A recently discovered a new study conducted by the University of Tasmania DNA the oldest marine ever found in deep-sea sediments in the Scottish Sea, located north of Antarctica.
“It is made up of the oldest authenticated marine sedDNA to date,” explains Dr. Linda Armbrecht, principal researcher at the University of Tasmania, Australia, as reported by Sputnik.
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SedaDNA, or ancient sedimentary DNA, is found in many environments, including subarctic permafrost and terrestrial caves, where scientists have found material dating back 650,000 years. This study is proof that the sedaDNA technique can help rebuild ecosystems over thousands of years, providing us with a better understanding of changes in the oceanic ecosphere.
“Antarctica is one of the most vulnerable regions on Earth to climate change and studying the past and present responses of these polar marine ecosystems to environmental change is an urgent matter,” the researchers wrote in their published paper.
According to the study, published in Nature Communications, the researchers found single-celled organisms called diotomes, which were creatures that roamed around 540,000 years ago when the Arctic was much warmer than it is now. The information obtained indicates an abundance of diatoms in a warmer period around 14,500 years ago, which led to increased marine life activity across the Antarctic region.
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Researchers believe that learning more about the past is a “pressing issue” that could help us predict what will happen to marine ecosystems when oceans warm up once again.
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(dka)
