Project led by the University of Chile this summer will carry out its second campaign in Antarctica to study the evolutionary behavior of algae, fauna and microorganisms in the face of global warming. The discovery of new types of bivalve mollusks, limpets, algae and snails; the possible extinction of hedgehogs; the eventual invasion of the subantarctic crab; the construction of the complete genome of penguins and the climatic resilience of the different varieties of this bird are part of the advances of this work.
Up to 1 ° C per decade has been the rate of increase in temperature in Antarctica, according to theAntarctic temperature explorer developed by members of the Faculty of Agronomic Sciences of the University of Chile. In the period 2025 to 2044, meanwhile, climate simulations carried out by researchers from the Center for Climate Science and Resilience (CR) 2 and the Center for Mathematical Modeling of Casa de Bello predict an increase of 0.5 ° C to 1.5 ° C of the temperatures and between 5 to 8 percent in the precipitations of the White Continent.
The impact of this scenario on algae, fauna and microorganisms of the Antarctic and subantarctic zone is the main focus of theRing in Antarctic Science Project "Genomics Antarctic Biodiversity”, Work led by the academics of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Chile, Elie Poulin and Julieta Orlando. The initiative, promoted together with researchers from the Universidad de Magallanes, Austral, Católica de Chile and Concepción, will develop its second research campaign this summer to predict the fate of the biodiversity of this unique place in the world in the face of global warming, all this from the study of the DNA of different species.
Eight people make up theproject team that will travel to Antarctica this summer with the support of the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH). The first group, led by Professor Orlando, aims to collect samples of penguins and other seabirds in the South Shetland Islands, an area that they will travel aboard the Karpuj, a scientific launch belonging to INACH. A second group, meanwhile, will embark on the Navy ship Achilles to search for bacteria and freshwater invertebrates and intertidal invertebrates in different parts of the Antarctic Peninsula.
scientific findings
The first expedition to Antarctica, carried out during the summer of 2019, enabled key advances in thestudy of the diversification and evolution of the marine biodiversity of these ecosystems. Eight published ISI scientific articles and others under review are some of the results of this work, which also integrates the training of postgraduate students and postdoctoral research.
The project has promoted high-impact research, highlighted as a contribution to Antarctic science and the understanding of the implications of climate change. The line of work with penguins, for example, has made it possible to identify “high genetic connectivity between distant populations of the chinstrap variety, a finding that raises a greater resilience of this species to climate change. These results are in contrast to analyzes in gentoo penguins, which show no connectivity between their distant colonies, ”commented Professor Poulin.
Thediscovery of new species of bivalve molluscs and limpets, as well as the possible discovery of new types of algae and snails, are also part of the project's achievements during 2019. To this is added, among other advances, twostudies on the complete phylogeny (genetic kinship) between genera of limpets and penguins, work that made it possible to identify that the diversification processes of these species began at the end of the Miocene, closely related to the climatic changes that marked this period that lasted 25 to 5 million years ago.
"Climate change, combined with the increase in human activities, both scientific and tourist, make the possibility of seeing one or more exotic species settle in Antarctica increasingly likely, with the risk that it becomes an invasive species", Professor Poulin commented on the line of work that seeks to determine the probability that the subantarctic crab Halicarcinus planatus can establish itself in Antarctica, a species that to date registers an appearance in the Antarctic Peninsula.
The predictive models developed by the project also suggest that global warming will affect the distribution and abundance of various species of urchins on the Kerguelen Plateau, leading to the extinction of the incubating species Abatus cordatus towards the end of the century. These studies and other international research, Professor Poulin cautions, anticipate changes in Antarctic marine ecosystems for the next few decades.“Most of the endemic species of Antarctica will suffer a reduction in their range. An emblematic case is that of the emperor penguin, where niche models that integrate demographic data, in some cases predict the near disappearance of this species at the end of the century”, he claimed.
The impact of climate change on algae, fauna and microorganisms in Antarctica is the focus of this project led by the professor of the Faculty of Sciences, Elie Poulin.
The research analyzes the DNA of different species to determine the evolutionary behavior and diversification of marine biodiversity in these ecosystems.
Julieta Orlando, deputy director of the project, will be in charge of the group of researchers that this summer will collect samples of penguins and other seabirds in the South Shetland Islands.
The skua, a bird characterized by its large size and aggressiveness, is one of the species studied in the framework of this project.
Another line of research studies various freshwater bacteria and invertebrates present in pools and lagoons in Antarctica, such as the Boeckella copepods and the Branchinecta crustaceans.
One of the project's findings is the identification of greater resilience to climate change in chinstrap penguins. The opposite would occur with penguins of the Gentoo variety.
