Volcanoes Supported Plant and Animal Species Survival in Ice Ages

A new finding offers evidence that heat and steam emitted from volcanoes helped most of the animal and plant species survive through ice ages, thereby highlighting the importance of geothermal regions in enhancing biodiversity.

A team of Australian researchers have solved the mystery of how most of the species survived and also continued to evolve through the ice ages in regions of the world that were covered by glaciers. The researchers believe that this fresh evidence, though based on the Antarctica volcanoes, may reveal crucial clues on how several species react to the accelerating and irreversible climate change.

For this study, the research team led by Dr Ceridwen Fraser from the Australian National University and Dr Aleks Terauds from the Australian Antarctic Division, examined 38,000 records on Antarctic species that were gathered over decades. They looked at the diverse pattern of mosses, lichens and bugs that continue to live along the coast of Antarctica.

Analysis of the records revealed that most of the moss, lichen and bug species lived closer to the Antarctica volcanoes and only a few of these species were seen in the farther regions.

"Volcanic steam can melt large ice caves under the glaciers, and it can be tens of degrees warmer in there than outside. Caves and warm steam fields would have been great places for species to hang out during ice ages," Dr Fraser said, in a news release. "We can learn a lot from looking at the impacts of past climate change as we try to deal with the accelerated change that humans are now causing."

Nearly 16 volcanoes exist in Antarctica and have been spewing heat and steam from the last ice age - 20,000 years ago.  According to Professor Peter Convey from the British Antarctic survey, about 60 percent of the Antarctic invertebrate species were exclusive to the region.

"They have clearly not arrived on the continent recently, but must have been there for millions of years. How they survived past ice ages - the most recent of which ended less than 20,000 years ago - has long puzzled scientists," Professor Convey said.

The presence of more species near the volcanoes support the study's hypothesis that claims species are widening their range and drifting away from the volcanic regions since the last ice age.

"Volcanoes are generally seen as these big, explosive destroyers of life, but they might be important in promoting biodiversity," Dr Fraser said to LiveScience. "This explains how life survived in Antarctica, but we think this idea of geothermal refuges could also apply elsewhere."

The researchers believe that these hotspots of diversity can be identified and protected from the harsh impact of human induced climate change that continues to affect Antarctica.

The study was documented in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.