“We have tons of new species about which we know almost nothing”, scientists want to explore the hidden side of the “white continent”

Following the One Ocean Summit, the Heads of State present made several commitments to protect the oceans, such as that of Emmanuel Macron to expand the protected area in the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. Other places on the globe are still too little known, such as Antarctica.

According to the researchers, we only know one side of Antarctica today: the west of the ice continent has still been very little studied, while there are at sea and on the ice, many species and organisms to discover. “As soon as we scratch a little thinking we know, we realize that we have tons of new species, new parameters that appear, about which we know almost nothing”explains Yan Ropert-Coudert, researcher at the CNRS and deputy director of the Paul-Émile-Victor Polar Institute.

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Scientists point to the lack of resources and international coordination for long-term research in Antarctica. Everything is complicated on this continent: it sometimes takes three weeks to reach the French polar station, the Dumont-d’Urville Antarctic base, located on Petrel Island, in Adelie Land.

So to obtain data, the researchers rely on seals and penguins that they equip with sensors, in particular to access extreme areas: “The ice is a bit of a barrier to studies, for example by satelliteindicates Yan Ropert Coudert. Satellites can’t get through the ice to go under and collect data under the ice, it’s a huge effort.”

“On our side, if we use the animals that go under the ice every day, that dive several hundred meters and that cover enormous distances, that allows us to have access to data that are irreplaceable.”

Yan Ropert Coudert

at franceinfo

For researchers, there is today a gap between the means given for research and the growing importance of Antarctica. The continent contains ecosystems and bacteria that can inspire concrete applications. And above all, it is a destabilized regulator of the climate, explains Guillaume Massé, of the Pierre-Simon Laplace Institute: “The poles aren’t just that stuff that’s very, very far away, it’s about all of us.”

“If things go haywire, if we exceed certain points, then we will have big problems, physically, but also biologically. The poles also feed us, ultimately.”

Guillaume Masse

at franceinfo

Today, only 9,000 species have been recorded in Antarctica.