Arctic Biology

5 October 2020

The Arctic Ocean has been frozen for a long time. It is difficult to say exactly how long. But the wildlife we find on the underside of the ice bears a clear testimony that the ice cover has lasted long enough for different species to have developed very special adaptations to be able to live in, on or just under the ice. Most spectacular are perhaps the amphipods we find inside the melting channels in the ice. These are facing an uncertain future as the ice in the Arctic melts. One might think that last year’s summer, autumn and winter with a lot of ice around Svalbard gave these animals a little respite. Unfortunately, this is not the case.