Vic: Giant spiders, worms and molluscs could be new species

AAP General News (Australia)
02-19-2008
Vic: Giant spiders, worms and molluscs could be new species

By Kellee Nolan

MELBOURNE, Feb 19 AAP - Sea spiders as big as dinner plates captured in Antarctic waters
will help Australian scientists monitor the impact of rising carbon dioxide levels on
marine life.

The giant sea spiders, along with giant worms and crustaceans, are among up to 1,500
species that Australian, Japanese and French scientists have brought back from the icy
waters off Antarctica as part of a two-year census of marine life.

With an Australian ship scouring the ocean floor and the French and Japanese searching
for life in the mid and upper reaches, the scientists conducted a count of species known
as the Collaborative East Antarctic Marine Census (CEAMARC).

Leader of the Australian vessel the Aurora Australis, Martin Riddle, said among the
rich and colourful world of the Antarctic waters the scientists found giant spiders, worms
and crustaceans.

"Some of the video footage we have collected is really stunning, it's amazing to be
able to navigate undersea mountains and valleys and actually see what the animals look
like in their undisturbed state," Dr Riddle said.

"In some places every inch of the sea floor is covered in life.

"In other places we can see deep scars and gouges where icebergs scour the sea floor
as they pass by.

"Gigantism is very common in Antarctic waters - we have collected huge worms, giant
crustaceans and sea spiders the size of dinner plates."

CEAMARC project leader Graham Hosie said it was expected several new species would be discovered.

"Specimens collected will be sent to universities and museums around the world for
identification, tissue-sampling and bar-coding of their DNA," Dr Hosie said.

"Not all of the creatures that we found could be identified and it is very likely that
some new species will be recorded as a result of these voyages."

The CEAMARC project aims to determine species' biodiversity, abundance and distribution
in the Antarctic waters and establish data to observe impacts of rising carbon dioxide
levels.

Dr Riddle said Antarctic waters were expected to be the first to show the effects of
ocean acidification caused by increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

It is expected the effects of this will wipe out coral reefs found in the Antarctic,
along with many other species such as crustaceans and plankton molluscs.

The effect on the food chain in the sea would be significant.

"It's completely unknown territory," Dr Riddle said.

"We don't actually know what will happen, but it's likely to be very significant."

He said the same thing could happen in ocean waters around the world in "tens to hundreds"

of years.

The scientists hope that CEAMARC data will set an important baseline for monitoring
the process, and for biodiversity field work for the region which had not been attempted
since the late 1800s.

"It's going to set a real benchmark for the world for biodiversity," Dr Riddle said.

"It's the sort of work that hasn't been done since the great expeditions of the Victorian age.

"It's become somewhat unfashionable to do biodiversity work, but people are starting
to realise if we don't actually start cataloguing it now we may lose it before we know
what we've even got."

AAP kn/pmu/sco/bwl

KEYWORD: SPECIES NIGHTLEAD (SUPPLIED PIX AVAILABLE)

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