New Species Discovered Under Ice

April 11, 2014

CURWOOD: Now we turn from very sick sea creatures to mysterious and newly discovered ones. A team from ANDRILL, that's the Antarctic Geological Drilling, has discovered a new type of sea anemone, while testing a remotely operated vehicle under the Ross Ice Shelf off Antarctica. The researchers are geologists and sedimentologists. The director of the team is Frank Rack from University of Nebraska. RACK: We were melting holes through the 270 meters of ice. We were deploying oceanographic sensors to measure current speed and direction. We were taking sediment cores, and we were also deploying the underwater robots to look underneath the ice and do an engineering test of the robot because it was the first time it was deployed through that thickness of ice shelf. CURWOOD: And lets see. The amount of ice youre drilling through…its the equivalent of an 80-story office tower or something like that? RACK: Its something like that, yes. CURWOOD: Thats a lot of ice. Frank Rack in Antarctica. (Frank R. Rack) RACK: It is a lot of ice. CURWOOD: So, how long did it take you to find sea anemones down there? RACK: It was a total surprise. We melted a hole through the ice, and we had been running a camera down to the sea floor and back up. And in those observations, the ice shelf looked plain and featureless, but when we put down the robot and had more sensitive camera systems and could get very close to the bottom of the ice, thats where the anemones appeared. They were quite numerous and widespread, and they were living in burrows in the bottom of the ice shelf, hanging upside down into the water column. CURWOOD: What do they look like? RACK: In the light of the robot, they glowed a bit orange, and they had tentacles that extend out. So theyre quite distinctive. CURWOOD: Now, anemones would like to have home, a burrow or something. How do they arrange that with the ice? RACK: Yeah, we dont know for sure, but in that area the ice shelf is melting at a meter a year, so somehow, theyre preserving a burrow in that lower layer of ice as that melting is going on. CURWOOD: So if theyre on the bottom of the ice, way down under the sea, theyre upside down, theyre hanging down like bats, huh? RACK: They are. Theyre at about 230 meters below the sea level, and then theres another 650 to 680 meters of water below. So the currents are circulating water across the continental shelf and up underneath the floating ice shelf, and the anemones are feeding and surviving in that environment thats about minus two degrees Centigrade water temperature. CURWOOD: Now how big are these sea anemones? RACK: Theyre only about an inch long. They can extend about a little big longer when they relax so they can contract up into their burrows and then they can extend outward into the water column, but theyre quite small. CURWOOD: Now what else did you find with them? The sea anemones and egg roll creature. (Photo: Frank R. Rack, ANDRILL Science Management Office, University of Nebraska-Lincoln) RACK: We found a whole variety of other organisms. There was an unidentified organism that we nicknamed the eggroll that basically is an inch in diameter, about four-inches long and could move laterally. It seemed to be neutrally buoyant, and it could grab onto the anemones and hold on. And there were other organisms like jellyfish and regular fish that exhibited unusual behavior. So they swam upside down, and they kind of treated the bottom of the ice shelf like the bottom of the ocean. CURWOOD: Well, what exactly is the egg roll? RACK: Were not sure. We havent been able to have a biologist to hazard a guess at what it is. We think its some sort of sea cucumber or something like that, but its probably a new species. CURWOOD: What or who do you suppose eats anemones down there? RACK: Yeah, we believe that theres many organisms within the food web of this ecosystem. We dont really know the life cycle of the anemones, theyre filter feeders, there are other organisms that are predators and grazers in this environment, and when the anemones die they sink through the water column and feed the benthos at the bottom of the ocean underneath the ice, or get recycled in the water column. So theres quite a complex series of predators and prey in this area, and we hope to be able to elucidate this further with additional studies in the future. CURWOOD: And here I thought that there were just penguins and some krill down there. [LAUGHS] RACK: Yeah, theres just a rich variety of life in the southern ocean and surrounding Antarctica. CURWOOD: How were you able to document that its a new species? RACK: The engineers who were operating the remotely operated vehicle devised a suction sampler by inverting one of the thrusters on the robot and having a plastic tube that came out in front of the camera, so it was like a vacuum suction device that we could push up close to the bottom of the ice and then capture some of the organisms. So those organisms were preserved and Marymegan Daly at Ohio State University was able to look at the taxonomy of the organism and determine that it was new species. CURWOOD: Now you took samples of the anemones but not the egg roll. Why? RACK: The egg roll was too big. The kind of sampler we had, we just couldnt capture it. And at that time, in Antarctica, there was a lot of fog out in the area of the ice shelf where we were working. So we couldnt get supplies from McMurdo station, maybe like a plankton net or something that we could have used to collect additional specimens. CURWOOD: When are you going to go back and look for more creatures? RACK: Well, its a function of proposals to the National Science Foundation and funding. Were hoping to get a proposal in this April, and if were fortunate enough to get funding, then potentially go as early as 2015, 2016. CURWOOD: I want to thank you for taking this time. Frank Rack is the Executive Director of the US team thats part of ANDRILL, that's the Antarctic Geological Drilling. Thanks so much, Frank. RACK: You're very welcome.