspect they might be large and highly interconnected. There have also been recent discoveries of similar caves on other other, nearby volcanoes though these are even less well known so far.”
