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Posted 25 February 2009

Antarctic researchers are studying the continent’s microscopic creatures as part of their hunt for clues about how climate change may disrupt life around the planet in future decades.

Video: In Antarctica, bugs are kings.

Pete Convey, a biologist at the British Antarctic Survey, says Antarctica is strikingly different to other continents in terms of what you find on land, Reuters Alister Doyle reports.

“It’s very hard to see how climate change affects a natural ecological system, except somewhere like this,” he said of the Rothera area, ringed by mountains and with icebergs crowding the bay.

“The Antarctic Peninsula, because the climate is warming so rapidly, is the one place on the world’s surface where you can come to see the effects on the ecology in a pure form.”

Higher temperatures could make the Antarctic Peninsula more vulnerable to invasive species such as seeds, insects or spores brought ashore by tourists or scientists on their clothing, blown by the wind or stuck to birds.

Mr Convey says that more than 50,000 people travel to Antarctica a year, greatly increasing the risk of an alien biological organism invading the icy southern continent.

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In Antarctica, bugs are kings – Reuters