June 20, 2014

as the planet has warmed

The Antarctic shore is a place of huge contrasts, as quiet, dark, and frozen winters give way to bright, clear waters, thick with algae and peppered with drifting icebergs in summer. But as the planet has warmed in the last two decades, massive losses of sea ice in winter have left icebergs free to roam for most of the year toilet reve combien.

As a result, say researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on June 16, boulders(岩石) on the shallow seabed -- once encrusted with a rich assemblage(装配,集合) of species in intense competition for limited space -- now mostly support a single species. The climate-linked increase in iceberg activity has left all other species so rare as to be almost irrelevant. "The Antarctic Peninsula can be considered an early warning system -- like a canary(金丝雀) in a coal mine," says David Barnes of the British Antarctic Survey nevercare. "

Physical changes there are amongst the most extreme and the biology considered quite sensitive, so it was always likely to be a good place to observe impacts of climate change -- but impacts elsewhere are likely to be not too far behind anna honor wall of fame.

A lot of the planet depends on the near-shore environment, not least for food; what happens there to make it less stable is important summer tise fatigue."
Earlier studies had noted an increase in mortality of the pioneer species, Fenstrulina rugula, a rather unremarkable suspension feeder that belongs to a group sometimes referred to as moss animals. Barnes and his colleagues suspected that those losses would be more widespread. Indeed, a 2013 survey dive at a nearby spot showed large areas where no live animals could be found, the first time that had ever been reported, despite frequent diving in the areaformidable auto en monde.

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