A Colorful Antarctica - New Fact Discovered! [VIDEO]

Recently, The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) conducted a program project that is the last part of an experiment to observe the effect of climate change and ocean acidification due to increased carbon dioxide emissions on the Southern Ocean seafloor communities at O'Brien Bay, near the Casey Research Station in East Antarctica. The researcher used a camera attached to Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and sent it to under the sea thick ice. Surprisingly, the camera recorded a different view under the Antarctic sea ice. It shows a colorful nature of starfish, algae, worms, sea spiders, urchins, sponge, and sea cucumbers.

The discovery is not expected by the scientists as they have been working for a long time in that area and they've never dived. The Australian Antarctic Division biologist, Dr. Glenn Johnstone told to ABC Australia, "It was a great surprise to find such a beautiful, vibrant environment."

Johnstone also made a statement that the real diversity and the real health of the environment are down on the seafloor due to the absolute contrast between the white world above and colorful word beneath the Antarctic sea.

The communities live in water that is -1.5°C year round and are covered in 1.5-meter thick sea ice for 10 months of the year, and the thickness of the ice protects the undersea from the unfriendly weather above the surface and allows the communities to flourish, he explained. 

Meanwhile, Dr. Johnny Stark, the project leader said that the increasing acidity is because of a quarter of carbon dioxide which is emitted into the atmosphere is absorbed by the ocean. The team also expect that the ecosystem is one of the impacts of ocean acidification.