Antractica - Animals Who Live in the Southern Ocean

Antarctic Animals are diverse and specially designed to live in the harsh environment of the southern ocean. Do their special adaptations make them more vulnerable to changes in environment and temperatures?

The Journal of Experimental Biology shows a limpet no bigger than a coin could reveal the possible fate of cold-blooded Antarctic marine animals. Compared to their temperate and tropical cousins, cold-blooded polar marine animals are incapable of fast growth. Studies of the protein-making abilities of limpets reveal that these animals cannot make proteins – the building blocks of growth - efficiently.

Lead author Dr Keiron Fraser from British Antarctic Survey’s (BAS) says, “This is an important step forward in our understanding of the complex biodiversity of Antarctica’s unique ecosystem. Sea temperature is predicted to increase by around 2°C in the next 100 years. If cold-blooded Antarctic animals can’t grow efficiently, or increase their growth rates, they are unlikely to be able to cope in warmer water, or compete with species that will inevitably move into the region as temperatures rise.”

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BAS has been conducted studies in the Antarctic for almost 60 years, the majority of Britain's scientific research on and around the Antarctic continent. It now shares that continent with scientists from over thirty countries.

A primary food source of many of the Antarctic animals is krill. The article did not mention the impact of temperate changes on krill.