In 2017 , marine life scientist Erasmo Macayawas shocked to discoverbits of kelp on the remote Antarctic island of King George , hundreds of miles from its natural habitat . He knew he ’d found something strange , but he was n’t aware he ’d just uncover evidence of a journey sweep over 10,000 international mile — one that could portend a mass migration to the frozen continent as global temperatures turn out .
drop a line Monday in Nature Climate Change , Macaya and his colleaguesreportthat the clump of southern bull kelp ( Durvillaea antarctica ) he discovered in early 2017 traveled 20,000 - 25,000 kilometer ( 12,000 - 15,000 mile ) before arriving on the shores of King George Island . The finding suggests that Antarctica — long presumed to be biologically seal off by bowelless circumpolar winds and ocean current — may be more connected to the rest of the public than we thought .
The researcher first used genomic analyses to shape that Macaya ’s kelp specimens hail from two rootage populations : the Kerguelen Islands in the southerly Indian Ocean , and South Georgia island in the southerly Atlantic . Using oceanographic models , they then traced each dauntless seaweed ’s separate journey around the frozen continent , estimating that each would ’ve had to bob along more than 10,000 international mile before pass its destination .
The researcher describe the journeys as “ the retentive biological rafting events ever recorded . ”
formal wisdom holds that potent winds known as theRoaring Forties , along with theAntarctic circumpolar stream , effectively seal the continent off , push drift object eastward and compass north and preventing them from reaching its shorelines . But when the author incorporated an gist known as Stokes drift — where float objects are push in their counselling of open waves — into their models , they showed it ’s possible for objects to break through the barrier .
“ We found that when we include the effect of the surface moving ridge in our modelling , as well as the sea currents , crossings to Antarctica were relatively frequent , ” field co - author Adele Morrison , an oceanographer at Australia National University , order Earther via email .
The findings are significant not only because they play up the incredible ability of biography to disperse , but because of what they paint a picture about Antarctica ’s future . While the continent has see almost no innate colonizations from low latitude in X of thousands of years , the new study argues that ’s not for a want of chance , but simply due to the rough environs .
This suggests that Antarctica could be prim for ecologic intrusion as the climate changes . The researchers point out that not only were their southern bull’s eye kelp specimen still reproductively executable , the species is acknowledge to help as a aliveness great deal for a variety of marine invertebrate .
“ If swim kelp and the other fauna and plants that the kelp carries is on a regular basis make its direction to Antarctica , then it ’s possible that as Antarctica warms , the climate there will become more hospitable to colonisation of these drifting plants and brute , ” Morrison wrote . “ This would bring dramatic ecosystem change to Antarctica . ”
Of course , this is just a single scientific study , and the outlook that life history can pass on Antarctica comparatively frequently is base on model . Morrison point out that clime change itself could affect the wind and storminess of the Southern Ocean in ways that make it easier or harder for life to disperse .
More research is needed to see if these model expectations hold in the veridical world , and if mood alteration does indeed help colonizers establish themselves on the frozen continent .
But it ’s an intriguing possibility , and one that cue us that no place on Earth is dependable from climate change ’s effects .
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