Creatures found on Antarctic sea bed

New species and plants have been discovered by an expedition examining an Antarctic sea bed once covered by giant ice blocks.

Scientists searched 10,000 square kilometres of sea bed that were covered for millennia by two massive roofs of ice, Larsen A and B.

Their research amounts to the first evidence that biological change may be caused by the collapse of ice shelves, a phenomenon linked to global warming.

A team of 52 international marine scientists aboard the German ice breaker Polarstern have now completed the first comprehensive 10-week survey of the ice shelf ecosystem.

As well as discovering biological oddities and numerous new species, the researchers found signs of rapid and fundamental change.

The disappearing ice had invited newcomers into the area, such as fast-growing, gelatinous sea squirts and slow-growing animals called glass sponges.

However there was a reduction in a certain type of planktonic algae which has a vital place on the foot of a food chain which helps to sustain penguins, whales and seals.

Dr Julian Gutt, a marine ecologist at Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, said: "The collapse of the Larsen shelves may tell us about impacts of climate-induced changes on marine biodiversity and the functioning of the ecosystem."

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