Glacial dimples shelter unique ecosystems

摘要

Our planet's ice is anything but barren. An unlikely variety of creatures lives in curious holes on the surface of glaciers - habitats made possible by wind, dust and the sun. A team led by Krzysztof Zawierucha, from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland, has made the first worldwide survey of invertebrates living in these cryoconite holes. They found 25 species, many unique to this habitat, which forms when windblown dust - cryoconite - settles on glaciers. The Arctic is home to 16 species, with the rest distributed across Antarctica, the Americas, the Himalayas and the Alps. They include insect larvae, segmented worms, copepods and microscopic creatures called tardigrades - also known as water bears(Journal of Zoology,doi.org/2/3).