Scott's collections help reveal accelerating marine life growth in Antarctica
2011
Barnes, David K.A. | Kuklinski, Piotr | Jackson, Jennifer A. | Keel, Geoff W. | Morley, Simon A. | Winston, Judith E.
Scott remains famous for coming second to Amundsen in the race for the South Pole and the fatalities on the journey back to base, but scientific effort on his expedition was never sacrificed and set many invaluable physical and biological baselines. Amongst these were collections of benthos, such as the bryozoan Cellarinella nutti, which records environmental information in tree-ring-like growth check lines. We measured the growth of C. nutti in the Ross Sea from museum and new collections and find no trend from 1890–1970 but a rapid increase from the 1990s to present. This reflects coincident increases in regional phytoplankton production. Thus, it is the first evidence that greater surface productivity is being sequestered to the seabed and thus of increasing polar carbon sinks.
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