In bays along the coast of Antarctica, thick shelves of floating ice extend tens or hundreds of miles out from the shoreline. Hidden beneath those shelves are sheltered waters that until recently had been almost entirely unexplored. Now that is changing.
In 2002 a 1,250-square-mile chunk of the Larsen Ice Shelf disintegrated in a matter of weeks. The event became a symbol of a warming globe, but it also presented a sudden opportunity. In January of this year, the German research vessel Polarstern settled in where the Larsen shelf had crumbled, and researchers on board conducted the first detailed biological survey of one of the most inaccessible ecosystems on Earth.
15 new amphipod species including Eusirus was found beneath Larson B Ice Shelf. | Image courtesy of C. D'Udeken, Royal Belgium Instit. for Natural Sciences, 2007
The expedition was part of a 10-year research project called the Census of Marine ...
