So does something as seemingly tiny as finding a new limpet feeding on the beak of a dead octopus matter?
It does. Here's the story.
Off Antarctica's Pine Island Bay (no, I don't know how it got the name: there are certainly no pine trees. Maybe an early explorer lost an air freshener there) is the Amundsen Sea, a little-known corner of the great Southern Ocean. A team of biologists from the British Antarctic Survey made an expedition here in 2008 and just now published their findings. (That's not that unusual: it can often take years to determine whether a specimen is a new species: this team found more than 30.)
Why does it matter? First, we need as complete a catalog as possible for conservation. Second, small animals can be very important in the ecosystem: ask the mighty blue whale, which harvests the dense herds of krill in this ocean, how important tiny shrimplike crustaceans are. (You could say the blues have a license to krill.) Third, the animals found in an area are major clues to how the ecosystem functions there: scientists found that, unlike neighboring seas, the mobile echinoderms like starfish, rather than sponges, dominated the sea floor.
So let's keep looking.
Katrin Linse, said:
"Unlike many other seas around Antarctica, the Amundsen Sea shelf was not dominated by large sedentary sponges but instead by mobile echinoderms (starfish, urchins, brittlestars and sea cucumbers) and a community of similar animals which inhabit the on-shelf basins.
The Amundsen Sea is an area of rapid change due to ice shelf breakup. Until now we knew nothing about the benthic fauna living here. Our recent study gives us a first insight into the biodiversity of this region and can serve as a baseline to observe future changes.
At least 10% of all the species collected are new to science, and this figure is likely to rise with further genetic identification. "
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-12-limpit-species-amundsen-sea.html#jCp
"Unlike many other seas around Antarctica, the Amundsen Sea shelf was not dominated by large sedentary sponges but instead by mobile echinoderms (starfish, urchins, brittlestars and sea cucumbers) and a community of similar animals which inhabit the on-shelf basins.
The Amundsen Sea is an area of rapid change due to ice shelf breakup. Until now we knew nothing about the benthic fauna living here. Our recent study gives us a first insight into the biodiversity of this region and can serve as a baseline to observe future changes.
At least 10% of all the species collected are new to science, and this figure is likely to rise with further genetic identification. "
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-12-limpit-species-amundsen-sea.html#jCp
Katrin Linse, said:
"Unlike many other seas around Antarctica, the Amundsen Sea shelf was not dominated by large sedentary sponges but instead by mobile echinoderms (starfish, urchins, brittlestars and sea cucumbers) and a community of similar animals which inhabit the on-shelf basins.
The Amundsen Sea is an area of rapid change due to ice shelf breakup. Until now we knew nothing about the benthic fauna living here. Our recent study gives us a first insight into the biodiversity of this region and can serve as a baseline to observe future changes.
At least 10% of all the species collected are new to science, and this figure is likely to rise with further genetic identification. "
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-12-limpit-species-amundsen-sea.html#jCp
"Unlike many other seas around Antarctica, the Amundsen Sea shelf was not dominated by large sedentary sponges but instead by mobile echinoderms (starfish, urchins, brittlestars and sea cucumbers) and a community of similar animals which inhabit the on-shelf basins.
The Amundsen Sea is an area of rapid change due to ice shelf breakup. Until now we knew nothing about the benthic fauna living here. Our recent study gives us a first insight into the biodiversity of this region and can serve as a baseline to observe future changes.
At least 10% of all the species collected are new to science, and this figure is likely to rise with further genetic identification. "
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-12-limpit-species-amundsen-sea.html#jCp
Katrin Linse, said:
"Unlike many other seas around Antarctica, the Amundsen Sea shelf was not dominated by large sedentary sponges but instead by mobile echinoderms (starfish, urchins, brittlestars and sea cucumbers) and a community of similar animals which inhabit the on-shelf basins.
The Amundsen Sea is an area of rapid change due to ice shelf breakup. Until now we knew nothing about the benthic fauna living here. Our recent study gives us a first insight into the biodiversity of this region and can serve as a baseline to observe future changes.
At least 10% of all the species collected are new to science, and this figure is likely to rise with further genetic identification. "
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-12-limpit-species-amundsen-sea.html#jCp
"Unlike many other seas around Antarctica, the Amundsen Sea shelf was not dominated by large sedentary sponges but instead by mobile echinoderms (starfish, urchins, brittlestars and sea cucumbers) and a community of similar animals which inhabit the on-shelf basins.
The Amundsen Sea is an area of rapid change due to ice shelf breakup. Until now we knew nothing about the benthic fauna living here. Our recent study gives us a first insight into the biodiversity of this region and can serve as a baseline to observe future changes.
At least 10% of all the species collected are new to science, and this figure is likely to rise with further genetic identification. "
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-12-limpit-species-amundsen-sea.html#jCp
Katrin Linse, said:
"Unlike many other seas around Antarctica, the Amundsen Sea shelf was not dominated by large sedentary sponges but instead by mobile echinoderms (starfish, urchins, brittlestars and sea cucumbers) and a community of similar animals which inhabit the on-shelf basins.
The Amundsen Sea is an area of rapid change due to ice shelf breakup. Until now we knew nothing about the benthic fauna living here. Our recent study gives us a first insight into the biodiversity of this region and can serve as a baseline to observe future changes.
At least 10% of all the species collected are new to science, and this figure is likely to rise with further genetic identification. "
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-12-limpit-species-amundsen-sea.html#jCp
"Unlike many other seas around Antarctica, the Amundsen Sea shelf was not dominated by large sedentary sponges but instead by mobile echinoderms (starfish, urchins, brittlestars and sea cucumbers) and a community of similar animals which inhabit the on-shelf basins.
The Amundsen Sea is an area of rapid change due to ice shelf breakup. Until now we knew nothing about the benthic fauna living here. Our recent study gives us a first insight into the biodiversity of this region and can serve as a baseline to observe future changes.
At least 10% of all the species collected are new to science, and this figure is likely to rise with further genetic identification. "
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-12-limpit-species-amundsen-sea.html#jCp
Katrin Linse, said:
"Unlike many other seas around Antarctica, the Amundsen Sea shelf was not dominated by large sedentary sponges but instead by mobile echinoderms (starfish, urchins, brittlestars and sea cucumbers) and a community of similar animals which inhabit the on-shelf basins.
The Amundsen Sea is an area of rapid change due to ice shelf breakup. Until now we knew nothing about the benthic fauna living here. Our recent study gives us a first insight into the biodiversity of this region and can serve as a baseline to observe future changes.
At least 10% of all the species collected are new to science, and this figure is likely to rise with further genetic identification. "
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-12-limpit-species-amundsen-sea.html#jCp
THANKS TO Robert Twomley for the post on this that drew my attention
"Unlike many other seas around Antarctica, the Amundsen Sea shelf was not dominated by large sedentary sponges but instead by mobile echinoderms (starfish, urchins, brittlestars and sea cucumbers) and a community of similar animals which inhabit the on-shelf basins.
The Amundsen Sea is an area of rapid change due to ice shelf breakup. Until now we knew nothing about the benthic fauna living here. Our recent study gives us a first insight into the biodiversity of this region and can serve as a baseline to observe future changes.
At least 10% of all the species collected are new to science, and this figure is likely to rise with further genetic identification. "
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-12-limpit-species-amundsen-sea.html#jCp
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