110 years ago, theBritish explorer Robert Falcon ScottHe arrived in Antarctica and discovered in the Ross Sea the region that he named the Land of King Edward VII. Hisbryozoan gathering, the tiny Antarctic creatures that inhabit the seafloor, could now help scientists tounderstand future climate changes, as shown by a study published in the journalCurrent Biology.
According to the researchers, after comparing samples collected by Scott in 1901 and 1911 and during other expeditions throughout the 20th century, they have detected a rapid increase in growth since the 1990s. This sudden growth could imply that, since By that date, bryozoans were absorbing more carbon, adding one piece to a scientific riddle aboutwhether industrial emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere could be offset by the oceans.
“It is just one species (…) the next thing to do is find out if this is representative of other types of animals. If it is, then much more carbon is being absorbed in the oceans,” says David Barnes of the British Antarctic Survey ( BAS).
Scott is remembered primarily for his career to be the first to reach the South Pole. The Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen beat him in 1911, and Scott and his four men tragically died on their return to the coast in January 1912. However, their exploration was far from a failure. Now we know thatwe can learn more from his two expeditions than we learned from all the othersBarnes stated.
