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Its small dimensions are not an obstacle to its distribution around the world. They are part of the ooplankton z in marine and freshwater environments, in addition to playing a fundamental role in the food chain and to indicate environmental changes. We refer to copepods, a group of crustaceans that live in almost all aquatic ecosystems and have attracted the attention of Chilean researchers.
Therefore, the archives of 14 were published through the Ministry of the Environment. species of copepods of the genus Boeckella living in Chilean and Argentine Patagonia, in the sub-Antarctic islands and Antarctica. The work was prepared by scientists from the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB), the University of Chile, the University of Magallanes, Costa Humboldt and the British Antarctic Survey (United Kingdom), to facilitate research and to democratize access to data on the under-explored biodiversity of freshwater.
"The terrestrial or freshwater fauna of Antarctica is very rare and reduced in relation to marine biodiversity, since there are no mammals, amphibians or reptiles and it does not There is only one species of bird, and many believe that the whole continent is frozen but have the greatest diversity of liquid water systems, such as fjords, lakes, among others, in which people live. copepods, "says Claudia Maturana, a scientist at the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity. receives support from CONICYT and the Chilean Antarctic Institute for its research
Although the Magellanic and Antarctic lakes are generally oligotrophic, this is that they have few nutrients, but that they also differ from each other.
While in Patagonia there is greater species richness of Boeckella, only the Boeckella poppei is found on the white continent. It is precisely this latter species that has aroused the interest of scientists to be the only invertebrate present in the lakes of continental Antarctica, the Antarctic Peninsula and sub-Antarctic islands.
"There are other watery copepods on the white continent dulce, Boeckella poppei is the only crustacean also present on this territory" explains Maturana, who presented some of it a few days ago at the Natural History Museum in London.
One of the main characteristics of these animals is their great resistance and great adaptability. To get an idea, this arthropod has an intense red color that protects it from UV rays and inhabits deep, deep lakes that connect to marine waters or in smaller, shallower ecosystems that feed on ice melt. at temperatures below 5 ° C and even below 0 ° C.
"This animal may remain in the state of the egg for many years, as it hibernated, to survive in extreme conditions.In winter, for example, the Antarctic lakes are frozen.To subsist, you can go to the depths or lower your metabolism. "
The IEB researcher adds: In 2012, a team of Chinese scientists badyzed the sediments of a lagoon near its Antarctic base and detected viable eggs of Boeckella poppei, 100 years old and able to hatch at any time. "
Dragging by the whaling industry?
Currently, one of the biggest One wonders how Boeckella poppei has become one of the few representatives of the terrestrial and freshwater fauna of Antarctica.
"There is no certainty about what happened when the continent pbaded through the last great glaciation more than 20,000 years ago, while some suggest the extinction of everything, others believe that some species have survived through shelters, "explains Maturana
Because of its wide distribution in the Antarctic, Boeckella poppei is a model for testing the two preceding hypotheses [19659002Thebigquestioniswhetherthiscopepod colonized the most southerly continent of the Earth from Patagonia or the sub-Antarctic islands, or whether it managed to survive by taking refuge in isolated places during ice ages and climatic changes over the millennia.
Although there is a link between populations of Boeckella poppei from Antarctica and Patagonia, this one i would not be very new since it would exceed 20,000 years. In any case, the way in which these organisms move has not yet been clarified. Some of the possible explanations suggest that seabirds traveling between the two continents could become vectors during the movement of these crustaceans.
Another possible mechanism could make its entry into the pinnacle of the whaling industry in the nineteenth century. The crew of ships extracted freshwater Antarctic lagoons, which were stored in barrels for consumption and for other purposes. Therefore, when transporting or emptying containers with liquid, cetacean hunters were able to move the copepods to places where they were not previously.
However, none of these theories has been proven.
"The populations of Antarctic copepods remain very virgins and little intervention. " We We have not detected greater human impact, "says the scientist.
Despite its obvious attributes of" super-crustaceans ", the mechanisms of differentiation and adaptation to different ecosystems are not One example of this is that some people have experienced a reduction in their body size and female fertility in response to reduced resources available on the continent. Antarctica.
studied the role of these animals as sentinels of climate change or because They are indicators of water quality, research on evolutionary models of freshwater fauna has been little explored. That is why it is important to generate and provide information from Chile to learn about freshwater biodiversity in high latitudes, "Maturana sentence.
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